FYI the reason I do this here is because I can't do it anywhere else because in any normal setting I'd be called a dogmatic loonie but I get to shitpost here.
So there's this one game on DS that I recently ran across, and made a mental note that I was interested in it.
Unfortuntaely, I don't remember its name, or where i saw it.
All I remember are: 1. it's from a series (or company?) I didn't expect to have something for DS 2. it's probably a JRPG or a game with anime art 3. it probably (?) has an English translation/localization
guidance vs. confusionstraightforwardness vs. deception clarity vs. confusion honor vs. disrespect order vs. chaos male vs. female day vs. night antiquity vs. modernity nature vs. technology destruction vs. creation left vs. right horizontal vs. vertical mundane vs. divine
It's kinda interesting how English allows for the construction of passive past participle adjectives to describe the application of one thing to something else. Hence the Teen Girl Squad joke of adding "'d" to stuff. But this happens all the time. It's especially weird when there is no existing verb to form a passive past participle of, yet the participle exists anyway: people frequently talk about "windowed" mode but people rarely speak of "windowing" an application.
One little oddity though is that it seems that everyone likes the first area theme of Castlevania: Circle of the Moon -- "Awake" -- but I don't. I find it to be probably the weakest track. It's just kinda...there.
On the other hand, "Sinking Old Sanctuary" (the one that's played everywhere) and "Clockwork" are nice, and I really like pretty much everything else -- "Fate to Despair" (the chapel theme and one of the few original tracks), "Aquarius" (Underground Gallery, remixed from Cv3), "The Trick Manor" / "Clockwork Mansion" (Underground Warehouse, remixed from two associated tracks in SCv4), "Nightmare" (Underground Waterway, remixed from Cv3), and "Vampire Killer" (Observation Tower, remixed from...everywhere).
Also I like how it continues the tradition of having a late-game area use the Vampire Killer theme. And how that area is, appropriately, irritatingly difficult. It's like, "You wanna enjoy this awesome music? Be like Simon and deal with the level." But yeah, Cv3 used VK in a late-game area, and so did SCv4. And HoDiss used it for Simon boss rush. In fact I was a little disappointed when DoS used it for the Silenced Ruins but it wasn't particularly difficult or grand. See, Circle's Observation Tower is grand and big and huge and at the very top of the castle and you're jumping around fighting these annoying Legion enemies backed by beautiful stained-glass windows and everything and it's nearly the endgame and you have a climactic boss fight at the very top of it.
If I ever make a Castlevania game, you'll get the Circle version of "Vampire Killer" used in a somewhat-difficult late-game area...but only "late-game" in the first castle. Then you discover the second castle, and much more. But then at the very end of the game, you get the Coliseum area, where you're basically given the Vampire Killer whip and then dropped into an enemy/boss rush, and THAT will get a more comprehensive remix of "Vampire Killer 2002" from HoDiss.
Just imagine. You enter an area with no background music. You find the legendary whip just lying on a pedestal, waiting to be obtained. You take it. You get a GLORIOUS remix of the Simon's Theme Fanfare (y'know, the one that plays when you find a child in Henry mode in CvLoD and which was left unused in Circle's game data), not unlike the Fully Powered Suit fanfare in Metroid Zero Mission.
Then the game drops you into the Coliseum of the Demon Castle. And you have to fight your way back out, whip in hand. To the tune of a dual remix of "Vampire Killer" and "Clockwork" from Cv3. And yes, with a fiddle playing the Clockwork melody.
[12:28:11] <GMH> sometimes simple stories are better than complex stories. [12:30:19] <GMH> Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance had this complicated story involving demonic possession and a love triangle and all, yet it's confusing, and the only narrative I remember is the increasingly desperate tone of the characters to unravel an increasingly complex and messy situation, culminating in a climactic battle with a human opponent. [12:31:20] <GMH> if anything, the music's style -- a more tonally complex and dissonant style than the series is used to -- did very well in underscoring the feeling of being "trapped" in a web of lies and temptations. [12:31:37] <GMH> so the contributed a substantial part of said narrative. [12:33:49] <GMH> On the other hand, Castlevaina: Circle of the Moon has a very simple story -- Dracula has separated you and your fellow star pupil from your vampire hunter master. You two need to rescue him. Your fellow trainee also increasingly succumbs to the temptation of glory-hounding, and that culminates in a big fight late in the game. [12:34:24] <GMH> The plot is so much clearer. And the game is only slightly less fun to explore, and only because Harmony has two castles that overlap.
1. Vanguard Princess, a fighting game whose most notable feature to those of us who aren't fighting game fans is the anime girls, shows up in the Groupees Let's Build a Doujin Bundle 2, as a bonus item for everyone who bought the bundle. At this point, it's really not much of a notable thing; there's several other bonuses, about half of which are games. I guess it's slightly notable in the sense that it's actually a Japanese game rather than a game developed by a westerner but using animesque art. But that's still not very notable since half that bundle is actual Japanese games anyway.
2. As is customary these days with indie games, most games seem to want to get on Steam, which is the digital distribution service with by far the biggest customer base (despite being a fan of GOG and Desura (as well as a Steam user), I have to admit this because it's kinda glaringly obvious). Vanguard Princess was no exception. One common marketing tactic is to promise Steam keys to early buyers, in order to drum up support for the game's entry in Steam's Greenlight program, which aims to provide publishers with an easy way to present their proposed addition to the Steam library and for users to upvote said proposed game. Vanguard Princess was, again, no exception to this.
3. While it wasn't on Steam yet, it was part of the bundle, supposedly as a DRM-free game (by which we mean that it's available as a download by itself with nothing like the Steam wrapper or SecuROM or other notable form of usage restriction). Which, technically, it was...but apparently, only the single-player mode. It does natively have multiplayer capability, and this is sort of a big deal because it's a fighting game. But apparently, the downloadable version had the multiplayer stripped out, for some reason.
4. After a brief controversy, the publisher, eigoMANGA, announced that it would give out serial numbers (a.k.a. "keys", though not meaning Steam keys in case you're wondering since the game's not on Steam yet) for all bundle purchasers who requested them; these keys would somehow (I haven't yet tried it so I don't know how it works) unlock the multiplayer functionality. It seems to involve downloading a patch, which I only downloaded today. (The bundle was sold in October 2013 and the controversy took place over the following two to three months.)
Note that I'm still not particularly interested in the game itself. It features glaringly obvious fanservice (I prefer my fanservice to be subtle, assuming one could still consider it to be fanservice), and is a fighting game (something I pretty much never play). I guess it became interesting due to there being a DRM controversy. And I did kinda want to make sure I got what the bundle promised me.
5. Vanguard Princess is eventually released on Steam. This happened like, a few days ago. Over time, and especially around the release of Vanguard Princess, it is revealed that one or more of the following statements may be true, but I am not completely sure which ones are:
i. Vanguard Princess is actually a freeware game, in its original and untranslated form. It may or may not contain a lot of pertinent text.
ii. There are just one or a few hoops to jump through to get multiplayer using the free Japanese version.
iii. The developer (who is named Sugeno or Suge9) has a licensing deal with eigoMANGA, the publisher, in which he may or may not be getting a substantial portion of the profits from sales. It's not clear to me.
iv. The developer signed over the rights to VP to eigoMANGA, and thus basically isn't working on it anymore.
iv'. ...and he didn't like that.
v. The developer's relationship with eigoMANGA cannot be disclosed due to a non-disclosure agreement between the two parties.
vi. The developer hasn't been heard from since about 2011. He may or may not have a new twitter account.
vii. The proceeds (or a substantial part of them) from the sales of the game may be going to a charity relief fund which may or may not be specifically aimed at something related to relief/recovery efforts following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster.
6. Partly out of procrastination, I'm still trawling the Steam community discussion forum for VP, trying to see how many people are going there to mock weeaboos and their tastes. There are actually surprisingly few such topics. Though instead I'm seeing weeaboo-style behavior in the reviews section, oddly. Bunch of unhelpful but funny reviews.
7. ...and instead I'm getting myself sucked into discussions about trading card prices and the developer's stance on the game and DRM issues.
8. The game seems to have been released without online multiplayer, with that supposedly to be patched in later.
9. A version for Linux may be forthcoming as well. Maybe.
10. The Steam version is allegedly itself DRM-free, despite being on Steam. That is, you can start it without starting Steam. I have not verified this personally so I am not sure about it. There are consequent criticisms, based on this and the previous points, that the publisher released it without enough preparation to make important features work.
11. There might be an additional playable character the dev planned for the game. Who may or may not have been scrapped. I have no idea.
what i walked into: Vanguard Princess Groupees and Steam release discussions
what i expected: entertainingly stupid conversation about the game, including arguments between stupid fans and stupid haters
what i got: discussions and questions about DRM, publishing arrangements, revenue, and other issues
Bundles of games just make things complicated, don't they.
So I have to keep track of every purchase in a multi-phage spreadsheet. I list every item the bundle provides -- every game, every DLC, every soundtrack, every artbook/comic/etc..
Then furthermore, I've started keeping track of whether the item has been redeemed. There's a field to say whether I've downloaded an item in its direct-download form, whether I've redeemed its Desura code, and whether I've redeemed its Steam code.
Some Desura and Steam codes are for multiple games. So I've further gone and labeled the redemption status accordingly -- for example, Steam codes for multiple games that have the same code but have not been redeemed yet are labeled "NO#" with # being the same number, such as "NO3" for all of them. While "NO1" and "yes2" might be part of the same bundle but have different Steam codes.
"NO" means unredeemed. it is in capital letters because it's easier to spot than "yes" being in lowercase letters.
[04:25:17] <GMH> i surmise maybe it's a taste thing, and it has to do with that "tinkering vs. being" thing that i've mentioned before. [04:26:24] <GMH> portal introduced a very novel gameplay element and used it very creatively. it also has a nicely crafted narrative, but that kinda took a backseat to some of the platforming, at least until the end of the game. [04:27:09] <GMH> and aside from visuals and ambient noise, there wasn't much appealed to my sense of immersion. YMMV on this, of course. [04:27:42] <GMH> ys origin has a relatively standard gameplay system/interface type -- move character around, press button to attack. [04:30:19] <GMH> but the point of the game is to use this to connect the player to the narrative experience, of exploring a demonic tower, tackling massive and highly dangerous bosses, and searching for important characters. [04:30:36] <GMH> instead of being the point of the game itself, the gameplay is a tool, used to _reveal_ the narrative. [04:31:28] <GMH> from what i can tell, that's the kind of game that appeals to me more [04:33:37] <GMH> but it seems that for a good lot of people, gameplay is itself the most important feature that keeps the game interesting, while narrative is a secondary feature.
this followed me observing that Portal has a metascore of 90 while Ys Origin has a metascore of 78...while I like Ys Origin far, far more than Portal. Portal isn't a bad game -- it's a great game -- but it just was not really inspiring and epic the way Ys Origin was. to me, at least. YMMV.
"Similar concerns [about the water surface use of dispersants on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill] were initially raised by media reports, inquiries from US Congress, and public complaints and did not necessarily appear to be science based."
1. this means that someone else is doing something environmentally sound (or asking for it to be done) without the need to wait for scientific/technical justification.
2. on the other hand, it also means that non-technical information is influencing such a decision.
1. i should start keeping track of my game music bundles in my bundles list too, since i have like four of them and i've forgotten what they contain, and game bundles frequently include music anyway
2. i really, really, really want to have sit-down, lengthy, in-depth conversations with people whose (serious and well-thought-out) opinions i disagree with. because they would really help me understand the sides of the issue that i'm not familiar with.
for example, i'd like to have an in-depth discussion with someone who likes portal far more than ys origin. not just snipy internet comments. but in-depth look at the different aspects of the game, questions about what they did or didn't like within each game, and why, and how these pieces are or aren't important in contributing to their overall opinion of the work. doesn't have to be overly formal. just has to be well-thought-out.
see that's the kind of conversation i was hoping to get out of places like tvt, ijbm, people in the dorm i used to live in, and sometimes even people on irc. occasionally they happen. occasionally. but it happens enough that it makes it worth it for me to try and try again.
Proportional representation of EC votes would be a fun new development for us gamey-type electoral politics geeks.
Take Idaho, for example. It's got 4 electoral votes. So they could be distributed between the Dems and Repubs as 0-4 (0% D 100% R), 1-3 (25% D 75% R), 2-2 (50% D, 50% R), 3-1 (75% D, 25% R), and 4-0 (100% D, 0% R).
The way you'd split votes is by whichever's closest to the result. For example, if you had a two-party result of 30% D 70% R, then you'd go with 1 D 3 R. On the other hand, 40% D 60% R would go to 2 D 2 R.
Currently, Republicans get about 60% to 70% of the two-party vote (between Dems and Repubs) in Idaho. Moving that to 50% would be a really tall order for Dems. However, moving that to 62.4% would be actually kinda possible.
So, if proportional representation were a thing, you'd suddenly get battles across the country to move things one electoral vote at a time -- and a bunch of new goalposts, that aren't 50% anymore but instead are calculated depending on how many EVs each state has.
Some goalposts would still be 50%. For states with odd numbers of EVs that are almost evenly split, this would be the case. Consider Virginia, for example, with 13 EVs. 6D 7R would be 46.15% D 53.85% R (more decimal places available as needed). 7D 6R would be 53.85% D 46.15% R. Mathematically, the midpoint between them is at 50% D 50% R, so as long as neither side gets a blowout, you're still fighting over that one EV in the middle. But 5-8 is 38.46% to 61.54%, so let's say the Dem candidate gets more than the midpoint between 53.85% and 61.54% (which would be 7.5/13 = 57.69%), then the result could be 8D 5R.
So your goalposts for Virginia become 50%, 57.69%, etc..
States with even numbers of E Vs would no longer have 50% as a magic goalpost though. They'd work like that Idaho example (though the numbers would be closer for a larger state).
So yeah, basically, it'd be tons of fun for those of us who love the numbers and love the strategy game. Probably less fun for candidates who would suddenly have to schlep themselves across the entire country fighting over one or two electoral votes in every state, though.
FaceHeelTurn => [[good turning evil]] or [[good turned evil]] HeelFaceTurn => [[evil turning good]] or [[evil turned good]] RedemptionEqualsDeath => [[death upon redemption]] TheChick => replaced by whatever TheHeart ends up being SeanConneryIsAboutToShootYou => [[looking into the gun barrel]] KillerRabbit => maybe [[beware the cute ones]], though that whole "beware the X ones" format may be changed HairRaisingHare => [[killer rabbit]] SequenceBreaking => multi-page or same-page-multi-section assessment of [[sequence in game design]], [[sequence breaking]], and [[sequence enforcement]] GoodBadBug => [[beneficial bug]] FiveManBand => [[five-character hero group]] ItsAlwaysMardiGrasInNewOrleans => [[perpetual Mardi Gras New Orleans]] or something less clunky
GameplayAndStorySegregation => [[gameplay-story separation]] FiveBadBand => [[five-character villain group]] (or grouping for both, or maybe ensemble, or a more specific word...)
here's a problematic one. * for societal purposes, it's good to be able to easily ask how capable the female characters are compared to the male characters in a given setting and premise. (though the lack of a genderswap equivalent does undermine this somewhat...) * for analytical purposes, listing every coincident example seems uninformative. however, what sort of selection criterion/criteria should be used? - genres that traditionally star male primary protagonists? stated intention by creator? series history regarding gender roles? intracontextual unusualness of a female person being involved in physical stunts/combat/etc.?
Incorrect: * Averted in Ys Origin. * Averted in Ys Origin; you can't change your equipment during boss battles. * There's an aversion in Ys Origin, you can't change your equipment during boss battles. * Ys Origin averts this, as you can't change your equipment during boss battles.
Correct: * Ys Origin: [averted] You can't change your equipment during boss battles.
There needs to be a serious discussion about how to distinguish between "this just happens" and "this happens in a way that it counts as a trope citation".
And perhaps there needs to be a distinction between tropes and features.
for example: feature: girls who wear glasses trope: girls who wear glasses and have a bookish personality, as an intentionally coordinated part of their character concept (as well as girls who wear glasses but don't have a bookish personality but others characters (or they themselves) make a big deal about them either not having or (wrongly) not having such a personality)
there might need to be a system to approve individual trope entries. or maybe, how about a system to upvote/downvote entries?
display options: alphabetical by work name or in order of upvote ranking
ranking would have the problem (or benefit?) that popular works would generally be listed first
along with upvote/downvote system there needs to be some sort of enforcement of a rule "don't downvote an example just because you don't like the work" maybe keep a running record of every user's example votes, that would help for starters
When listing poll results, please list them in the order of mention of the candidates.
Incorrect: "11:33 AM PT:MS-Sen: A poll from NSON Opinion Strategy for the Tea Party Express, which has endorsed state Sen. Chris McDaniel in the GOP primary, finds him trailing Sen. Thad Cochran 45-37."
Correct: "11:33 AM PT:MS-Sen: A poll from NSON Opinion Strategy for the Tea Party Express, which has endorsed state Sen. Chris McDaniel in the GOP primary, finds him trailing Sen. Thad Cochran 37-45."
Chris McDaniel was mentioned first, and the word "trailing" is used. The first number should, therefore, be McDaniel's poll result, and also be LESS than the second number.
It should not be the only tool one uses for analysis. Nor is it a high-quality tool one can use for analysis.
But it inspires thinking about the way we create, interpret, appreciate, and use fiction and creative media. In that sense, it is a useful tool.
I know some of you will think I'm crazy for saying this. But I'm just saying that it has utility, and making no judgement about (1) how useful it is, (2) people's abuse/overuse/over-reliance on it, or (3) any potential it has to inspire abuse/overuse/over-reliance.
If you're going to make a blanket statement saying that TVT is not useful for analysis, please make it clear whether you feel that it has no inherent usefulness, or whether you feel it has some inherent usefulness but that usefulness is overshadowed by drawbacks. Thanks.
TVT has no inherent usefulness. it does not analyse things in any way, shape or form, it simply tries to figure out and codify recurring patterns in media.
As a matter of fact, I'd say that it is actively unhelpful in that it gives young, impressionable writers/creators who stumble across it the notion that they can make good works by simply stringing patterns together, which is akin to the idea that you can make a cow by pouring ground beef into a cow-shaped mold.
That's why I said it was a tool. Hammers don't build houses by themselves. You have to use them properly. And it's entirely possible to use TVT improperly, just like it's possible to use a hammer improperly.
If you are saying that TVT may pose a danger to young, impressionable writers/creators, though, I agree with that.
if TVT is any tool it is not a hammer, but rather an oversized chunky crayon aimed at kindergarten students who lack the manual dexterity to hold finer things. it is adolescent, crude, and unfit for any serious purpose.
It may be unfit for being cited for any formal purpose but that doesn't mean it has no usefulness. The usefulness can be indirect -- it has certainly added value to my experiences, by familiarizing me with various media issues that I otherwise would have either not dug up on the internet or only dug up with more difficulty. It has also been useful to help me find works of creative media that are similar to certain other works which I like or whose features I am intrigued by, and has allowed me to put into a greater social/cultural context the way I approach those works. Is that context representative of society, or even western society? No, but it's a start.
Is it better to be terse or to be visually indicative?
For example, compare these two ways of writing this information in an informal internet communication:
somehow, last year, the school wrote up this tax form such that it needed to be filed. somehow, this year, the school wrote up this tax form such that it didn't need to be filed.
somehow, last year, the school wrote up this tax form such that it needed to be filed. but this year, they wrote it up so that it didn't.
The first method is less compact than the second method, but it visually lines up the sentences, allowing the reader to easily compare and contrast the two simply by looking at visual patterns. In contrast, the second method uses less space and fewer words, but requires the reader to first parse the words themselves, to get the same notion of comparing-and-contrasting.
Comments
chaos: http://vocaroo.com/i/s1Nxr34eImhB
heir: http://vocaroo.com/i/s1HYZ1YgngMT
subtle: http://vocaroo.com/i/s0LeaoVcPo0R
Unfortuntaely, I don't remember its name, or where i saw it.
All I remember are:
1. it's from a series (or company?) I didn't expect to have something for DS
2. it's probably a JRPG or a game with anime art
3. it probably (?) has an English translation/localization
Any guesses?
* baketite
* baxterite
* baxelite
Let's go look it up to see what it actually is.
Its actual name is baristute.
See, I remember the look of the word.
honor vs. disrespect order vs. chaos
male vs. female day vs. night
antiquity vs. modernity
nature vs. technology
destruction vs. creation
left vs. right
horizontal vs. vertical mundane vs. divine
gee oh DEE zee = geodesy
damnit y'all
One little oddity though is that it seems that everyone likes the first area theme of Castlevania: Circle of the Moon -- "Awake" -- but I don't. I find it to be probably the weakest track. It's just kinda...there.
On the other hand, "Sinking Old Sanctuary" (the one that's played everywhere) and "Clockwork" are nice, and I really like pretty much everything else -- "Fate to Despair" (the chapel theme and one of the few original tracks), "Aquarius" (Underground Gallery, remixed from Cv3), "The Trick Manor" / "Clockwork Mansion" (Underground Warehouse, remixed from two associated tracks in SCv4), "Nightmare" (Underground Waterway, remixed from Cv3), and "Vampire Killer" (Observation Tower, remixed from...everywhere).
Also I like how it continues the tradition of having a late-game area use the Vampire Killer theme. And how that area is, appropriately, irritatingly difficult. It's like, "You wanna enjoy this awesome music? Be like Simon and deal with the level." But yeah, Cv3 used VK in a late-game area, and so did SCv4. And HoDiss used it for Simon boss rush. In fact I was a little disappointed when DoS used it for the Silenced Ruins but it wasn't particularly difficult or grand. See, Circle's Observation Tower is grand and big and huge and at the very top of the castle and you're jumping around fighting these annoying Legion enemies backed by beautiful stained-glass windows and everything and it's nearly the endgame and you have a climactic boss fight at the very top of it.
If I ever make a Castlevania game, you'll get the Circle version of "Vampire Killer" used in a somewhat-difficult late-game area...but only "late-game" in the first castle. Then you discover the second castle, and much more. But then at the very end of the game, you get the Coliseum area, where you're basically given the Vampire Killer whip and then dropped into an enemy/boss rush, and THAT will get a more comprehensive remix of "Vampire Killer 2002" from HoDiss.
Just imagine. You enter an area with no background music. You find the legendary whip just lying on a pedestal, waiting to be obtained. You take it. You get a GLORIOUS remix of the Simon's Theme Fanfare (y'know, the one that plays when you find a child in Henry mode in CvLoD and which was left unused in Circle's game data), not unlike the Fully Powered Suit fanfare in Metroid Zero Mission.
Then the game drops you into the Coliseum of the Demon Castle. And you have to fight your way back out, whip in hand. To the tune of a dual remix of "Vampire Killer" and "Clockwork" from Cv3. And yes, with a fiddle playing the Clockwork melody.
Earn that whip.
[12:30:19] <GMH> Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance had this complicated story involving demonic possession and a love triangle and all, yet it's confusing, and the only narrative I remember is the increasingly desperate tone of the characters to unravel an increasingly complex and messy situation, culminating in a climactic battle with a human opponent.
[12:31:20] <GMH> if anything, the music's style -- a more tonally complex and dissonant style than the series is used to -- did very well in underscoring the feeling of being "trapped" in a web of lies and temptations.
[12:31:37] <GMH> so the contributed a substantial part of said narrative.
[12:33:49] <GMH> On the other hand, Castlevaina: Circle of the Moon has a very simple story -- Dracula has separated you and your fellow star pupil from your vampire hunter master. You two need to rescue him. Your fellow trainee also increasingly succumbs to the temptation of glory-hounding, and that culminates in a big fight late in the game.
[12:34:24] <GMH> The plot is so much clearer. And the game is only slightly less fun to explore, and only because Harmony has two castles that overlap.
[04:26:24] <GMH> portal introduced a very novel gameplay element and used it very creatively. it also has a nicely crafted narrative, but that kinda took a backseat to some of the platforming, at least until the end of the game.
[04:27:09] <GMH> and aside from visuals and ambient noise, there wasn't much appealed to my sense of immersion. YMMV on this, of course.
[04:27:42] <GMH> ys origin has a relatively standard gameplay system/interface type -- move character around, press button to attack.
[04:30:19] <GMH> but the point of the game is to use this to connect the player to the narrative experience, of exploring a demonic tower, tackling massive and highly dangerous bosses, and searching for important characters.
[04:30:36] <GMH> instead of being the point of the game itself, the gameplay is a tool, used to _reveal_ the narrative.
[04:31:28] <GMH> from what i can tell, that's the kind of game that appeals to me more
[04:33:37] <GMH> but it seems that for a good lot of people, gameplay is itself the most important feature that keeps the game interesting, while narrative is a secondary feature.
this followed me observing that Portal has a metascore of 90 while Ys Origin has a metascore of 78...while I like Ys Origin far, far more than Portal. Portal isn't a bad game -- it's a great game -- but it just was not really inspiring and epic the way Ys Origin was. to me, at least. YMMV.
Consumer funding (at least in part)
Investor funding (solely)
Public influence on creative process
crowdfunding
publisher backing
Private influence on creative process
patron system
venture capital
Consumer funding (at least in part)
Investor funding (solely)
Public influence on creative process
crowdfunding
publisher backing
Private influence on creative process
patron system
venture capital
creative process|(at least in part)| (solely) |
-------------------------------------------------------
Public influence | crowdfunding |publisher backing|
-------------------------------------------------------
Private influence| patron system | venture capital |
-------------------------------------------------------
see, this is why fixed-width fonts and drawing everything out in text is useful
because when all else fails and markup and markup interpreters crap on everything and there's just no way to make something look right
you switch to PLAIN TEXT MODE
and then do everything by hand
and when all else fails, this GETS STUFF DONE.
Take Idaho, for example. It's got 4 electoral votes. So they could be distributed between the Dems and Repubs as 0-4 (0% D 100% R), 1-3 (25% D 75% R), 2-2 (50% D, 50% R), 3-1 (75% D, 25% R), and 4-0 (100% D, 0% R).
The way you'd split votes is by whichever's closest to the result. For example, if you had a two-party result of 30% D 70% R, then you'd go with 1 D 3 R. On the other hand, 40% D 60% R would go to 2 D 2 R.
Currently, Republicans get about 60% to 70% of the two-party vote (between Dems and Repubs) in Idaho. Moving that to 50% would be a really tall order for Dems. However, moving that to 62.4% would be actually kinda possible.
So, if proportional representation were a thing, you'd suddenly get battles across the country to move things one electoral vote at a time -- and a bunch of new goalposts, that aren't 50% anymore but instead are calculated depending on how many EVs each state has.
Some goalposts would still be 50%. For states with odd numbers of EVs that are almost evenly split, this would be the case. Consider Virginia, for example, with 13 EVs. 6D 7R would be 46.15% D 53.85% R (more decimal places available as needed). 7D 6R would be 53.85% D 46.15% R. Mathematically, the midpoint between them is at 50% D 50% R, so as long as neither side gets a blowout, you're still fighting over that one EV in the middle. But 5-8 is 38.46% to 61.54%, so let's say the Dem candidate gets more than the midpoint between 53.85% and 61.54% (which would be 7.5/13 = 57.69%), then the result could be 8D 5R.
So your goalposts for Virginia become 50%, 57.69%, etc..
States with even numbers of E Vs would no longer have 50% as a magic goalpost though. They'd work like that Idaho example (though the numbers would be closer for a larger state).
So yeah, basically, it'd be tons of fun for those of us who love the numbers and love the strategy game. Probably less fun for candidates who would suddenly have to schlep themselves across the entire country fighting over one or two electoral votes in every state, though.
let TEV = total electoral vote count for the state.
the goalpost percentages would be calculated by these formulas: 0.5/TEV, 1.5/TEV, 2.5/TEV, ... (TEV - 1.5)/TEV, (TEV - 0.5)/TEV.
So for Idaho (TEV = 4), the goalposts are 0.5/4 = 12.5%, 1.5/4 = 37.5%, 2.5/4 = 62.5%, and 3.5/4 = 87.5%.
HeelFaceTurn => [[evil turning good]] or [[evil turned good]]
RedemptionEqualsDeath => [[death upon redemption]]
TheChick => replaced by whatever TheHeart ends up being
SeanConneryIsAboutToShootYou => [[looking into the gun barrel]]
KillerRabbit => maybe [[beware the cute ones]], though that whole "beware the X ones" format may be changed
HairRaisingHare => [[killer rabbit]]
SequenceBreaking => multi-page or same-page-multi-section assessment of [[sequence in game design]], [[sequence breaking]], and [[sequence enforcement]]
GoodBadBug => [[beneficial bug]]
FiveManBand => [[five-character hero group]]
ItsAlwaysMardiGrasInNewOrleans => [[perpetual Mardi Gras New Orleans]] or something less clunky
FiveBadBand => [[five-character villain group]] (or grouping for both, or maybe ensemble, or a more specific word...)
here's a problematic one.
* for societal purposes, it's good to be able to easily ask how capable the female characters are compared to the male characters in a given setting and premise. (though the lack of a genderswap equivalent does undermine this somewhat...)
* for analytical purposes, listing every coincident example seems uninformative. however, what sort of selection criterion/criteria should be used? - genres that traditionally star male primary protagonists? stated intention by creator? series history regarding gender roles? intracontextual unusualness of a female person being involved in physical stunts/combat/etc.?
Incorrect:
* Averted in Ys Origin.
* Averted in Ys Origin; you can't change your equipment during boss battles.
* There's an aversion in Ys Origin, you can't change your equipment during boss battles.
* Ys Origin averts this, as you can't change your equipment during boss battles.
Correct:
* Ys Origin: [averted] You can't change your equipment during boss battles.
And perhaps there needs to be a distinction between tropes and features.
for example:
feature: girls who wear glasses
trope: girls who wear glasses and have a bookish personality, as an intentionally coordinated part of their character concept (as well as girls who wear glasses but don't have a bookish personality but others characters (or they themselves) make a big deal about them either not having or (wrongly) not having such a personality)
there might need to be a system to approve individual trope entries.
or maybe, how about a system to upvote/downvote entries?
display options: alphabetical by work name or in order of upvote ranking
ranking would have the problem (or benefit?) that popular works would generally be listed first
along with upvote/downvote system
there needs to be some sort of enforcement of a rule "don't downvote an example just because you don't like the work"
maybe keep a running record of every user's example votes, that would help for starters
Incorrect:
"11:33 AM PT: MS-Sen: A poll from NSON Opinion Strategy for the Tea Party Express, which has endorsed state Sen. Chris McDaniel in the GOP primary, finds him trailing Sen. Thad Cochran 45-37."
Correct:
"11:33 AM PT: MS-Sen: A poll from NSON Opinion Strategy for the Tea Party Express, which has endorsed state Sen. Chris McDaniel in the GOP primary, finds him trailing Sen. Thad Cochran 37-45."
Chris McDaniel was mentioned first, and the word "trailing" is used. The first number should, therefore, be McDaniel's poll result, and also be LESS than the second number.
English: elle in-fee-ER-no
Spanish: el in-FIERR-no
Japanese: eru i-n-fi-E-ru-no
It should not be the only tool one uses for analysis. Nor is it a high-quality tool one can use for analysis.
But it inspires thinking about the way we create, interpret, appreciate, and use fiction and creative media. In that sense, it is a useful tool.
I know some of you will think I'm crazy for saying this. But I'm just saying that it has utility, and making no judgement about (1) how useful it is, (2) people's abuse/overuse/over-reliance on it, or (3) any potential it has to inspire abuse/overuse/over-reliance.
If you're going to make a blanket statement saying that TVT is not useful for analysis, please make it clear whether you feel that it has no inherent usefulness, or whether you feel it has some inherent usefulness but that usefulness is overshadowed by drawbacks. Thanks.
If you are saying that TVT may pose a danger to young, impressionable writers/creators, though, I agree with that.
For example, compare these two ways of writing this information in an informal internet communication: The first method is less compact than the second method, but it visually lines up the sentences, allowing the reader to easily compare and contrast the two simply by looking at visual patterns. In contrast, the second method uses less space and fewer words, but requires the reader to first parse the words themselves, to get the same notion of comparing-and-contrasting.