may and drew

Drew appeared in the Pokémon anime for a cameo

Made this art to celebrate. Some of his Johto journey that we never got to see. In my mind May is taking all the photos <3

I love them more than I love myself

"don't you dare walk out that door!"

tension

brutal

fancy a dance, prinz stirn? 💗🌹✨

originally drawn for day 3: fantasy for klapollo week 2022

Part 1: Cruel

–

I always think about how in Shikamaru Shinden, Temari says Shikamaru is a wonderful man and the kindest man she knows. It makes me think that his kindness is what initially caught her interest. 

Part 2 (link will be updated when I finish)

Sometimes I think about Red Dead Redemption 2’s development where the devs were begging people to not boycott the game to protest the news about their absurd working conditions because their bonuses were dependent on copies sold. I remember one of them made a statement around the lines of “We worked ourselves to the bone on this and we want to at least see people experience the fruits of that labor”, which makes me think about how we talk about blockbuster games developed under crunch.

I was given a copy of RDR2 to review it, and I couldn’t help but think about how I kept seeing so much that was technically impressive and yet just not necessary. Did some poor guy really work overtime for weeks just so Arthur’s horse had realistically shrinking testicles in cold water?

I honestly did not know how to properly articulate my thoughts on this at the time. I still don’t. Red Dead Redemption 2 was polished - I couldn’t deny that - but it didn’t have to be that polished. I could have connected every bit as strongly to Arthur if every horse in the game had no realistically shrinking horse balls, or even no balls at all. I would much rather have never had it and known the hardworking people who made the game enjoyed their lives more.

Still, I was impressed by the technical proficiency on display. Do I acknowledge that when I talk about RDR2?

I haven’t read any of the reviews for Cyberpunk yet (I want to form my own thoughts and I promised to play through it for a trans friend worried about whether or not she would have a good experience with the game) but I’m betting there’s going to be plenty of praise from people rating specific features as very good. Of course they’re very good; too many people have spent too much time on those features for it to not at least be good. The question is if it even needed to be that good. Could we just have not had this very good part in exchange for the developers living better lives?

The answer should be yes, but all people will really see is “this part was good” and sing its praises and demand more of it. Upper management watches these reactions and concludes that their methods are working splendidly. The company executives laugh all the way to the bank, tickling themselves with the dollars stuffing their pockets as more talented developers vow to never work in the industry again.

It sucks.

I don’t know if I properly expressed this in the original post but there is a specific pain I’m probably failing to capture here. There is a special hurt, an anguish, for when you work in games as a smalltimer and you see the fucking magic that the veterans at AAA studios are pulling off and knowing that it was accomplished through crunch.

These developers are accomplishing feats that can only be described as insane when you understand what they need to do to make that shit happen. The thing they made is incredible, and it must have no less than to have its praises be sung in every corner. That it was made under abuse and that your words of admiration that the devs so rightfully deserve to hear will only ensure their continued abuse is heartbreaking.

Adding onto this… I think we’re hitting a real wall. Not in what’s technically possible, but what’s technically feasible. 

Because I get it. I get it. We started in a place where video games looked like this:

and then this:

And the desire was: How can we make this more like real life? The landscape, the models, the dialogue, the ability to simply interact in the world. 

And you know what? We’ve made it pretty damn far. More than once I’ve seen a clip from a video game and literally not been able to tell at first that it wasn’t live footage. 

But

How viable is that really? To have giant, sprawling open-world games where every character, no matter how minor, is fully voice acted? Where you can see every pore on peoples’ skin and the subtle shift of the hairs on their heads?

Cyperpunk 77 was in production for seven years. It was delayed what- twice, three times? CDProjectRed forced its employees into grueling 100+ hour work weeks to get it all together. And by most accounts, it still came out a buggy mess with entire missing systems.

To me, that’s evidence that this style triple AAA hyper-realistic game is getting so out of control that this scale is simply not tenable. 

And do we even.. need all this? Really? Because I have had plenty of fun with smaller, less-realistic video game titles like Hyperlight Drifter, Slime Rancher, and Abzu. Near-perfect emulation of reality isn’t the be all and end all of gaming. Maybe it’s time the industry stopped chasing it so desperately. 

As an example, no we do not need it, because every single game nominated for Best Game this year sold incredibly well, but they dont all look like overly realistic nightmares

Animal Crossing and Hades may not have won, but they are far more bwloved than the game that did

FACTS!

Additions: if your viral load is suppressed by medication to the point it’s undetectable, it’s considered untransmittable, even without condoms. Children with HIV+ carriers are usually given medication when they’re born, to make sure any of the virus doesn’t take hold (which we also do to adults who fear they’ve been exposed, it’s called PEP ((Post Exposure Prophylaxis)), which is a month of medication and must be started within 72 hours of exposure).

(There’s also PreP - Pre Exposure Prophylaxis, which is taking medication if you feel you are at risk of being exposed to HIV, whether through sexual partners or sharing injection needles)

This is why we need universal free healthcare - so people can go on and have happy, healthy lives despite the HIV diagnosis. Nobody should die or live in fear when the treatment is so damn simple and effective.

UNDETECTABLE MEANS UNTRANSMISSIBLE

11/10/20

25-Year-Old Alex Lee Becomes California’s Youngest Lawmaker in 82 Years

Incredible [x]

Watch me roll up to the picnic with my bag of wet fruit

this is how they make lacroix