So there’s this game Umineko, right? Or “When The Seagulls Cry”, but no one calls it that. It is… probably my new favorite work of fiction, full stop.
It’s an episodic murder mystery visual novel in eight parts, each of which takes the same initial setup in a different direction. The incidents that play out in each episode are confusing, obfuscated, and not entirely solvable on their own- it’s as you play through more of them that you notice suspicious commonalities and pick up on key facts that put previous episodes into context. It’s all masterfully arranged and clever as hell, with twists that turn things upside down over and over again. All that plus killer music+sound design and some really fun meta stuff makes it an incredibly fun challenge to tackle, despite not technically being at all interactive.
Now- if that’s enough of a recommendation for you, here’s the Steam page, here’s an LP if you don’t want to spend money, go nuts. But… I want to go into a little more detail on why it’s so unique and worth playing, and that requires going a little bit into spoiler territory. Not major stuff, but… the main hook gets established halfway through episode 2, and it’s hard to talk about Umineko without talking about that hook. So, a readmore, if you’d rather go in blind, which I reccommend:
This is the first time I’ve seen a coherent explanation of what Umineko actually IS, and I’m kind of into it. It sounds a bit Phoenix-Wright-esque.
Brb putting it on my Steam wishlist.
The Ace Attorney influence is very explicit- one of Battler’s sprite poses is the Phoenix Wright Finger Point. It’s a bit cw: everything, though, especially gore and detailed and intense depictions of child abuse, so fair warning.
this looks really neat, but i’m very confused because there seem to be at least three games, one base and then “question arcs” and “answer arcs” and i have no idea which are which or which you’re talking about or whether they’re related or ???.
OK SO YOU WON’T BELIEVE THE RATHOLE YOU JUST STEPPED INTO PAL…. me and my bff Fred have been discussing this matter non-stop for the 10 years we’ve known each other. literally only last week we sat down for a 3 hour debate about this, and i actually brought your question to them so we could give u a fair answer… this is so sad though if you wanted a clear and concise yes or no answer you’ve come to the wrong place.
IF you wanted an obsessive 8-page google document about the pros and cons and which specific versions of yu-gi-oh are worth watching……………………. you’ve come to absolutely the right place. and i made this for you(there’s a TL;DR AT THE END THOUGH IF YOU DON’T FEEL LIKE READING MY RAMBLINGS…)
“SHOULD I WATCH YU GI OH?” THE ANSWER LIES WITHIN..
Millennials buy the exact same stuff as the previous generations, but less of it.
Me at 20: Everything costs too much. Older generations: Well, stop buying so much stuff! Me: Okay. Older generations, ten years later: No wait, we fucked up.
FTFA:
Average real labor earnings for male household heads working full time
were 18% and 27% higher for Gen Xers and baby boomers when they were
young compared with millennials, the study found. For young women, the
difference was smaller — 12% for Gen Xers and 24% for boomers
20-30% higher full-time wages for men. 15-25% higher full-time wages for women. And that is just wages. That was a time when “full-time” was shorter, overtime was expected, benefits(dental, medical, optical, retirement, sick leave, etc) were common, and full-time employment was the rule, rather than the exception, so compensation was actually higher, and for less(though more reliable) work.
And it’s important to note none of this is new or surprising for economics or the financial industry, though to have the fed recognizing it is a welcome change(and probably due to some younger, non-Chicago School econs gaining positions of importance in the Reserve’s hierarchy): setting aside sensible Keynesian economists like Krugman, Baker, and Galbraith who predicted this impact back in 2006-7, Goldman-Sachs was advising corporate clients to shift to an upper-class-centric business model years before the GFC(which they knew was coming, considering they were both inflating the value of CDOs and betting against them). If you’ve ever wondered why Walmart started opening up “boutique” stores aimed at richer patrons around that time, this is why.
Hey guys while I’m reminiscing on old memes, the “Half A Press” video is legitimately one of the most fascinating videos I’ve ever seen and people looking at it like it’s “just a meme” are cowards
What makes it even better is before he says that he says “now what do we need all this speed for? After all, we build up speed for 12 hours”
It’s just absolutely beautiful because he deconstruct the game down to its core, making use of mechanics used to create a functional game and instead using them in new and frankly incredibly creative ways. It’s amazing, and if you missed out on the “Half A Press” meme, please watch the original video.
i dont think you guys appreciate how rad this site is
because first of all you got your basic fantasy and game race names for like
everything
BUT AS IF THAT ISN’T ENOUGH
REAL NAMES WHICH ARE GOOD FOR BOOKS
AND THIS THERE’S MORE????
BAM, PLACE NAMES
AND STILL MORE
SO YOU SEE THESE LITTLE OPTIONS HERE
PLEASE, PLEASE
GO AND TRY TO HELP A GOOD PERSON OUT
This is my go to site for naming literally anything.
this site also has generators for flags, languages, maps and other cool stuff, seriously it’s awesome, go check it all out and help the site if you can.
The woman behind this fantastic site also makes free music for RPG sessions. Her YouTube is here:
Fantasy Name Generator and its creator are both excellent resources!
I adore this site. I have used it a number of times, and it has things you wouldn’t necessarily expect too! And it’s updated so often, you never know what’s going to be added!
it has been like at least eight years and sometimes I still think to myself, when I am tired, “but I am le tired… well then take a nap! AND THEN FIRE ZE MISSILES” even though in retrospect that is like one of the most embarrassingly unfunny videos to ever come out of the internet
tbh i still start sentences with “hokay, so” at least 3 times a day
same, aggressively so. I also still use “wtf, mate.”
who doesn’t think this is STILL AS HILARIOUS as it was when we all watched it over and over and over again 15 years ago?
I’ve reblogged this before and will doubtless reblog this again because MY ENTIRE GROUP OF FRIENDS WAS SO OBSESSED WITH THIS VIDEO IN 2002/2003 THAT WE COLLECTIVELY BANNED ANY MENTION OF IT EVER AGAIN
AND YET
WE ARE NOW GROWN-ASS ADULTS IN OUR THIRTIES
AND IT STILL GETS QUOTED FROM TIME TO TIME
I HAVE THE WHOLE THING MEMORISED
TO THIS DAY, MY MOTHER REGULARLY SAYS “BUT I AM LE TIRED” BECAUSE OF A VIDEO I SHOWED HER IN FUCKING HIGH SCHOOL
THIS IS AN ICONIC PIECE OF INTERNET HISTORY AND I WILL FIGHT ANYONE WHO SAYS OTHERS
my wife and I still regularly say “hokay so”, “but I am le tired” and “and some big meteor’s like ‘well fuck that’.” Fucking iconic.
I HAVE NEVER SEEN THIS BEFORE AND I’M SO GRATEFUL FOR THIS POST BECAUSE I’VE SEEN IT NOW AND I CAN’T STOP FUCKING LAUGHING
I’ve quoted this video on a daily basis for the past 10+ years and will probably do so for the rest of my life.
This vidoe is there, on the wall of fame, right by “Crab Battle” and “John, you are the demons”
….but does any one else still sing badger badger
In case some of you were interested, dude made a part 2 recently.
I just thought about this today and dug through my pictures to find it: a letter from a black soldier in the Civil War to the person who owns his daughter. “The longer you keep my child from me the longer you will have to burn in Hell and the quicker you will get there.“
photo text (with corrected spelling and broken into sentences, paragraphs):
Letter from a Black Soldier to the Owner of His Daughter
Spotswood Ric, a former slave, writes to Kittey Diggs, 1864:
I received a letter from Cariline telling me that you say I tried to steal, to plunder, my child away from you. Not I want you to understand that Mary is my Child and she is a God given rite of my own.
And you may hold on to her as long as you can. But I want you to remember this one thing, that the longer you keep my Child from me the longer you will have to burn in hell and the quicker you’ll get there.
For we are now making up about one thousand black troops to come up thorough, and want to come through, Glasgow. And when we come woe be to Copperhood rebels and to the Slaveholding rebels. For we don’t expect to leave them there. Root nor branch. But we think however that we (that have children in the hands of you devils), we will try your the day that we enter Glasgow.
I want you to understand Kittey Diggs that where ever you and I meet we are enemies to each other. I offered once to pay you forty dollars for my own Child but I am glad now that you did not accept it. Just hold on now as long as you can and the worse it will be for you.
You never in you life before I came down hear did you give children anything, not anything whatever, not even a dollars worth of expenses. Now you call my children your property. Not so with me.
My children is my own and I expect to get them. And when I get ready to come after Mary I will have both a power and authority to bring her away and to exact vengeances on them that holds my Child.
You will then know how to talk to me. I will assure that. And you will know how to talk right too. I want you now to just hold on; to hear if you want to. If your conscience tells that’s the road, go that road and what it will bring you to Kittey Diggs.
I have no fears about getting Mary out of your hands. This whole Government gives cheer to me and you cannot help yourself.
Source: Ira Berlin, ed. Freedom, A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867. Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1982, 690.
I wanted to find out what happened (DID HE GET HIS DAUGHTER BACK?) and the answer is that not only was he reunited with his family, but went on to be a successful minister and his daughter was interviewed in the 30s for the Slave Narratives Project.
Women are constantly and specifically trained out of noticing or responding to their bodily discomfort, particularly if they want to be sexually “viable.” Have you looked at how women are “supposed” to present themselves as sexually attractive? High heels? Trainers? Spanx? These are things designed to wrench bodies. Men can be appealing in comfy clothes. They walk in shoes that don’t shorten their Achilles tendons. They don’t need to get the hair ripped off their genitals or take needles to the face to be perceived as “conventionally” attractive. They can — just as women can — opt out of all this, but the baseline expectations are simply different, and it’s ludicrous to pretend they aren’t.
The old implied social bargain between women and men (which Andrew Sullivancalls “natural”) is that one side will endure a great deal of discomfort and pain for the other’s pleasure and delight. And we’ve all agreed to act like that’s normal, and just how the world works….
Women are supposed to perform comfort and pleasure they do not feel under conditions that make genuine comfort almost impossible. Next time you see a woman breezily laughing in a complicated and revealing gown that requires her not to eat or drink for hours, know a) that you are witnessing the work of a consummate illusionist acting her heart out and b) that you have been trained to see that extraordinary, Oscar-worthy performance as merely routine.Now think about how that training might filter down to sexual contexts….
One side effect of teaching one gender to outsource its pleasure to a third party (and endure a lot of discomfort in the process) is that they’re going to be poor analysts of their own discomfort, which they have been persistently taught to ignore.
just moving along like everyone else 