Chris Franklin

is the high average quality of the chosts on here. every day I log on and see gold and that's a problem. if the chosts are too good then it will become too intimidating to throw your own chosts on here. that's why I chost - I'm trying my best to keep this platform accessible.

It's interesting to play some Fortnite after playing a bunch of Marvel: Snap all weekend.

It's not like you'll catch me defending Fortnite for it's myriad of issues, but if there's one thing that really does work for the game it's the season pass. It costs $10, runs for about two and a half to three months, comes with a bunch of new cosmetic items, music, loading screens, characters, and emotes to unlock, and its goals are varied and myriad. Among other trials, this season I have: rung doorbells to trick or treat, looked for specific candies during the Halloween event, got bounties from Star Wars Stormtroopers, fought Darth Vader (again), turned myself into an Alex Mack chrome blob and plummeted seven stories without taking fall damage, and had to pick 3 fruits from trees planted by other players in previous matches. It's pretty varied!

Meanwhile, a $10 season pass in Marvel Snap consists of challenges like play fifteen 2 cost cards, win 15 matches, or win a location with 20 or more power 25 times. And your return for this grind is... a Miles Morales card, a variant Miles Morales card with the same abilities, a bunch of variants to Spider-Man themed cards you already have, and a smattering of upgrade/crafting resources. Woo?

Don't get me wrong: Fortnite only can do this because it operates at scale. Hundreds of programmers and artists are working behind the scenes to ensure that every week a new 3D action adventure is happening in the background of Fortnite's battle royale, and it can't operate that way /without/ that exploitation. But at the same time: $10 for a month-long grind for one or two exclusive cards and a bunch of cosmetics that amount to JPEGs of art done by comic artists years ago (who almost certainly see no royalties) that you earn by just grinding numbers down really isn't as appealing.

I guess what I'm saying is that season passes are either sustainable but probably not worth it, or worth it but probably unsustainable. It is not a great set up.

Nobody explained to me what this is

Here is a "COHOST TIP". Do you miss "lists" from other social media sites? This morning I was complaining Cohost does not support "Lists". Christine was like "why not just make a page?". I didn't know what that was.

I thought that box in the upper right was for like, multiple account logins or something? In fact it's for making Tumblr-style sub-accounts from the login/password you're already using. What's interesting tho is each "Page" you make has its own list of follows and followers. You can make a private "Page", post no content from it, and just follow a group of people you want to put in their own feed, and that works just like a "List" on Twitter, Facebook or Mastodon.

Things to be aware of:

1. Once you create a page you cannot delete or rename it except by emailing Cohost staff. So just be careful. I now have a Page named "THIS-IS-A-TEST" possibly forever.
2. The page you created will not be publicly linked to your main account unless you do so in the bio (ofc I'm sure mods can see it's you)
3. If you switch "pages" in one tab it automatically switches over all other tabs in the same browser. So maybe this is a feature you might combine with Chrome browser profiles.

I suppose as the iceberg continues to scrape against the side of the Titanic that is Twitter, I should make an effort to actually post here.

Part of the problem is that I never really used Tumblr. For over a decade I've either been writing 4+ page screeds to turn into YouTube videos, or I've been limited to less than 280 characters at a time. So I'm not sure how to use this brave, new medium of CSS-infused mid-length mixed media posts. The Blogosphere feels oh so long ago.

I mean, I can already tell that my tone here is all wrong - there's a degree of lighthearted irreverence in my Cohost feed that hasn't been on my Twitter feed for years. Really, I think I'm going to have to re-learn how to play and joke and shitpost in ways that aren't curt responses to someone else's tweets or a criticism of something going on right this second but instead stand on their own as witty or amusing or at least interesting.

I think the closest format to this I actually have experience with is the Web Forums of old. And it's been almost 20 years since I've posted regularly on an internet forum. Here's hoping it comes back to me.