erica

talk account

freelance illustrator, designer, and idk buncha stuff

@kuraine's wife

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ascari
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posts from @erica tagged #stuff

also:

i think i hate my big desk :( (it's 30x72)

(it's 30x72)

im really, deeply, aggressively envious of people who's work setup can also be their off-time setup. dont need to move the keyboard around, don't need to adjust the arms on their chairs any, don't need to scoot to a different position on their desk. i hate having to move shit around multiple times a day. if im drawing and need to use discord or look stuff up or just use the keyboard in any actual-keyboard related capacity, i have to move a big tablet out of the way or scrunch my hands around the tablet and contort my wrists in a way that fucking sucks and hurts. i have an ergotron mx arm that i tried using and i can't because it wobbles all the time when i draw with it and it's infuriating. unless you've got it resting flat on the desk underneath (which i can't because the tablet isn't tall enough) then those things are fucking useless.

im so tired of this like my body is in constant pain from doing what i do but it's my living and my hobby!! i do it to make money and i do it because i can't imagine doing anything else! it consumes me. i have to draw. to be unable to find a comfortable setup, or even one that's just at minimum acceptable, is infuriating and depressing and makes me want to quit.

it's also bringing up another problem of like... i got this desk that i am now realizing is too big and it's making me feel like a failure because i tried to fix a thing and not only did it not fix it but it ruined another thing that wasn't a problem which was how much i like being nestled into a tiny corner. i'm whatever the opposite of claustrophobic is. i hate tall ceilings, i like small spaces, i want to sleep against walls, i want to ball up under a weighted blanket. my old workspace afforded me that in a way i really liked and not having that anymore, having all this open space both on my desk and around me, is messing with my head i feel uncomfortable.

i just don't know what to do. i've never been so energized to draw and so demotivated to do it at the same time. the urge is there and i stop and take breaks every 5 minutes because i get uncomfortable.

i've been spending so much time for the past couple days trying to remember how i made a big tablet setup work in our old apartment. i don't think i ever did. i know i drew most of my comic on it but i mostly remember using a small drawing tablet on my desk and just using that as a mousepad when i wasn't using it. is that what i need to go back to? can i? i work so fast with a big display tablet but what's the point of speed if i'm stopping all the time.

i wish i had built in the muscle memory or comfort or something to have like, a keyboard hang above the tablet or using a shortcut pad or something. but even then i'd still have to shuffle the thing around. there's still stuff i can try. i can try getting a tray so i can have my keyboard under my desktop, i can try getting a smaller tablet still, like a 16" or something. but i'm also tired of throwing money at the problem hoping it solves things. i'm tired of this consuming my thoughts every day because it impedes me every minute im trying to be creative. i hate it.



elaborating on this here because the last time i talked about cohost on bluesky, i was accused of having an agenda because that website is stupid

anyway, ive just been opening tweetdeck/twitter, looking at a few tweets, then closing it because it's just... so hard to care now. the art is still there and i love it and i miss a lot of it but i get so much of it on cohost now. some from the same artists but a lot from new folks i'm excited to see more of. it's new ground! it's the first couple months of twitter/tumblr/deviantart/etc all over again.

but more importantly it's just... this place doesn't suck ass. cohost isn't a nice place, like, the edges aren't filed off and sanded down. it's a mix! people are angry on here and occasionally rude and nobody is pulling any punches on a lot of stuff. but people aren't, like, hostile. people are angry but nobody's mad, especially not at one another. there's so much vulgarity here and bad memes and worse jokes and a whole bunch of broken people but it's not a padded room! the site was designed to curb hostility and harassment and it, like, worked

idk. it's 10pm and im tired so maybe this isn't entirely cogent. i've just been thinking about how this is now the site i just gravitate back to over the course of the day the way i did with twitter for 10 years. with twitter i did it because everyone was there. with this i'm finally doing it because it feels like im on the internet again.



TGAs have like a 50% chance of awarding some dogshit as the winner and like a 10% chance of getting the noms right in the first place so it's all useless but for whatever is worth, here is where I land.

Below the fold bc the list will prolly be long.


GAME OF THE YEAR: Elden Ring

Plague Tale seems cool and I know my wife likes XB3 but everything else on that list is mid at best so this is an easy choice for me.

BEST GAME DIRECTION: Elden Ring

Immortality is a close one here because I respect how it does what it does a lot but ER is like... bro they solved the open-world problem. Colossally huge game where every action, moment, and sight matters. An incredible feat of guidance on behalf of its directors/leads.

BEST NARRATIVE: Immortality

I don't have a lot to say here because I like what Immortality does but I am pretty soft on it vs. Sam Barlow's previous works. Out of the nominees it stands a cut above for sure, though.

BEST ART DIRECTION: Elden Ring

ER has incredible art and art direction but I'm not gonna lie this list of nominees is dogshit. Horizon is an ugly game, God of War has little new to it, Scorn is a good execution on someone else's artistic ideas, and Stray is just... I'm sorry it does nothing for me. The list feels insulting. Where's Signalis? Destiny 2? Splatoon 3? Sephonie? Just no appreciation for games as an artform, just budget.

BEST SCORE AND MUSIC: Metal Hellsinger

*Incredible score. They could have simply just gotten some great licensed tracks for this but Two Feathers wrote some incredible tracks and the guest vocals on every song is brilliant. I know it's trite to say about a rhythm game but truly Metal Hellsinger is nothing without its score. It's incredible.

BEST AUDIO DESIGN: Elden Ring (I guess)

Everything else here is undeserving of nomination. MWII doesn't have good audio design it just has military fetishism and even if I'm a racing game girl, GT7 does nothing spectacular. It sounds fine. ER wins by default of everything else being whatever on here.

BEST PERFORMANCE: Manon Gage

*Is Sony going to infest every category? What the fuck is this dude. Anyway, my thoughts on Immortality are irrelevant to how much of a powerhouse Manon Gage is in Immortality. Incredible performance.

GAMES FOR IMPACT AKA THE ACTUAL CATEGORY OF GOOD GAMES AKA WHERE TGA PUTS THE DESERVING GAMES IN THEIR LITTLE TIMEOUT CORNER FOR NOT HAVING AN INSANE BUDGET: Citizen Sleeper

Play Citizen Sleeper. Cyberpunk done right.

BEST ONGOING: Final Fantasy XIV

Deserves this award every year until the end of time.

BEST INDIE: Tunic

Look at that cute little fox I wonder who drew that. Tunic is magical. So much more than the sum of its parts and its parts are genius.

BEST MOBILE GAME: Apex Legends Mobile

*This will sound biased but this is the only game that I feel isn't infuriatingly evil garbage. Apex Mobile is like, an astoundingly good port of the game and has very little bad microtransaction shit. Everything else on this list makes me blindingly mad for simply existing.

BEST COMMUNITY SUPPORT: Apex Legends

Apex repeatedly commissions artists in its community to get their art in the game, in their tournaments, in their community events and does so much with its streamer population both in and out of major tournaments. It fucking owns. Genuinely puts everyone else in the esports game to shame.

INNOVATION IN ACCESSIBILITY: [ABSTAIN]

I have no idea what any of these games did that wasn't as good or better than Forza Horizon 5 having sign language support.

BEST VR/AR: Bonelab

I haven't played it yet but every Bonelab clip I see is the sickest shit on earth.

BEST ACTION GAME: Neon White

It's the only good game on this l---actually no I've watched my wife play Shredder's Revenge it seems cool.

BEST ACTION/ADVENTURE: Tunic

See reasons stated above.

BEST RPG: LIVE A LIVE

I don't think Elden Ring is an RPG in the way that any of these other games are. Live a Live seems rad. It deserves to win for the effort of bringing this game to the west.

BEST FIGHTING GAME: Multiversus

Game is good. Didn't play the other ones; I'd vote for KOF but fuck MBS.

BEST FAMILY: Splatoon 3

Why is this in this category and nowhere else fuck you Geoff Keighley. ###BEST SIM/STRATEGY: [ABSTAIN] Dune Spice Wars is what I'd vote for but it's not even out it's in fucking early access jesus christ.

BEST SPORTS/RACING: Olliolli World

Olliolli continues to be rad. I'd have voted for GT7 if it didn't shit the bed and be arguably the worst of Sony's offenders this year.

BEST MULTIPLAYER: Splatoon 3

lmao what the fuck is overwatch doing on here instead of literally anything else this year. elden ring pvp deserves more of a spot here than ow2

CONTENT CREATOR OF THE YEAR: Nibellion

king

BEST DEBUT INDIE: Tunic

Shouts out to Dicey.

BEST ADAPTATION: Cyberpunk Edgerunners

If you vote for Arcane you're on my permanent shitlist. Especially over Edgerunners. Edgerunners is like, fantastic. An incredible adapation of the source material and a better exploration of its genre and themes than the fucking game it's adapted from. God. Arcane is going to win and I'm going to be so pissed people have zero fucking taste.

MOST ANTICIPATED GAME: i'm not voting for this this is stupid

BEST ESPORTS GAME: Apex Legends isn't here so I'm not voting.

BEST ESPORTS ATHLETE: people seem to like that faker guy but he plays league so idk, doubt it

BEST ESPORTS TEAM: DarkZero (Apex)

ask me sometime about their 2-win run in the pro circuit. the best shit. dreams being achieved shit. love them, love gen, love that game and its scene.

BEST ESPORTS COACH: [ABSTAIN]

BEST ESPORTS EVENT: EVO 2022

It's EVO. Better than anything else.