hi! i make music, mario maker trolls, and pixel art. i like makin stuff with cool people. <3 to u all


Heatherhorns
@Heatherhorns

(disclaimer: this is copied from mastodon, but i have some Strong Feelings so I wanted to say it here too, if that's okay)

Pride month starts tomorrow, and to trans folks, I am urgently requesting you to find some joy this month.

I realize this sounds really flowery and empty. Maybe this isn't the top priority, maybe it feels like it's making yourself feel better in lieu of action.
Regardless, I am still directly and sincerely asking this of you. It doesn't need to be gender-related or a big thing.

But we're fighting an existential threat. Please experience what it is we're fighting for.

I'm currently stuck in Missouri and don't feel safe going to pride this year. I would be sincerely grateful knowing that even in this environment, we're capable of taking a moment and being happy.

If we all disappeared tomorrow, would this fight have been a waste of time? Certainly not if we can say we let some moments of happiness get through. It's tragic to have that snuffed out, but it'd be worse if we were robbed of ever having those moments to begin with.

I've been thinking a lot lately about "the meaning of Christmas" type messaging in relation to us, and to pride.

It's really easy to be conditioned into seeing our celebration as that same kind of feel-good. Or even pacification.

But we've lost so much, and it's so hard to function these days. I think it's absolutely essential that we observe the occasion to meditate - even for a moment - on a bit of happiness that can't be denied.

At the very least, try.

And for the record, I realize this isn't easy for a lot of folks struggling with mental health. I deal with ideation, myself. But even if you don't succeed, at least you showed yourself what you still have, rather than complete resignation.

Even if all you feel is despair, at least you showed yourself you can still try, y'know? Even that is something to celebrate, and it feels important to note that?

also to be quite honest i think my request is best framed as something selfish for me. Like. If you're exhausted doing it for yourself or some theoretical, "happy future-you" that you have to try to imagine.

Then fuck it, do it for me. Do it for some internet rando. Do me a solid. Sometimes it's way easier to do things for others, to be useful. So if you gotta frame it that way, fine. Cause I promise it will make me happy to know you tried to find joy.


ireneista
@ireneista

PRIDE MONTH!!!!!!!!

we made it to another one

that is worth CELEBRATING



gaw
@gaw

I just finished Firmament, the new game from Cyan, the creators of Myst. It's... just fine! It scratches that Myst-like itch; the realms are gorgeous, it has a lot of puzzles that are grounded in physicality and mostly involve powering or fueling things and turning them on. I was disappointed that there's not really a big turn to the mechanics; you do a thing in each of three realms, collecting three upgrades for your tool along the way, then you do a harder thing in each of the three realms, then you finish the game. Many of Cyan's other games add a fun complication in the second half; I'm thinking of the lovely revelation of how Obduction's worlds are connected. The story in Firmament is fine, but mostly boils down to introducing a mystery in the first hour, letting you solve puzzles for five hours, and then explaining the (not hugely novel) mystery in the last hour. Not Cyan's best work, but not their worst.

The VR was gorgeous but the controls were almost unusable and my rig chugged way too much in complex scenes for it to be playable. That's okay; I'm happy to play in pancake mode.

There's one big issue I have, though: they seem to have made extensive use of AI content generation.




Bilby
@Bilby

nintendo literally prefers that hundreds of games, representing untold hours of labor and artistic effort, be burned and lost forever than be pirated. they want every 3ds to go in a landfill and be replaced by a new switch. they do this because its easy and they know the bad press will be a tiny blip. nintendo, the corporate organism, does this instinctively. optimize for profit, snuff out anything that means losing a tiny bit of control of a revenue source. nintendo, the business, fundamentally does not view even its own most beloved games as meaningful beyond making a profit. they could be selling gravel for all they care. games, art, culture means nothing to them. if they could round up every single cartridge of the legend of zelda, every single famicom, and put them through a shredder, they would. pay them for your switch online subscription if you want your precious zelda so bad.

this is true of all corporations that sell media, of all art in capitalism. art cannot survive in cooperation with capitalism. under capitalism, art doesnt exist at all.

catch me playing go with pebbles after the bombs fall