from this dream...

Soon-to-be muse list!

libekory — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 01:28:08 GMT


Yuri Lowell		Yu Kanda
Since: March, 2011 Timeline: Post-game Journal: trueknight \| Marina		Since: ??, ?? Timeline: Chapter Journal: lotuscurse \| Marina


Jade Curtiss		Suzaku Kururugi
Since: ??, ?? Timeline: Pre-epilogue Journal: absentmorally \| Marina		Since: March, 2009 Timeline: Post-game Journal: black_as_knight \| Marina

code (soon to be) modified from here (so I don't lose the link!)

This entry was originally posted here, via Dreamwidth. Feel totally free to comment there using OpenID!

LJ Skin, AKA Tropospherical Blue for Dreamwidth

libekory — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:04:42 GMT

First, a disclaimer: This is not my brainchild. It was created by emiri and you can see her original post here. But I've made so many tweaks in the comments on that post that trying to organize them now is incredibly messy.

So, I'll assume you want Tropospherical Blue -- or more specifically my edited widescreen version of it. Here's a preview:

LIST OF BUG FIXES FROM THE ORIGINAL
INSTRUCTIONS AND CODE FOR FIREFOX
INSTRUCTIONS AND CODE FOR CHROME
ALTERNATE COLOR SCHEMES

LIST OF BUG FIXES FROM THE ORIGINAL

Full width of the layout to fill the screen. (Not a bug.)

Fix a number of small CSS errors.

Fix a padding issue with the login bar.

Updated image replacement links that were broken.

Created alternate color schemes.

Fixed the full-width bug that was causing scrollbars to appear inappropriately!

Removed a border that was showing up on Chrome.

Edited code so that #footer became #canvas #page #footer and stopped affecting other Dreamwidth layouts.

Changed .cmtbar .icon's padding to margin and added the !important declaration, which the weird border in Chrome was trying to fix.

Successfully centered the text in the footer.

Removed a line that was causing the recaptcha to not show up on the create-account page.

Edited the Greasemoneky/Tampermonkey script so that the replacements also work on secure Dreamwidth pages, like the account creation page.

Fixed an inconsistency that caused the white background to not completely replace the gray!

Fixed an issue where the contextual hover menu links were too pale for comfort.

INSTRUCTIONS AND CODE FOR FIREFOX
(Also works for Cometbird, at least as of version 3.6.16!)

Set your theme to Tropospherical Purple.

Install Greasemonkey.

Restart your browser.

Install this Greasemonkey script.

Restart your browser.

Locate the Greasemonkey icon in the top right corner of your browser. Left-click the option arrow and go to "Manage User Scripts". From there, click "Options", find where it says "Included Pages" (on the "User Settings" tab) and click "Add". Paste in https://*dreamwidth.org/* and click "OK".

Install Stylish.

Restart your browser.

Locate the Stylish icon in the bottom left corner of your browser. (You may have to first enable the Add-on Bar: "View"-->"Toolbars"-->"Add-on Bar".)

Left-click on the Stylish icon. Choose "Write new style"-->"Blank Style".

Give the style a name, like "Tropospherical Blue" or "LJ Classic".

Paste the following into the textarea below that:
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml); @-moz-document domain('dreamwidth.org'), url-prefix('dreamwidth.org') { /** Tropospherical Blue CSS * * Original Authors: * Janine Smith <janine@netrophic.com> * Jesse Proulx <jproulx@jproulx.net> * Elizabeth Lubowitz <grrliz@gmail.com> * Denise Paolucci <denise@dreamwidth.org> * * Blue Version by dw-user emiri <athousandsmiles@gmail.com> * FAQ for using & abusing this script can be found here: * http://emiri.dreamwidth.org/8232.html */ /** * Dreamwidth Site Scheme * * Standard layout for Dreamwidth * * Mockups designed by grrliz, hence grrliz.css * * @project Dreamwidth Site Design * @author Jesse Proulx * @date 2009-01-07 * @version Alpha * @revision $Revision$ * @copyright Copyright (c) 2009 by Dreamwidth Studios, LLC * */ /** * General Body Edits */ body.tropo #canvas { color: #000000 !important; width: 100% !important; margin: auto !important; padding: 2px 0 0 0 !important; border-color: #7fa8d0 !important; } body.tropo #canvas #content { margin-top: 2.75em !important; padding: 0 20px !important; } body.tropo #page { text-align: justify !important; max-width: 100% !important; } #page_talkread #Comments .talk-comment, #page_inbox .InboxItem_Content { max-width: 100% !important; } #page_talkread #entry { max-width: 95% !important; } body.tropo #page #account-links #account-links-text { color: #114577 !important; font-size: 8pt !important; } body.tropo #page #account-links-userpic { font-size: 8pt !important; } /* Image replacement codes */ img[src*="dw_logo_purple.png"] { width: 0px !important; height: 51px !important; padding-left: 241px !important; background-image: url("http://i.imgur.com/Pc2X6.png") !important; background-repeat: no-repeat !important; } img[src*="dw_logo.png"] { width: 0px !important; height: 51px !important; padding-left: 241px !important; background-image: url("http://i.imgur.com/rQTcO.png") !important; background-repeat: no-repeat !important; } /** * Links and a pseudo link class */ body.tropo a:link, .link { color: #1745ad !important; } body.tropo a:visited, .link { color: #4f269a !important; } body.tropo a:hover, a:active, .link:hover { color: #1745ad !important; text-decoration: none !important; } body.tropo #page { font-size: 9pt !important; } /** * Menu navigation */ #menu { background: #cbe4fd !important; font-weight: bold !important; font-size: 8pt !important; } #menu ul li a { background: transparent url(/img/tropo-red/icon_menu_swirl_dropdown.png) 0.833333em 0.916667em no-repeat; color: #114577 !important; font-weight: bold !important; } /* .hover is a class added by js for the currently hovered/focused menu */ #menu ul li.hover a { background-color: #cbe4fd !important; color: #114577 !important; font-weight: bold !important; } #menu ul li.hover a:hover { background-color: #114577 !important; color: #fff !important; font-weight: bold !important; } #menu ul li.hover ul { background-color: #cbe4fd !important; font-weight: bold !important; } /** * Footer */ #canvas #page #footer { padding: 1.5em 0 0 0 !important; text-align: center !important; } #canvas #page #footer ul { max-width: 903px !important; text-align: center !important; margin: 0 auto !important; padding: 0 !important; } #canvas #page #footer ul li:last-child { margin: 0 !important; } /** * #content houses the page-specific innards, and creates margins for the absolutely * positioned masthead and footer */ body.tropo #masthead #logo { margin-left: 20px !important; } body.tropo #content h1 { color: #114577 !important; } body.tropo #content h2 { color: #114577 !important; } /** * Content Layouts * * Content layouts are determined based on the class assigned to #content. Potential layouts include: * -- wide sidebars * -- thin sidebars * -- equal width/height columns * -- full page (default) * * Columns/rows inside of #content are named primary, secondary, tertiary, etc and * content is placed inside based on order of importance. */ /** * Panels are generic boxes for divs inside of #content */ #content #primary .panel, #content #secondary .panel { border-color: #ccc !important; } #content .panel .sidebar, #content .panel .contents, #content .panel .item, #content .panel .actions { border-color: #ccc !important; } #content #primary .panel h2 { color: #7fa8d0 !important; border-bottom: 1px solid #ccc !important; } #content #secondary .panel h2 { color: #7fa8d0 !important; border-bottom: 1px solid #ccc !important; } /** * Panels have different styles for different content layouts */ .layout-wide-right-sidebar #primary .panel .contents { border-left: 1px solid #ccc !important; } /** * Scheme-specific blocks */ body.tropo #shim-alpha { background: #fff; height: 84px !important; border-bottom: 0.5em solid #114577 !important; } /* generic classes */ body.tropo .disabled { color: #999 !important; background-color: #ddd !important; border-color: #ccc !important; } .read, .inactive { color: #888; } .read:hover { color: #000; } .read a, .inactive a { color: #999 !important; } .read:hover a { color: inherit !important; } .detail { color: #555 !important; } .status-hint { color: #ccc !important; } .tablist .tab a { color: #114577 !important; border-color: #c7e0f6 !important; } .tablist .tab a:hover, .tablist .tab a.active { background: #c7e0f6 !important; } .tab-header { background: #c7e0f6 !important; border-color: #c7e0f6 !important; } .tab-container { background-color:#fff! important; border-top: none; } .action-bar { text-align: center; background-color: #c7e0f6 !important; } .action-box .inner { background-color: #c5dff9 !important; color: #114577 !important; border: 1px solid #8fc3f7 !important; } .select-list input, input.submit { color: #000 !important; background: #c5dff9 !important; border-bottom: 2px solid #c7e0f6 !important; border-right: 2px solid #c7e0f6 !important; } .select-list input:active, input.submit:active { color: #eee !important; background: #aaccee !important; border-top: 2px solid #c7e0f6 !important; border-left: 2px solid #c7e0f6 !important; } .highlight-box { border: 1px solid; } .highlight, .highlight-box { border-color: #7fa8d0 !important; background-color: #c7e0f6 !important; color: #000; } .inset-box { background-color: #fff !important; border-right: 1px solid #c7e0f6 !important; border-bottom: 1px solid #c7e0f6 !important; color: #777 !important; padding: 3px 5px; } .warning-box { border: 1px solid #114577 !important; color: #000; } .error-box { color: #000; background-color: #fcf6db !important; border: 1px solid #ffdfc0 !important; } .odd, tr.odd th, tr.odd td { background-color: #ffffff !important; } .even, tr.even th, tr.even td { background-color: #efefef !important; } .column-table tbody th { color: #777 !important; background-color: #fbfbfb !important; border-right: 1px solid #cdcdcd !important; } table caption { color:#7fa8d0 !important; } table.grid, table.grid td { border: 1px solid #999 !important; } .select-list li, .NotificationTable td { border-color: #ccc !important; } .select-list li img { border-color: #c7e0f6 !important; } .selected, .select-list li.selected, tr.selected td { background-color: #c7e0f6 !important; border-color: #7fa8d0 !important; } form, fieldset, legend, legend span { border-color: #c7e0f6 !important; } .hint-input { color: #777 !important; border: 1px solid #ccc !important; } .hint-input:focus { color: #000 !important; border: 1px solid #999 !important; } .multiple-select { background-color: #eee !important; } .simple-form .error input { border: 3px solid #ff0000 !important; } .simple-form .error .error-msg { color: #ff0000 !important; display: block; } .table-form table { background-color:#F7F7F7 !important; } .section-nav { background-color: #c7e0f6 !important; } .section-nav li a, .section-nav ul, .section-nav li, .section-nav-separator { border-color: #c7e0f6 !important; } .section-nav-content { border-color: #c7e0f6 !important; } .section-nav li.on { background-color: #ffffff !important; } .section-nav li a:visited { color: #114577 !important; } .section-nav-inner-wrapper { background: url("http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v511/cassaru/grey-borderpixel.png") repeat-y scroll 134px 50% !important; } .collapsible .collapse-button { width: 20px; } .collapsible.collapsed .collapse-button { background-image: url("http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v511/cassaru/grey-arrow-right.png") !important; } .collapsible.expanded .collapse-button { background-image: url("http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v511/cassaru/grey-arrow-down.png") !important; } body.tropo .header { background: #ddd !important; } .subheader { background-color: #c7e0f6 !important; border-bottom: 1px solid #7fa8d0 !important; } .preview-image { border: 1px solid #fff !important; } /* contextualhover.css */ div.ContextualPopup div.Inner { background-color: #fff !important; color: #000 !important; border: 1px solid #c7e0f6 !important; } div.ContextualPopup div.Inner a, div.ContextualPopup div.Inner a:visited { color: #7fa8d0 !important; } .ippu { color: #000 !important; } .ippu .track_title { color: #c7e0f6 !important; } /** * Temporary page-specific styling * / /* Comments */ .cmtbar.odd { border-bottom: 2px solid #bbddff !important; border-top: 2px solid #bbddff !important; border-right: 1px solid #bbddff !important; } .cmtbar.even { border-bottom: 2px solid #aaccee !important; border-top: 2px solid #aaccee !important; border-right: 1px solid #aaccee !important; } td.odd { background-color: #bbddff !important; } td.even { background-color: #aaccee !important; } .cmtbar .icon { margin: 0 0 0 3px !important; } /* inbox */ .folders a { color: #000 !important; border: 1px solid #fff; } .folders a.selected { background: #c7e0f6 !important; border-color: #7fa8d0 !important; } .folders a:hover { border-color: #bbb !important; background: #eee !important; } /* profile.css */ .username { border-bottom: 1px solid #c7e0f6 !important; } .section, .actions li { border-bottom: 1px solid #c7e0f6 !important; border-left: 1px solid #c7e0f6 !important; color: #000000 !important; } .section span.section_link { color: #000 !important; } .section_body .inner_section_header { color: #111 !important; } .section_body_title { color: #111 !important; } .profile th { color: #111 !important; } /* lj_settings.css */ .section_head, div.username { color: #333 !important; border-bottom: 1px solid #c7e0f6 !important; } .field_block .field_name { color: #333 !important; background-color: #eee !important; } /* esn.css */ body.tropo .CategoryRow td { border-bottom: 1px solid #ddd !important; } /* community/settings */ .community-settings legend { color: #7fa8d0 !important; } /* Shop pages */ .shop-item-highlight { border: 1px solid #7fa8d0 !important; } /* entry.css */ a#lj_userpicselect {color: #c7e0f6 !important;} #lj_userpicselect_img {border: 1px solid #fff !important;} #lj_userpicselect_img:hover {border: 1px solid #c7e0f6 !important;} #lj_userpicselect_img_txt {color: #c7e0f6 !important;} #userpic_preview_image.userpic_loggedout {border: 1px solid #c7e0f6 !important;} .userpic_preview_border {border: 1px solid #ccc !important;} #infobox {border-left: 1px solid #000 !important;} #compose-entry {border-bottom: 1px solid #bbb !important;} #compose-entry ul li a {background-color: #fff;border: 1px solid #c7e0f6 !important;border-bottom: none;} #compose-entry ul li.on a {border-bottom: 1px solid #fff;} #draft-container {border: 1px solid #bbb;border-top: none;} #draftstatus {background-color: #fff;} #spellcheck-results {border: 1px solid #c7e0f6 !important;background-color: #fff;} #htmltools {border-right: 1px solid #bbb;border-left: 1px solid #bbb;background: #fff;} #htmltools ul {border-bottom: 1px solid #8d8d8d;} #options, #public {border: 1px solid #bbb;background-color: #eee;} #public {color:#666;} #submitbar {background-color: #ddd;border: 1px solid #aaa;} /* create flow */ .appwidget-createaccountprogressmeter .step-block-active { color: #fff; background-color: #7fa8d0 !important } .appwidget-createaccountprogressmeter .step-block-inactive { color: #fff; background-color: #114577 !important } .appwidget-createaccountprogressmeter .step-selected, .appwidget-createaccountprofile .header { color: #7fa8d0 !important } .appwidget-createaccountprogressmeter .step-previous { color: #114577; } .appwidget-createaccountprogressmeter .step-next { color: #666; } /* lj_base-app.css */ hr.hr { color: #c7e0f6 !important; background-color: #c7e0f6 !important; } input.text, textarea.text, select.select { background-color: #fff; border: 1px solid #bbb; border-top: 1px solid #999; border-left: 1px solid #999; } .appwidget .more-link { color: #c7e0f6 !important; background: url('/img/arrow-double-black.gif') no-repeat 0 60%; } .arrow-link, .more-link { background: url('/img/arrow-double-black.gif') no-repeat 0 50%; } .message { border: 5px solid #eee; } .message blockquote { border: 1px solid #aaa; } .helper { color: #666; } /** * Color Changes */ html { background: #ffffff; } body.tropo #canvas { background: #ffffff !important; } #canvas #page #footer, .tablist .tab a, .warning-box, thead th, tfoot td, .username, .appwidget-createaccountprofile .field-name, .section, .actions li, .section_head, div.username { background: #ecf6ff !important; } body.tropo #shim-alpha { border-top: 0.5em solid #ecf6ff !important; } .tab-container { border: 1px solid #ecf6ff !important; } .select-list input, input.submit { border-top: 2px solid #ecf6ff !important; border-left: 2px solid #ecf6ff !important; } .select-list input:active, input.submit:active { border-bottom: 2px solid #ecf6ff !important; } .select-list input:active, input.submit:active { border-right: 2px solid #ecf6ff !important; } }

Click save!

Admire your new layout!

INSTRUCTIONS AND CODE FOR CHROME

Set your theme to Tropospherical Purple.

Install Tampermonkey.

Restart your browser.

Install this Tampermonkey script.

Restart your browser.

Locate the Tampermonkey icon in the top right corner of your browser. Left-click the option arrow and go to "Manage User Scripts". From there, click "Options", find where it says "Included Pages" (on the "User Settings" tab) and click "Add". Paste in https://*dreamwidth.org/* and click "OK".

These instructions don't work for Tampermonkey and I'm having trouble troubleshooting because the Dreamwidth site skinner isn't showing up for me right now. If anyone can figure out how to make this alteration to Tampermonkey, I would love you forever.

Install Stylish.

Restart your browser.

Locate the Stylish icon in the top right corner of your browser.

Left-click on the Stylish icon. Choose "Manage installed styles".

Click "Write new style".

Give the style a name, like "Tropospherical Blue" or "LJ Classic".

Where it says "Code", paste the following into the textarea below that:
/** Tropospherical Blue CSS * * Original Authors: * Janine Smith <janine@netrophic.com> * Jesse Proulx <jproulx@jproulx.net> * Elizabeth Lubowitz <grrliz@gmail.com> * Denise Paolucci <denise@dreamwidth.org> * * Blue Version by dw-user emiri <athousandsmiles@gmail.com> * FAQ for using & abusing this script can be found here: * http://emiri.dreamwidth.org/8232.html */ /** * Dreamwidth Site Scheme * * Standard layout for Dreamwidth * * Mockups designed by grrliz, hence grrliz.css * * @project Dreamwidth Site Design * @author Jesse Proulx * @date 2009-01-07 * @version Alpha * @revision $Revision$ * @copyright Copyright (c) 2009 by Dreamwidth Studios, LLC * */ /** * General Body Edits */ body.tropo #canvas { color: #000000 !important; width: 100% !important; margin: auto !important; padding: 2px 0 0 0 !important; border-color: #7fa8d0 !important; } body.tropo #canvas #content { margin-top: 2.75em !important; padding: 0 20px !important; } body.tropo #page { text-align: justify !important; max-width: 100% !important; } #page_talkread #Comments .talk-comment, #page_inbox .InboxItem_Content { max-width: 100% !important; } #page_talkread #entry { max-width: 95% !important; } body.tropo #page #account-links #account-links-text { color: #114577 !important; font-size: 8pt !important; } body.tropo #page #account-links-userpic { font-size: 8pt !important; } /* Image replacement codes */ img[src*="dw_logo_purple.png"] { width: 0px !important; height: 51px !important; padding-left: 241px !important; background-image: url("http://i.imgur.com/Pc2X6.png") !important; background-repeat: no-repeat !important; } img[src*="dw_logo.png"] { width: 0px !important; height: 51px !important; padding-left: 241px !important; background-image: url("http://i.imgur.com/rQTcO.png") !important; background-repeat: no-repeat !important; } /** * Links and a pseudo link class */ body.tropo a:link, .link { color: #1745ad !important; } body.tropo a:visited, .link { color: #4f269a !important; } body.tropo a:hover, a:active, .link:hover { color: #1745ad !important; text-decoration: none !important; } body.tropo #page { font-size: 9pt !important; } /** * Menu navigation */ #menu { background: #cbe4fd !important; font-weight: bold !important; font-size: 8pt !important; } #menu ul li a { background: transparent url(/img/tropo-red/icon_menu_swirl_dropdown.png) 0.833333em 0.916667em no-repeat; color: #114577 !important; font-weight: bold !important; } /* .hover is a class added by js for the currently hovered/focused menu */ #menu ul li.hover a { background-color: #cbe4fd !important; color: #114577 !important; font-weight: bold !important; } #menu ul li.hover a:hover { background-color: #114577 !important; color: #fff !important; font-weight: bold !important; } #menu ul li.hover ul { background-color: #cbe4fd !important; font-weight: bold !important; } /** * Footer */ #canvas #page #footer { padding: 1.5em 0 0 0 !important; text-align: center !important; } #canvas #page #footer ul { max-width: 903px !important; text-align: center !important; margin: 0 auto !important; padding: 0 !important; } #canvas #page #footer ul li:last-child { margin: 0 !important; } /** * #content houses the page-specific innards, and creates margins for the absolutely * positioned masthead and footer */ body.tropo #masthead #logo { margin-left: 20px !important; } body.tropo #content h1 { color: #114577 !important; } body.tropo #content h2 { color: #114577 !important; } /** * Content Layouts * * Content layouts are determined based on the class assigned to #content. Potential layouts include: * -- wide sidebars * -- thin sidebars * -- equal width/height columns * -- full page (default) * * Columns/rows inside of #content are named primary, secondary, tertiary, etc and * content is placed inside based on order of importance. */ /** * Panels are generic boxes for divs inside of #content */ #content #primary .panel, #content #secondary .panel { border-color: #ccc !important; } #content .panel .sidebar, #content .panel .contents, #content .panel .item, #content .panel .actions { border-color: #ccc !important; } #content #primary .panel h2 { color: #7fa8d0 !important; border-bottom: 1px solid #ccc !important; } #content #secondary .panel h2 { color: #7fa8d0 !important; border-bottom: 1px solid #ccc !important; } /** * Panels have different styles for different content layouts */ .layout-wide-right-sidebar #primary .panel .contents { border-left: 1px solid #ccc !important; } /** * Scheme-specific blocks */ body.tropo #shim-alpha { background: #fff; height: 84px !important; border-bottom: 0.5em solid #114577 !important; } /* generic classes */ body.tropo .disabled { color: #999 !important; background-color: #ddd !important; border-color: #ccc !important; } .read, .inactive { color: #888; } .read:hover { color: #000; } .read a, .inactive a { color: #999 !important; } .read:hover a { color: inherit !important; } .detail { color: #555 !important; } .status-hint { color: #ccc !important; } .tablist .tab a { color: #114577 !important; border-color: #c7e0f6 !important; } .tablist .tab a:hover, .tablist .tab a.active { background: #c7e0f6 !important; } .tab-header { background: #c7e0f6 !important; border-color: #c7e0f6 !important; } .tab-container { background-color:#fff! important; border-top: none; } .action-bar { text-align: center; background-color: #c7e0f6 !important; } .action-box .inner { background-color: #c5dff9 !important; color: #114577 !important; border: 1px solid #8fc3f7 !important; } .select-list input, input.submit { color: #000 !important; background: #c5dff9 !important; border-bottom: 2px solid #c7e0f6 !important; border-right: 2px solid #c7e0f6 !important; } .select-list input:active, input.submit:active { color: #eee !important; background: #aaccee !important; border-top: 2px solid #c7e0f6 !important; border-left: 2px solid #c7e0f6 !important; } .highlight-box { border: 1px solid; } .highlight, .highlight-box { border-color: #7fa8d0 !important; background-color: #c7e0f6 !important; color: #000; } .inset-box { background-color: #fff !important; border-right: 1px solid #c7e0f6 !important; border-bottom: 1px solid #c7e0f6 !important; color: #777 !important; padding: 3px 5px; } .warning-box { border: 1px solid #114577 !important; color: #000; } .error-box { color: #000; background-color: #fcf6db !important; border: 1px solid #ffdfc0 !important; } .odd, tr.odd th, tr.odd td { background-color: #ffffff !important; } .even, tr.even th, tr.even td { background-color: #efefef !important; } .column-table tbody th { color: #777 !important; background-color: #fbfbfb !important; border-right: 1px solid #cdcdcd !important; } table caption { color:#7fa8d0 !important; } table.grid, table.grid td { border: 1px solid #999 !important; } .select-list li, .NotificationTable td { border-color: #ccc !important; } .select-list li img { border-color: #c7e0f6 !important; } .selected, .select-list li.selected, tr.selected td { background-color: #c7e0f6 !important; border-color: #7fa8d0 !important; } form, fieldset, legend, legend span { border-color: #c7e0f6 !important; } .hint-input { color: #777 !important; border: 1px solid #ccc !important; } .hint-input:focus { color: #000 !important; border: 1px solid #999 !important; } .multiple-select { background-color: #eee !important; } .simple-form .error input { border: 3px solid #ff0000 !important; } .simple-form .error .error-msg { color: #ff0000 !important; display: block; } .table-form table { background-color:#F7F7F7 !important; } .section-nav { background-color: #c7e0f6 !important; } .section-nav li a, .section-nav ul, .section-nav li, .section-nav-separator { border-color: #c7e0f6 !important; } .section-nav-content { border-color: #c7e0f6 !important; } .section-nav li.on { background-color: #ffffff !important; } .section-nav li a:visited { color: #114577 !important; } .section-nav-inner-wrapper { background: url("http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v511/cassaru/grey-borderpixel.png") repeat-y scroll 134px 50% !important; } .collapsible .collapse-button { width: 20px; } .collapsible.collapsed .collapse-button { background-image: url("http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v511/cassaru/grey-arrow-right.png") !important; } .collapsible.expanded .collapse-button { background-image: url("http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v511/cassaru/grey-arrow-down.png") !important; } body.tropo .header { background: #ddd !important; } .subheader { background-color: #c7e0f6 !important; border-bottom: 1px solid #7fa8d0 !important; } .preview-image { border: 1px solid #fff !important; } /* contextualhover.css */ div.ContextualPopup div.Inner { background-color: #fff !important; color: #000 !important; border: 1px solid #c7e0f6 !important; } div.ContextualPopup div.Inner a, div.ContextualPopup div.Inner a:visited { color: #7fa8d0 !important; } .ippu { color: #000 !important; } .ippu .track_title { color: #c7e0f6 !important; } /** * Temporary page-specific styling * / /* Comments */ .cmtbar.odd { border-bottom: 2px solid #bbddff !important; border-top: 2px solid #bbddff !important; border-right: 1px solid #bbddff !important; } .cmtbar.even { border-bottom: 2px solid #aaccee !important; border-top: 2px solid #aaccee !important; border-right: 1px solid #aaccee !important; } td.odd { background-color: #bbddff !important; } td.even { background-color: #aaccee !important; } .cmtbar .icon { margin: 0 0 0 3px !important; } /* inbox */ .folders a { color: #000 !important; border: 1px solid #fff; } .folders a.selected { background: #c7e0f6 !important; border-color: #7fa8d0 !important; } .folders a:hover { border-color: #bbb !important; background: #eee !important; } /* profile.css */ .username { border-bottom: 1px solid #c7e0f6 !important; } .section, .actions li { border-bottom: 1px solid #c7e0f6 !important; border-left: 1px solid #c7e0f6 !important; color: #000000 !important; } .section span.section_link { color: #000 !important; } .section_body .inner_section_header { color: #111 !important; } .section_body_title { color: #111 !important; } .profile th { color: #111 !important; } /* lj_settings.css */ .section_head, div.username { color: #333 !important; border-bottom: 1px solid #c7e0f6 !important; } .field_block .field_name { color: #333 !important; background-color: #eee !important; } /* esn.css */ body.tropo .CategoryRow td { border-bottom: 1px solid #ddd !important; } /* community/settings */ .community-settings legend { color: #7fa8d0 !important; } /* Shop pages */ .shop-item-highlight { border: 1px solid #7fa8d0 !important; } /* entry.css */ a#lj_userpicselect {color: #c7e0f6 !important;} #lj_userpicselect_img {border: 1px solid #fff !important;} #lj_userpicselect_img:hover {border: 1px solid #c7e0f6 !important;} #lj_userpicselect_img_txt {color: #c7e0f6 !important;} #userpic_preview_image.userpic_loggedout {border: 1px solid #c7e0f6 !important;} .userpic_preview_border {border: 1px solid #ccc !important;} #infobox {border-left: 1px solid #000 !important;} #compose-entry {border-bottom: 1px solid #bbb !important;} #compose-entry ul li a {background-color: #fff;border: 1px solid #c7e0f6 !important;border-bottom: none;} #compose-entry ul li.on a {border-bottom: 1px solid #fff;} #draft-container {border: 1px solid #bbb;border-top: none;} #draftstatus {background-color: #fff;} #spellcheck-results {border: 1px solid #c7e0f6 !important;background-color: #fff;} #htmltools {border-right: 1px solid #bbb;border-left: 1px solid #bbb;background: #fff;} #htmltools ul {border-bottom: 1px solid #8d8d8d;} #options, #public {border: 1px solid #bbb;background-color: #eee;} #public {color:#666;} #submitbar {background-color: #ddd;border: 1px solid #aaa;} /* create flow */ .appwidget-createaccountprogressmeter .step-block-active { color: #fff; background-color: #7fa8d0 !important } .appwidget-createaccountprogressmeter .step-block-inactive { color: #fff; background-color: #114577 !important } .appwidget-createaccountprogressmeter .step-selected, .appwidget-createaccountprofile .header { color: #7fa8d0 !important } .appwidget-createaccountprogressmeter .step-previous { color: #114577; } .appwidget-createaccountprogressmeter .step-next { color: #666; } /* lj_base-app.css */ hr.hr { color: #c7e0f6 !important; background-color: #c7e0f6 !important; } input.text, textarea.text, select.select { background-color: #fff; border: 1px solid #bbb; border-top: 1px solid #999; border-left: 1px solid #999; } .appwidget .more-link { color: #c7e0f6 !important; background: url('/img/arrow-double-black.gif') no-repeat 0 60%; } .arrow-link, .more-link { background: url('/img/arrow-double-black.gif') no-repeat 0 50%; } .message { border: 5px solid #eee; } .message blockquote { border: 1px solid #aaa; } .helper { color: #666; } /** * Color Changes */ html { background: #ffffff; } body.tropo #canvas { background: #ffffff !important; } #canvas #page #footer, .tablist .tab a, .warning-box, thead th, tfoot td, .username, .appwidget-createaccountprofile .field-name, .section, .actions li, .section_head, div.username { background: #ecf6ff !important; } body.tropo #shim-alpha { border-top: 0.5em solid #ecf6ff !important; } .tab-container { border: 1px solid #ecf6ff !important; } .select-list input, input.submit { border-top: 2px solid #ecf6ff !important; border-left: 2px solid #ecf6ff !important; } .select-list input:active, input.submit:active { border-bottom: 2px solid #ecf6ff !important; } .select-list input:active, input.submit:active { border-right: 2px solid #ecf6ff !important; }
Where it says "Applies to", choose "URLs on the domain" and type in "dreamwidth.org". (You don't need to click "Add".)

Where it says "Enable", check the tickybox.

Click save!

Refresh.

Admire your new layout!

ALTERNATE COLOR SCHEMES

Very small edits, these affect the color of the super-pale blue highlight in this layout. You can either have a darker blue or a white:

Find the code at the bottom, where it says "COLOR CHANGES", and replace it entirely with your desired color. Be careful to leave the final } where it is!

NON-WHITE BACKGROUND

Find this:

html { background: #ffffff; } body.tropo #canvas { background: #ffffff !important; }

Delete it!

Note: If you are using an older version of the code and you don't see that, find both instances of body.trop #canvas and delete the background-color declarations.

I haven't finished skinning this completely, but maybe someday! So these are the only tweaks I offer right now.

This entry was originally posted here, via Dreamwidth. Feel totally free to comment there using OpenID!

libekory — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 21:02:07 GMT

Original LJ:

NAME	JOURNAL	PLURK	AIM	E-MAIL
Daemyn	corrupts	boyisamonster	ivollias	--
Aly	yasogami	trollzaya	samarecarmed	ohfourplan[at]gmail.com

Dreamwidth-ified:

NAME	JOURNAL	PLURK	AIM	E-MAIL
Daemyn	corrupts	boyisamonster	ivollias	--
Aly	yasogami	trollzaya	samarecarmed	ohfourplan[at]gmail.com

<center><table style="border-collapse:separate;border-spacing:0 3px;text-align:center;font-family:corbel;size:smaller">
<tr style="background-color:#ffa401"><td style="border-top:1px solid black;border-bottom:1px solid black">NAME</td><td style="border-top:1px solid black;border-bottom:1px solid black">JOURNAL</td><td style="border-top:1px solid black;border-bottom:1px solid black">PLURK</td><td style="border-top:1px solid black;border-bottom:1px solid black">AIM</td><td style="border-top:1px solid black;border-bottom:1px solid black">E-MAIL</td></tr>

<tr><td style="border-bottom:1px solid black">Daemyn</td><td style="border-bottom:1px solid black"><user name="corrupts" site="livejournal.com"></td><td style="border-bottom:1px solid black"><user name="boyisamonster" site="plurk.com"></td><td style="border-bottom:1px solid black">ivollias</td><td style="border-bottom:1px solid black">--</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom:1px solid black">Daemyn</td><td style="border-bottom:1px solid black"><user name="corrupts" site="livejournal.com"></td><td style="border-bottom:1px solid black"><user name="boyisamonster" site="plurk.com"></td><td style="border-bottom:1px solid black">ivollias</td><td style="border-bottom:1px solid black">--</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom:1px solid black">Daemyn</td><td style="border-bottom:1px solid black"><user name="corrupts" site="livejournal.com"></td><td style="border-bottom:1px solid black"><user name="boyisamonster" site="plurk.com"></td><td style="border-bottom:1px solid black">ivollias</td><td style="border-bottom:1px solid black">--</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom:1px solid black">Aly</td><td style="border-bottom:1px solid black"><user name="yasogami" site="livejournal.com"></td><td style="border-bottom:1px solid black"><user name="trollzaya" site="plurk.com"></td><td style="border-bottom:1px solid black">samarecarmed</td><td style="border-bottom:1px solid black">ohfourplan[at]gmail.com</td></tr></table></center>

Simplified:

NAME	JOURNAL	PLURK	AIM	E-MAIL
Daemyn	corrupts	boyisamonster	ivollias	--
Daemyn	corrupts	boyisamonster	ivollias	--

Simplified with one bit of border:

NAME	JOURNAL	PLURK	AIM	E-MAIL
Daemyn	corrupts	boyisamonster	ivollias	--
Daemyn	corrupts	boyisamonster	ivollias	--

This entry was originally posted here, via Dreamwidth. Feel totally free to comment there using OpenID!

Test

libekory — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 21:26:56 GMT

With no changes:

Skarmory ♀	stats	moveset
	Type: Steel/Flying Nature: Impish Capable of taking hits Level: 100 Ability: Sturdy Obtained: 18/10/10	Leer [nrm] Swift [nrm] Fury Attack [nrm] Feint [nrm] Slash [nrm] Flash [nrm]	Spikes [grd] Sand-Attack [grd] Agility [psy] Metal Sound [stl] Metal Wing [stl] Night Slash [drk] Toxic [psn]	Fly [fly] Roost [fly] Air Slash [fly] Peck [fly] Air Cutter [fly] Aerial Ace [fly]
Info: As Leon's starter, Skarmory has come to know the man she affectionately knows as 'boss' very well. Most of the time, subtle bodily cues are all it takes for him to convey his will, and he appreciates her perspicacity. Which isn't to say everything's always easy between them: Skarmory rather enjoys getting herself (and her trainer, by extension) into trouble, and is far more sociable than he is. As a result, she tends to drag him into less-than-desirable situations. He'll just have to get used to it.

With inline CSS (note that my added line breaks before the <img> tag and before Info, are important):

<table style="width:755px; border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0; padding: 10px; border: none; text-align: center; vertical-align: center" width="755">
<tbody><tr>
<td style="width: 150px; background-color: #eeeeee; color: black;" rowspan="2">
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v84/arach/pokemon/skarmorysprite.png"/>
Skarmory ♀
</td>
<td style="width: 200px; height: 10px; background-color: #eeeeee">stats</td><td style="width: 405px; background-color: #eeeeee" colspan="3">moveset</td></tr>
<tr><td style="width: 200px">Type: Steel/Flying
Nature: Impish
Capable of taking hits
Level: 100
Ability: Sturdy
Obtained: 18/10/10</td>

<td style="width: 135px; font-size: smaller">Leer [nrm]
Swift [nrm]
Fury Attack [nrm]
Feint [nrm]
Slash [nrm]
Flash [nrm]
</td>
<td style="width: 135px; font-size: smaller">Spikes [grd]
Sand-Attack [grd]
Agility [psy]
Metal Sound [stl]
Metal Wing [stl]
Night Slash [drk]
Toxic [psn]
</td>

<td style="width: 135px; font-size: smaller">Fly [fly]
Roost [fly]
Air Slash [fly]
Peck [fly]
Air Cutter [fly]
Aerial Ace [fly]
</td>
</tr><tr>

<td style="width: 755px; text-align: justify" colspan="5">
Info: As Leon's starter, Skarmory has come to know the man she affectionately knows as 'boss' very well. Most of the time, subtle bodily cues are all it takes for him to convey his will, and he appreciates her perspicacity. Which isn't to say everything's always easy between them: Skarmory rather enjoys getting herself (and her trainer, by extension) into trouble, and is far more sociable than he is. As a result, she tends to drag him into less-than-desirable situations. He'll just have to get used to it.</td>
</tr></tbody></table>

Skarmory ♀	stats	moveset
	Type: Steel/Flying Nature: Impish Capable of taking hits Level: 100 Ability: Sturdy Obtained: 18/10/10	Leer [nrm] Swift [nrm] Fury Attack [nrm] Feint [nrm] Slash [nrm] Flash [nrm]	Spikes [grd] Sand-Attack [grd] Agility [psy] Metal Sound [stl] Metal Wing [stl] Night Slash [drk] Toxic [psn]	Fly [fly] Roost [fly] Air Slash [fly] Peck [fly] Air Cutter [fly] Aerial Ace [fly]
Info: As Leon's starter, Skarmory has come to know the man she affectionately knows as 'boss' very well. Most of the time, subtle bodily cues are all it takes for him to convey his will, and he appreciates her perspicacity. Which isn't to say everything's always easy between them: Skarmory rather enjoys getting herself (and her trainer, by extension) into trouble, and is far more sociable than he is. As a result, she tends to drag him into less-than-desirable situations. He'll just have to get used to it.

This entry was originally posted here, via Dreamwidth. Feel totally free to comment there using OpenID!

[review] Sonic Colors

libekory — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 22:36:10 GMT

Disclaimer: I am a fan of Sonic the Hedgehog as a whole. For the record, I also love Silent Hill as a whole. I'm... eclectic, okay? :(

Upfront Confessions

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was my favorite 2D Sonic game. I enjoyed Sonic Adventure more than Sonic Adventure 2, I hated and never finished Sonic Heroes, and I haven't played a Sonic game since, because I've heard nothing but terrible things! Until Sonic Colors.

Sonic Colors
For: Wii (also the DS, but it's a very different game)

Overall: 9/10

Okay, I -- loved this game. Straight up loved it. It's bright, it's colorful, it's imaginative, and for whatever reasons it's also the first Sonic game in yeeears that I feel like fits into the Archie Comics universe extremely well. I mean, we don't have any of the additional Archie characters hanging around or anything, but we don't have any of the additional Sega characters (Amy Rose, for example) either. There's also quite a bit of humor, with puns on both sides and a Sonic extremely reminiscent of the old school Jaleel White rendition of the character -- and, more specifically, the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.

Not my favorite cartoon, either. Promise. But a little bit of its punny humor and lightheartedness is a welcome change from the ultra-serious Sonic of recent years. Sonic Colors feels more like a kids' game, and I think as a kid I would have thought Sonic was pretty cool in it, but it's laidback enough that I can look at it now and snicker a little bit. "Aww, what a derp."

Eggman has gotten a similar makeover: no one is even slightly trying to pretend that this guy is a force to be reckoned with or anyone we should really take seriously. I mean, he's a giant round egg-man, after all. And his dialogue is kind of wonderful. I especially enjoyed the vaguely Portal-esque intercom announcements that came on during various points of the game, and was always sad when background music drowned them out.

(Mind: I did really like the SAT AM Robotnik who was a force to be reckoned with, but this is nice too.)

Gameplay: 10/10

This is what I want from Sonic games: speed. Unbridled, crazy speed. It's what always set Sonic apart from Mario: while Mario was usually about precise platforming, Sonic was about a hectic rush from the beginning of the level to the end.

Skilled players who know the level should be able to get through it quickly but profitably, beating lots of enemies and collecting lots of rings and navigating through hidden pathways, but all players should be able to pick up the controller and run through the level successfully on their first or second try, with the exception of occasional especially difficult patches. This isn't to say that I think Sonic levels are easier than Mario levels, but that they should facilitate the speed of the titular character.

Because of this, platforming sections in Sonic will always be the weak points of the level for me -- and underwater levels that actively force you to slow down, like the first game's Labyrinth Zone, will always be my least favorite*. And, oh yes, Sonic Colors adds an asterisk to that statement.

So, I look for speed in Sonic levels. I look for the ability to rush from beginning to end, barely surviving and having a wild fun time. Sonic Colors delivered on this in spades, incorporating "grinding" rails, zip lines, colorful aerial "rush" rings, and playing with perspective; during some segments, Sonic runs forward essentially on his own, with you only having to zip left, right, and jump. These segments come as overhead views, directly-behind views, and directly-in front views.

Sonic has learned a few new moves this time around, too, mostly with the help of the Wisps that are the game's "colors". Blue Wisps let Sonic become a laser that will bounce off walls and zip forward through enemies; Orange Wisps turn Sonic into a rocket that launches straight up; Green Wisps make for a tiny Sonic hover craft that floats gently in the direction of your choosing; Yellow Wisps turn Sonic into a drill that can power through the earth; Pink Wisps let Sonic become a spiked ball that can attach to ceilings and destroy bricks; and the Purple or "Nega" Wisp turns Sonic into a frenzied nightmarish creature that eats through everything in his path, swelling in size. The addition to this is the "Boost" function, which requires a certain amount of "power" but which propels Sonic forward in dashes. This dash has a slight ring-magnet affect.

In addition to the descriptions above, Wisp forms also have secondary functions -- the Blue Wisp lets Sonic use what look like lightning rods to teleport from one part of a level to another, the Yellow Wisp can be used in underwater levels to travel through pipes, and the Green Wisp can perform a proper Light Ring Dash. Are there more secondary functions...? Well, I wouldn't be surprised, but I wouldn't even know about these if not for YouTube videos. ;)

Which is another thing: the levels have a fair bit of replayability, even if you're not looking to improve your rank; on most levels I went through, I could see at least one other path that I haven't tried to take yet. These are big levels, with the exception of a few very short ones, and they reward your exploration.

To be completely honest, this is the NEW Sonic game you've been looking for. While there are 2D segments, the game is still largely in 3D, and it would work just fine if it were mostly or completely in 3D. This is where Sonic should be.

Controls: 9.5/10

The controls are tight. Sonic does just what you want him to do. The "Homing Attack" works better in this game than it has in any game, and oh god after the loosey goosey controls of Sonic Adventure and Sonic Heroes, this game is like a godsend. I haven't played it with a classic controller or sideways, either; I played it with nunchuck in hand, using the joystick to control Sonic. The motion control part, where I had to shake the wiimote to use Wisps, sometimes took more than one try to get right, but it wasn't debilitating. (And, for the record, I don't have Motion Plus.)

There's not much else to say about the controls -- but, if you ask me, that's a good thing: fundamentally, controls are a barrier between you and the gaming experience, and, the less you notice them, the better they are doing their job. Controls that melt away without commentary let you become more immersed in the game. You only really notice controls when something is going wrong.

Visuals: 7/10

The design is gorgeous, the levels are beautiful and bright. The game only really suffers for being on the Wii; some of the cut scenes are a little bit pixelated, and I really wish I could see the game in HD.

Sound: 7/10

A quick word about language options: I switched to the Japanese language option right away, but when I turned it off again (the "subtitles" are the English script, as always in Sonic games so far, and the highly-localized script is distractingly different from the Japanese), the English dub was pretty decent. Tails probably had a better voice than he's had even in past cartoons, and since Tails is usually the part of the English dub that makes me want to tear my hair out, this solved most of my problems right away.

The sound effects are good and Sonic-y; the new "target" alert that pops up when you get close to something that can be Homing Attacked isn't too annoying even when you hear it 10 times in rapid succession; and the level music is pretty good. I have an -- odd criticism of the opening theme and closing theme, which is that they sound very much like what's become the traditional Sonic ballad... as performed by Superchunk of "10,000 Fireflies" fame. It's not good or bad, just something I noticed and was slightly startled by.

But we did knock three points off up there, so what are they for? The inexplicable decision to use the exact same musical diddy for every single level on a given world. (In the original games, we'd call these Acts within a Zone, but they now behave much more like Mario levels in a world.)

Why is this a bad thing, you might ask? That's how the original Sonic did it. That's mostly how Sonic 2 did it. Sonic Adventure did it that way, too. So, what's the problem?

Well, first of all, the little remixes in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles make those among my favorite OSTs to just listen to -- but second of all, when the games above did this, it wasn't much of a problem. Sonic and Sonic 2 had three- and two-Act Zones with each Act designed to be completable in 29 seconds. Meanwhile, Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles both feature two-act Zones with each Act designed to be completable in 59 seconds. The designers were more concerned with how repetitive the music was in this case than with previous games, and they were again less concerned in Sonic Adventure and its ilk, where "Zones" were all one-Act and would only be revisited by other characters; presumably hours, days, or even weeks later.

These decisions make sense, right? Of course they do. But the decision to opt for only one musical track per world is a bit more crushing in Sonic Colors, where each world has seven levels. And not all short levels, either. Let me stress: I liked each individual track, but by the end of the world I was invariably sick of it, and I really can't imagine what the justification was here. Is it supposed to be okay because you can skip between worlds? I can easily do a level of Tropical Resort and then hop over to Asteroid Coaster? Nice try, but that's probably a bad idea. There's a very definite difficulty difference between the worlds that will give you whiplash.

Buy: Here!

*And here's the asterisk you were waiting for: Sonic Colors has a water level. In fact, Aquarium Park is a full-on water world. Seven water levels. But this world, and these levels, are not the low point of Sonic Colors! They're actually perfectly good levels in their own rights. The key? I think it's partially that you can use the Yellow Wisps to "drill" through the water at impressive speeds and with relatively precise control, but mostly because he underwater element never feels like a punishment. You are very rarely "trapped" underwater, and I never drowned once. Sonic can also "swim" to some degree now by pressing the jump button rapidly. I also really enjoyed what being underwater did to the background music on these levels.

This entry was originally posted here, via Dreamwidth. Feel totally free to comment there using OpenID!

Tales of Vesperia: Flynn Scifo skit face icon dump

libekory — Sun, 29 May 2011 07:08:31 GMT

So, yeah, this took approximately forever! Flynn's blond hair doesn't separate easily from the green background, so I had to... paint over it... and then kind of recolor the background yellowish so it'd look like hair outlines. :D I could have capped these from my own copy of PS3!ToV, but... I don't really know how to capture video from the PS3. ;;;;; So I had to resort to a 720p playthrough on youtube.

1-16 are from skits where Flynn's skit face is larger (like one where he's just talking to Raven), so they're extra-awesome. I want to get bigger versions of the others but they're still nice to have available, yeah? :D

Preview:


1	2	3	4	5

6	7	8	9	10

11	12	13	14	15

16	17	18	19	20

21	22	23	24	25

26	27	28	29	30

31	32	33	34	35

Credit: rainfall / libekory

This entry was originally posted here, via Dreamwidth. Feel totally free to comment there using OpenID!

Tales of Vesperia: First Strike

libekory — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 18:56:07 GMT

To list all the reasons why I cannot take this movie as canon would make a very long entry all on its own, but a moment ago one small, yet crucial point crystallized for me. Allow me to share.

Timeline problems aside -- and First Strike has many of them -- this story is meant to take place at the beginning of Yuri's career with the Imperial Knights and to demonstrate why he left them. We already know why in canon (Yuri explains that having to work inside the system meant having to be a part of and accept what was wrong with the system, which he couldn't bear), but this is a defining moment in Yuri's character arc.

Only, it's not really, because aside from not being in the Knights anymore at the end of the movie, Yuri doesn't develop at all.

At the beginning of the movie, we should have seen a Yuri who was wide-eyed and idealistic -- proud to be an Imperial Knight, proud to have fulfilled the dream he and Flynn shared as children. He was still a bit sloppy (Flynn fondly recalls in-game at one point that Yuri used to track muddy footprints into the room they shared as cadets), but one thing we say about Yuri over and over again during Tales of Vesperia is that he's nothing like an Imperial Knight. And Yuri protests, with some exasperation, "Is it really so hard for everyone to believe I used to be a knight?"

Thematically, the movie should have shown what Yuri was like back then, when he was younger and more innocent.

Now, I'm not saying that Yuri in the Imperial Knights should have necessarily been all that much more like Flynn -- but should he have been excited to be a Knight? Yes. Should he have had a lot of respect for people like Alexei and Niren, good knights? (Yeah, I know Alexei wasn't a good guy in the movie. That's another complaint I have.) Yes. There should have been something here for us to contrast with Yuri's later cynicism. Not because characters in prequels should always "grow into" their present-day selves, I don't even like that trope -- but because this was a time period when Yuri changed, a lot, according to game canon.

But First Strike doesn't do any of that. The Yuri we meet at the beginning of it is already belligerent, already incredibly uninspired by speeches on the purpose of the Knights, already not taking his duties even remotely seriously. (I mean, he starts a bar fight, what was that about. Seriously: what was it about? I've only seen the movie once.) He has so little respect for the uniform he's earned that Flynn demands to know why he's in the Knights at all. (Which is, like, a giant plot hole all by itself; but First Strike Flynn seems to suffer from intermittent amnesia, so oh well.)

The point is: Yuri is already cynical. He's already a big, cynical troll, sarcastic about his role as an Imperial Knight, dismissive of Flynn and everyone else. Leaving the Knights at the end of the movie doesn't happen as a result of character growth but because a captain he only met and grew attached to over the course of the movie died. And I mean, it could have been because of the corruption that led to the death -- because Alexei denied them the backup they needed, or because the whole incident they went to investigate had been caused by an arrogant noble (frankly, it should have been because of Alexei, he's full of wacky blastia experiments) -- but it wasn't. It was very plainly because Yuri just thought the Knights wouldn't be the same without Niren in their midst, and Yuri leaves them amiably, waving a cheerful goodbye to Flynn.

Which is another problem -- in the game, it seems very clear that Yuri leaving the Knights caused a schism between himself and Flynn. They grew apart, and it's really only over the course of the game that they come back together again. In the movie, it's more like Yuri leaving the Knights and the experiences they had together right before it created their friendship, and you're left wondering at what point they started ruining it.

I don't know why all of this happened, but I'm willing to bet it's at least partly because Yuri consistently ranks up there in Namco's character popularity polls. IIRC, he's the most popular protagonist they've ever had, and one of the most popular characters, period. So, when the time came to make a movie, no one really wanted to mess with that. No one wanted to try and write a different kind of Yuri, whom the audiences might not enjoy as much as they'd enjoyed the Yuri in the game. Unfortunately, the end result is a movie that isn't really about that guy; it's about a pale imitation of him with a similar character design and the same voice actor. That's what happens when you hire a writer to do your screenplay who was not involved with the original product in any way, and apparently has no real understanding of what makes the characters interesting, let alone beloved.

And really, the movie is barely about even the pale imitation of Yuri; it does much more for the stories of Repede and Flynn, albeit not necessarily good things. (Crazy question. Why does Flynn need a Freudian excuse for wanting to work within the system? Yuri's the anarchist, and anarchy is the thing that doesn't come naturally to people. If anyone needs a Freudian excuse, it's Yuri. Also, even assuming Flynn's excuse for the mind-boggling desire to uphold the law IS that his dad died disobeying orders, it seems like the movie wants him to have come to terms with that -- so why is he still so by the book in the game...?)

See, it's things like this that kept me from enjoying the movie: I don't hate it for being noncanon, it's just that the way in which it is noncanon was -- at best -- thoroughly uninteresting to me.

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Merry Christmas, Apa!

libekory — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 07:15:48 GMT

omgomgomg

I finished itttt. I HOPE YOU LIKE IT. I also submitted it for kink_bingo, nervously, because it's not for another writing comm and it's brand-new as of like ten minutes ago but what if I'm still doing it wrong aaaah.

Fair warning before anyone but Apa clicks: that up there is some Alexei/Flynn mind control dubcon. Eheheheh. I'm so proud of it, actually, like. Ridiculously proud. DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T REACHED THE SHRINE OF BACTION YET!

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So, this is my life's story -- cut for time

libekory — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 19:54:04 GMT

Gender politics! You've been warned.

So, I'm I guess what you'd call a cisgender(?) lesbian. I genuinely don't like that word, but I'm a believer in the power of labeling, especially after one particular experience in college.

The experience: I took an Interpersonal Communications class. Our teacher was very well-intentioned and tried to be inclusive and tried to avoid labeling. She would ask every now and then whether or not something she'd said was okay, sort of checking with the class's PC police. But there was still a sort of pervasive assumption that I'd gotten used to: everyone in this class is white (I'd say I was in a class with maybe five non-white students for the entirety of my post-elementary scholastic career; you go, Colorado :\), everyone in this class is straight, everyone in this class is cisgender, the whole nine yards. We talked about anything else in kind of a footnote-y way -- academically, if you'll pardon the pun. It was hard to put my finger on, but it made me uncomfortable and I didn't feel like I could be myself, honestly, in response to any of the vague ideal-mate/relationship/whatever questions.

And then I had one class with a substitute, the other Interpersonal Communications teacher, and it was the strangest breath-of-fresh-air experience ever.

He was white and middle-aged. He was a he. He seemed to be teaching his classes in the more traditional way for Colorado -- high on theory and low on practical application. I don't think I could have predicted that I would have felt more comfortable in his class, but he managed it, and he managed it by doing something I'd never experienced before:

He labeled. The second he started talking about relationship dynamics, he told us that his example was a heterosexual couple -- and he kept saying heterosexual. He must have said it about eighty times during that lecture. Specifying, always, that his example couple was heterosexual, in a heterosexual marriage. It was so simple, so easy, and it made me feel so much less marginalized and "other".

Because he made it so that heterosexual was not the default: it was not the assumption, it was not "normal", it was clearly labeled and stated over and over again throughout the course of his lecture. And I had never realized how much it was hurting me, each time our regular professor would start out using gender-neutral language only to reveal, possibly halfway through class, that she was making heterosexual assumptions.

I think she expected us to all raise our hands if we weren't heterosexual and protest. I think she wanted to believe her classroom was safe enough for that.

I don't think she had any idea how difficult that is to do in a room full of strangers you'll have to sit with for the next four months.

And for the record, I did try to help her at the end of the semester. I wrote a long, detailed explanation on my anonymous feedback card, where it always asks if there's anything that could have been done to improve the class. She probably knew it was me, but it doesn't matter now that I never have to see her again, you know? And even so, it took a lot of nerve for me to write that out.

Anyway.

Back to the subject at hand: I feel like a girl. I always have.

But, just because I feel like a girl, doesn't mean I don't have issues with what that means in our society.

I grew up playing with Barbie and My Little Pony. I also grew up playing with Ninja Turtle action figures and dinosaurs. (I loved the action figures that came out for Jurassic Park; they were so cool and fierce-looking!) I was never really interested in G.I. Joe, though; I think I saw them as a less-interesting version of Barbie, possibly because their uniforms were hard plastic and possibly because they were in uniforms to begin with. (I was never, ever interested in playing "house" or in baby dolls; I did enjoy stuffed animals.)

Anyway.

As a little girl, I did two things that I think are important, gender-role-wise. The first was that I decided my Barbies could rescue themselves from the peril I put them in. (Not too unusual, I imagine; there were never enough Ken dolls to go around even if you were a fan, and I was not.) The second was that I decided, at one point or another, that Donatello was a girl.

I don't know if it was the name (there's an episode where Donatello gets accepted to an impressive graduate program, as "Donna Tello") or the purple. I know I didn't really think Donatello was a girl, but I felt like he ought to have been. Or, more specifically: there ought to have been a girl.

This didn't automatically make Donatello my favorite turtle, either; I've always waffled a little between Raphael and Leonardo. (For the record, I do not waffle when Raphael is an angry little angstmonger, as in the live-action 90's movies and the newer cartoons. I liked the relatively-lighthearted, snarky Raphael. I never thought there was any real question about who should be The Leader, even when they did episodes wherein Leonardo was too much of a boy scout and got in trouble for it. Perhaps this is related to my love for Tales of Vesperia's Flynn.)

And it definitely wasn't that I didn't like April O'Neil or rejected her as a damsel, etc. I thought April was very well-handled, most of the time; the show used her curiosity and determination to its advantage, and she was rarely just the damsel in distress -- even before the newer incarnations decided she needed to be a brilliant scientist or a ninja herself. (Side note: I always thought April was pushing thirty, in the original cartoons. She was a grownup. (I mean, she has her own apartment. It's even more obvious if you compare her to Irma: there's just no way these are supposed to be teenagers.) What is with our need, these days, to age everyone down? See also: Peter Parker, who went from being a friggin professor to being a high school student. What?)

But April wasn't enough for me. I was, even at like ten years old, very conscious of the gender disparity and I wanted more girls in my favorite show -- and more girls doing different things, too.

In summation: I feel like a girl, but I'm often conscious that there isn't enough space in the stereotypical notion of "girl" for who I am. I played with so-called boys' toys, too. And sometimes I wonder how many people out there who don't feel like girls or don't feel like boys would be more comfortable with their physical sex if society didn't keep cramming such a narrow idea of what "boy" and "girl" mean down our throats.

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Tales of Vesperia PS3: Extra Zaphias scene

libekory — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 20:08:25 GMT

This scene is one of several that takes place in Zaphias, if you return there after the events at after Aurnion. In Kouli's guide, it's the extra event that occurs when you "check the fountain" in the Lower Quarter.

As before: When we go back through the game, I'll add better descriptions of what's going on during this scene. I was too preoccupied on my pass through it copying down all the dialogue, and I know I missed out on the action. :(

Also, note that Hanks drove me a little bit crazy in this scene because he doesn't use nouns. He uses pronouns. It's clear if you squint for a while who he's talking about where, because of context and his word use, but I slotted in names to make things a little easier on you!

Thank you forever to kupoke, who helped me with a couple of the tricky lines and reassured me about everything else.

The WHOLE PARTY is gazing at the fountain in the Lower Quarter.

YURI: Looks like everything's still okay here...

ESTELLE: But soon enough this blastia, too, will stop working...

HANKS: Yuri, if that's you there, speak up!

YURI: Damn... An annoying old man's found me!

HANKS comes into view, followed by TED and also SOME GUY who is with them all the time but not good enough for a name.

HANKS: Well, I'd hate to be called annoying... Ahh, and Flynn's come back with you?

FLYNN: It's been too long, sir¹.

HANKS: Stiff and formal as ever, I see. This is your home, boy! Loosen up a little.

YURI: That's not what you tell me, old man......

TED: Hey, Yuri. You know that guy who made off with the aque blastia core? He's hanging around the Royal Quarter!

YURI: Oh, really. What's he want with those aristocratic guys?

FLYNN: I'm sure the Knights will handle this.

TED: Maybe, but they won't be fast enough. And I heard it's dangerous to walk around after dark.

YURI: Heard from who?

SOME GUY: Hey, these days we're all trying to make nice with the people in the Royal Quarter. Besides, she was a pretty girl.

YURI: Uh-huh. Man, now you guys have me worried.

TED: Th-- that's enough talk! Yuri, and Flynn, you too. Come with me to the Royal Quarter, just for a second.

YURI: Can't be helped... Okay.

FLYNN: We'll be right back, everyone.

YURI, FLYNN, and REPEDE run off with TED.

RAVEN: Well, of course Flynn² is a knight, but I have to say it's nice to see our young Yuri actually taking care of someone else like this.

HANKS: It's because he grew up on these streets. For him, everyone here is like family. He won't forgive anyone who hurts a member of that family. But since Flynn's here beside him, and family's important to him, too, Yuri's also got to look after him.³ That's the sort of guy he is.

RITA: I wonder what kind of screwy karma would have a guy like that fighting to save the world from the Adephagos.

SOME GUY: No kidding. Just the idea of Yuri saving the world kind of makes me want to laugh.

HANKS: Oh, he isn't fighting to save the world. Everything that damn fool's ever done has been nothing more than an extension of his desire to save his family. Or to try and keep Flynn alive.⁴

ESTELLE: Oh...

ESTELLE gets a "..." emote.

RAVEN: So, in other words, he's sweetly selfish.

JUDITH: Selfish, really? But that's a perfectly normal way to feel. "I'll save the world for the sake of the faceless throng..." Well, I could never say something so scary.

RITA: You might have a point, there.

TED, another child (possibly the Royal Quarter girl?), YURI, FLYNN, and REPEDE return, although they stay on the other side of the fountain for now.

TED: So that's it. Hey, go and get back the core that was taken from the Royal Quarter, too!

YURI: Guess there's no choice... All right, maybe after we've beaten up those monsters that crawled out of the sky.

FLYNN: I'll ask any knights we can spare to look into it as well.

TED: Really?! All right! That's the Yuri and Flynn I know!

RITA: Seems like that sort of need to protect their families really does just come naturally to those two.

YURI: What're you guys whispering about over there?

ESTELLE: I'm a little bit glad they're not like this all the time.

YURI: ...? You know what, I don't wanna know. Let's get out of here.

YURI and FLYNN (and REPEDE, presumably) exit, stage right.

KAROL: Family, huh.....?

EVERYONE but RAVEN gets "..." emotes.

Footnotes:
¹ "Hanks-san" is what Flynn uses here to address Hanks.
² "Flynn-kun". I'd have to play back through the game to be 100% sure, but I feel like this might be the only time Raven calls him "Flynn-kun" instead of "Flynn-chan" or just "Flynn". I think it's meant to be just a little more polish, since we're talking about Flynn as a knight.
³ The literal line is something more like, "On the other hand, because his partner, who also considers family important, is here, he's also going to look after that guy." Bleh. USE NAMES, HANKS. IT'S SO MUCH EASIER THAT WAY. (And, for shippers, this is the same use of "aite", partner, that the innkeeper used to talk about Patty as being "beside" Yuri in my last translation.)
⁴ Again, I put names in here where there are only pronouns; throughout Hanks's dialogue, Yuri is "aitsu" and Flynn is "soitsu".

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DW writing journal + Vesperia 'fic + general update

libekory — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 09:35:17 GMT

My Dreamwidth writing community, rainfalling, is now up and running; and, oh yeah, I wrote a Vesperia thing. Playful D/s kink going on there, Yuri/Flynn, annnnd porn. Because my first fic for a new fandom is always, always porn. Idk why either, it just seems to happen!

The "fountain" scene mentioned in a previous entry will be posted eventually; I've actually got it mostly done, just two lines I'm not happy with. (And something I didn't copy down correctly, which is always... frustrating.)

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Tales of Vesperia PS3: Patty's "Amazing Chef" title scene

libekory — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 01:09:54 GMT

In order to get this scene, you'll first need to:

cook at least 600 times (with anyone) and MASTER three recipes with Patty
stop in at Nordopolica at some point after getting your "airship" and talk to the flopsweating young man near Fortune's Market.
head to Zaphias after Flynn joins the party permanently and stop in at the inn to talk to the woman who behind the counter

When we go back through the game, I'll add -- better descriptions of what's going on during this scene. I was too preoccupied on my pass through it copying down all the dialogue, and I know I missed out on the action. :(

YURI, FLYNN, REPEDE, and PATTY talk to the female INNKEEPER, who has been taking care of Yuri like a mother for years now. (Why doesn't she have a name. :( )

INNKEEPER: Oh, my! If it isn't Yuri. Welcome back!

FLYNN: It's been too long, Ma'am.

INNKEEPER: Goodness, and Flynn too! Welcome, everyone. Flynn, why haven't you shown up before now? Well, for tonight, at least, you'll have to lay down your arms.¹

PATTY: If you're going to cook, let me help, too!

INNKEEPER: Oh, are you sure about that, young lady?

PATTY: As you'll soon see, cooking is my forte. Plus, I'd love to learn all of Yuri's favorite flavors!

INNKEEPER: Teehee, so that's why you're offering your help.

PATTY: Just leave it to me! I'll be useful for sure!

INNKEEPER: Recently, some self-styled "best chef in the world" stayed with us for a few days and left his cook coat² here. Why don't you put it on so that you don't get those nice clothes dirty?

Fade to black. When we come back, YURI and FLYNN are seated at a table and REPEDE sits sedately nearby. PATTY has changed into her Cook Coat costume, complete with chef's hat accessory.

FLYNN: Patty's clothes, I feel like I've seen the design somewhere before...

YURI: That Wonder Whatchamacallit, right? What a weirdo.

INNKEEPER: Young lady, you really are a good cook. This was a wonderful idea.

PATTY: Do you mean it?! Well, once I'm Yuri's wife, I'll need to make a lot of delicious food, so I'm going to get even better!

INNKEEPER: Ohh, it's for Yuri's sake? With a level-headed girl like you beside him, I would finally be able to relax.

PATTY: I'm honored by your approval, Misses... Would you still feel the same way even if I was a pirate?³

INNKEEPER: In the Lower Quarter, you can't worry about when Yuri is next going to show up. Because Yuri will do whatever he wants and go wherever he pleases.

PATTY: Well, once Yuri's with me, we'll be out on the open sea, treasure-hunting, forever and ever!

FLYNN gets an amused \|/ emote in response to this.

YURI: And just what are you smiling about.

FLYNN: No, it's nothing. Your girlfriend⁴ is just so... spirited.

REPEDE: Woof!

YURI: Hey, Patty! Flynn and Repede say they want you to go with them instead.

FLYNN: Yuri, you can't just...!

PATTY: Oho. It's so hard to be popular...

PATTY receives the AMAZING CHEF title.

Footnotes:
¹ By which I'm pretty sure she means let down his hair, relax, unwind. Etc.
² "Cook Coat" is in katakana. I bet the localization will call it something better someday. ♥
³ Patty specifically wants to know if it's okay for her to be in the innkeeper's "house", e.g. family. CAN I BE YOUR DAUGHTER-IN-LAW, YURI'S-NOT-QUITE-MOM?
⁴ Flynn says kanojo, which anyone remotely familiar with Japanese will tell you could be "she" OR "girlfriend", but given Yuri's response, I think it's safe to say he, at least, interpreted it like this. Also, Flynn uses the most adorable verb to describe Patty that involves kind of... flourishing about. I did the best I could in English. ♥

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Tales of Vesperia PS3: Party member!Flynn

libekory — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 01:04:27 GMT

Aselia has a great list up of Flynn's new skills and artes; you can compare them to his Xbox 360 artes, if you'd like. (I've heard that his speed was also improved greatly in the PS3 version, but during the actual battles he and Yuri had in the Xbox version, I was too distracted by their battle dialogue to notice anything Flynn was doing physically.)

The second I had Flynn available to me, though, I switched him into my party and then never removed him again. Below the cut, my thoughts on his AI and the adorable quirks in it.

Flynn Scifo, in the party

1. His cooking.

As the Xbox version already made clear (enter the cooking contest, if you aren't aware), Flynn is -- a not-very-good cook. Or, more accurately, an extremely creative and... chaotic cook. In the PS3 version, both he and Patty, the other new party member, have new recipes they can teach you by cooking the correct recipes: in Flynn's case, he'll turn Cream Stew into Beef Stew and "Hamburger" (Salisbury Steak, in the English) into "Steak".

As an interesting wrinkle: Flynn learned both of these recipes for me without earning even a single star on the original recipes in question. (Patty, on the other hand, had to get three stars on her recipes before she taught us her variations.) I like this, because it makes a lot of sense for the guy who can't seem to help experimenting every time he gets near a stove to learn his new recipes instantly.

This is a skit we haven't actually earned yet in the PS3 version; probably because I only ever made Flynn cook to learn those recipes and he learned them on about his fourth or fifth try, for me.

2. His skills.

Flynn has a truly ludicrous number of support skills. (Which isn't to say just the skills labeled support.) I figure this is sort of like the polar opposite of Yuri's various "lone wolf" skills -- Flynn is like the ultimate team player. He can: take half the damage, half the TP consumption, increase cast speed, increase Overlimit Gauge fill speed, and automatically heal status effects for party members who are near him in battle. No wonder everyone admires him so much. (And they do.)

3. His artes.

Flynn shares some of Yuri's artes. (Check the list!) Among them, Guardian Field, which is a native arte for him instead of an altered arte as for Yuri. (The two of them actually have a skit where they argue about which version of the arte is better, and that skit needs translating SO BADLY.) But Flynn does not share Yuri's inability to use magic, as you might have noticed from the Xbox version: he has several powerful light-element spells, and he can also use healing artes, e.g. First Aid and Guardian Field and also an altered arte, Cure, which heals 75% HP for a single target.

4. His AI.

Note: Flynn's default settings on the default strategy are to target the highest-level enemy in a group and to use items and TP however he likes. (IIRC: He's also set to use 75% of his TP, which I think is typical.)

Anyone who has had Yuri and Repede in the party at the same time will have noticed that Yuri and Repede have a certain accord: Repede will always beat other party members to use items on Yuri to cure his status effects and Yuri will almost always use his Guardian Field to run over and heal Repede.

Well, Flynn and Yuri have this same accord. To my untrained eyes, it seems a lot like Flynn's AI prioritizes Yuri. I had him set to heal throughout my game, and when he decided it was time to heal -- more on this in a moment -- Yuri was always his first target, even if someone else had less HP. First Aid, Guardian Field if he's low on HP too, and Cure if he thinks Yuri has a slightly bigger papercut. Like Estelle, Flynn is prone to overhealing, but because he only has single-target heals available, his overhealing is slightly less noticeable. However...

In my game, Flynn was still a real champ at using up his TP.

I know what you're thinking: why didn't I set him to consume less of it? If Rita is set to use 75% of her TP, she'll just stop completely when she reaches 25% and stand there. (This is if you have her set to not use items, or if she's already used up all your Orange Gels.) Why didn't I just set Flynn to conserve his TP, too?

Well, I did. I set Flynn to use only half of his TP. And reliably, he would use the first half of it for attacks, and then use up the second half of it healing. Usually, healing Yuri.

Flynn is also extremely watchful when it comes to Yuri's HP and TP -- and yes, I did actually turn off his item use! I turned it off completely. And Flynn ignored me, and kept trying to toss Lemon Gels and Pineapple Gels at Yuri. (After I'd tell him no several times in a row, he downgraded it to Apple Gels and Orange Gels.) He wasn't supposed to be using items at all, but something inside his little AI brain went: "Look at Yuri's TP! Are you all right, Yuri? Have an Orange Gel!" (I'm sure Rita was pissy about this. Those are her Orange Gels!)

So, yes. It's worth mentioning that I only really noticed these particular quirks when I was deep in the Telescopic Graveyard and underleveled for the challenges I was facing; also, it's worth mentioning that I had Estelle in the party, too, and both of them set to heal.

So. What the hell, Flynn? But I kept him where he was, doing what he was doing, because Flynn was an extremely useful healer. Cure is bigger than First Aid by quite a bit, but a faster cast than Nightingale or Healing Circle, so Flynn can get to people before Estelle.

(Also, I had the most amazing amount of difficulty with Estelle's AI in this game, difficulty it seems like no one with an Xbox version had, so it's possible that her AI was made slightly less efficient so as to make Flynn more useful. Or, again, maybe it's just that she was under a lot more strain in the Telescopic Graveyard. I'M NOT SURE. All I know is that I was really glad of Flynn's help in many battles. Even if his help involved ignoring orders. :( But I guess Flynn always loses his head a little when Yuri is involved.)

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ALSO: Donkey Kong Country Returns

libekory — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 00:38:24 GMT

It's been a couple of days, but my memory is that the controls were comfortably loose. My only complaint -- I manned Diddy -- is that I wish there were a way, in the nunchuck control system, to differentiate between attempts to hold down B for running purposes and attempts to climb up on Donkey Kong's back. :( You have to hold up on the D-pad to do it in the wiimote control system, and it is REALLY NICE not to just climb up on Donkey Kong every time I try to take a running jump, grab onto a vine, grab onto a barrel, etc.

Otherwise: gorgeous game, especially the silhouette level we saw, and very true to the spirit. I actually liked the blowing aspect I've heard complaints about, I thought it was cute and restful. But I do understand why some people might feel it detracts from the manic pace of the levels in general.

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Epic Mickey, Hour 1

libekory — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 00:29:39 GMT

Extremely pretty. Just, extremely, extremely pretty.

Quick confession: I've got a torrid history with Mickey Mouse games. I've played three, all sidescrolling platformers -- The Magical Quest, Starring Mickey Mouse (two-player competitive, with players taking turns with identical Mickeys in a Mario-and-Luigi fashion), Disney's Magical Quest (two-player cooperative with Minnie Mouse as the second player, in the version I played), and Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse. I remember the second two games as being MUCH shorter than the first one, but I enjoyed all three, and that's what I've got under my belt to vaguely compare Mickey experiences.

We start out in Epic Mickey with the villain from The Mad Doctor, a fantastically-creepy Mickey Mouse cartoon that was also made into the second level of Mickey Mania. I was actually a little bit disappointed that it was in color because I thought I remembered the Mickey Mania level as being in black and white but uh yeah. I checked out a YouTube video and it turns out my memories of SEGA Genesis-era platformers are a lot kinder than they should be. SOME of Mickey Mania's levels were in black and white, but The Mad Doctor was not one of them, nor was it particularly creatively-handled.

So far, my favorite parts of the game are its "cut scene" story segments. They're -- kind of like watercolor...? plus collage...? Like you might expect of a children's storybook, almost. Kind of hard to describe. And all the characters have "voices", but these voices are limited to expressive noises. It's not Zelda-like noises, or Okami-like noises, just... noises.

Also: we found a projector and went into it and Mickey found himself in the "Mickey and the Beanstalk" cartoon, sort of. This level is 2D, unlike the Mad Doctor sequence, and it has cute projector film animated at the edges. I'm watching Kay bounce around on springy lamps and ride beds being lifted around by vines to get to higher areas. Looks like the platforming is a wee bit imprecise, but she's also new at the game. (She's reached another projector at the top of the area now that is taking her to "Slalom". Back in a 3D area again.) ...This is weird!

If that's all we see of Mickey and the Beanstalk, it was still kind of an interesting little visual excursion, and I was thinking, probably more faithful to the cartoon than the Mickey Mania version I barely remember. (See, I can be taught!)

One other item of weirdness for me at least is the Gremlins. I vaguuurely remember characters that look like them but I thought they were from, like. Bugs Bunny cartoons. (They also look like taller cousins to the alien that showed up in late seasons of the Flintstones.)

The paint mechanic is interesting; I'll admit I was hoping we'd be able to paint EVERYTHING and get a reaction, bu t that's never how videogames work. And the wiimote is always a little bit frustratingly imprecise. (I wonder if Wii motion plus would help -- we don't have it.) I kind of love the way you can either defeat enemies with the "Thinner" or befriend them with the "Paint". Both options require equal skill, but befriended enemies will defend you until they take enough damage. (It's a visually-interesting thing to watch, where the paint you sprayed on them comes off with each hit they take.) And, of course, you can also spin attack or bounce on them repeatedly to squash them that way.

...Cannot really get over the concept of Mickey Mouse having a "spin attack"...

Also, you can apparently use "guardian wisps" in combat too, and... idk. Requires more thinking on, later. We bought our copy but I'd say it's at least worth a rent. See what you think!

This entry was originally posted at here, via Dreamwidth. Feel totally free to comment there using OpenID!

Names have been changed to protect the innocent

libekory — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 19:56:29 GMT

I've only been accused of disliking characters a few times in my 'career' as a fanfic writer. One event in particular sticks out in my mind today, so! I'm going to ramble about it. This is what LJs are for, right? :D

I wrote a truly terrible piece of -- it was a thing. I had written it in a manic glee, because it was very mean to the reader. It was het disguised as slash and kind of nonconsensual and all a big dream sequence anyway. When I decided I wanted someone to MST something I'd written, this... thing sprang readily to mind. I sent it off and waited in eager anticipation for the spasms from the MSTer's version of Mike, Tom, and Crow.

And waited, and waited.

When the MSTer was finally done with it, it wasn't quite what I'd expected -- the characters seemed kind of strained as they mocked my work. And the characters quickly decided I must really, really hate one of the characters I'd written about. Let's call her Sally.

I don't remember exactly how, but I know I found an excuse to email the MSTer and just... compliment them on the MST... and assure them that I didn't hate Sally.

The MSTer wrote back, with what he called relief, and related that he'd been surprised by the piece's treatment of Sally, given that I'd previously expressed admiration for how unbiased (in other words, free of dislike for any of the characters) his MSTings were. I'd very recently been accused in a review of hating another character -- let's call him Ted -- so I wrote back cheerfully that I'd heard that before.

The MSTer suggested, in what I'm sure he meant to be a gentle sort of way, that maybe I should reexamine the way I wrote characters, if it wasn't just him thinking I hated people I didn't.

Now. Here's the thing. I've literally never been accused of disliking Sally before. And if I'd been more honest and less eager to laugh with him at myself, I would have mentioned that the thing with Ted had been definitely, definitely unrelated. (He's just dead for a very important plot point before one of my fanfics start.) In fact, in all my years of writing for the fandom, I'd only ever been told that my stories had made readers LIKE Sally more. But it would be years before I really understood our misunderstanding.

See, Sally was -- as you might have guessed -- female. I wrote 90% slash back in the day, and I wrote a pairing that involved Bill and James. Sally was Bill's canon girlfriend. Fans of the Bill/James pairing hate Sally as a general rule and love Bill and James. Bill and James can do no wrong; Sally can do no right.

And that's the audience I was writing for.

I should make something clear: the MSTer -- as well as his versions of Mike, Tom, and Crow -- did not come out the other end of my fanfic hating Sally: they came out of it hating Bill. Their comments were largely directed at what a total asshole Bill was being to Sally, and apparently they decided that Bill's feelings towards Sally must be my feelings towards Sally.

But that wasn't it at all. I was deliberately jettisoning some of the surplus love I knew my readers had for Bill so that they would be forced, largely against their will, to feel sympathy for Sally. I have never, ever written anything wherein the failure of the Bill/Sally relationship was Sally's fault. I've always written it as Bill's fault, Bill's failing, Bill's dishonesty -- both with her and with himself.

So, yeah. I wasn't actually doing anything bad to Sally, but I was making Bill into an enormous tool without really noticing it, and no one had ever called me on it before. That's how well my writing fit my readers.

I kind of wish I could explain all of this to the MSTer, but it's been many years since his last email to me left me feeling confused and insecure and a little bit hurt. But it's kind of funny, as-is. He thought the intense dislike he felt for Bill and the intense sympathy he felt for Sally was an accident; really, it's just proof that my writing was completely effective.

Side note: I am not saying I was an evil genius, tapping the vein in precisely that way; oh no. All of this was completely unconscious. It's just how I learned to write, after years in slash-centric fandoms when dealing with one of the boy's canon girlfriends. And possibly as a response to the general archetype that girlfriend tended to be -- she's often very sweet and self-sacrificing, so writing her as a total victim in the breakup comes somewhat naturally?

There are no betas here

libekory — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 19:00:33 GMT

Shortest Vesperia-related post EVER:

Can we all stop calling the XBox 360 version a released beta? Because, I mean. It's not. A released beta game is a game released with severe performance issues. (See: Final Fantasy XIV.) The XBox 360 version of Tales of Vesperia is completely 100% finished. That we explore some things in the PS3 port that weren't quite as thoroughly explored in the original 360 game does not make the 360 version a beta that Namco should be ashamed to have ever dared releasing.

I think the term you guys may be looking for is "theater cut" versus "director's cut". Sometimes the PS3 additions may be things that would have made it into the 360 version if not for time constraints; sometimes they're just deliberate additions to make the PS3 port shinier and give people a reason to pick it up. (Say, the Repede mini-game that uses the Overdrive dolls. If you read the doll descriptions in the 360 version, they certainly SOUND like they could be racing, but it's totally possible that this game was only conceptualized so that we could put "new mini-games!" on the back of the PS3 box.) (Also the eight million new costumes that are only available as DLC anyway, or the awesomely-tweaked attachment system.)

The biggest addition is obviously Flynn; 60% more Flynn than previously advertised! So he's in your party and there are skits and other scenes, as the game progresses, where characters are able to ask him how he feels about Yuri and what Yuri's done. I think the scene before Zaphias where this crystallizes and Flynn gives us a speech about how he feels about Yuri and what Yuri's done makes perfect sense, and yes, does even make sense as a PS3 exclusive. Characterization wise, you could say this is a decision he does come to in the 360 version as well, but being prodded about it by the party and being witness to the things Yuri does -- I think it makes sense if that helps Flynn get there FASTER.

Like, you could easily sell me on this being a private resolution in the 360 version that Flynn never actually tells Yuri about, or tells him about a year or two down the line.

Vesperia is a subtle game and Flynn wasn't as big a player in the 360 version. Doesn't anyone think it would've been a little bit jarring to have one of your few scenes in the game with Flynn be an anvilicious scene where he talks at length about his feelings and essentially reverses all the opinions he's had up until this point with, in the XBox version, literally no warning?

No?

Bueller?

And now for something completely different

libekory — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 20:37:13 GMT

Taking a break from previous Vesperia postings to just note:

Ranma 1/2. There is a minor, recurring plot detail in that one character, Ryouga, turns into a pig when splashed with cold water; this pig is the pet (dubbed "P-chan") of another character, Akane, and she changes in front of it, squishes it into her breasts, etc. Yet another character, Ranma, who is romantically interested in Akane, knows about this. He doesn't tell Akane.

Giant essays have been written exploring the reasons why. Ranma theoretically promises Ryouga he won't tell -- but he wasn't actually talking out loud OR to Ryouga at the time; he made the promise to a dog he thought was Ryouga. And how bound Ranma actually feels by this promise is a real subject of debate, since he starts to tell Akane about a hundred times and usually backs down not because he remembers that promise he made to Ryouga but for other, more self-involved reasons. (For example, Akane might in some way indicate that she thinks Ranma is stupider than her pet pig and squish P-chan into her cleavage; Ranma turns red a little, obviously has an impulsive moment of YOU KNOW WHAT, SHE DESERVES THIS!, and stalks out of the room.) Also, it would fit some of Rumiko Takahashi's other characterization if Ranma were holding it in partly from fear of what Akane would do to him for not telling her sooner. But either way, Ranma mostly just lies by omission and needles Ryouga about it, only very rarely taking an active role in keeping Akane in the dark.

So, if he feels like he promised something to Ryouga -- and he definitely felt like he owed Ryouga, because he IS responsible for Ryouga's curse -- it seems like he stopped feeling that way when Ryouga started sleeping in Akane's bed. Honor is very important to Ranma, but not this important, to judge by his own behavior.

But Ranma's behavior re: P-chan is not what I wanted to really discuss in this tiny, disconnected entry. XD What I really wanted to bring up is Soun, Akane's father.

Shortly after Ryouga's introduction both to the manga and the anime -- like, around the Rhythmic Gymnastics mini-arc -- there is a scene where he enters the Tendou bathroom in pig form and jumps into the bath, currently occupied by Soun Tendou. Akane's dad.

Soun is smoking at the time, and he watches Ryouga turn into a man and leave the bathroom with very little reaction. Clearly this scene is meant to indicate that Soun's life has become so weird that NOTHING FAZES HIM ANYMORE.

Set aside for a moment the matter of inconsistent characterization -- Takahashi clearly developed Soun as a man who cries over the increasing chaos of his life later on in the series, and unlike Kasumi, she did this late enough that the anime was not able to correct for it. (Kasumi's very first appearance in the manga is to state that Ranma, incoming potential fiancee, had better be older than her, because "younger men bore me". This is impossible to imagine Kasumi saying even two chapters later, so in the anime it's softened into something like, "I do hope he's older than me... younger men can be so -- young..." in an extremely fluffy voice.)

But seriously.

Soun knows?

Soun knows?

At the time this scene occurred, it's possible Soun wouldn't have recognized the pig as Akane's pet -- P-chan is still a fairly new addition to the household -- but he should have put it together later on. And this isn't even the last time Ryouga changes in Soun's bath water; he and Ranma burst in on Soun while he's bathing and have a fight that involves liberal amounts of hot and cold water and both of them changing form repeatedly.

I can't help feeling like the only explanation for the existence of this detail in the Ranmaverse is that Takahashi meant to resolve the P-chan issue much, much earlier on. She expected to wrap it up, possibly by the end of the tenth manga volume. At that point, Soun could have been a deadpan voice in the background of the hilarious reveal saying, "Oh. I thought you knew, Akane." Probably it would have been revealed that everyone but Akane has long-since figured this out -- Nabiki and Kasumi especially.

But we didn't go that route. The manga concludes without Akane ever realizing that Ryouga is P-chan, so we have this detail just... left hanging.

Soun, an otherwise protective father who wants Akane to marry Ranma, is aware that her pet piglet is really a fairly unstable naked man. And he does nothing.

Did I miss fandom giving him a hard time for this? It's true I haven't been in it for like a decade. XD

Don't worry, it'll be back to Vesperia next entry.

PS3 Tales of Vesperia pt 2

libekory — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 21:51:09 GMT

So, unedited has the translation of one of the extra PS3 scenes up on her journal now; it's got some serious spoilers but if you're at Zaude, you can totally go read.

I'm just going to note dorkily that Yuri can in fact wear the hairpins with the True Knight costume (and with the "Ponytail Lovers" costume); they're all pinned in at the base of the ponytail. It's funny, because Judith herself can't wear the hairpins with her ponytail, but...

~~Still holding out hope that we'll find some way to get the school uniform costumes and that the pins will be visible with Yuri's, since it involves him knotting his hair up in a kind of pretty way.~~

Other costume notes! The devil and angel accessories that belonged to Rita and Estelle are now also shareable, and they go like so:

Angel set (halo and fluffy white wings): Estelle, Flynn, Yuri (halo only), Raven (halo only)
Devil set (bat-like wings and a tail): Rita, Yuri (wings only, red), Judith (wings only, purple)

...I feel like I MUST be forgetting someone there, like Patty or Karol must also be able to wear the devil set, but...

I'll proooobably make more posts later. X3

By the way: the new ending sequence, with Flynn there, is. so. sweet.

That is all!

PS3 Tales of Vesperia

libekory — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 21:26:32 GMT

Important update:

Estelle has a veil accessory that she can wear in Tales of Vesperia. It's cute and white and a little bit bridal-looking.

In the PS3 version of Tales of Vesperia, it got a visual upgrade -- it's semi-transparent instead of opaque white, and you can see a faint pattern on it, too. But I just now realized that I can also equip it to other members of my party now!

Judith. Rita, whose veil is black and red and really cool-looking. Repede.

And, uh, Yuri.

That's it! The rest of my current party -- Karol, Flynn, and Patty -- are incapable of wearing the veil. But Yuri can wear it. And no, he didn't get Rita's black and red version. It's just... a bridal veil that sits on the back of his head. Awesome.

(Many of the accessories are now shared, although there are still accessories that only one person can wear -- but dude. This doesn't excuse Yuri and the veil.)

...Update the second: Yuri can also wear Judith's hairpins, but they don't show up normally. We're guessing they'd show up if he had his hair up, like he does in his delinquent school uniform. More on this situation as it develops.

Bleach 414

libekory — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:40:55 GMT

Warning: Lots and lots and LOTS of spoilers for the new chapter. Go get caught up before you read.

I play Gin, and I'll readily admit this whole thing threw me for a loop. I knew it was a possibility the whole time, of course, but I didn't quite see it coming. I'm still trying to rally.

For the record, I still think Rangiku is alive. Just getting that out there. I also think Aizen is going to live through this. We haven't seen his bankai yet, and... yeah. Nope. Not dying here. Gin is very possibly going to die here, but we'll see.

...It is an interesting thought that Aizen will have been the more trusting here, if we don't get any more twists, and I'm not sure that I trust that. A hand on the sword being the weakness of Aizen's Absolute Hypnosis will give it the same weakness as Tousen's bankai, after all.

And finally I'm just -- really wondering things. It's not that Gin betraying Aizen hasn't been one of our two obvious paths since forever. But... "Why now?" Gin makes it sound like he's looking forward to tracking down and killing their remaining enemies, but they have a LOT of remaining enemies still. Gin has made a point of sort of underestimating Ichigo, though; but also he's both tried to hurry Aizen along (with the "janitor") and tried to delay things (he blames it on Aizen's "naughtiness", but they come out miles from where they wanted to be).

...and what is it, really, that Gin wants to accomplish, in the end? He seems like he's interested in the Royal King, and the obvious idea is that he wants to be God himself, instead of a supporting player; but we'll see. The only thing at the moment that seems clear is that Gin is not just the snake eating whatever's tastiest: he waited decades to hear the weakness of Aizen's Absolute Hypnosis, so there must be SOMETHING he wants to accomplish. Does he plan to pry the Hougyoku out of Aizen's chest? Some line about how it's done "incubating" now, and thanks for that Aizen?

I like the line about the hole in the chest, though. I've always thought Gin would find Arrancar and Vizards and Hollows in general kind of gross, and this mocking line follows through on that.

It's just, you know, everything else that I've been wrong on.

But we'll see. There's lots and lots of other shoes that have yet to drop right now.

As for what my Gin-voice has to say about all of this -- well, he's a very easy-going little pup. He takes this revelation like he's taken all others: with a genial, vaguely apologetic shrug of his shoulders and a smile. "What?" he seems to say in the back of my mind. "I thought you knew this would happen. ♥"

Poor Shuuhei

libekory — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 22:25:57 GMT

--Pffft. So, "Turn Back the Pendulum" has been bothering myself and unedited for a while, to varying degrees.

BLEACH SPOILERS (and plot holes) TO FOLLOW. You have been warned!

(On the smallest scale: The rate at which Shinigami age. I'd always sort of figured your aging slowed down dramatically when your power matured, thereby explaining why Rukia and Renji age perfectly normally for ten years but don't look much older now than they did when they entered the Spirit Arts Academy 40 years ago. But then we get Gin, who shows all signs after the nine-year timeskip of being a perma-kid, like Hitsugaya, but who seems to be aging perfectly normally -- for a Shinigami -- in the present day. No matter how I logic it out, his aging has to have sped up to result in him being almost thirty in the present day.)

Then we started re-reading, and we noticed:

Isshin states that the Vizard/Visored (official spelling plz KT?!) are Shinigami who were banished for using illegal methods to gain the powers of Hollows.
- Okay, so Yama-jii is a dick, but this is just a mean lie to tell people. I mean, wtf. "Victims of illegal experiments by Urahara Kisuke" would be closer to the truth?
- You could argue that Urahara looks a little shifty when he replies, but really no more than usual. It's not a reaction shot, it's not him looking away in shame, nothing.
- Hiyori is pretty bitter about humans and Shinigami "hating" them, which you could take to imply that there's more to the story than Isshin's matter-of-fact analysis, but it'd make more sense for her to fixate on on the BETRAYAL if TBtP's events are true. I could easily see her bitterness, on the other hand, being because she was just trying to get stronger! All Shinigami want to be stronger, right? etc.

We're told that the reason why Urahara was banished was for his mod souls and making gigais like the one Rukia wore -- gigais that hide spiritual presence and eat it, taking away a Shinigami's powers.
- This doesn't need to have been the be-all, end-all of Urahara's illegal activities, but what he winds up actually getting banished for in TBtP isn't even his fault. After building up Urahara as such a Gray Hat and a morally dubious guy... he's essentially completely innocent of the "crime" that got him banished, and there's no mention of any other crimes.
- This is especially weird after what we established BEFORE the timeskip during TBtP: the Soul Society has a giant prison for, essentially, thought crimes. Not only should Urahara really have been locked up here, but -- so should Aizen, given that Shinji expresses such certainty that Aizen was fucked in the head. It doesn't look like people are given trials before they're thrown into the witch prison, so... (Also, Urahara's decision to release Mayuri, their most dangerous thought criminal, back out into the wild. Gray Hat again!)
- Now, granted, maybe Aizen could have wormed his way out of it -- but Shinji doesn't mention ever even considering this as an option.

It's really almost like KT intended Urahara to be more directly behind the Hollowfication experiments -- especially given this panel. I'll be blunt: the anime re-framed these silhouettes to make them Aizen, Gin, and Tousen, but Gin isn't tall enough to be the third figure here. If he and Aizen were standing side-by-side here, he would come up to about Aizen's waist. But whatever.

Moving on to the reason why I used that subject line. XD

Shuuhei breaks continuity.

It's all well and good to inform us that Shuuhei was a little kid, maybe 7 or 8, who met Kensei and decided that "69" was an awesome tattoo to put somewhere on his body.

But this would make him almost contemporary with Gin and Byakuya.

You know, the guys that become captains shortly after Shuuhei finishes up school.

(unedited: He failed the entrance exam a lot more than twice.)

Not only does this mean it took Shuuhei literally seventy years to follow up from first meeting Kensei to becoming a Shinigami, it might also make him the slowest aging of our entire younger generation. He is seriously giving Hitsugaya a run for his money here.

Oh, and he makes Yamamoto a liar. I thought there were only two dual-wield zanpakutou, Yamamoto! What do you call this?

One good thing: We've got all our Division captains, at least, and an almost guarantee that Isshin was the captain of the 10th prior to Hitsugaya (he disappeared 20 years ago, so it fits, and the 10th and the 11th are the only blanks Turn Back the Pendulum left us with, but Isshin technically must have become captain AFTER TBtP anyway, because Shinji doesn't recognize his reiatsu).

Bleach pairings say what now?

libekory — Sat, 29 May 2010 19:26:08 GMT

How do I even find time for annoyance when I'm so busy with ~*~*~Dreamwidth~*~*~, but

seriously

can someone explain to me when Ishida indicated he even wanted to date Orihime, let alone marry her forever? The ship is so popular, and I mean, Orihime is adorable, she'd be adorable with anyone, but...

People say they're in love, in canon? I don't see it.

Has anyone seen this fanart?

libekory — Sat, 22 May 2010 06:56:27 GMT

So, fair warning, it is a bit slashy in the Suzaku+Lelouch vein -- but I colored someone else's lineart on a friend's request and it turned out really well and I'd love to be able to properly post it, only... I feel guilty, since. Not my lineart. I'd never try to take credit for said lineart, but.

I assume it's Japanese, but friend of a friend found it on 4chan, so. You know, no guarantee. I'm just really hoping someone here will recognize it and have the site bookmarked, so that I can email the artist and ask for permission.

Lineart below the cut!

libekory — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 15:52:37 GMT

School is slaaaaughtering me like I did not expect it to do. I hardly have the time to breathe. :| But a quick thought here, before I go for more of it today:

The folks at Penny Arcade (and everywhere else) are pretty worked up over Roger Ebert's post about videogames being art. And yeah, I say they're pretty worked up; Tycho, at least, certainly is, even though he is instructing people that Ebert's opinion doesn't matter. The language he's using to describe said opinion, said man, and that man's blog post is -- sort of embarrassingly transparently enraged. So many ad hominem attacks, man.

Ebert says videogames will never be art. He is responding to a woman, Kellee Santiago, who does seem to have been initially responding, at least in part, to him -- and who could have made her response more thoughtfully, if she intended to reach him. (Ebert notes repeatedly in his post that she is not explaining the videogame examples she uses well enough, and I would venture that there is some presumption of familiarity on her end that she should not have made. Ebert is not Jack Thompson; he has not made any claims to have played videogames and personally witnessed their travesty.)

I agree with PA that Santiago is genuinely trying to reach out to Ebert, full of olive branches, and that perhaps Ebert is not as interested in reaching back -- but I would argue that Ebert's blog post is very thoughtful, acknowledges that art may be a matter of opinion (although he is not especially humble about his own opinion's validity), and that the only part of it that is particularly offensive is the very end, where he asks why videogame aficionados need the validation of calling videogames art.

So, briefly: Ebert is, of course, stuck in the past. He professes a love of silent movies and considers them superior to the videogames mentioned in the video to which he is responding. His opponent, Santiago, is on the other hand very stuck in the present: Ebert's criticisms of her claims that art has necessarily evolved from "primitive" forms to present forms is very valid. (Ebert is, for example, correct that storytelling did not evolve from writing. Writing is much, much, much younger than storytelling, which has always been present in all art, cavepainting, dance, etc. And he is right that many artists deeply admire cavepaintings in their own right; only the uninformed really talk glibly about cavepaintings being a precursor to the Sistine Chapel.)

So we have age, incapable of looking forward without making embarrassing blanket statements, and youth, incapable of looking back without making embarrassing gaffes about art history.

Something Ebert expresses a desire for in his blog post is an example that proves that videogames have something unique to offer as art; he indicates that he wants more than "Fortune cookie prose" here, and expresses interest in knowing about what the GAME is like. (For example, he asks how you keep score in Flower, what the overall goal is, how you "win".) I really think he is looking to hear that -- rather than having a Final Fantasy game that makes a claim to art by having a story that could as easily have been in a book or a movie, where the "game" elements could have been removed without losing much in terms of said story -- there are videogames where the game aspect somehow becomes an intrinsic PART of the art. Where we aren't looking at a novel with a controller attached, but at a new and different form of art completely.

This is an interesting thing to ask for; I would say that some games are definitely doing it. (Silent Hill 2 makes my list: the way the different endings are achieved could not have been done in a movie. At the time, simply the surprise of DISCOVERING partway through that you were possibly playing a very bad human being was something that could not have been done any other way. Movies have made us like sociopaths before, but only a videogame could make you BE a sociopath without knowing it.)

But I don't think Ebert's request is fair, either. I think I could use a similar argument to say that movies can never be art: they are just the hackneyed, multimillion dollar (because discussion of profit is one of Ebert's reasons for criticizing Santiago's presentation) children of a book and a painting. What do movies have to offer that could not have been delivered by those older, and therefore more legitimate, art forms? Would Ebert respond by giving me examples of the very few movies where the movie medium was genuinely used to its fullest and no comic book, for example, could have delivered the same payload? Because if he is, then I have every right to say, "Videogames are art because I can think of three that elevate their medium to new, glorious heights." (Why didn't Heavy Rain make Santiago's list? Was she required by law to use only videogames by totally green indie developers?)

Because if the criticism is that videogames are low-brow, money-making machines -- then they have already reached the level of Shakespeare, which was bawdy entertainment for the masses in its day and can still be exposed as such, if you watch one of the billions of "modern" versions where all that archaic-sounding English and those far-off old world locations have been replaced by high school kids in belly shirts. Suddenly, Shakespeare's works seem a lot more like overwrought melodramas or implausible situational comedies.

And my god, did Ebert really criticize a shooter, implicitly, for being "brainless"? Has he seen the movies coming out of his beloved cinema's "action" category? FPS is the action genre brought to videogames, and no better or worse than the Die Heart films.

...so. let's not all cast stones at once, shall we? Art is very rare. It is fleeting. It will always be surrounded by a billion things in its same medium that fail to be art, and almost all of it was originally motivated by money. Ebert has not offered reasons why videogames will never be art: they are reasons why art is not art.

This entry was originally posted at here, via Dreamwidth. Feel totally free to comment there using OpenID!


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