I don't get the "kon" pun but I absolutely love the "foximile"
Nothing says 'freedom' more than entrenched capitalists using other people's resources to fight any kind of change, to the status quo right?
What I'm thinking after mulling on it since writing this is that I can probably design a simple arc in five short books for the very young, and then step into a more advanced YA arc that stands independent of those books for when the audience ages. Since I'm writing it for my kid, it should work for her. I don't feel any particular need to publish, though if they're good I'll see what happens, so i've got a lot of freedom to play with the format.
I agree about language. I'm trying to avoid going too simple on sentence structure and word choices, but I am working on using words that are more phonics-friendly. My daughter can read and understand complex sentence structures but has troubles reading words that don't sound out well. I'll see how she goes with it.
I've got a wip pulp fantasy book about socialism that I keep getting stuck on. I'm not entirely sure why, I think in part it's because I have a complete story arc but need to rework chunks. I write best when I'm not totally sure what's going to happen.
I'm also starting some work on a couple YA books for my kids, one is post-apocalyptic and one is hard science fiction. Both are promising but it will depend on how much the kids engage with them, I'll only continue if my audience is enjoying it.
This sounds like the absolutely worst application of machine generated art, to be fair. Of course it's soulless, it's just people sharing their low-effort picture memes.
I use machine art to illustrate my own notes and things from time to time, and while it's just notes to self, I find some of the pictures actually trigger some emotional response because I know what they mean to me and the story I'm trying to tell. That's all any art is, it really doesn't matter how you landed on it. Trying to share pictures without a story is pointless, but once the picture has a story the method of generation is pretty moot.
Capitalists gonna capitalist. Stop letting it get to you, you're safe here now.
That's actually the only thing that keeps me from saying it.
I wish we could popularize "the Federation"
I think episodic gaming could have worked if they'd developed a full arc and stuck to it. Probably the right way to go would have been to make at least a base version of all the episodes first, so they could have released on a steady, regular schedule instead of "whenever it's done, then never".
Personally I never understood the hate for hl2 vehicle sequences. I love them, particularly the boat one. They aren't so fun if you're a completionist, but if you've played them before... Just ram the throttle and enjoy the velocity, and.they don't take very long at all
Well, that was inevitable. With generative face video pretty much ready now, we're just an integration away from creating a fully featured video conversationalist.
Eh. I don't really agree. I agree that they're both excellent games and that they differ in the ways you've listed, but I just replayed both and I have to say, hl1 drags. There are long chunks that consist of seemingly endless corridor crouching jumping puzzles with headcrabs lurking predictably for jumpscares.
The things you call "gimmicks" in hl2 to me broke up that loop. They are still parts of the game and use the same mechanics, but they shake the loop up just enough that you don't get sick of doing the same jumping puzzle-->crouch through narrow tunnel and hit headcrab with crowbars-->fight pattern, and it still includes enough of those to feel like an extension of the same game.
I do think it was a mistake to keep Gordon mute for hl2. He had a reason to not talk in hl1, there wasn't really anyone to talk to. It makes way less sense in 2, and hamstrings them on further story aspects as they try to get serious with the plot.
It's refreshing to see archaeologists being like "Huh, this looks like very old dick art" instead of being like "Huh, perhaps it is some kind of fertility god? Nobody mention penises!"