maxofs2d:

hexcolour:

arizonabay:

Worked on this girl for 9 months. Now this new music video comes out and she’s immensely popular, arguably one of the most popular characters in the LoL universe.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m really glad she’s a huge hit, it’s super exciting to see so many people love the character design and the gameplay, and know that I contributed directly and significantly to the behind-the-scenes engineering that makes it all work. It’s validating.

But it’s also so fucking melancholy to know I did so much work and put in so much time for such a shitty company, run by shitty people, and the reward I got for it was unemployment. 

I threw a lot into this character. I cried at work. I started getting panic attacks, which I’ve never gotten before. I developed persistent heart palpitations from the daily overwhelming stress and had to go to the hospital (this is true, seriously.) I basically dropped all my friends outside of work. My manager (and his manager!) lied to me constantly to keep me working. They said I was doing a great job but to keep it up. Don’t worry, it’s going to turn out great, and it’ll all be worth it in the end – recognition, a raise, probably a promotion in short order. They promised me the world. When she was finally finished, I didn’t even get to go to the release party, they just walked me out. 

I remember a quote from my last day, it sticks out in my mind: “I know you realize this is really hard for me,” my manager said. Yes, in the end, when he awkwardly informed me I didn’t have my dream job anymore – or any job at all – and then stared back at my shell-shocked face, my thousand-yard stare, the only thing he felt was sorry for himself.

She launched with no major bugs and was considered a technical success. Doesn’t matter. Get the fuck out.

I don’t know how I feel. A weird sensation of pride and intense bitterness. I did a good job; at least, I think I did. Unfortunately, internal validation is the only kind I’m going to get.

Everyone reposting KDA should see this. Riot has successfully distracted everyone into forgetting their culture of sexism, exploitation, and toxicity mere months after it was all revealed.

Look, I get it. Akali is EXTREMELY my type. It’s obvious how much love and care was put into her development. But it makes me furious to see all the free advertising that Riot is getting from people who I thought would know better. 

And now? One of the people who is arguably responsible for all that free advertising? Who’s work is undoubtedly making Riot hundreds of thousands of dollars a day? Who was overworked to the point of near breaking? They get nothing. WORSE than the scant bit of credit that most devs can get in a big company like Riot. They got let go.

Fuck Riot Games.

One thing that I thought really sucked a lot is that the production company who made the KDA video isn’t even credited. They credit a lot of other people on their videos, usually, but the actual animators of the video are hidden; almost a lie by omission. At best it’s a honest mistake, at worst it’s sneakily trying to pass off the video as something made in-house when it’s not. 😦

Source: lessercosmicbeing

dumbledorably:

loki didn’t die for you to call my fictional murderboys with sad backstories irredeemable

real talk though, if I see one more hot take that mentions Loki’s HEROIC DEATH and dives into immediate “as we all know, he’s a terrible person, so obviously it was a trick” speculation, I’m gonna lose it

littlebluebarista:

Can we romanticize video games the way we do books?

Like you hear all these things about how you can curl up with a book on a rainy day and drink tea and smother yourself in blankets but anytime you hear things about video games it’s always about how you’re wasting your life away yelling into a headset as you play Call of Duty in a basement?

Imagine bundling yourself up on the couch, the sound of rain hitting the roof, and putting on Fable for a few hours. Or getting home after a long day of work. You make yourself a cup of cocoa, put on fuzzy pjs, and play Viva Piñata for hours not giving a second thought to the outside world. Semester just got out? Throw on some Fallout and just take a night to breathe and enjoy.

You aren’t wasting your life away, you’re enjoying it. Games can be just as much an escape as books, except you get to be part of the story.

alpha-beta-gamer:

Looking for some terror-filled treats to play this halloween?  We’ve got you covered.  Here are ten of our favourite horror games we’ve featured over the last year.  Have a delightful and frightful halloween!

Play With Me – a terrifying first person horror in which you attempt to escape from a house that’s haunted by a very freaky clown ghost.

Letter To A Friend – a freaky first person horror that draws inspiration from old silent movies and analogue recordings to create a short, surreal and very scary experience.

Pictures of a Reasonably Documented Year – You find an old computer and investigate the files on it. Was the owner insane or was something sinister really going on?

Never Look Back – a well crafted lovecraftian point and click adventure in which you face your inner demons and attempt to escape a nightmarish mansion.

The House Abandon – an intense text based adventure created by one of the Alien Isolation devs, in which the environment you’re playing in reacts around you – so much so that we guarantee that you’ll look over your own shoulder a few times while playing it!

Ghost City Rising – a fun first person roguelite in which you attempt to scale a high rise apartment block that’s packed full of haunted furniture!

The Final One – a very creepy (and unintentionally weird) FPS horror adventure in which you attempt to uncover the occult mysteries surrounding a doll museum in which all the exhibits have started to come to life!

Anxiety: Lost Night – a point-and-click horror game in which you play as a young woman who, after experiencing some sort of panic attack, finds her car has stalled at the side of the road. Can you get it started?

POWER DRILL MASSACRE – an absolutely terrifying third person survival horror that draws inspiration from 80’s video nasty slasher flicks and PS1-era survival horror games to create a grimy, sinister, suspense-filled adventure that’s unlike anything you’ve ever experienced.

The Room – a jump scare filled low rez first-person horror game, in which you must navigate ten rooms, and use an Aliens-style motion detector to avoid invisible monster (invisible until it jumps out and scares the living daylights out of you anyway).

Hope you have a frightful night!

Source: alpha-beta-gamer

cw pet death behind the cut, and also more grieving-process stuff because apparently it never ends

it’s just…it’s hard, you know? I thought I was ready, especially after scattering some of Scully’s ashes, and maybe I am, and I love Hazy already, because she’s a sweet silly girl and she likes to snuggle (although she also mostly sees our cat as something fun to chase, so…we’ll have to work on that). but there’s also…her face is really different but she’s practically the same color Scully was, which I sort of didn’t realize at first, and she does so many things he used to when he was actually healthy, and today I walked her for the first time and I fucking cried for the first time since Scully died because it forced me to feel all over again how much I miss him after he was such a huge part of my life for so long and how much I want him back, and that’s never going to happen and it’s not fucking fair. and then I think now I’m grieving for him in addition to grieving his loss, because walking Hazy also brought home to me just how much he’d lost in the last year or so before his death–I think he was happy, I think his quality of life was decent, but his walks gradually got shorter and shorter as he got tired faster and developed more arthritis issues, and first he stopped being able to go downstairs without being coaxed and then when we had to start using diapers he couldn’t get himself upstairs either, and he hadn’t slept on my bed in ages because he couldn’t jump on it anymore, and he didn’t really play with toys anymore, and…I know it was all inevitable but it’s just not fair, for me or for him, and I’m getting choked up again writing this. 

and I just…don’t know what to do with any of that. maybe I should have waited longer (but I love Hazy too). maybe I should have looked harder for a dog who was nothing like Scully (but would I even like a dog who isn’t like Scully at all? and wouldn’t there always be something?). maybe there would’ve been a better time, at some very indefinite point in the future (or maybe this part was inevitable too, no matter how long I waited, and Hazy will help me deal with it). I don’t know. I don’t know. I made a commitment to this little girl and I don’t regret that, but mentally, the first few days at least might be a bit of a rough adjustment period.