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1

Video / PC Games / Spiders not allowed in video games.

« on: December 11, 2021, 07:42:54 AM »

Arachnophobia warning
Spoiler tags have spiders in'em
 

Spoiler

Spiders are cut because of people with arachnophobia. It's a common phobia.
Spiders used to be a staple enemy in video games. From horror to action-adventure, there are always spiders somewhere

Spoiler

The removal of spiders is not a creative decision. Most decisions are made in movies and video games by test audiences and focus groups.

Focus groups are used by companies to decide how to make the perfect spaghetti sauce and whatnot. Then they found their way into gaming.

Fallout 4 had base building mechanics because at the time all the kids they did focus groups on wanted Mindcraft.

As a company even if 1% of the focus groups say they will not play a game because of the spiders. 1% is a lot of money

Spoiler

When Skyrim came out in 2011 I remember people saying they will not play it because of the spiders. After that spiders started showing less and less in games.

Now if spiders are put in a game they are made to look less like spiders and more like crabs. Fewer eyes, legs less spidery. Because those parts of what trigger the phobia. 

To the point now they are scraped from remakes like the Resident Evil ones. I played the Resident Evil 3 remake when it came, it's partly what made me write this. RE 3 remake and FF7 remake are the first games I pick after I stopped playing video games for a couple of years. So I'm noticing how games are different now.

Spoiler

Grounded is a new game with spiders in it. Later they added an option to remove them. Which I think is the perfect solution to please both parties. But most of the time they just cut them outright from games.

Who cares. They are just spiders. Spiders are not creative. I'm glad they are gone. Modeling and animating spiders cost soo much time and money. They don't fit modern games. We have much better enemies to replace them. Be grateful you have a game in the first place. Don't get your knickers in a twist.
Those were some of the counterarguments.

Mostly by gaming journalists. Those people are the worst. Watch FF7 remake world map get cut and them defending that with the same arguments.

It's not just a matter of spiders getting cut. A lot of decisions are made this way.

Like I know nowadays when they make horror movies, they try to make them not too scary. Because it might scare off some people from watching them. 

Imagine when they made The exorcist, it was too scary for audiences. so they made it less scary.


Pet Sematary book, the original movie, and remake spoilers

Spoiler

In the remake they change it where the older sister gets hit by the truck. Then said it was to "Subvert your expectations"
Was it?
Or a scene of a toddler getting killed by a truck was too upsetting for audiences. People won't go watch a movie that will upset them. So the movie makers go for the safe creepy little girl trope.

"Subvert your expectations"
Whenever they say things like that, it's just for media consumption.

And I'm consuming a lot of remakes and adaptations lately

Remakes/adaptations serve to show how our beloved media won't be made today. Part of me didn't want to write this, don't want to be the grinch grump. I'm trying hard to not break into song and rant.

It means something to me as someone how loves those media and aspires to create. Horror was my first passion. This feels like a weird form of censorship

Do you guysandgals remember 4kids? In my part of the world, we had a severe case of the 4kids. Now imagine if the anime companies making the shows gave the 4kids treatment to their own shows.

Back then. Watching DBZ heavily censored beyond recognition. Little ol me knew the show is not supposed to be like that. I knew out there in the world exists an unsullied version. One day I might get to experience it. 

Playing RE3 remake. Spiders and other monsters cut, areas cut. Character design changed. The story changed. Dialogue is all swearing and fluff. Characters are made into one-dimensional tropes. Zombies made to be not scary. Extra game modes and bones cut.

And most of those were not creative decisions, something I would have respected. 

I felt like I was experiencing the 4kids-ish censored version. This time around the uncensored version doesn't exist. Because that's how the company made it. And I feel deep dredd, thinking about how my favorite new media might not even get the chance to be the best version of itself.

TLDR
Spiders cut from media to not scare people with Arachnophobia from buying them.

Companies arrive at those decisions after doing a bunch of test audience and focus groups. It's not a creative decision.

Thinks being cut is reminiscing of how shows used to be censored, except now it's done by the creators.

I'm not against test audience and focus groups, It's a tool, can be used good or bad. The way things going everything might end up vanilla flavored.

Thank you for reading

2

break Room / Viral marketing in the membrane

« on: February 15, 2021, 11:28:41 PM »

TLDR when you see a viral video, look where the product at

Most viral videos are manufactured by viral marketing companies. The last time something went genuinely viral was the Harlem shake.

When you see something go viral look for the product. That's the dead giveaway. A product perfectly framed in the center. Logo pointing straight at your face.

Plus now there are a lot of algorithms that gives certain entities control over what goes viral and what not

Well, I don't know. Seems pretty sus whenever a video goes viral there is a product

The gorilla glue girl could be just a viral marketing campaign


I don't know, the cran-raspberry juice just coincidentally happen to be there. Not saying he is paid actor. They could have approached him with a deal beforehand. Just like any influencer. You make a video with our product. We pull strings to make it go viral. You get a truck, we get our product promoted and we come out of it looking like saints. 

Nothing against the guy, I'm just talking about the marketing side.

It's a feel-good story, Designs to make your point and laugh like in the gorilla glue case or designs to make you angry etc. As long as it gets an emotion out of you, while incept a product into your brain.

Look "Skateboarder Spills Coffee" If it was a big Coffee brand it will feel like viral marketing. But to me feels genuine. 

Look up "Man trips with McDonald's food and rages"
The product is McDonald's. Big chance it manufactured

 

3

Develop Your Story / Zinegarth (Story hoping to draw)

« on: December 03, 2020, 07:38:45 PM »

Zingarth Extravaganza is a shonen fantasy adventure story. My goal is to draw 60-100 pages first chapter.
Here we have a world, characters, summaries etc that hopefully give a general idea of what's the story about. I'll add more concept art when I have time to draw.

I'm open to anything, feedback, suggestions, noting off the table. Even If you ask how it ends, If I know I'll answer it.   
I want to know is the story making sense.

I'm aware of my grammar shortcomings. If someone willing to helps make it readable for English readers for $5. It's around 2000 words

There is a TLDR section in the back for the skim readers.

World backstory

Zingarth Extravaganza
The story takes place on a planet called Methra. In its skies, there is a heavenly object called the Zindisk. It radiates Zin energy. Those who learn how to harness it gain control over its aspects.

So, on Methra there is a thing in the sky that gives everyone powers.
Everyone on Methra can learn to control zin energy.

A group of scholars called the Coelux society dedicated their life to observing and deciphering the Zindisk secrets. They discovered a cosmic event. Every couple hundred millennia, a piece of the Zindisk break off and goes flying into space like a comet. 


What started as a handful of scholars in an observatory. Over the years turned into a bustling city. The whole city is a mega-machine built for the sole purpose of guiding the Zindisk shard safely into Methra then securing the shard inside the machine

Everyone thought of the Coelux society as a bunch of kooks. Until the day it happened. 

The Coelux succeeded in guiding the shard into their city. They declared only themselves be allowed to study and observed the shard up close. Altho they are open to sharing the knowledge.

Lucky for everyone else.
The presence of the shard can be felt throughout Methar. Like a pulse wave. People who learned how to attune their body to the shard wave increased their abilities tenfold.
In one nation people built machines that can be attuned to the shard wave to perform Zin abilities.


Fast a few years forward. It is a new world. Mega machines doing the unthinkable. People that can do fantastical things. Cities sprouting everywhere. The world is ruled by three nations. The Coelux society in their unpenetrable city closed on itself. Nothing gets in or out.
Espionage attempts by the three nations failed.

Timepass
The world is dependent on shared energy. A couple of shard blackouts where the shard wave goes dim. The Coelux was accused of brewing something sinister. The nation demanded the control of shard must be shared between the Nations. The Coelux responds with radio silence, igniting the war. What started as three nations against the Coelux, fastly devolved into an all-out war between the Nations to get control of the Shared first. Coelux used the power of the shard, crippling the armies descending at their borders, destroying themselves in the process. The shard was lost.

The aftermath
In the aftermath. With the shard lost. Every piece of machinery attuned to the shard stopped working. People fought over what little they had left. It would have been endless fighting until no one left standing. Until a man named Luces managed to unite the nations. To prevent a war from happens again. A pact made. To never let anyone get a hold of the shard ever again. Coelux members and anyone that can attune to shard or hold the shard knowledge be hunted down and killed on the spot. An organization called LucesPax formed from what left of the nation's armies To keep the pact.

That's the world backstory.


Present-day
80 to 50 Years Later
No one has seen a Coelux member for the last XX years.
Some got hunted down and killed. Someone went undercover. Some got displaced in time and space by the Coelux elders as last resort to save them.

A hint of the past world exists. Like machines and such.

Part of the people prefers living in small villages. Part live in the thriving three nations capitals.

LucesPax is worldwide and is involved in every aspect of everyday life. With a newly open recruiting wing.

Ha! Gotcha! its a magic school story

Young people join the Pax. Among them, our main characters. Each with their reasons. Mainly to do the right thing. As they go on missions. They find that the "right thing" is not easily defined. They might have to take matters on their own.

The main characters short descriptions

Donna is an apprentice alchemist working in a shop in a rural village.
The shop is run by her and her teacher name Shaull. who adopted her and taught her the trade. One day Shaull goes missing. Rampaging through his stuff she finds that he used to be a member of the Pax. Hard to believe because he showed detest for them. She takes a journey to the PaxHQ to try to find him.

Shaull backstory
Doona's grandfather was on the run for being suspected of hiding shard info. Shaull and his squadmates are the ones that found and killed him. Not knowing that Doona and her twin in the next room. They put the twins in an orphanage and vow to never speak of it.

Shaull rekt with guilt. Faked his death. Gose back and adopt Doona.
The reason he missing because he heard someone killing his old squadmates. So he goes to stop him. I'm thinking it's an evil twin.

I was told sounds like the plot of the show Monster. I didn't watch it tho

Krev
When Krev was young. His father forced Krev and his little brother Kerro into experimentation intended to unleash shard powers in them.
The younger brother showed promising potential so the father but the brunt of the experiments on him. While belittling Krev for being weak.
To protect his little brother, Krev planned to escape with his little brother. But Kerro was weak from the experiments causing him to get sick and die while on the run. Krev lives with guilt daily.
While living as a homeless punk, he runs into Doona. Tag along and eventually join the PaX

Krev wants to never see his father again. But that's a demon he as to defeat on day.

His father is on the Pax wanted list. Like a ghost, leaving a trail of botched experiments in his wake.

Yolce Q R-U011
Born and raised in a mining/detention camp. Where the detainees were forced to mines essential mineral used in zin energy shielding. Long exposure to that mineral causes loss in the ability to control zin energy and other health problems. That's why Yolce and all the detainees don't have powers. The guards kill Yolce's father in front of him causing him to unlock his shard power. He ends up joining the PaX.


This is where I see the story going
Donna, Yolce, and Krev meet at the pax training camp and become close friends. At the camp, they get trained to be part of the pax. Later they go on small missions. Start easy fun and games. Then get put into weird situations where they have to make hard decisions.

The three main characters find that one of them(Yolce) have shard powers. The three has to stand by their friend against impossible odds. They have to protect him from her own PaX brethren. Later revealed that Yolce can sense where the lost shard is. His ability to sense it makes him lose his grip on reality. Also having that ability makes him a target for all types of rogue organizations.


First chapter summary
Donna on her way to the PaX HQ. It's her first time out of her village. wide-eyed and filled with wonderment she gets pickpocketed by Krev. She gives chase till she corners him in an alley. Turn out It a trap!!. As a part of his initiation to this gang. Krev was asked to lure someone to be mugged, robbed, etc Krev feels bad about it, tries to help Donna escape but gets caught and beat up badly. They managed to defeat the gang but Donna loses all of her stuff. Even her train ticket. Krev insists on tagging along and the journey starts.


General info and summaries

What's the Zindisk?
Zindisk is a coin-shaped heavenly object. stationed in place at the edge of the solar system. Does not rotate on itself or revolve around the sun. Divided into sections each representing one aspect of Zin. each aspect has a symbol carved on the Zindisk surface. Zindisk can be seen clearly at night in Methra. 

People of Methar have an extra organ that stores Zin energy. With training, the base zin energy can be turned into the ten aspects of zin.
There is no affinity to any type of power. people chose what they want to learn and master.

What are the aspects of zin?
Zinergy: base zin energy
Glyph: Controlling the zin by writing the Glyphs.
Nature: Elementals of nature. Fire, water, earth, etc
Harmony: Using zin energy to restore, purify, and heal. Harmonics is a sub-part of it that involves using sounds.
Physical: Body enhancement and modification
Mental: Mind powers. Mind control, telepathy, and such.
Alchemy: Using zin energy to blend, fuse, and divide components
Necro: Controlling cadavers, animating constructs
Space: Controlling space and dimension
Time: Controlling time

The Glyphs
Every power type has a corresponding glyph. When a glyph is drawn and imbued with zin it activates. When you put zin in a fire glyph you get fire.

There is a glyph for every power type. Numbers glyphs, commands glyphs. People still discovering new glyphs
Gets advanced when combining glyphs. Combination of fire, time, and numbers glyphs you get delayed activation of that glyph. Useful timer compo called the ticking glyph.
Ice glyph in a box that's a refrigerator. Add air glyph to that, you get an air conditioner, and so on.
The drawback is that if you want that refrigerator you gonna have to keep putting your zin energy in it to keep it running.

Someone might use a space glyph to call you from afar just to ask. Is your refrigerator running?
Will yes indeed my good sir. Someone animated it with necro glyph. 

TLDR
There is a Zindisk in the sky, which is the source of all powers.
A group of scholars called the Coelux society summons a shard of the Zindisk to earth.
Now the Shard is a source of infinite power that anyone on the planet can tap into.
People fight over it. Death and destruction. The shard is lost.
In the aftermath, the nations made a pact, and an organization to keep it
A pact to stop anyone from finding the shard. Using shard powers is forbidden. Coelux to be killed on site.
Most of the Coelux are killed. Scattered to the winds, living undercover. Hunted down
A couple of years later the organization is worldwide and in control. Like a world "police"
The main characters join the initiate program that trains young people to be part of the organization
The three main characters become close. One of them turns up to have shard powers, with the ability to sense where the Shard is.

 

4

break Room / YouTubers are getting hacked

« on: February 09, 2020, 03:30:16 PM »

YouTubers are getting hacked!

The Anime Youtuber BestGuyEver got hacked like a week ago. I heard the hacker sent BestGuy an email pretending to want paid advertising for his "game" for 500$ to 1500$. But will pay after the video is made(Here is your first big red flag). The game link in the email is a malware that takes over your stuff.
After the hacker takes over, he changes the channel name to "Brad Garlinghouse" then live stream interviews of this Brad guy with free give ways scam in the descriptions


That's Brad Garlinghouse. By the way, Brad is not the hacker. In the comments, people saying F you Brad and not sure if they joking or

Nowadays it seems like clicking links Is like Russian roulette


The gest
So yea, watch out for "I'll pay you after the work is done" 
Watch out for "Send me one crypto I'll send you ten crypto back free give away" scams
As all of us know Don't click questionable links. Look like a bunch of YouTubers fell and still falling for it. YouTube doesn't seem to do anything about it(that I know of)

I just got a notification from DeviantArt warning me from "you won prize" questionable links spam scam. That type of scams is running rampant lately. So be on guard yalls!

Part of me thinks people should know better not to fall for it but on the other hand politicians and CEOs of billions dollars companies are clicking questionable links and falling for this dump hack. What chance we common folks have?

5

General Discussion / Does some commission artist own your OC?

« on: December 13, 2017, 03:28:15 AM »

Serpent mentioned that if you commission an artist to draw your manga character or pages the arts may ask that you pay him every time the art used commercially

Have anyone experienced that?

I've been looking at commission artist, most of them say the price is this if the art for personal use and if it's for commercial use, let's talk privately.
Whats that about?

6

General Discussion / Buying a new drawing tablet

« on: December 09, 2017, 09:09:52 AM »

Got my current tablet in 2012, Still works. the pen taped, buttons don't work. glitch from time to time.
Still can draw with it, but have to deal with its problems.
It's time for an upgrade to display tablet. Been thinking about that for the last 7 months.

But what to get?
The Chinese alternatives like Ugee and Huion that goes from 300 to 900 USD. They just work. get the job done you know. They got small things about them just not up there. But for that price, you are getting more for your money.

IPad Pro is a good option. seen artist do great art with it. for 409 Plus 100 for the Apple Pencil plus drawing apps like Procreate. Now they have CLIP STUDIO PAINT app. Sound good.

The Wacom. The best technology and most expensive. When they work like they sposed to they are excellent. I heard they have a lot of problems. Expensive, bad customer support, bad drivers etc.
 
I want a Cintiq
The Wacom Cintiq Pro is the latest thing. its 1000 to 1500 USD. That's a lot of money most artists don't have.
Also with the Cintiq Pro, your laptop or PC might not be compatible with it. There is a workaround by using adapters but it's not 100% guarantee that it will work.
That's the biggest issue.

If I get this but it didn't work. I'm gonna be broke with an expensive tablet that doesn't work.

I might just buy alternative or Cintiq HD.

7

General Discussion / My First manga attempt

« on: June 29, 2016, 11:10:28 AM »

Here is the story of my first work i made for magazine submission. I did one,two pages stuff before but this was my first 26 oneshot.
One day i was like stop thinking about doing it and just do it . Stop with the my art is bad. i don't have the tools, just do it. Also there was a manga magazine in dubai i wanted to submit it to.
So i got myself a copy of How to make manga and manga studio.Then i made 26 page,horror genre.
A girl, Here best friend go missing. she go looking for him in the wood, she finds a monster. Simple.
Drew it traditionally. added tone digitally using a laptop. I had no mouse so i used the laptop touch pad. Art and story was not great but i was proud that i made somthing. Anyway i send it to the magazine. that was in 2008 They respond 2 years later. It was something like
Thank you for showing interest in our magazine.
We are happy to get to know new talents. Anyway your work will be archived.
Later we are going to study it and contact you when opportunities for new works arrive according to the magazine needs .
I now i know its copy paste respond, but i was very happy that i got a respond.

8

Manga Art Gallery / KeaneFox Artwork

« on: June 06, 2016, 08:37:29 PM »

Hi Here some of my artwork. I need to work more on it. alot of stuff to learn still.
 some conceptart

Spoiler

backgrounds

Spoiler

Spoiler

Chirei and Imoya fanart

Spoiler

9

Welcome Center / Hello! KeanFox here

« on: June 06, 2016, 02:29:15 PM »

I'm Omar 26 old from Saudi. I enjoy writing and drawing. In 2014 i started taking art lesson. Online courses, tutorial, books. I've been focusing on the art my writing is a bit rusty. I'll be happy to talk with people. Start working no something.
If i'm forgetting something feel free to ask anything.