my partner and i put hundreds of hours into Baldur's Gate 3 and finally beat it recently. truly an amazing game! going to do another run (an evil one) in a year or so, presumably when a "definitive edition" comes out. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth came out today, so we've been playing that. i was never into FF games growing up (kept starting and quitting cuz they weren't holding my interest), so i was kinda surprised how much i enjoyed watching him play the first part of the remake several years ago, especially after watching him play FFX (his favorite) and unfortunately not loving it. i guess i find FFVII's urban setting and environmental themes more compelling than the more classic medieval fantasy type games. anyway, part 2 seems good so far!

this is amazing! thank you so much to dada and all others who contributed to the effort. the remade theme is great, making me nostalgic for the era before the Internet's enshittification. i'm thoroughly enjoying looking back through the archives, and i'm happy to see some recognizable folks posting on this revamped system already. welcome to the salty oldbies as well as the noobs~

hello! my name is Mei Kat, and i use they/them/their pronouns. people around here back in the day mostly called me MKK. i joined GW with this account when i was 8 years old in 2003, tho i think i had used a different account for a couple years before. i was very active in the heyday of this place, reading posts and chatting on IRC just about every day, as well as playing online games with others here, like Animal Crossing and OpenTTD. i messed around in RPG Maker a lot as a kid, but throughout the decade or so when i was active, i mostly posted my visual art and participated in things like the art quilts and character battles and such.

i graduated college in August 2020 with two bachelor’s degrees in Asian Studies (Japanese) and Fine Arts (Digital Art). i will be beginning a master’s degree in Japanese translation in August 2024. i plan to translate as a day job (ideally, media like anime and videogames), but my ultimate career goal is to write, draw, and publish my own graphic novels, along with other multimedia creations like games. i'm also now 50k+ words into a novel after a successful NaNoWriMo challenge.

here are some of my identities that feel important to share: queer (nonbinary transgender, pansexual/panromantic, aceflux), syncretically religious (mostly Christian/Quaker), physically and mentally disabled (hEDS, autism, and OCPD, among others), therian (cat), and a leftist. i have been engaged in activism within many of these communities for over a decade. some of my interests include Japanese culture (traditional and contemporary), visual/literary arts, tabletop/video games, animals, psychology, history, music, swimming, American Sign Language, and tea. i love to spend time in nature, especially going on hikes with my partner (together 5+ years now). i have kept many pets in my life (with dogs and rats as favorites), and currently, i have a pet carpenter ant (Camponotus pennsylvanicus) colony of ~700 workers that i started from a single queen in 2019.

my partner is a programmer just finishing up his master's in machine learning, and we're hoping to make games together someday. we both have some hobby game dev experience, but there are some aspects like music and voice acting for which we would potentially want to team up with others, so i'm happy to see this collaborative space coming back together! the retro feel of the design and interface really makes me miss the time before the enshittification of the Internet. here's hoping for a resurgence of the cozy feel of forum community~

hot dang!! i should perk up my salty old bones and get in on this hoppin' jam! i've been super busy with college lately, but i'll be sure to be back here for the holidays in order to compete for the precious prize advertised...
 
i've used twine, rpg maker 2003, and adventure game studio, among other engines... but i am Not Good when it comes to programming and music, so i would totes consider collaborating with someone who is in need of art and writing skills!
 
P.S. Porpentine, welcome to SW! i am a fan~ :3

i've actually been drawing a bunch of little things lately but i just hate them all so much. but here is a thing anyway, which i made as an experiment while trying to learn how to use Paint Tool SAI
 

i am obsessed with Animal Crossing: New Leaf

recently finished The Psychopath Test, Lolita, and Right Ho, Jeeves. all good stuff. not too long ago, i also finished The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson, The Graveyard Book, and a bunch of Mark Twain short stories. i don't think i'll ever run out of books to get through!! i'm currently in the middle of Ender's Game (which i've been in the middle of for a long time...), The Stranger (by Albert Camus), and Thank You, Jeeves.

if y'all are gonna talk about bizarre amateur monomaniac fetish porn, i recommend perusing http://truedeviance.tumblr.com/ because the blog's creator chooses an excellent selection of images to showcase from within the flood of bad and/or weird erotic-aesthetic creations uploaded on deviantart, and they often have pretty interesting comments and analyses to accompany the display.
 
another thing i'm reminded of by this thread is the Bosch tryptich painting The Garden of Earthly Delights, which you can view here in high-res: http://uploads6.wikipaintings.org/images/hieronymus-bosch/the-garden-of-earthly-delights-1515-7.jpg

another relevant issue for discussion here: where do you draw the line between porn and art? is there even a line to be drawn? nudity and sexuality have been present in art of all kinds for thousands of years. were those works erotic material at the time? and/or highbrow art? (think stuff like Birth of Venus) in modern standards, what separates art and porn? and how is that different from previous eras? (i know these are pretty basic questions that all sorts of critics and art students have written extensive essays about, but i'm interested to hear opinions from y'all salties (for reasons that earlchip/barret's esophagus(???) has expressed))

my favorite weird porn ever is the lemon-stealing whore video: http://www.absoluporn.com/en/video-33512.html
 
re: bonzi_buddy-- yo i've read about that before; it's interesting. many people attest to the physical/mental benefits of giving up porn, whether it's done for religious reasons or otherwise. i mean, it does make some sense. also i could attest personally to negative physical effects of porn but idk if we wanna get into personal discussion of sex stuff in this thread haha ?? i mean basically what i'm sayin is yeah it is overstimulation and being used to that can make it difficult to do things in other situations. i've definitely experienced getting stuck in a rut of specificity... but it's difficult to withdraw from porn when it's the only thing that gets you off, y'know?
 
on a similar note, has anyone heard of and/or tried karezza sex? it's another one of those uncommon practices with maybe-sketchy evidence but plenty of positive anecdotes. it involves having sex without allowing orgasms (especially on the part of anyone with a penis). i mean, i can't orgasm from any sexual activities with a partner so i kinda do karezza without wanting to ha ha but i could see how purposefully backing off and coming down slowly could be an enhancing experience for someone who usually comes. if anything, it could give them more empathy for those of us who can't.
 
i do think that society places way too much focus on orgasms and that that is indicative of a larger cultural heteronormativity and sexism/misogyny-- most female-bodied people don't orgasm from the type and duration of sex that makes males do, and additionally there is a lot of pressure on women to "perform" (being very vocal, pretending to enjoy things, etc), prioritize their (male) partners, and to generally not actually have a good time during sex because that would make them a slut right??? and the ways to fix these problems often result in bad reactions from partners... if a woman tells her boyfriend that she's been faking orgasms for the past year (which implicitly means that she wants to not fake anymore and to learn to experience genuine pleasure with her partner), it's not uncommon for her to get a very negative reaction... i think this has to do with the societal semantics of being able to "make" someone come, which is weird and burdensome; everyone is responsible for their own sexuality and blaming someone for their sexual inabilities is definitely not the way to resolve them. hmmmm
 
sooo i ended up rambling about a lot of different porn/sex stuff but i think these are important thoughts and would like to discuss them~

okay so i guess i should actually post more stuff here
 
i turned that one cute little icon into a full-body image
 

 
here is a thing i recently drew which i intend to color someday
 

 
here is the original sketch for the above image, if you want to see it.
 
this next thing is an illustration of me all night every night when i am waiting for my girlfriend to wake up and talk to me
 

 
and then the following is me all day every day when i am with my girlfriend~
 

 
and then i superimposed the two above images because i drew them within the same file and i dunno maybe it looks cool as a thing on its own???
 
tonight, i felt like drawing cute girls who are total opposites:
 

 
and for my last piece of art for this post, i present to you a very dissatisfied baby transgender girl:
 

yeah, super interesting stuff up in here! denzquix you are a cool person and i very much enjoy your posts :> the differences in the male and female versions of this game are intriguing :o i played this game a couple times (once female, once male) after seeing Vellfire's endorsements of it a while ago, and i basically agree with all her thoughts about it. it's a great execution of decision-based gameplay, but i would love to see an updated version with more freedom. i wish i was more able to maintain motivation to work on my own game development projects, because i've had several game ideas that play off of the concepts discussed here...

i love this video a lot. jamie you are awesome

maybe this is only coming to mind because i've been playing a lot of them recently, but some Zelda games have had fairly sadistic dungeons.
in the 2D ones, especially, there were a lot of pits that made you fall down to lower levels. in games with the Lens of Truth, there were similar tricks, but where you'd fall through what appears to be a normal floor, and that sort of thing would prompt you in the future to nervously check all areas with the Lens before venturing forward. making the player anxious and obsessive-compulsive like that is pretty mean.
and in Ocarina of Time (and others i think?) there were these hands that come down from the ceiling and grabbed you, taking you back to the beginning of the dungeon. those were good because they offered just enough warning before coming down, via seeing a shadow over your character and hearing a subtle noise. they were fairly easy to dodge and kill after having had a few encounters, but i was definitely annoyed and angry at myself the first few times where i got nabbed. :P
 
another sadistic game mechanic that comes to mind is stuff that occurs outside the playable game itself-- for example, being forced to listen to Mr. Resetti's long rants in Animal Crossing games when you change the console clock or reset the game. hehe. and another example would be the game Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem. in that game, the player character is going insane and you get to witness manifestations of that, such as seeing the walls dripping with blood. the really torturous thing that could happen in that game was that in certain conditions, it would make it appear like your save files all got deleted, when they actually still existed. it would cause you to freak out a bit, and it would kind of blur the lines between the player and the character, which is cool. the idea of using gaslighting within game design is one i'm intrigued by.
 
i hope these examples are the kind of thing you're looking for~

back in the ~Golden Age of Gaming World~, i used to post my art frequently in the Graphic (f)Arts Subforum, and i give GW members from that era major "Cred" with helping me to mature as an artist (and person in general) and improve my technical skillz. i dunno why i stopped posting art here... and yesterday, upon seeing maroonracoon's topic in this here Artistry area, i was highly inspired to draw, and i decided i'd start posting stuff more often!! i have done very little work in recent months due to depression and lack of motivation/energy... but i drew some stuff last night, and i hope it's a sign of more creative things to come!
 
the first thing i drew last night was this cute little icon for my girlfriend:
 

 
and then, inspired by maroonracoon, i goofed around with colors:
 

 
then i drew a dumb comic about anxiety and benzodiazepines
 

 
and finally i drew a baby girly skelly
 

 
so, those things were the result of my creative spree last night. i think i'm gonna try to draw small things like these every day, because i really need to get in the habit of regularly producing art. i'll post my future projects in this topic.
 
oh, also, i guess i'll post a couple more things which i made sorta recently (like, a few months ago). the first one is Constable Odo from Star Trek; i drew this for my brother:
 

 
and here is some Homestuck fanart, loolll-- it's a picture of the character Jade Harley:
 

 
and this is another thing i drew for my girlfriend; it's a picture of us together:
 

 
i haven't done more Serious Art in quite a while, but if anyone wants to see some of that stuff, i can post it.
 
thanks for looking at my arts!!! i would very much appreciate comments and critique and whatnot. :3

hi there! it's great that your independent projects have been successful. very cool~ :> i've heard many good things about Lone Survivor-- several of my friends have told me that i should play it, and i plan to do so at some point. i've also been wanting to play Hotline Miami, and when i do, i'll be sure to pay special attention to the music! anyway, it's great to have another cool, creative person around here. so welcome! be sure to check out all the subforums, and don't be shy about posting~! :3

OH MY GOD i can't believe i didn't look at this thread earlier. you are so freaking talented and i love all of your work! and the fact that you are so young and already doing all this stuff is an awesome indicator for the future. i'm a fellow art chick and comic nerd, and i'm very inspired now!! i also used to post art on these forums a few years ago when i was your age, but i haven't had a place where i was regularly posting work and getting feedback in a long time now... so i think i'm gonna go make some art right now and then post it! so thank you for spurring on my creative energy and motivation~. anyway maroonracoon your art shows such an excellent grasp of color and composition, and you have a fantastic ability to convey emotions through small details in your line work. also, nice use of minimalism and sense of movement/fluidity in those character doodles! gosh there's just so many good qualities here. you are really cool

i like it a lot! this kind of music makes me feel energetic and wanting to sing along. but the main reason i like this song is because you're one of those people who sings "me" so that it sounds like "may", and that is how my name (Mei) is pronounced also, so it sounds like you're saying "save Mei", so i'm like "yeah"

from our very own member (and ~my personal friend~ :)​)) ) pajamashaw:
 
http://youtu.be/mgwnnMhgt3A

i've been playing a lot of 3DS lately, namely Ocarina of Time 3D and Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask.
 
oh and i just played Ib (an artsy (literally) Japanese survival horror puzzle game made in RPG Maker) and got all the different endings and dang that was a good game!! it's similar to Yume Nikki but more active and less mysterious. i highly recommend both of those games. i love Japanese indie horror games! i've got a whole bunch more that i still have to play~