What to write birthday card for girlfriend

I’ve always been large chested. As I’ve gotten older, they have only gotten larger and more difficult to deal with. I’ve wanted a breast reduction for quite some time now and recently brought it up with my family doctor. She said based on my size I would qualify for a breast reduction for medical reasons and encouraged me to call some local offices (she said I did not require a referral but would write a letter on my behalf to help my case if needed). The first office I called initially sounded promising as the surgeon there is well known in my area and has gotten good reviews for people I know. Once I gave them my insurance info to make an appointment, I get a call back after booking the consultation from the lady in charge of billing/insurance at the office. She proceeds to tell me that my insurance is accepted but the type of program my card is under is not one they generally accept - they only will bill is it’s for urgent medical needs such as for a breast cancer patient. I told her that I wasn’t pursuing the surgery for aesthetic purposes and it was in fact for medical reasons (but obviously not as urgent as a breast cancer case) but she said the office wouldn’t/“couldn’t” do it. I’m bummed, but didn’t want to give up just yet. I call another office in my area who has a different surgeon (also great reviews but none from anyone I personally knew) and leave a message to inquire about a consultation. I get a call back and I am told they don’t bill insurance and are cash only.
At this point I don’t know if I have any other options. I feel like I’ve hit a wall.. Has anyone run into this issue before with their insurance? Are more dr’s going cash only?
For reference, I am 5’ 3” and am currently a 36-38DDD. At my thinnest weight of 100 lbs, I was still a 32DD. I mention my size at my thinnest because I’ve had people tell me that I just need to lose weight, but that won’t solve the problem as I’ve been large chested from an early age. Genetics also play a roll as my mother was also large chested and passed away from breast cancer at a young age. Her mother also passed away fairly young from cancer (I’m not sure what kind), making me a third generation for potential cancer risk. Any help/advice is appreciated. Or words of encouragement if you are also going through something similar.

Hey! This post is mainly about roleplaying online, but there are things involving D&D too. I hope it is okay to make a post like this! If anyone wants to use this story for their video, feel free to.
Disclaimer: I talk about self worth a lot, and how I harmed myself mentaly by thinking how worthless I was. Also there is a subtle mention of my self harm past. Just in case someone has problems being confronted with this!
Disclaimer 2: There is a transphobic comment coming from a person, that I don't see as to bad, but some might see as worse than I do. Also there is transphobia towards genderfluid people, so look out for yourself.
Disclaimer 3: This person is NOT transphobic, but they were pretty uninformed and unsensitive. This doesn't make it better, but I clearly want to seperate transphobic statements from being actively hateful towards trans people.
So I was roleplaying ever since 2016, when I was 14 years old. A few years later, I met a guy, which I'll call Chris in the context of this post. Our first time meeting online was tied to some drama. For roleplaying, we made wikis for our characters, and often would use existing characters from games and medias as a design reference. When I used a reference, Chris was really pissed, because he announced that he would use this character a few dqys ago, and I was already writing a character with that as their reference. I knew he planned that, and didn't say anything, thinking it would be better to just speed it up. Dumb decision of me, rough start, but soon we'd get along. It was pretty fun, we were both sorta the memeish people, and he seemed to be a nice guy.
We soon became friends, after I went into an RP break. During that break I needed to sort things out, due to covid and my outing as a trans fem, and a difficult relationship with my parents. I had a bad case of... thoughts and it hurt my self awareness, and self view on my "worth in life", but once that was sorted out, I decided to play again, and went into a older Roleplay, hosted by Chris. There were still some leftovers of lacking self love, though it got eventualy better during roleplay. Soon I realized that Cris and I would argue often about the simplest things. I decided it was not a big deal, and we would get passed these issues, sometimes without resolving it, sometimes with me being able to lay my stubborness away, which I am not proud of. In the cases in which he started the fight, I sometimes felt gaslit into thinking that I was the problem. It hurt my vision of my own worth, and I started to skill evasion, to not talk about certain things, just not to get reminded of how "worthless" I am. Sometimes I told Chris about this issue, and he'd be empathetic, but calmly said I need to work on it. He had a lot of self love, it felt like he couldn't understand my issue, but I don't know anything specific, after all I can't look into someones head. I think he meant well, but it felt unsensitive, and unempathetic at the end.
The roleplay he hosted took place in a big world, with a really awesome lore, not only in terms of world building, but also in terms of characters and species. The big issue I had was, that Chris introduced enemies to me, that he planned to be introduced in the roleplay way later, while he planned more and more main enemies to exist. As far as I know, the first main enemy still is the main enemy, despite being introduced for almost 4 years now. And paired with his situational motivation to roleplay (which is completely fine generaly, but then we'd need a solution for the main enemies), and his and my tendencies to create character after character (I had 63 characters for that roleplay), we never got to progress, and instead thickened our own characters plots.
One situation was pretty odd. When coping with trans discrimination, I often write stories or characters, that faced these problems too. That way I often felt like I could make it out of my strange situations too. I made a character that I was really proud of, gave her a trans fem backstory, that was one of the better one's I have written at that time and made her a badass, etherial bookworm with magic powers. Chris said that her issues with her trans discriminatory parents would be unrealistic, due to the utopic monarchy they'd live in, and because his queen character could change trans peoples bodies if they'd like to, by using magic. It was honestly weird, because I didn't know if he was supportive there, or unsupportive in that moment, but I know that it made me sad, and I stopped making her trans identity imoortant to progress the plot between her and her parents. This was also a character he often talked down, and Chris often stated his dislike towards her. (That was not of transphobic background, he just didn't like her character and I guess her skill set)
I also made a character that could shift from male to female, and the other way around, based on the skills used. It also was a solution for me wanting to use two design references without having to chose one, and dable into non-binary umbrella story writing, and play a genderfluid person, because I never did that before. After researching on those gender identities, I was hyped to try it out. He also stated, that he thought her being female-only would be cooler. My mind told me, that we potentialy would have this conversation more often, so to not get annoyed by him later on, I changed that person into a cis-female, which I think was really sad.
We had a solidified group of 5ish players that often did stuff together on discord. Sometimes some other people would join our discord server and talk. Daily roleplay players were peaking at... idk 10-15 players probably. Chris, me, and Arin (a friend of us, not his real name) often would hangout in the discord, talk about the roleplay and some funny, silly stuff. Memes were made, we made fun of each others characters (consentualy) and talk about nerdy shit often. At one point, we'd make silly tier lists, which I sometimes took to serious, because most of them were just silly stuff and I got offended by those... which I am also not proud of and have apologized for.
The only exception in which things were rather weird, were the power scale tierlists. My characters usualy got ranked into the higher middle spots, but sometimes I felt like Chris would talk some of them down a little. Having some characters be weaker was sometjing I was always open too, sometimes I would make younger and unexperienced characters after all. Even if he didn't talk down on my characters (which is possible too, those tierlists were subjective after all) then he definitely did with others. Other players characters we wouldn't regularly play with, were seen as weaker, which I thought was weird. Knowing all of those characters was impossible, because there were 120ish at the time, but they were still ranked, and the tierlists were publicaly posted in the roleplay chat. Some people got offended by that, which I can understand.
There was some out of rp stuff too, that annoyed me about Chris. Often it was about being the #1 simp of media character X, Y, Z... you name them. It got pretty out of hand, but once I told him directly, that I think that this attitude was annoying, and that he can't look at other people and be like "Yeah, this person doesn't love my waifu as much as I do", and that it was a weird thing to rank ik the first olace, it got quiter in that region.
Sometimes we argued about music, and he tried to come off as more informed as me, a metal/death screamer, and djent guitarist, with music theory as a hobby. And I'm not trying to say he couldn't, but he said some very uninformed stuff, and tried to gatekeep... I guess the subject "Favorite music"? by saying stuff like "People who don't know their favorite songs lyrics obviously don't have that as their favorite". That statement is weird, because as a guitarist, in some songs I pay more attention to the guitars more, than the lyrics. Especially because I have ADHD and often get distracted when trying to listen to song lyrics. We both regularly listened to japanese music too, which we both can't speak nor understand. It'd bring me down into thinking, that I might not be a great musician, or that I was to radical when someone hurts my feelings, or simply says something weird and uninformed. But I showed this to other friends, and they said that I was not. Even Arin often would find the reason for the arguements rediculous, and 9/10 times it was coming from Chris.
Arin would soon start to feel like me and Chris fighting would be nothing unusual, and that was a reality check for me if I ever had one. At some point, I realized when I got into a different discord server, and was being more involved with my real life friends again, that something fell off in the friendship between me and Chris. But at that time, me, Arin and Chris prepared a pirate setting D&D campaigne, which I was extremely excited about. I used to play D&D when I was 15-16 years old, and remembered having fun, so getting back to it was a great thing for me. I made a female babarian, weilding a sword and a axe, with a high roll of 15 strength, and was really happy with her. Her backstory was sorta basic, but it was still tragic and it was good enough for me to enjoy. I roughly remember, it was about her losing her family, and her becoming a mercinary, that would be part of a two people pirate crew now, because she got payed to.
All of this was for nothing though. Me and Chris fought again. The fight was about a word, that I used in a romantic context, him not knowing the word, and after googling the definition, thinking it couldn't be used in that situation. Both of us would get stupidly mad. He said some really hurtful shit, saying that I would weigh my friendships now, and that my new friends would be more important to me now. Me, Chris and some other frienfs had a Gartic Phone session coming up, hosted by me, and we didn't talk before or after that, because I told him that I need distance to sort things out. But sorting things out would mean to finally distance myself from him this time, and thus I ended the friendship.
The D&D campagne dropped, I spent more time with my other friends, and... never got to play D&D ever since. (It's been 2 years now) The same campaigne was DMed by Arin later on, when his girlfriend took my place instead. I can understand Arins decision, and we are not in bad blood, he is still my friend. Yet it felt like a kick in the face, because all my friends would have a campaigne now, and I was left in the dark, noticing people get to play D&D left and right. And his girlfriend told me that she thought Chris was really exhausting to play with too. To be gair though, I never adressed this issue with Arin, because he is constantly DMing for 2 years now, in a group with Chris. I feel like telling him this would make things either worse, and it feels like I'd pushy.
What was worse though, I talked to Chris nearly every day, leaving me with a feeling that something really important was torn away, because I ended the friendship. It felt like I did something stupid again, and I felt worthless again, until I got told otherwise. I tried coming back to that specific roleplay multiple times again, and roleplay with a friend of me and Chris, even trying to be in contact with Chris again. He has definitely changed, but after a few weeks of contact, I decided we couldn't stay in contact, and slowly let the contact slip away from us, without starting any fight. Any attempt for roleplay is ruined for me now, but I think I'd give D&D another try.
I definitely did some stupid shit too, because I got really emotional. But after building a wall between me and Chris, I noticed that a lot of the crap in our friendship was not just coming from me. That I was allowed to love myself too, and that he gaslit me often. I'm not sure if I ever get back to pure roleplay, but after 2 years, I am willing to give D&D another chance, after feeling left out for such a long time now.

Hi, I’m a 15F, and I’m turning 16 during the summer. My dad is part of a “religious practice" in which we do not celebrate pagan holidays like Christmas,Halloween,Easter,New Years, birthdays, and more. When I was younger, we used to celebrate, but we stopped when i was around the age of 9–11. I never had a big problem with it until, like, a year ago. When I was 13, I was jealous of my long distance family members and friends for celebrating fun holidays while i did nothing. Recently, most of my friends turned 16 and had parties. The best sweet 16 I’ve seen was an ex-friend of mine had. She had a massive venue with a beautiful pink dress and crown. Her family and friends were there to support her. She was gifted a car and received so much money. I was extremely proud of her, but I couldn’t help but feel abiT of resentment. I only had the chance to experience the moment on camera because I’m not allowed to go to birthday parties. My second friend had a dinner party with friends and received expensive and thoughtful gifts, but I wasn’t able to go. Now a third friend had a sweet 16, but I wasn’t invited because I’m not close to her, which is understandable. Everyone had pictures and videos of her walking down the venue in a long gown. She looked like Disney Princess Tiana; she was so pretty, and her girlfriend was slow dancing with her. It was so cute, but once again, I couldn’t help but feel jealous. I asked my dad if I could do one, because I remember him saying a long time ago that I would be able to celebrate my 16th birthday. He obviously didn’t remember and said there was no point in throwing a birthday party because in his own words “what’s so important about turning 16 and not 17, 18, 19, and 20?”. He also said it’s disrespectful to God because I’m supposed to celebrate God alone. I don’t believe in God, but he doesn’t know that. I asked instead of throwing a big party if I could just have a birthday dinner with family and look pretty. He didn’t answer my question, but I could sense he’s not so on with it. I don’t believe I’m being unreasonable with my wishes; I’m aware we don’t have much money and a birthday dinner will work fine. My father isn’t a bad person; he’s just gotten really religious over the years. He's gotten less strict recently, but I still don’t want to miss out on my teen years. My birthday is coming up in a month, and I just want a day to celebrate me and my accomplishments in life.

Hey there everyone. Fiancé and I have been together for 4 years, engaged for 6 months.
I’ll start off by admitting I’m a very affectionate person. I love cuddles and kisses, as physical touch is my love language. However I also enjoy making my fiancé coffee and lunches and chatting with him about his day. I tell my fiancé that I love him, that he’s handsome and sweet. In my opinion, this is a very normal way of showing your significant other that you care about them.
In the beginning of our relationship, he loved my affection. However, a little over a year ago, I noticed my then boyfriend beginning to pull away from me. He seemed agitated by my affection and would never initiate. He also began saying things like “stop fucking asking me that” or “I couldn’t be bothered with this right now” when I would ask him about his day. I asked him quite a few times if things were alright between us and he insisted they were. I began to believe I was making things up in my head regarding his cold behavior.
He proposed and things improved for about a week, however they quickly took a nose dive once again. A few months ago, after I confronted him one last time, my fiancé admitted that things were not alright.
He told me that my affection aggravated him. My kisses, hugs, and cuddles make him angry. He hated when I “pestered” him about his day or how he slept and he wishes I would just leave him alone. He doesn’t like when I cook for him or brew his morning coffee, because he is “not a child” (mind you I didn’t do this every day. Just sometimes). He even said he was struggling to feel attracted to me because of all this.
“Just leave me the fuck alone” is what he wanted
To say this cut me deeply is putting it lightly. I felt fucking crushed. Knowing that I wasn’t crazy all along, that his looks of contempt when I snuggled close to him were real, broke my heart.
He asked me to stop these behaviors.
I spent a few weeks processing. I would sit in my car and cry alone, letting it all out before entering the house after work.
Then I decided to do what he asked of me. I no longer hug or kiss my fiancé. I don’t cuddle close to him at night. I don’t ask about his day. I don’t make his coffee or lunch. And I don’t tell him I love him.
Within 24 hours of this, my fiancé was repeatedly asking me what was wrong. I insisted nothing was wrong at all and continued on. In the last few weeks I joined a new yoga studio and started leaving the house early in the morning. I also visit my mother and girlfriends more often.
My fiancé has begun chasing me around and is fawning on me, giving me his credit card to buy myself gifts and initiating sex frequently. I have sex with him, but I’m not passionate. He will sometimes sadly ask “where’s my coffee?” Or “where’s my lunch?”
Yesterday he told me I’m like a completely different person and he doesn’t understand why I’m being so cold to him. I told him I’m simply doing what he asked. He said “this isn’t what I meant” and started crying and asking if I was going to leave him
I told him no, not right now. Then he insisted he would go to therapy and work on his affection issues, but he doesn’t want me behaving like this anymore
The thing is, I don’t want to go back to the way I was. I don’t feel for him the way I once did. I don’t want to hug and kiss him. I don’t want to make his coffee. I like focusing on myself.
However, I do think he is a good person and I would like for this relationship to work. Things were fantastic for the first 3 years of our relationship and I don’t necessarily want to throw it away
So, do I keep up my frigid behavior or do I return to my lovey dovey self- despite that not begging genuine?
TLDR: Fiancé told me that my affection agitates him, so I complied and stopped being affectionate. He now wants my affection back and says I’m like a different person.

I'm a young man, raised religious, and married to my best friend for a few years. I have struggled with porn/masturbation addiction on and off throughout the years (usually as a way to cope with on/off depression). I have had stints where I didn't partake, once when I was with a girlfriend I had in/post college of 3 years where we were very sexually compatible and once when I was single and recommitting my life to our higher diety.
When I met my current parter, we we're both practicing celibacy and had committed to being better in our religious practice. we were also leaders in church and had a lot in common. Our mutual interests brought us together and made us very close. I think I was very much overjoyed to find a partner who was someone I felt connected to that would fit well into my family and the life I aspired to have religiously. she was morally a good person, and a good friend, liked to have fun, and I was attracted to her. we did our best to hold to the celibacy but we ended up doing hand stuff basically ahead of marriage. Admist that we'd grow closer and i eventually proposed because we'd been talking about it and I was convinced it was something i wanted. Just around the proposal time I'd resumed using porn, with the pandemic hitting I basically had to make a lot of sacrifices to be with our families and move away from where we lived and put some of my career aspirations on pause (my main passion is art and I actively work to grow a career in that along side my 9-5, with some momentum building and success, and I take my daily practice very seriously).
We talked a lot about the art and how it could potentially interfare with my attention/love for her. I assured her that I'm not overly consumed by my dreams to the point that I wouldn't chose her over my dreams and that'd while i have to take my goals seriously I was always going to also make her a priority. I proved that through the move, and putting a lot of my work on pause for her and happily spending time with her and the family. Admittedly it was easy because the whole world was on pause. In this time period in moments when I'd be alone I'd sneak in moments of gratification with pornography - and thoughts about the partner i had in/post college would come back in my mind. That girl was one that was very different from my current partner in terms of interests - on paper we would've wanted to lead very different lives and had different interests... but the sex was so good. We constantly had sex and really enjoyed it. Even when we broke up we tried to discuss some sort of path forward and casual sex was on the table and we openly admitted how much we enjoyed each other. She was a good friend, but couldn't really be my best friend because our interests were just so far apart. I still find myself thinking about her today and I would think about her every year since i broke up with her (well before I met my current partner) and I still do...
this previous partner had broken up with me because she didn't see a path where I was intending on being with her long term marriage wise - like we'd never even discussed it after 3.5 years of being together and we both had big career decisions ahead of us that would've required a solid foundation. Long story short I stopped communicating with her after that break up as I thought it best since it hurt my pride but also woke me up that I didn't love her enough to marry her.
fast forward to my wedding day and my partner and i, after upholding our celibacy mostly, we had sex and I didn't enjoy and she didn't either. she's smaller than my previous partner, and while I do try to be gentle in my approach because i really do love having sex and pleasing my partners, it took a while and a lot of different medical aides for her to be able to enjoy sex with me. additionally, the sex just didn't feel gratifying to me the first time we had it, and while it has improved from time to time, after three years I still am left wishing we were more sexually compatible.. i don't have the same enthusiam I did with my in/post college partner.. I'd had other partners aside from this college partner but i often think back to being with the person and how good the sex was.
I know the dissatisfaction in our day-to-day isn't only on my side. She's expressed to me how she isn't getting "enough of me". My depression has only gotten worse in marriage, things that i feel have triggered it outside of the already described dillemma are having to deal with working a 9-5 I don't enjoy while trying my best to grow my art practice into a career of it's own. It takes work, dillegence, focus, and daily practice. But my partner doesn't seem to really understand what it takes. At first she'd be upset that i wasn't willing to spend time with her every day like I do my art. so i began to make sure we had tv time, went out for food, movies, i'd never miss a hangout she wanted me to accompany her to when her friends want to double date. I'd arrange hangouts. She expressed interest in finding her own art passion so I guided her through it, and tried ot show her how valuable having something for yourself to get lost in and do daily can be. She became a bit more understanding after finding her own new passion. But because my depression has gotten worse, and I'm not enjoying our intimacy time, she complains that she still feels mostly distant from me - and I always try to make changes to help. She has been trying to suggest maybe I'm striving too hard in my craft because "clearly I'm still unhappy" and suggests that there's more to life. We got a cat, I've tried to ease up, spend more time with them, clean around the house more, go on long vacations where it's just the two of us. She has always said her passion and goal is to travel more. I think it's a cool idea but I'm also considering the cost, and time, when every day counts toward my craft.. and I feel like I have to walk on eggshells if I tell her "hey i'm going to go to the cafe and work on art by myself" or "can we just have some downtime to work on art" because every day is filled with exploration and activities and it's exhausting.. We had this one event where an artist i was excited for was supposed to perform - but because we're abroad we didn't know that clubs in the area closed super late, and she wasn't feeling the event and wanted to go home, I wanted so badly to stay and just enjoy the whole night and was really bummed we had to go... I just feel this tension like I can't enjoy/explore life and my art the way I want to with her around... I always feel like I'm looking for every opportunity to escape to be free and be myself... and all I want to do just be alone.. which is why I'm writing here.
I am really unsure what to do.. we don't have kids but we talk about it a lot just to make sure it's something we want to do. I absolutely don't want to get in too deep with this.. I really do love her and if the sex was better (because it seems to be really important to my head person (my brain)) I think I'd be a bit more motivated but I'm just not happy unless I'm either fully exploring enjoying my craft and/or sexually satisfied. I feel like i'm feeding my void with more porn and it's actually making me more depressed and holding me back... but I don't feel like my partner is helping right now either.. We've had rounds of counseling, and are always trying to have sex and I make sure I please her and myself every time, she tries too, but it just hasn't been enough for me.

I'm going for a month long military exercises where i cant be on touch with my ld girlfriend. She's on meds after she lost her dad, so our breaks are realy hard for her. I want to write her 30 letters so she can read them one every day, but i dont know what to write. Could you give me some advice on where to start and what it should look like?

Hi my love. I hope you had a good Sunday. Kasberg's last day was today. (This time, lol) Not really sure what he's gonna do, but he said he's gonna stay local. He made me some of the best Chicken Cordon Bleu I've had in a long time. It was sooooo good. I'm still stuffed from earlier. Today was another boring day at work. I was there for 3.5 hours and made pretty decent money. It's nice. Except I came home and started cleaning more. But I'd rather do it now and not have to do it another day. I would have been working later anyway if it was a regular Sunday, so why not?
I am so stoked for tomorrow. It's finally Ava's birthday party at the river. I have been looking forward to it for weeks. I get to bring a fruit bowl and gummies to share, LOL. I am going to think of you soooo much. Even more than I always do. I hope I can channel a good feeling of your energy there instead of being sad the whole time and missing you so much. That's the struggle I face on a daily basis. A flip flop of extremely happy thinking of you and feeling your presence and writing to you and then super sad that I have to do it through a computer screen and that the energy is just energy and you're not here to hold me and hug me and tell me it's all gonna be ok.
My tummy is so bloated. I keep stress eating and it's nothing good. I need to go potty. I need to eat something that will help. I hate the constant yuck feeling. Maybe I should just go on a liquid diet for a few days to reset myself.
Thank you for my note this morning sweetie. 🥰 There's nothing better than seeing that to start my day. I always love the activities, but I love the notes even more. I still have every note you ever wrote to me. I read them sometimes, but it usually ends up making me cry. Sooooooo many emotions flooding over me. So many thoughts. So much everything. I miss you so much. I can't wait to write to you tomorrow. Always and forever, I love you more ❤️

Hello,. What tips do you have for using Chat GPT to write report card comments? I am asking for an elementary school specials area. I played around with it a little bit it was writing things that were way too long, way over-the-top happy, or the wrong tense(like I was talking TO the student rather than ABOUT the student). Thank you

This post is very long. This first section, before the first triple-line-break, is the summary. Details follow that.
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SUMMARY
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So, I was very much looking forward to Legendary Tales for a while now after hearing so many great things.
I bought it on sale a couple days ago and played the first hour or so, completing the tutorial and entering the main hub. Then I uninstalled and refunded it.
This is not a 'hate post' and I hope that this post will not only help people understand some of the issues of this game, and what this game is NOT, but also help people understand what this game is and why you might love it. I talked about my criticisms with others who love the game to help me approach this and hopefully deliver some useful thoughts. It's worth noting that I got lots of agreement about my criticisms from the people I talked to - who still love the game.
In short,
People love this game for the combat development in the context of a 40+ hour adventure. All the depth to the skill trees, which of course in my hour I didn't touch. The creativity of building the mechanics of a character RPG style - except you get to physically battle in VR. The reward of unlocking that cool skill you've been excited to try out, or finding a legendary that's a blast to use. Even in my short time with the game I could feel the beginnings of this with the parry system. I did have fun fighting skeletons with a simple sword and no skills, and felt the challenge as I had to aim my sword deflections well and time my counterstrikes. There is an effective mechanic preventing waggle-fest and I can begin to imagine all the room to develop your combat mechanics in a way that is, fun and rewarding, and uniquely VR.
Sounds great right? To some it truly is.
But to me, not so much. Why? Because everything else is lacking to a degree I did not expect.
I've been playing a lot of The Light Brigade lately. And although these two games are totally different, it's a useful game to bring up because The Light Brigade excels in all the ways that Legendary Tales significantly falls short.
Atmosphere - music and sound, lighting and colours, art design, character and enemy models
Interfacing - Onboarding and intuitive learning, UI design and fluidity, control mapping, options, grabbing/interacting with objects, general polish
Storytelling - Plot, lore, world building, characters, character and enemy expressiveness, writing
For many people who play games, combat is at the forefront of their interests. For me, it always takes a backseat priority - if its present at all - to the above three aspects. The combat in Bloodborne is great, but it is because it excels in those 3 aspects that it's one of my favourite games. I also love lengthy games like Pentiment, Disco Elysium, Planescape Torment, and Pathologic 2, which have minimal or no combat and lots of reading!
Legendary Tales is simply mediocre in those three bolded aspects and for me that's a hard pass. If these aspects were serviceable to me - done well enough to facilitate the combat - I might have kept going. But I don't use the world 'mediocre' lightly. This is the appropriate word to me, and because of that, I did not want to spend 40+ hours in this world.
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DETAILS
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For those interested, or for the developers, I will continue with a breakdown of these aspects I am criticizing, trying to go through everything I felt about them in the first hour or so of playing.
Main menu was my favourite part. I liked the scene + music together. Nice. I was looking forward to playing and this had me feeling fuzzy and ready to enjoy the game. Unfortunately, it was not to be.
The very first issue I noticed was that the game felt washed out. Even in that main menu I liked, I was feeling like it was a bit washed out. So I tried adjusting brightness down... then the darker areas felt better, but the light areas felt off. The more I played and tried to adjust to find the right equilibrium, the more I realized the lighting and contrast is just not good and adjusting brightness can't save that.
The second issue I noticed was the menu cursor to select things. It felt like an early VR game that hadn't quite figured out VR menus yet. It's useable but not fluid and pleasing.
The third issue I noticed was the unintuitive controls. I thought that this was the kind of game, kind of like a Souls game, where you aren't taught everything but learn things as you go in an organic manner. Maybe some of that exists in this game, but mostly it's simply bad control design and a bad tutorial. It's the difference between having barriers that have purpose, purposeful friction, and feel good when discovered vs barriers that feel pointless and just build frustration without purpose. The controls feel like a mess and while it's apparent that people can get used to them as they play more, it's not in a justified sense.
Along with this are interfacing issues. For example, grabbing items feels very awkward. The motions are clunky, for example the way a weapon will slowly glide into place in your hands. There's so many interfacing issues. The interface to see weapon/item stats on weapons that are laying about is clunky, the interface to switch weapons is clunky, the magic interface is clunky, dialogue boxes feel clunky,... all of these things feel clunky both in terms of feel and also aesthetic.
A very straightforward and obvious example is dialogue. Character dialogue is presented in a large bland text on a page. To progress through the dialogue, there's no obvious place to click or button to push. In fact, you have to click a particular area of the page, which feels totally arbitrary and unintuitive. Sure, once you learn, you can do it fine, but it's just bad interface design.
To go back to The Light Brigade, think about the difference in both feel and aesthetic to opening a chest or breaking a pot. Grabbing a gun and how it arrives to your hand. The attractive dialogue boxes. Watching a reward pop out of a chest, picking a tarot card. Putting objects into your waist pouch or taking them out. These interactions are all comfortable, beautiful, fluid, and intuitive.
The next thing on my mind was sound.
As I played the tutorial, the soundscape was barren. There was a wind loop, which didn't loop correctly leaving a solid second of space between the end and beginning. Sounds didn't feel like they were placed quite right in 3D space. Point-based sounds (like the crackling of a campfire, that comes from a specific point in space) had too small of a zone (the sound should be heard from further away). In general the soundscape was very barebones. And when I encountered the first character, not only did the character look totally goofy and out of place, but they made no sounds when 'speaking', not even grunts or gibberish sound.
To skip ahead for a moment, I also felt the music did not match the environments enough. The music was quite pretty - that's not the problem. It just didn't feel like the environments were quite synergized with the music.
Again for both music and sound, think of the gun sounds, the ability sounds, the sound of the enemies as they spot you, the sound of the environment, the footsteps and dash, the grunts of characters when the speak, the music... not only does it all sound great, but it all feels like expressions of the unique world of The Light Brigade. This is excellent sound and music design, that truly bring the world to life.
Although a minor complaint, I also noticed lots of grammar and spelling errors. Although I understand the team is in South Korea, and I appreciate the challenges of translation, just like with everything else I was just expecting... more polish. I thought it would feel like a full package, at indie scale. But it feels very much like a partial package.
And that segues into the writing...
There are games with simple and/or unmemorable story, where the story is still servicing and facilitating the gameplay.
And then there is just plain bad writing.
This is very much the latter.
Maybe a bit of this goes back to translation but I am doubtful that it fares much better in original Korean in essence.
The writing is goofy, juvenile, poorly structured, and generic.
I was also seriously turned off by a couple lines in particular, that I'm sure affect me more than most but I will mention anyways. One was something like "valuable gem missing. And a hot girl". Like... There's nothing inherent about calling a woman (or a man) hot that I don't like. Yes gamers, you are allowed to find women attractive, relax. But it's the way its written,... I'm not going to turn this into an essay about male gaze but the way its written simply services a particular male audience that casually objectifies women.
Even worse was the final line I read, a quest line. Paraphrasing, but the primary descriptive words are all exact: "Go kill 10 kill peasants in a refugee camp". I don't think I need to elaborate, people who are on a similar page to me will understand why this was just an incredibly gross line.
I know the above two dialogue criticisms will not be shared by everyone and not affect everyone the same way. I am expressing them as part of what I felt, my personal criticisms and experience, just like the rest of what I'm sharing.
Again to compare to The Light Brigade... every line feels thoughtful and builds character and develops the lore. Whether its the forlorn lines of NPC members of The Light Brigade, or the scenes that appear between runs, and other bits and pieces you get. The Light Brigade develops so much world with few words, it's quite impressive and again a beacon that Urban Wolf Games can learn from.
The final issue I'll discuss was something that struck me earlier on. That is, player character model and lack of customization.
First of all - again an issue that the majority here probably won't be affected by - I could not pick my character model until after completing the tutorial. Specifically, I was forced to do calibration as a male character model, and then had to play the tutorial as this character. Minor complaint but again just another polish issue.
Both male and female models are just... boring designs, and the female model is again very juvenile, obviously serving a primarily male audience, whether intentionally or not.
But more importantly, there's no character customization. Not even the tiniest bit. Even the ability to change just skin colour and hair only would go a long way. Especially in a lengthy adventure like this, I need to be able to identify with my character. Especially with multiplayer it seems essential to me, but even if it were single player, and as someone who plays primarily in single player, character customization is hugely impactful to me.
This does not really have a contrast in The Light Brigade - there's no character customization in The Light Brigade either, although the kind of game it is, it's not as relevant. That said, I do think it would be a nice touch if there WAS some minor character customization in The Light Brigade, and especially if you could play as a woman instead of man if you so choose. Although maybe lore-wise it is intended that all members are male except for 'Mother'. This hasn't been established with any good reason though. So on this point I would lightly criticize The Light Brigade as well.
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ENDING THOUGHTS
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Ultimately, Legendary Tales is quite simply a very indie game that probably had a very small team and limited funds. I don't know for sure, but probably there *wasn't* a dedicated writer, a dedicated UI and interface designer, etc.
However, these things are still failings of the game and its design. The greatest indie games to me are ones that successfully recognize their scope limitations and develop something complete within that scope. Whether it's the roguelike world of The Light Brigade, or the very short and stylish Tiger Blade, or Jeff Minter's trippy games like Akka Arrh and Polybius, or the retro Silent Hill aesthetic of Organ Quarter, or the suspenseful hotel of Propagation Paradise Hotel... all these games are made by small teams but successfully navigate their limited funds to deliver a full package within an appropriately limited scope.
On the one hand, I really value and support BJ's push for indie games to be respected and for that respect to reflect in the price consumers are prepared to pay. But after being totally on board with the price of Legendary Tales based on what I read from BJ and reviewers and many regular players too, I have to disagree with this game's pricing. This game is not polished enough, and is not a full package. That the game sucked out so much funds is an error of scope.
Maybe I will be in the minority, and Legendary Tales has been a success so it seems that I am, and so good on them for knowing the value of their game to the demographic they targeted I guess. And regardless, even if the pricing and attempted scope of the game are an error on the dev's part, I'm glad for the dev to earn back as much as they can, or even turn a profit hopefully.
But to me, reflecting back to the question the devs put forward: "Do you want to see deep combat development like this in VR for a 40+ hour adventure from indie devs?" The answer is no, I don't. I do consider the scope of this game an error on the part of the developers. It sounds like they did not even turn a profit enough to allow them to expand their team (but maybe I'm misunderstanding). I hope that they do continue with VR development, but instead focus on a much smaller scope game. Deliver a polished, complete package within a smaller scope, implementing a much tighter budget that will allow for potential turning of profit with an appropriately lighter sale price (maybe targeting a $30 game?).
If that is successful, do it again, and again, until they can expand and eventually work toward their dream adventure RPG, hiring actual writers and UI designers and sound designers etc. For me personally, this is simply not the kind of game you can half-bake. It should be attempted again when, and only when, they feel they have budget to do this in a truly full and polished manner.
I had the pleasure of meeting BJ briefly at PAX East. He struck me as friendly, kind, totally genuine, and incredibly passionate as a game developer and a VR game developer in particular.
I do wish this team good luck and despite my own harsh criticism I am glad so many ARE enjoying this game, and also feel the price point is justified. I want devs to earn money, including Urban Wolf Games. And I hope that they will continue to develop and bring more VR to the world.
I hope that my criticism is constructive and useful toward these same goals.

Hey everyone, currently writing this in the Papa John's parking lot. I cannot emphasize enough how Little Caesers ruined my life. I can't even stand to be within a mile of one. Hell, even legally, I'm banned from every Little Caesers in the United States for the crimes I was coerced into committing.
It all started 4 months ago. I (18M) was an average man with an average life. I was making $370K a year as an Onlyfans model. Honestly, to say I was an average man is an understatement. I was in the top 0.3% of creators. I had a beautiful girlfriend (19F) who was in her late teens. I drove a Bentley, lived in a mansion, vacationed three times a month, we really lived it up.
Anyways, 4 months ago it was my girlfriend and I's 2 year anniversary together, so I wanted to do something special for her. Our first date was at her grandmother's pizzeria, so I thought why not recreate a similar experience?
I told her that tomorrow night I was going to give her the best anniversary she's had. Anyways, following day she tells me she wants a "girls day out". Which, I didn't approve of because last time that happened she went and had sex with 8 different people in the span of 2 hours at a "Girls Halloween party". Her defense was, it wasn't cheating since they were all adults and "Wanted to blow off some steam because I don't let her work and constantly abuse her". Which, let me tell you isn't true. She's a liar, a cheater, and promiscuous. I don't let her work, because I fear she may cheat on me. I have reason to believe she would cheat because I'm an Onlyfans model. I'm sleeping with up to 5 clients a day. I know how much sex is involved with working a full-time job. I had to struggle for 20 years prior to landing my high-paying career for $1000 a month. So I think I'm pretty qualified to say, she will 100% get involved with others if she gets a job. And the abuse part? It's a complete lie. I've only ever laid hands on her a few times in 2024- and each time she's deserved it. Does she think she's better than me? She's unemployed and thinks she can talk.
Now that we're all on the same page that I'm a loving, caring partner, let me tell you about date night. After the traumatic experience of her cheating on me, I was hoping it wouldn't happen again but I had to let her go because I couldn't let her find out about the special place I was getting food from.
I drive up to Little Caesers, and I get some divine intervention to just.. I don't even know. I can't put into words how I felt. What happened next is still a hazy memory. I immediately ripped all my clothes off, put the car into neutral and barged into Little Caesers. My jaw fell onto the counter, right into this one lady's crazy puffs when I saw MY GIRLFRIEND getting involved with the manager, and three of the other employees. It was honestly kind of hot, so I jumped over the counter and pinned the man on the floor and started engaging with him. I'm not gay, but I truly felt like in the moment that was the right thing to do as I couldn't let him get away with this. My girlfriend, covered her pepperoni nips up with two containers of crazy sauce, and was very embarrassed.
I knocked the man out, and thought "only three more left. You got this MattyOW." The speaker suddenly switched to full blasting a song called "Pino-Angel Discipline". And let me tell you, that made my mood even better. I had a duty to fulfill. I started engaging with every employee, and every customer in the lobby. I even engaged with a packet of jalapeño cheddar dipping sauce, and I was shooting loads of crazy sauce all over the establishment. I felt like a hero. My girlfriend was astonished, looking at her manager on the floor in a pool of crazy sauce, blood, and a mix of jalapeño cheddar.
Now, I thought it was over and I could pick up my mobile order and go home and live happily ever after. But that's not all peeps. Remember when I got out of the car? I put it in neutral, not park. I knew I messed up, seeing the headlights getting closer and closer, I was literally a deer in headlights. then my car smashes through the front window, runs over the customers I just had an engaging time with, and slams into the counter and comes to a screeching halt.
I tried to go over to my girlfriend and comfort her, like any good partner would but she runs out of the restaurant screaming for help. Honestly, I was confused because I did nothing wrong. I was a hero that night.
The cops show up, I get arrested and I'm informed that my girlfriend filed for a breakup, and I'll be placed under investigation for multiple claims of domestic issues, arson, attempted harm, and manslaughter. I couldn't believe it, I knew I was the victim.
Anyways, I broke out of jail where I was awaiting trial and stole a minivan where I now sit, writing this in the Papa John's parking lot awaiting to start my first shift in an hour. I hope you all can sympathize with me, and give me advice as to what to do in these dark times.

Hi folks,
Wondering if any generous souls might be willing to give me their two cents on two layouts I did this morning. The relevant background here (confirmed with another reading) is that I'm currently part of a destruction dynamic going on with my current employer (whom I'm trying to leave asap) and I believe that business is going under. Approx. six months ago, I did some readings which seemingly indicated a destruction dynamic and I asked for clarification here. Some kind people interpreted the spreads as saying to lay low for a while, which I've been doing until very recently when I've felt called to do some divination.
For what its worth, based on the water of life card appearing frequently, it seems I'm on my correct path and healing, if that helps as additional context.
In a yes/no reading from the Tarot Skills for the 21st century:
"Is there an available curriculum of magical learning which would provide more net benefit to my life than Quareia?" (what I was trying to get at was whether, overall, there was a program that might be a better fit - I haven't come across it and remain very interest in Quareia and generally a big fan of JMC).
Answer:

1. What the question is about: Magical Death
   
2. The relevant past: Underworld
   
3. Difficulties to be overcome: Dreams
   
4. Help you are given: Partnership
   
5. The future outcome/what the answer will lead to: Hidden Knowledge
   
6. The answer: Ghost
   

I had and have no idea how to read the Ghost here as an answer. I believe from other divination that the destructive dynamic going on at work (of which I'm seemingly a necessary part) is underworld related (which may be a duh for some folks, apologies, but I know nothing).
So because I found this really confusing, I did a clarifying reading with the tree of life layout used in the same book, and asked: "Is the Ghost card in the prior reading telling me there is a spirit of a dead person around me or the situation?"

1. What the story is about: Stargazers
   
2. Positive or giving aspect forming the story: Fate Weavers
   
3. What is hidden or past that has bearing on the story: Leadership
   
4. What is necessary for the story to develop: Unraveller
   
5. What is withheld from the story or being taken away: East Gate
   
6. The pivotal aspect of the story: Inner Desert
   
7. What needs discipline or limiting for success: True Justice
   
8. What needs relaxing to flow: Service
   
9. The reason or dynamic behind the answer: Separation
   
10. The answer: Voice of untruth
    

I read the answer here via the voice of untruth as being "No, not the spirit of a dead person." I assume the separation dynamics have to do with separating from my employment, and that perhaps service is being used as a substitute for "work" meaning relax about work or don't do as much, but no idea. Leadership, I assume refers to my past actions. But this left me with no sense of the answer to my original question.
I've found the whole thing really confusing. If you've made it this far with me, I really appreciate you. To help figure out what these other readings mean, I did the Mystagogus layout, which read as follows. I don't ask that anyone try to interpret this for me, but merely provide it for context on the other readings.
1. Progenitor: what the story is about
a. Water Of Life: soul nourishment, sacred healing, physical healing, divine love, regeneration, working with water energy
2. Endurance: what must be overcome for success/growth
a. Sacred Place: holy place, sacred space, place of divine presence, clean, balanced, safe place, special person, nature power spot
3. Unraveling: what must be let go of or loosened up, or what is falling away
a. South Gate: south, future, fire, creative fire, volatile energy, yes, positive
4. Partnership: what you are closely interacting with or what is having a direct influence
a. Destruction: loss, destruction, dangerous imbalance, destructive behavior, make a major change, painful rebalancing, catastrophe, natural disaster, get out of the way.
5. Hearth: home, family, tribe
a. Silence: be silent, do not act, you do not need to know, do not ask, think before speaking, secrets and keeping secrets
6. West Gate: what is now fading into the past but can return
a. Load sharer: sharing a burden, upholding others, caretaking, holding a magical working, protecting someone, helping, hard work, enabling someone
7. North Gate: what is now long past and will not return, but has relevance
a. Harvester: death, change, liberation, closing, limited time, letting go, end of a fate cycle, loss of control that destroys.
8. Fate weavers: the current individual’s fate pattern that is active
a. West Gate: leaving, coming to an end, very recent past, slowing down, aging, direction of west, probably not, no longer viable
9. The Path: what is moving forward, active and positive
a. Companions: working creature companion, tend to creatures, augury, an important animal or bird, an animal is the key
10. The Binder: what is withheld, is not active, nor should be
a. Creating: creating, painting, writing, sacred art, consecrated art, sacred words, creative service, music, drama, the creative act
11. The gift: help that comes to the situation
a. Hidden Knowledge: unseen, secret, hidden, beyond understanding, hidden potential, unknown, depths, unseen water, incubation of great learning, despair before emerging, dark night of the soul
12. Underworld: The adversary of the situation
a. The Path: important fate path, trust, yes, correct, way ahead, action, move forward
13. Dreams: what is happening in sleep and dreams, can also be a position of visionary work
a. Progenitor: Idea forming, divine presence, preconception, before dawn
14. Inner Worlds: What is flowing to the situation from the innespirit worlds
a. Unraveller: falling apart, falling away, loosening, breaking up slowly, crumbling, unwinding.
15. Daimon: advice offered on what actions are needed for success
a. Perception: pay attention, a sign, warning, exposing hidden information, precognition, prophecy, awareness, truth, understanding the truth, seeing what others do not see, seeing what is veiled.
16. Danger: what is dangerous and can inhibit or stop progress
a. Purification: ritual cleansing, purify, consecreate, bathe, tidy up, clean space, make sacred
17. East Gate: Short term future, the path ahead
a. Splendor: yes, success, achievement, joy, beauty, respect, harmony
18. South Gate: What will come to be in the longer term future as a result of the current situation
a. Secret Commonwealth: land being, faery, nature spirit, unpredictable person or situation, make no promises, strangeness, a need for integrity in the face of unfairness
I took a lot of comfort in this reading because it seems like I'm at least on a positive path even in the midst of a destructive tide or dynamic with my company. I read some of this as "stay muddy to be camouflaged, don't cleanse yourself or your home overmuch."
Would really appreciate any thoughts or insight of parts or the whole of this.
Thanks all, and hope everyone is safe and healthy.

hey everyone! i received a $100 gift card to ulta for my birthday!!! what are some products i should look into?
for reference, i wear makeup pretty frequently and have all the basic necessities. the majority of my make up is drug store brands (like elf, milani, etc.). i kinda want to use the as an opportunity to venture out and buy a few “higher end” makeup products. is there anything at ulta that’s worth the hype in your opinion?

My girlfriend broke up with me tonight. She said that I've been in effect soft ghosting her because I don't want to break it off.
Background: So we were together for almost 13 years. We both had troubled childhoods. Each others first everything. However, I was always the one putting in more effort.
I could list the inequality in our relationship for days, but to sum up the main bits. She has physically harmed me. She has never shown any appreciation for the things I do for her. She ran off with a body builder for a year. She claims she never slept with him, but the more time passes the more I just feel like a mug. She moved out of a house I bought, and has made no effort to move back stating I need to buy a better house. I pay for everything. There are worse things than these but I honestly feel guilty even writing it. I feel like such a failure just putting it into words.
These things mounted and I developed some bad psychological issues as a result. Due to this, I've been in therapy for the last 6 months. It's a long ass work in progress. She asks about it now and again, but I literally tell her nothing. I'm extremely guarded in what I say to her.
A year ago, she got her life together. Got a job she enjoys, friends, and now wants to move on in life. Get married, have children, buy a new house, etc. Our relationship is honestly the best it's been in a decade. A few weeks ago she was talking to me about selling my house and buying one together. I gave a non committal response and she jumped on it. I effectively let out that I'm half in half out of the relationship, and that I gave up trying to communicate my displeasure. I gave up because after saying I feel unappreciated and disrespected 100 times, with no appropriate corresponding change in behavior, you lose the will to talk. She went on to ask if I wanted to break up, and I just said "You've compromised me to the point that I've lost the will to make any decisions about anything to do with this, and I don't have the will to talk about it again." At this point, talking about the issue feels like I Bart Simpson writing another line on the chalkboard.
After dotting around the issue for a few weeks, she has messaged to say she wants to break up because I basically soft ghosting her.
In all honesty, I don't really know where to go from here. I never really liked the idea of sleeping with more than one person in my lifetime. I really love her personality in the good times, but it seems completely contingent on her being set and happy. She was always my one and only everything. I've never really been interested in anyone else like this. On the other hand, there is so much water under the bridge I could fill an ocean. In all honesty, I'm bitter and resentful about everything. On one hand, I really hate that this is how my life has turned out. On the other, I do feel like my resentment may be leading me to throw away everything.
She has worked on herself, and she is trying. That's what makes this all the more hard. I don't feel like I'm moving on from her at the low points, I feel like I can't fully appreciate anything anymore because of the past.
Do you think it's unreasonable of me to be hung up on the past in this way? Should I be more forgiving?

For clarity, we’ll call my girlfriend Nicole and his sister Penny
When Nicole and I started dating things were amazing. We got along so well and we enjoyed all of our time together. Nicole lived alone with her mom and got along with her mom and I got along with her as well. Several months later Penny (the sister) moved back in and everything changed. My and my girlfriend’s relationship became strained. Penny constantly fought (argued) with their mom and it caused the mom become a different person it seems. Their mom went from being nice to being consistently rude and uncaring to her daughters as well as me. Though Penny begged to come back home, I’m not sure why the mom allowed it being that Penny was kicked out due to stealing thousands of dollars from their mothers bank account
But it wasn’t as if that one thing happened and they just continued to hate her. Penny was consistently a bad person. My girlfriend, Nicole, would often tell me about verbal abuse and emotionally manipulation as well stealing (money, weed, car keys)
At some point their mother had enough and gave them a deadline to move out. Without other options Nicole and Penny found a place and have been living together for the past few months and just in that time span it’s been horrible

• Nicole works two jobs to help with bills and Penny refuses to do the same simply out of lack of desire. This results in Nicole being overworked and stressed out because she’s doing most of the work so they can keep a home. Penny claims to never have money to pay for things but always somehow has money for weed, to stay in airbnbs, and get gifts for their significant other
• Recently Penny got into a minor car accident (bumped a car causing its license plate to fall off). This could happen to anyone and wouldn’t be a big deal if she wasn’t driving Nicole’s car with a suspended license (penny does not have her own car). Thankfully no one was hurt and she was not arrested but my girlfriends car payments went up (Penny isn’t paying for it)
• Also recently, Penny’s criminal activity resulted in them almost losing their apartment. Penny deals in credit card fraud with a friend of hers. I guess something went wrong and the friend who handles it accidentally deferred their first months payment made on Pennys card (I don’t personally know how this stuff works, I’m paraphrasing what was told to me). Apparently it couldn’t be undone and Nicole had to take out a loan to prevent the apartment complex from “taking legal action” against them

I’m aware in most of this it took two to tango. Nicole enables Penny. Penny can live how she wants but in order to stop being detrimented by her she has to do something. My concern is I’m not confident that will happen. I’ve talked with her endlessly about something needing to be done: standing up to her sister, setting boundaries, warning about situations getting worse - and here we are. They have a one year lease and the last three bullet points happened in the past three months. I’m also concerned for myself because (maybe I’m being paranoid) I know about these things and I’m often with them; will any of this get me in trouble?
How would you handle this?

Alright I’m prepared for the telling-off I’ll get for this
I’m a third year games production student and I’ve been working on a dissertation
The assignment requires us to choose an area of study related to the games tech industry, examine existing research on this (literature review), then create a practical test in order to further explore this area of study, analyse the results and come to a conclusion
I picked player immersion as a topic, specifically exploring the importance of one factor of the design of a game over another, and my practical test looked at the importance of textures - participants are shown two game environments, both identical except one has the textures removed. Participants are then given a questionnaire asking them which environment they felt was most immersive and why exactly that was. I’d then analyse the results and come to a conclusion
That was the plan anyway. I’ve been working on this for months
Initial progress was good, until I began working putting together the practical test - had several issues developing this, was much more time consuming than it should’ve been, and getting everything sorted left me very short on time. And I’m starting to feel like I’m as fucked as a sock in a teenager’s bedroom
Currently, progress on my dissertation looks like thus
I have completed the practical test and got some results (not really as many as I wanted but I’ve asked everywhere I can think of bar here, not sure this place will let me post the test :/)
I have completed the introduction (250 words), and literature review (3000 words)
This means I still have the following sections to complete
Methodology - a summary of your practical test, justification of your choices here and what you aim to achieve - my wordcount guide says this should be a minimum of around 1500 words
Results section - a largely visual display of the data/results from your practical test - no minimum word count expected because there shouldn’t be much text here
Analysis of results - fairly self explanatory - should be around 3000 words
Conclusion - summary of dissertation - should be around 400 words
I have quite a lot of guidance on the way to write these sections, but I can’t seem to get anywhere near those minimum wordcounts
The really bad news?
It’s due at 17:00 on the 21st, but (this might sound childish) I’d like to leave the day of the 21st free because that also happens to be my 21st birthday.
I have all day free today - the 20th - to work on this though - absolutely no other commitments
Can it be done?

hi, i am 42 and i feel all i have in my life is my job and my parents of whom i live with.
i have no children or family or my own, and this failing has been eating away at me. tried to do something about it but nothing availed (career? string of dead end jobs. women? never reply or can ever get close to on a personal level). after my grandmum died a few weeks ago i really do begin to feel the clock ticking and this anxiety and worry, i dont know if thats a midlife crisis.
all i know, this is not just an episode of being 'down in the dumps'. its been something i feel its been growing inside me for years - not in my head, but feeling it from my gut. i'm starting to feel it interrupting my job. my get up and go has got up has gone. i just dont feel like working even though the rational part of me forces myself to just do it. i dont know if i have depression but lately i am in this state where i just dont feel like doing anything and i am just unhappy.
i used to be a gamer in my 30s as a hobby, but i havent even touched my ps5 for over 6 months. i've sold all my games. i just lost the will to play.
i have been seeing a counsellor for 11 years in trying to 'get help' (as everyone keeps saying) but i feel its done hardly anything for me. she has aspired me to do travelling to get out my comfort zone and meet people, which i have done. but thats it. even travelling is becoming meaningless now because i am constantly in this state of preoccupation. i know after a big holiday i'll never see those people again even if they add me on facebook or not (and when they don't, it hurts).
people say talk to friends and family. i have no real friends. never have. when i was a little boy in school, i was bullied. in secondary school i got focused on my studies thinking that eventually, a degree would unlock a life of fabulous riches. but i eventually learned the hard way with years of unemployment that it wasnt, back then. i tried reaching out to people, online via a facebook group, but it descended to insults and hurtful remarks that left me banned and made me punched the wall. my family doesnt know about my feelings, becaise from what i have seen, mental health is seen as taboo. they'll just admonish me, shout me down, tell me to get a grip. i cant really talk to them because they're going to deny theres a problem. and i dont want to break their hearts, especially my parents. i rather soak the pain than bring them in it. i love them too much to see them feel hurt for me.
social groups - when going out, if its not work or a family function, i largely have social anxiety. i so badly want to meet women and get a girlfriend, who hopefully becomes my wife and eventual mother to my kids and form my new family, but i just seem incapable of it. i just cant get close to a woman at that personal and intimate level. if i try, it results in failure and embarassment. at the rare times i did try, it just doesnt come out right. i once went to salsa dancing class in a big city nearby, trying to talk to women, but the anxiety was so overwhelming, i couldnt breathe, and thought i was going to have a heart attack, i had to get out of there. i never been back since. i dont even go to pubs. i think about women more and more - even women i wasnt attracted to at first, drives me crazy now. i remember when leaving a job to move to another, a lady colleague i worked alot with hugged me, and it felt unlike anything i felt before. it was amazing. the softness, the warmth, the care...its as if i was missing that my whole life. i was close to crying. i want to experience true closeness, and intimacy.
thats not to say i'm a virgin. i lost my virginity at 30 to an escort; that was a unsatisfying experience as even then i had anxiety and couldnt perform properly - i did it because i didnt wanted to be the '30 year old virgin'. i just cant seem to get close with women. i tend to obsess about them. my instagram feed is full of attractive women. seeing beautiful ones on tv, even if its just the weather girl or news reader, it drives me nuts. in my job, i work with journalists, and theres many women there. i can talk to them confidently and easily, IF ITS ABOUT WORK. the instances i tried to talk about life in trying to get to know them and get close to them, the barrier goes up. i can tell because they wont add me on fb or whatever. i just cant seem to hack it with women. no woman = no wife = no mother to my children = no family of my own = no legacy.
i appreciate some might say not having family should not mean one is a failure. however, as much as i tried to ignore it, i come from a culture whereby family trumps everything else - money, career, hobbies, everything. i been ignoring it for years. trying to chase a career, which ended up as a string of dead end temporary jobs. losing 15 years of my life to this, living from temp job to temp job, and going to over 200 job interviews in getting secure employment, enduring hundreds of devastating rejections. but, years later, i now have at least job security, which is most important, but am beginning to feel the limit of my pay. trying to chase a career, spending nights throughout the 2010s playing video games and enjoying my gaming career in that, playing adventure games...but now i have reached a point where i've 'run out' of games to play and nothing (except maybe gta6) will interest me in picking up a controller again. i've grown out of it, it seems. i even been travelling more too - i travel far, and so big holidays. from usa, to africa, to europe, to india, and soon to be going to australia... doing all sorts of holidays from cruises, ranch holidays, safari, hiking, group road trips, wildlife conservation volunteering, sailing the mediterrarian - grand, amazing experiences that does suspend my worries... but in the end, i keep coming back to them, this feeling of emptiness.
my big fear is seeing my parents get older and dying from a broken heart caused by me. my dad worked in construction but is retired and now freelances, and he tends to hurt himself in accidents as he gets clumsy. my mother works in a school. i have always lived with my family except during the years i was at university. i feel my mum and dad are my 'best friends' - sad as it sounds -and the thought of them both going to die somepoint in the future, fills me with dread. because i feel i have failed them, in not continuing the family line. failing to secure a legacy for us. to keep us all going, surviving through the next generation. when i think about it deeply, our bloodline has been passed down for thousands of years, surviving through all sorts such as wars, plagues, and revolutions. i feel compelled to continue it, as if its a duty, and i dont want my parents to die with their last thoughts being disappointment. i can see it in my dads eyes already, the sadness. he wants to play with his grandchildren, but he has none, and all his friends shows off their grandkids. similarly with me, i see people i went to school with, and ex-colleagues i used to work with...they all have kids and a house of their own and a car. i have none of that. i stand NO chance buying a house of my own as i simply can't afford it, and renting will be throwing my money away living on other peoples crap. i said to my parents i want to inherit this home when they go, because my memories are here. my history. our family memories. my happy childhood memories, growing up, the birthdays, playing with my brother, my parents, the fun times growing up, coming back from school, doing homework, watching football together on the TV in the 90s, our first pc, all of it. all of these amazing experiences back then, i love to go through again, but this time with my own kids, seeing them grow up, playing with toys, drawing, having a first pet, etc...to navigate life with them as a father, and teaching them what i believe is required to be a good person.
before you say it, i'm not just doing it for my parents. i want a family for myself. i feel if i failed to have children, failed to find someone who loves me, failed to have any friends, failed to have had any influence or imprint on the world nomatter how small - i actually feel i'm not part of this world. to quote ellie from the last of us, my life would not have 'fkn mattered'. its as if i am a 'watcher', if that makes sense, not part of the fabric of this world and civilisation. watching it all from a window. that'll lead me to questions like why i am i here, leading to a probable, and painful, full-on existential crisis. when its my parents' time, when they grow old and die, and if i'm left all alone, i dont think i'd want to live anymore. i'm praying to find something. of course, i know i have to DO something, but my mind draws a blank. i cant ignore what my body is telling me anymore. but then, i step outside the house, and i dont know what to do, socially. when i approach someone, i get anxiety attacks. in my town, people are aggressive - its also possible if i approach a woman here i might end up getting assaulted, shouted at or shamed. sometimes theres no place to really go as i live in a small town. and as you get older, its harder to make friends, as people already have their established circles. i even remember my ex-manager talking to colleagues about this when we had a drink once and she asked 'how do you meet people' even though shes in her 50s and has established family and friends - indeed. how, for those who do not.
for coping, some people elsewhere suggested exercising. this is something i tend to do, but perhaps not enough of. i like to go on walks. theres a public park where i go and feed the ducks. seeing animals makes me happy. when the baby ducks swim to me wanting the kibble food it makes me feel wanted. i love animals. from dogs, cats and ducks - to even wild animals like the tigers i saw in india. i also did some hiking holidays, including going through some american national parks like yosemite, where i saw a family of bears at a distance. travelling is something i like to do too - in fact, i have more 'big' holidays coming up in usa again (alaska this summer), then australia, europe (croatia), the canadian rockies and maybe south america. i do these trips to get that out-of-body, 'blown away' feeling, of being thrilled, alive, and enjoying and experiencing life. it does help. but travelling is expensive. i'm not made of money.
all i want, is my own family..

Yesterday, I went to Dixon and Islington where I had something to do. I was walking towards the No Frills when I past by a man and a woman in like their 40s give or take who were facing the store's door leaning on the wall or standing by it. They had card boards with some kind of text on them. I was coming from a direction that I couldn't read any and I didn't stop to. At first I just thought they were fundraising for a charity and I wasn't particularly in a mood to give then. I thought maybe when I come out if I feel I'll spare a little.
They also had a girl with them maybe aged about 14, though who knows. She spoke some English it seemed and the I guess her mother? didn't seem to speak English.
The girl tugged at my heart strings as I went by her saying something like "please help we've no money" and I thought let me just try to get her a little something. Long story short, I bought the mother a drink, the girl ordered, and I gave the mother the little change from it when we came out of it.
Though just as we were walking to the Tim Hortons, I thought to ask the girl who the man is and she said she doesn't know him and he's just a man. This raised a red flag at me and I'm pretty sure I asked again along that line just to get the same kinda response. Though I was too in the moment to think much of it. I didn't talk with or really engage the man.
Then I thought to tell them about Welfare, from where they could get some financial assistance. They didn't seem to understand and the girl seemed to be translating for the mother. So I asked if they've a phone to write in. The girl said, she the girl I guess, has no phone. Then I asked a man who stopped by if he's got a pen, I couldn't find mine, and so I wrote the name on one of the empty Donut boxes they had there. I told her she can go to the library and look it up. The man also told them about there being a food bank around the area.
Another somewhat red flag:
From speaking a little about where the girl is from and how long they've been here. She's told me just 2 months. Which raises another question to me, how's it that they've just been here 2 months and aren't being helped or set up with some financial support. Or aren't in the care of whoever may have sponsored them?
Though this concern seems to have subsided when someone notified me that some people are in a displaced situation and don't qualify for such programs. So maybe that's the case for them. Anyway they took the note.
I'm well aware that Welfare is barely anything. Though for 2 to 3 people and if also connected with other resources, I feel they may not really have to be all outside begging. They could at least make due til they could get back on their feet. I also found it a red flag, that they didn't even seem to know what it is when I was telling them about it.
Your input and maybe any resources I may be able to give them should I see them again would be appreciated. I don't really know what language they speak, though they might speak Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, possibly Russian or Ukrainian. Though most likely Bosnian, I'm thinking to give them some more resources that they could communicate with and hopefully get the help they need. Or maybe what are resources I might reach out to see if they can help?

I wanted to post an update in this sub since I had posted here for support a few times.
My dad lost his battle two weeks ago today on May 5th.
He was diagnosed 3 years ago. Underwent 2 resections, one just after diagnosis and one in March of 2023.
It’s still hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that he’s gone.
I got married in September of last year, and he was still able to walk me down the aisle. By the end of October he was no communicative. In November he was completely bed ridden.
My mother elected to put him on a feeding tube in November at the suggestion of his doctors. They suggested it would be a temporary way to give him some energy to see if swelling was what was causing him to not be able to talk / move.
He ended up staying on the feeding tube until she elected to remove it 3 weeks ago. It took a little over a week for him to pass once the feeding tube was removed and he moved to hospice. Feeding tube was removed Thursday night, and he passed away on Sunday a week later.
It’s incredibly difficult. I was 8 months pregnant when he passed. I wasn’t able to travel for the funeral due to the high risk nature of my pregnancy. Doctor strongly advised against making the 8 hour drive. I ended up being induced the day after his funeral. Every now and then when I look at my baby I can’t help but cry over the grandfather she’ll never meet. I can’t help but wonder what he would say about her.
Even though he hasn’t been able to communicate since November, his passing has left an unfathomable sense of loss. I am glad he is no longer suffering. But I miss him very much. Tomorrow would be his 56th birthday.
To all of you still fighting, I wish you all the best. This disease is terrible. If I had any advice on how to comfort loved ones I might suggest writing a letter / doing a video to speak with them before it’s too late. My dad’s lack of communication honestly came out of nowhere. It could offer some source of comfort for loved ones. To all caregivers my thoughts are with you. I can’t imagine a more terrible disease.

This is a weekly reminder post of this sub's stance on potential copyright infringement. This is a serious issue that needs to be kept in mind when creating and listing NFTs.
Original post by u/HurleyBird1
Quick disclaimer: I AM NOT A LAWYER. THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE - THIS IS SIMPLY INFORMATION WITH WHICH TO EDUCATE YOURSELVES AND PREPARE YOURSELF FOR LEGAL ADVICE FROM A LICENSED SOURCE.
Now that that's out of the way. My credentials are: MBA, with a bit of business law classes under my belt.
I want to give a quick explanation of how copyright works - and I'll do so through quick blurbs n some myth/reality bullets.
Source: copyright.gov (US)

1. Subject matter of copyright: In general28(a) Copyright protection subsists, in accordance with this title, in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. Works of authorship include the following categories:(1) literary works;(2) musical works, including any accompanying words;(3) dramatic works, including any accompanying music;(4) pantomimes and choreographic works;(5) pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works;(6) motion pictures and other audiovisual works;(7) sound recordings; and(8) architectural works.(b) In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.

- Myth: I can use any image/song/video/writing I want.
- Reality: No. Not true at all.
- Myth: Well they never said it's copyrighted.
- Reality: Upon publication (and even while a work in progress) a work is automatically protected via copyright under US Law.
- Myth: Well they never sold it.
- Reality: It doesn't have to be commercialized to be protected.
- Myth: Well it was a long time ago
- Reality: Possibly true...as long as the creator is deceased (or if multiple creators, the last living one is deceased) and the required time has passed...although this gets tricky with "estates."
(d) Duration of Rights.—(1) With respect to works of visual art created on or after the effective date set forth in section 610(a) of the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990, the rights conferred by subsection (a) shall endure for a term consisting of the life of the author.
So what's this thing I hear called "Fair Use?"
Straight from the source:

1. Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use41Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include—(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.

Uhh...help me translate that please... (here's a decent official translation: https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/more-info.html)

1. above...if it's non-profit educational use, you're usually good to go...if it's for money or trade (commercial nature) then you're usually NOT...unless YOUR piece is "transformative"

Transformative uses are those that add something new, with a further purpose or different character, and do not substitute for the original use of the work.
- Myth: Well this is paid for in Algos, not USD so it's not "commercial"
- Reality: IT IS commercial. You could even barter for bacon and it'd be commercial. It's an exchange of one good/service for another good/service.
- Myth: My piece with Batman inside a card is "transformative"
- Reality: No, unfortunately, more-than-likely the courts would say it's not. A good litmus test is..."If Warner Bros Entertainment (owner of Batman) wanted to make an NFT/ASA "Batman card" would yours compete with it or be possibly mistaken (by a reasonable person - so in America think 8th grade education) for real merchandise? Probably...thus it's not transformative enough.
"nature" gets a little tougher. This looks at protecting the "creative process." Thus, using other works of art is less-likely to be protected than using factual sources - like historical photographs since it's easier to "create art" and thus "transform" factual pieces than other art pieces. This is also talking to things like "parody." Satire is NOT protected. "Parody" is. What's the difference? LegalZoomputs it well: While a parody targets and mimics the original work to make a point, a satire uses the original work to criticize something else entirely. Another way to look at it is that satire uses another work as a way to comment on something happening in the world that has nothing to do with the original work.
- Myth: I added a different border, extra planets, and some blur effect to MTZ's World of Light - it's a new piece of art.
- Reality: Not likely the courts will see it that way.
- Myth: This guy added a filter, some burn effects, and collaged a bunch of newspaper headlines together - isn't that a violation!
- Reality: Probably not...the courts would probably see this as a creation of art out of factual sources.
amount/substantiality in relation to the whole...this is where using clips of songs that are only like 5 seconds long works! But using more than that...runs into problems. This is tough to decipher too...as some songs are EASILY identifiable from just 5 seconds (Ice, ice, baby) - and thus NOT fair use. But some aren't. Usually you're safe using a very small clip of a song or video - especially if you're adding more to it. But this is a dangerous game to play - and there's places to get free audio (some sources below)
effect of the use - this is probably the biggest one. Courts will look at simply...does YOUR work affect the sales or potential for sales of the copyright owner. Of note...this is looked at at the time of the issue being brought to the court, not at the time of sale. For example, let's say my batman card sells for 10 Algos today, but Algorand BLOWS UP and soon every NFT is on Algorand. And now my OG Batman NFT is seen as one of the first Batman ones and official. Warner Bros gonna sue the shit outta whoever owns it at the time they sue to get the rights to all sales of that NFT. So that person is left holding an empty bag when Warner Bros wins in court.
- Myth: Well they're not commercializing it NOW so I'm safe.
- Reality: Technically, yea Warner Bros probably won't spend the money to go after the OG artist and the hands the asset passed through...HOWEVER, they may. That's their right. Who knows - the Napster days showed us the lengths companies will go to. EVEN BIGGER HOWEVER, the last person holding it when Warner Bros DOES decide to go after that Batman NFT...uh oh for them - they just lost their asset.
- Myth: Well it's been like a year, and no one has brought up copyright. So I'm good.
- Reality: If this was in a normal market...maybe this argument would work. If McDonald's let you sell a Ronald McDonald poster for like a year on Amazon with no issues, some court may say "bro, you took too long to bring this to us." HOWEVER, with cryptocurrency being so new (and Algorand being so little known/discussed), most courts would see it as "reasonable" that a copyright owner failed to exercise their rights within a year - possibly even a decade. (Updated because I realized last example dealt with trademark not copyright :o)
So what am I safe to use?
US Government works (mostly)...any deemed free to use by creator...and any a copyright lawyer says they have your backs on (cuz now they're liable).
Here's some great sources for free use items (please add to this list below if you know of some!!!):
Pictures: https://buffer.com/library/free-images/ (Unsplash is one of my faves)
Music: https://www.wix.com/blog/photography/2019/11/27/free-music-for-videos/
Video: https://blog.hootsuite.com/free-stock-videos-sites/
You'll notice there's a lot of "shoulds" "coulds" "probably" etc. This is because copyright cases are all unique and go to the courts. The best bet is to go with stuff you KNOW is free and fair-use. If not, I'd look up copyright law, consult supreme court cases concerning copyright, and ultimately, talk to a lawyer.
AGAIN: I AM NOT A LAWYER. I AM NOT PROVIDING LEGAL ADVICE. I AM SIMPLY PROVIDING INFORMATION. THERE MAY BE ERRORS ABOVE THAT COULD CAUSE SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGES - CONSULT A COPYRIGHT ATTORNEY IF YOU WISH TO RECEIVE LEGAL ADVICE.