AernaLingus

Xcancel link for tweet

(in case there's any doubt that the damage is a result of COVID, here's an older clip where she says that explicitly)

The reason I'm posting this is that it was interesting to see the reaction from fans on reddit:

https://old.reddit.com/r/Hololive/comments/1mlgshl/calli_getting_covid_last_year_has_permanently/

I was actually surprised to see some fairly decent comments right there at the top about how COVID is still an issue, how Long COVID affects a large proportion of people, and various people sharing their struggles with both acute and chronic COVID. Of course, the bar is in hell—there are only two comments encouraging people to mask up—but this is genuinely the best discussion I've seen outside of COVID conscious spaces in ages.

I would love to see this create a shift in attitudes in the VTuber community, but I think that would have to start at the head, and I don't see that happening for two reasons.

First, Calli is known for being an absolute workaholic who grinds and grinds and grinds. It would be awesome if she became a disability advocate, but I just don't see it happening based on her personality. For her sake, I just hope her doctors are properly informed about COVID and that she listens to their advice.

But secondly, I cannot imagine Hololive would want any of their members to even suggest that COVID is still a serious public health threat. Because if that's the case, then every single in-person event that Hololive holds is putting their talents and their fans at risk for the sake of the almighty yen. As I'm sure you all know, the implications of this are far-reaching, which is why the public has not been allowed to consider them. I'm reminded of that one court decision in California a few years back that indemnified employers against liability for "take-home" COVID infections among their employees and the people their employees come in contact with outside the workplace:

"Even limiting a duty of care to employees' household members, the pool of potential plaintiffs would be enormous, numbering not thousands but millions of Californians," Justice Carol Corrigan wrote for the court.

"Hmm, is this an indication that there's something deeply flawed with our public health policy? No, it's the employees who are wrong!"

After every single VTuber event—concert, convention, what-have-you—I inevitably see people contracting COVID, and then some portion of them suffering long term disabilities. Calli is not the first high profile VTuber to talk about her long term issues; her coworker Mumei left the company recently as a result of debilitating long COVID symptoms (unlike most people who leave, she has not started streaming independently, almost certainly due to these health issues), and the two (former) VShojo talents Henya and Haruka have both taken extended hiatuses due to COVID sequelae.

I've said this before, but it makes me feel insane that VTubers have the perfect occupation to allow them to very tightly control their exposure to COVID—something most people could only dream of—and yet they are constantly flinging themselves into extremely high-risk environments. Of course, if they're not masking up anywhere, there's nothing stopping them from catching it outside of work; indeed, Henya and Haruka are both examples of people who acquired long COVID without participating in any of those large events, to my knowledge. That said, VTubers tend to be homebodies, so they'd still have a lower probability than the average person due to fewer exposures.

edit: I wrote "Xcancel" but forgot to actually make it an Xcancel link...fixed.

"[...] with the real calendar. You won't regret it."

- Hilltop, lead developer of said translation patch

(the URL in the OP links to a trailer for the patch)

Meant to post this earlier, but better late than never, I suppose! I'll be following along with the game in August—and by the way, Hilltop mentions that it only takes about 30 minutes per day, so it's not a huge time commitment.

Here's the tweet that I grabbed the post title from which also links to the patch (edit: wich is PS2 only):

https://xcancel.com/HilltopWorks/status/1817625943583949163

And here's the link directly to the patch to save you a click (make sure to read the readme for instructions on patching the ROM and tweaking the game settings in PCSX2—nothing major, just a few clicks):

https://www.patreon.com/posts/boku-no-2-patch-92070798

(if you're not sure where to get the ROM, I recommend Myrient)

Ever since seeing Tim Rogers' Action Button video on the original Boku no Natsuyasumi, I've been very curious to play a game from the series. Looking forward to experiencing this in "real time", so-to-speak, and I hope some of you will join me!

Separately, if you're interesting in romhacking/reverse engineering, definitely check out Hilltop's YouTube channel. The only reason I saw this tweet in the first place is because I followed him after seeing his excellent in-depth videos on PS1/PS2 romhacking.

The Animal Crossing GC decompilation project is starting to bear fruit! It's amazing to see the tireless effort that's put into these projects, chipping away at code line by line, function by function, file by file. Even without mods, I think they're worthwhile just as research projects for understanding what makes games tick, but they open up a whole new world of possibilities and breathe life into these old games.

Features I spotted:

• Optional widescreen
• Character customization (you no longer have to be a )
• Optional smooth camera (removing the screen transitions between acres)
• New bugs and fish
• Collecting furniture that was only available in other regions (which I assume means JP and CN—I don't think there were exclusive items in the EUR/AUS versions)
• Build outdoor decorations (this was a feature in the JP versions—not sure if it's simply bringing that feature over or implementing it in a new way)
• New fruits
• No longer having to mail your damn fossils (hell yeah)
• Exterior home decorating via a new traveling NPC?
• Cycling through held items without having to go through the menu
• Waking up Tom Nook to shop at night (this was only in the JP GC re-release that followed the US release)
• Sitting on rocks (?!)

https://xcancel.com/leftistbeard/status/1939115723965833490

If you want to dive right in, here's a link to the Cyan collection in the VGHF digital archive:

https://archive.gamehistory.org/folder/22cf9aa2-812b-4f39-b42e-e87a3c153b8c

Video description:

This video is for transgender, non-binary, and gender nonconforming people, and anyone else who has been pushed to the margins.

You face unspeakable adversity. So many voices shame you and want you to be diminished to a more palatable effigy of yourself, and many don't care if that means the material or metaphysical disillusionment of who you truly are. The voices come from your government, from strangers on the internet, from your coworkers, from your family.

One of the voices probably comes from inside you.

Every voice in this video is from someone rooting for you. I'm rooting for you.

When you're too broken to work, too broken to play, too broken to even get out of bed, know this:

Every breath you take is a radical refusal to acquiesce to the voices that want you to be diminished. Your cellular metabolism follows the same basic chemical equation as any other fire. Focus on taking your next breath. Feed the flame oxygen and Don't. Be. Extinguished.

The Video Game History Foundation does some great work, and it's really cool to see this project getting off the ground! Their project to vastly improve OCR for magazines seems pretty awesome--curious to learn about the technical details of that project.

Only poked around a little, but here's a random tidbit: while perusing the E3 2001 Directory I learned that CliffyB (of Unreal and Gears of War fame) used to maintain a website called cat-scans.com which was home to literal cat scans (scans of cats on flatbed scanners). Also Tommy Tallarico was at that year's E3 as part of the "How to Break into Gaming" panel...lmao.

Also, if you're into video game history I definitely recommend their podcast (RSS link)! I thought their most recent episode with a couple who worked at GamePro was a lot of fun.

edit: also perhaps of interest to Hexbears: this collection of zines from Game Workers Unite, which helped spark the movement to unionize workers in the game industry back in 2018

Link to the site (it's a series of 12 strips, so just keep hitting "next" until there's no more Mario)

https://www.noncanon.com/comics/2017-12-12%20Lovely%20Notions.html

This cover is my happy place

The long-awaited sequel to one of my favorite videos of all time, Can you beat Pokemon FireRed while blind and deaf?, wherein MartSnack devises a single sequence of inputs that will beat Pokémon FireRed with >99% probability using clever strategies and a lot of number crunching--definitely check that one out first if you haven't seen it already.

In this video, MartSnack kicks it up a notch and comes up with a winning sequence of inputs for EVERY SINGLE RNG SEED in Pokémon Platinum (he gives the figure as ~4.2 billion--I would have guessed it's 2^32 which is more like 4.3 billion, but perhaps the RNG function is such that there are some sequences which are identical even for different seeds). He gives himself additional constraints like keeping Pokémon levels to a minimum and using Nuzlocke rules to keep things interesting, so he's not just grinding a Pokémon up to Level 100 and facerolling through the game.

There are some incredibly ingenious techniques employed, and it's a wonderfully produced video with all kinds of great visual aids. He gives just as much detail as you need to appreciate the strategies, introducing them as they come up without getting bogged down in detailing every single battle. So while it's a bit over an hour long, it's packed with content--this is the result of two years of hard work, not padded-out YouTube slop.

Was wondering about how Pikmin 2's procedural music works and came across this beautifully crafted video explaining the whole intricate system.

This channel seems like a treasure trove--if you just wanna jam, check out this sick Driftveil City arrangement for starters