Colored Art! Princess Diamrem: The Last Seapony (Latest Chapter Spoilers!) · 9:17pm Jul 18th, 2013
Damn it, More Dakka. Why is it that I both love AND fear you for making these things?
So A Cog in the Machine has finally left its hiatus... neato! And its return garnished quite a bit of attention! Double neato! Thank you everyone for putting up with me for so long, and I also want to thank everyone for the super quick replies on my LAST blog post! It really warmed my heart to see how many people still cared about my work~
I think my ever awesome editor, Thardoc, said it best...
I know an author with 4 times as many followers as you, but doesn't get 1/3 this kind of response from their fans, your fans may be fewer, but damn if they aren't true ones.
True dat foreverz
Once again I love you all, and take heart in the knowledge that another chapter is being worked as we 'speak'!
-Derply
First though "Yes yes yes" on reaction to the art.
Second Thought : Wow, I am a horrible person, for having such a positive reaction, when the subject matter is, well, not so positive.
Anyhow. I just, right now, learned you can actually see how many followers a person has. I certainly don't put much stock in that kind of thing.
If I want to find a new story (Looking at likes, not Follows, admittedly, but similar) I have to look at the approximate fraction between Likes and dislikes. But you can't remove a like without disliking it, which skews it. And then, if its a story by, say Chatoyance, specifically That Indestructable Something, which, due to the author's Fame/Infame on account of having a stance (and stories) on "The Conversion Bureau", heavily disrupts any validity Likes and dislikes have, as people have a tendency to like/dislike stories without reading them based on a quick glace. (Why the take the time to actually open the page to dislike it, I have no idea.)
But anyway, the whole Favorites, Likes, Follows, and so on tracking system is broken, universally, on all sites, and anyone who puts serious stock in it, well.. Yea. It just doesn't work.
Sadly, it effects exposure. I would abuse word of mouth, but I don't really have much in the way of valid social contacts in the MLP domain.
Looking forward to the next Chapter/Part/Shard/Disaster/Torture session, with Excitement and self-recrimination.
1219203 Repeat the first and second thoughts for me, as well. But as for the story thing....double my yes. Cog in the Machine is among my top 5 nonspecific favorites on fimfiction, up there with 'Diary of a Madman' my all time favorite, (and first for fanfiction), stories related to bronies. So, now that its off Hiatus, I'm at home, dancing all over the house in really happy NSFW dances,(All my 70's dances), drinking off my non-sobriety. But bro, you really need to just find something that seems interesting, and not look at the ratings systems, and if its good, stick to it.
1219364
Assuming you were not being Sarcastic on repeating the first and second thought:
On seeing this post, I was thinking Yes Yes Yes because I am so enthusiastic about this particular fic, and all the stuffs related to it. As for the second, I am unsure how to clarify.
And yea. I unfortunately end up putting stock in ratings, but only because it effects what shows up. I also end up rejecting stories that are too short (Prefer to immerse myself in the fictional world) or if they have excessively negative ratings (<50% or similar) Admittedly, that shouldn't matter, considering a lot of those also have really low rating counts, and hence it shouldn't matter.
Its a big mess, and I unfortunately cannot totally ignore it, because it happens to have huge influence in what is even available to look at.
Amusingly, I rejected this story on first glance, not because of the rating, but, I think, size concerns, or something. Somthing like not being able to fit a ?Human? in the SSCS6000, or something silly like that. I can't actually recall what it was, but regardless, I rejected it on a quick judgement, and only looked at it again around 3-4 months later. Admittedly, I might have not been quite as enthusiastic at that time, because I hadn't even gotten into Fallout Equestria, or The Chess Game of the Gods, both of which shattered my view of an Ideal Equestria. It is likely I would have given up in short order at that point.
~~~~~
New comment: One of the things I find hilarious about brony Fanart, like this one, is that if you didn't know better, you would totally fail to make the connection to MLP. In some other forums, I had seen the "Discord dancing on Twilight's head" Image as an avatar, and most certainly had no idea it was MLP related. I was rather shocked at how many references I totally missed, on account of the whole *No direct Pony Image* Thing. This image would be just as Obscure.
~~~
On Fallout Equestria Shattering my image of an Ideal Equestria. Well, First theres the base fic, which is pretty horrific. Possibly more so than the videogame. Then there is Project Horizons, which honestly just takes the horror up to eleven, and essentially makes Fallout Equestria look like the original Equestria. I mean, if it weren't planet bound, and if there wasn't hope of recovery, I would say it was second only to Warhammer 40k itself, which is the most Horrific, broken, doomed universe I know about. And with that in mind, as a dark Equestria as my headcanon, I then see people thinking MLP is not valid crossover material for anything dark. Its just.... yea.
As a note, ACITM, is pretty dark, and has Eldritch abominations, as well as horrible messes of thing gone horrible wrong, while still following the base canon set up by MLP canon (admittedly, MLP canon self-contradicts, but that happens in most commercial series)
I wish I had people to share this fic with.
Dakka frightens me.
1219364>>1219423
1219683
1219423 As for the double my yes thing...I was excited that ACITM was back from hiatus....but as towards Fallout Equestria...Should have called it 'Fool! Get OUT' Equestria, Seeing as it is a Halo/General FPS Crossover...I hate Crossovers for the sake of doing it. I don't mind dark stories...but I try to avoid crossovers in general...and I hate fps games, I end up having to focus more on the gameplay than the story involved, because the camera doesn't work quite right for my style of gameplay...DISTRACTION! Watching Conan and white guy from 'Daddy Day Care' Said something about pants.
1219647
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1220019
not helping.
1219683 And thats the other nice thing about *Smaller* Authors. You get smaller and more effective feedback loops. :D
1219796 Hmm, Interesting. I see crossovers in the exact opposite light. I appreciate crossovers for the sake of crossovers, if done well, and feel that tying to follow gameplay usually ends in disaster. for most parts of it. Story on the other hand, works very well. I also don't have to, or need to play or read the source material to enjoy the crossover. I certainly haven't played Halo, (don't even have the right gaming system) but have read some books. Haven't played fallout, but learned an awful lot about it from fanfiction.
And I have no idea what that last bit was about.
1220273 Don't get me wrong, I like a good crossover, but I try to avoid them for the most part, as for the fps gaming, I don't care for the first-person perspective so much, but I dislike it more for the 's' of fps. Guns and me do NOT get along...It takes little skill to use one, your opponent, more than likely can't fight back, and there isn't any effort involved in pulling a trigger, versus swing my sword-sword, I mean sure, there's less bodily injury with a gun, but that's kind of the point, you don't want to kill a person with a sword, (though it is a bonus), you just want to maim them enough so they can't fight back, therefore, decreasing the rate of casualties.
1220531 but, I already said I don't apply the FPS game part of a literatureverse and apply it to a fanfiction, or somthing crossovered with that literatureverse.
And, while I haven't played enough PvP FPS games to have a high-level, I have played some, and both Melee combat and ranged combat require skill. Note that Ranged requires more aiming in most cases, since at melee range, you tend to have more target AOE, and hence don't have to attack as close to your target. Sniping takes a surprsing amount of skill, too. The only real place where Ranged tends to be significantly more powerful is in wide-open areas, but that is expected. (and melee is ideal in enclosed ares)
~Played Sanctum and Sanctum 2, A Tower Defence FPS hybrid, in which shooting requires a lot of skill if you want to deal sufficient personal damage.
~Also played Natural Selection 2, which invokes melee and ranged combat, both of which are well matched, and where skill on both sides has huge effect.
Real Life Sword Vs Gun, well, it is similar, although Guns tend to have a huge advantage in large-scale engagements, while Swords or other melee type weapons are more effective at avoiding Collateral damage and in enclosed spaces. Guns still work there, but misses tend to be far more dangerous in general.
~Oh, and if this is getting too off topic, I would request that your next reply, on FPS Melee vs ranged, be sent Via message system.