noise."Story Notes: Gamer Girl Shiroi · 11:04am Aug 18th, 2020
A (long) while back, somebody commented on one of my stories--probably Silver Glow’s Journal--that they’d love to see a story about a gamer pony in South Korea, or that they were thinking of writing one (I can’t find the comment, so . . . if you follow me, you know who you are 
)
That idea was one that sort of stayed in my mind, and while I don’t know squat about the gaming scene in South Korea, I do watch some streamers (on YouTube) playing mostly Mario Games.
Before we get into the meat and potatoes of this blog (or hearts and rupees, if you prefer), I gotta give a big shoutout to my pre-readers! I had an all-star cast read though and offer suggestions. Exuno gave me Twitch feedback, Snowliasion fixed the Dutch; ROBCakeran53, PresentPerfect, SirNotAppearingInThisFic, Bugsydor, Akouma, and Halcyon42 all provided general feedback, spelling corrections, etc.
To my understanding, Twitch is an online platform where streamers can play games; some streamers are big enough to be sponsored and others aren’t. Donations can be made in the form of ‘bits,’ which--I don’t know how much value they have, but it’s probably less than an Equestrian bit. There’s some sort of chat function and that’s about all I know. Hence needing help from somebody who actually watched gamers on Twitch.
Grand Poo World is a ROM hack by Barbarian (or Barb, or BarbarousKing), named for the streamer and speedrunner Grand Poo Bear. Like most streamers, he doesn’t stick to just one game; Poo is also a record-holder in Jaws and did a run-through of Breath of the Wild (which was one of the games I was considering having Shiroi play instead, since it would be familiar to a larger audience).
Overall, I thought that the gameplay of Mario would also be familiar to most readers. While games have of course changed and evolved over the years, the basic details of Mario games have stayed the same. The only two nicknames that people not familiar with modern speedrunning might not know are the ‘disco shell’, which is a multicolored Koopa (turtle) shell which kind of can be steered by Mario bouncing on it, and kaizo blocks, which are typically hidden blocks placed to kill players.
Shiroi’s an OC, and the coverart was commissioned from Pesty_Skillengton and slightly modified by me.
Dusty’s not an OC; she was in the Las Pegasus episode, playing (and losing) DDR with Sprout Greenhoof.
Screencap from the show
EA is short for Electronic Arts, a storied video game maker. They’re the second largest electronic game company in the Americas and Europe, and they’ve made titles you’ve surely heard of. Sort of like Hasbro, in a way.
They don’t make DDR, which is probably good for Dusty Swift.
Most of the various chat names are made up, but . . .
I was looking around on Twitch’s site, trying to get a sense of who the moderators were, what kind of usernames they had, etc. And it turns out that one of the results I got was a guy named HorsesOnDemand, and really, how could I not?
With a username like that, he should have seen this coming. 
Since one of my pre-readers asked, I should tell you what Kineso tape is. It’s an elastic tape which “facilitates lymphatic drainage my microscopically lifting the skin” and it has the “ability to re-educate the neuromuscular system, reduce inflammation, prevent injury and promote good circulation and healing.” Some years ago it was all the rage with certain athletes, who stuck the stuff all over themselves. I have no idea if it works or not, or if any of their claims have any merit; I do suspect that if you need to stick tape to yourself for whatever reason, one that’s designed to go on skin will perform better than one that’s not.
The rules of Twitch state, in part:
YOU AGREE NOT TO violate any law, contract, intellectual property, or other third-party right; not to commit a tort, and that you are solely responsible for your conduct while on the Twitch Services.
You agree that you will comply with these Terms of Service and Twitch’s Community Guidelines and will not:
i. create, upload, transmit, distribute, or store any content that is inaccurate, unlawful, infringing, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, harassing, threatening, abusive, inflammatory, or otherwise objectionable;
Besides a hopefully warm and fuzzy feeling from having read the story, I want to leave y’all with one bit of wisdom. All the text message ‘screenshots,’ instagram ‘screenshots’ and whatever app Shiroi’s conversation with HorsesOnDemand is on are fake.
I mean, that should be obvious, right? There aren’t any pony gamers on Twitch, sadly.
Generating them was fairly trivial. There’s are plenty of programs for that which are easily googled, and which let you set all sorts of things (y’all may have noticed that in the first screenshot of Shiroi’s phone, she’s got the alarm set but not in the second two; you might also notice that her battery life is lower in the last pic than the first). I could put in my own timestamps, set my own profile pics, etc.
I didn’t do that for the Discord chats because I thought that would look weird inline, but I could have. There wasn’t an as-easy text generator, but I found a tutorial that was easy enough to follow along with, and I probably could have managed if I wanted to.
And I want y’all to know I’m pretty much a luddite when it comes to modern computer stuff. I could bang my way around DOS 6 (I think that’s what we had) pretty good back in the day, and knew a few ‘hacky’ things that could be done with it, and a few commands that kids these days will literally never need to know, but I am by no stretch of the imagination an expert. One of my pre-readers asked me if I could center the images in the story, and I’m sure there’s some way to do that (maybe), but I have no idea what it would be, nor even where to look and find out.
One of the more authentic bits of Shiroi’s conversation with HorsesOnDemand is her misspelling ‘camera’ and then putting the correction in the next comment; that’s something that happens to us all the time. That’s also something I didn’t mean to do, but it was either do it that way or figure out how to correct it in the fake message app and I went with the lazier solution.
I guess the point is, if you see a ‘screenshot’ of an online conversation or a text message conversation, that doesn’t mean it’s real. It’s not a huge amount of effort to gin up a conversation that never existed between one or more participants who also don’t exist.
Also, in the interest of full disclosure, I promised Present Perfect that this story would have no batponies in it. I forgot that the oriponi avatar that Shiroi used in her DM with HorsesOnDemand is, in fact, a batpony.
At least none that we know off...
Maybe they are there, but merely didn't reveal themselves.
Yeah, that is for the best.
Yup, there is a way to do that:
Use the
centertag.Alternatively you can use the "Center Align" button in the toolbar.
Ah, Alt+Tab, my old friend. Which I originally learned about from Dave Barry of all things. And which I actually did need when I started playing Dungeon Crawl, because I didn't know how to window the thing at first so it was the only way to get to any other program without closing it.
5337909
This can be forgiven. Batponies, after all, don't exist.
DO NOT compare Hasbro to EA.
EA had some decent titles of their own early on, but in the decades since, they've bought out many smaller, established studios and then totally ruined their work.
The Star Wars microtransactions kerfuffle was only the most recent example of their heinousness. They appear regularly in top worst companies in America lists.
external-preview.redd.it/AKH647d-HMc6VnowFaJOJXvX7FfpNlIk2Vn0iEJ9xek.png?auto=webp&s=ebb99d6234b78b9ad30ef9119a155184200fa6a7
rubydearmusic.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/tumblr_pewo6vebuc1r56md5o1_1280.jpg
https://www.google.com/search?q=ea+sucks&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwintIi9g6XrAhWGY80KHRomABsQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=ea+sucks&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzoECAAQQzoCCAA6BQgAELEDOgcIABCxAxBDUNRoWMh2YOF3aABwAHgAgAGCAYgBugWSAQM4LjGYAQCgAQGqAQtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZ7ABAMABAQ&sclient=img&ei=N-47X-e8DYbHtQaazIDYAQ&bih=966&biw=1920&client=firefox-b-1-d
5337986
C&C representing. I miss Westwood.
Thank you for the (primarily present-IRL-cultural, it seems, this time) information. :)
5337909
Hmm. Somebrony should develop a hack that adds batponies to the game, then...
She should stream Ponyvania: Order of Equestria.
With the batpony character to piss off the haters.
https://ponyvania-order-of-equestria.fandom.com/wiki/Races#Bat_ponies
Personally, I found the use of screenshots a bit disruptive, but that's mostly because I don't care for that style of storytelling as a rule.
One comment I wanted to make though, is that I can't help but notice that one area you haven't touched on (as far as I can tell) is language. I believe you have your ponies saying goodbye in dutch, but it occurs me that I've never seen you develop a 'equestrian language' and use it.
Anyway, looking forward to your next fic.
I remember a friend in college talking about DDR and I had to ask him how East Germany came up.
5337928
I will do my best to think of that next time I see gameplay from somebody who doesn’t appear on stream. Maybe that’s actually a pony.
(In all seriousness, that serves me well IRL; I often substitute ‘pony’ for ‘person’ when listening to the news. It’s slightly less tragic when it’s a ‘spokespony’ who gives the bad news, right?
I wonder if the Konami code works in DDR?
Well, by golly, that was super easy. Barely an inconvenience. Thanks!
(although I will admit I typed ‘canter’ rather than ‘center’ more than once.
)
5337936
Pfft, Alt + Tab; we’re talking LPT1 . . .
I’ve picked up a few useful shortcuts from unusual places (not Dave Barry AFAIK) . . . one of the more interesting ways I picked a bunch up was when we had Windows 3.1 and the mouse broke. You can use Windows without a mouse, and it’s a real treat. :P But you can do it.
(These days, one of the better not-well-known commands that I use a lot is ctrl + shift + v: paste without formatting. Also, for writing, ctrl + delete or ctrl + backspace is very useful.)
5337943
derpicdn.net/img/view/2020/4/29/2335065.png
You should have seen that coming
5337986
Fun fact, in the toy market in the US, Hasbro is #2 behind Mattel. Mattel plasters their logo on everything; Hasbro owns everything else but doesn’t brag about it (so not like EA there). Hasbro even own Death Row Records.
I will give Hasbro credit where it’s due; they mostly do good and also did I mention that they own Death Row Records? Crossover when?
derpicdn.net/img/view/2012/7/6/34537.jpg
5338024
You’re welcome!
5338121
The one pony game does have ‘em, AFAIK. Can’t remember what it’s called, though (it’s not the one game, but the other one, and I know that’s uselessly unspecific
)
5338231
That’s a thing that I didn’t know existed
5338503
And they bought Wizards of the Coast, so they didn't have to have Spike and others play the made-up O&O instead of the real D&D. Roleplayers were annoyed by how things were dumbed-down in more recent editions, but other than that, Hasbro has run things competently. Very much unlike EA.
At any rate, nobody can improve on the classic 2nd Edition AD&D rules. Thank goodness EA hasn't gotten ahold of Baldur's Gate 3. Even though they're still getting rid of my THAC0.
5338298
I haven’t seen it much; I think that it’s an interesting way to do a modern story. It’s not where I’ll be going in the future, but once I’d sort of thought of the rough framework of this story, I thought that would be an interesting thing to add. Sort of like the modern version of an illuminated manuscript, I guess.
I’ve never really worked on an Equestrian language besides a few broad mentions, in a large part because I don’t know the rules of English, let alone any other language (seriously, not that long ago I got in a discussion with another guy about active voice vs. past progressive voice as compared with whatever it is that I do, and I have only the vaguest notions of what those things are. Or direct objects and indirect objects. Or adjectives (I know they’re not adverbs, which go with verbs. . . .)
As for the Dutch . . . it started as a joke in comments on Silver Glow’s Journal, based on a meme (as all things do these days)
external-preview.redd.it/NHOOqQi10Ns9KyG4fjb-gkz3DrBkTvpqA48H4OBrXeM.jpg?auto=webp&s=7893279f6a9c04e3c3adcaaa2b32c5b43bc139c0
And I kinda decided to roll with it.
The next one most likely is going to be a pegasus working for an air ambulance service in England.
5338481
Weird how old-timers have trouble with modern slang.
I sometimes go the opposite route and adapt it where it doesn’t fit, hence for a while in the shop, battery “CCAs” (cold cranking amps) became DDRs (as in, “This battery only has 170 DDRs”)
5338525
The DDR5 SDRAM standard was just released. Are OBD systems using it yet?
5338552
They’ve already got code formats like B2101:51:1B., so I’ll say yes. Except for Nissan, who has the same general idea of code format, but uses a dart and a blindfold. And the Germans, who have a very logical system which is only understandable after exactly two (no more, no less!) proper German beers.
And a secret decoder ring.
5338525
Well I'm 28 so I don't really have an excuse.
5338519
The really dumb thing is that the fifth bullet under "pony" is slightly less wrong for the kind of pony you're writing about. (The first and last two depend on the specific pony.)
5338497
Oh yes, Ctrl+backspace. In-game chats that don't retain it trip me up a fair bit. (Also Alt+Left/Right)
5338578
Yeah, but in pony years that’s like a billion, so you’re good to go.
5338580
Only slightly. We don’t know how many legs Shiroi claims to have.
The first and last two are specifically addressed at Pinkie Pie. That’s an actual fact.
5338581
Now I’m curious what alt + left/right (arrow, I presume) does.
<goes on clicky adventure>
Well, back/forward on YouTube in Chrome, at least.
5338593
It's the back/forward through webpages. Enter it right now and it should send you back to however you clicked over here to respond.
5338598
I don’t dare use that shortcut here; last time I did that I wound up on a review blog and also my kidney was gone.
i.ytimg.com/vi/QFCSXr6qnv4/maxresdefault.jpg
5338602
It's a hotkey, not a shortcut. But that's nitpicking.
Most browsers will just let you press backspace to go back a page, but not the Ubuntu version of firefox for some reason. Once upon a time it was a common prank to press ctrl-alt-down on a school or public PC and leave it that way to screw with the next person.
5338511
Neither did I. Now I'll have to look for it.
5338519
So it will be about a pegamedic?
5338612
I think I’ve done that by mistake a time or two (I think I’m editing a document, but the cursor is really on the other screen).
What does ctrl-alt-down do?
Also, when I was in school our way of messing with people in the computer lab was taking the mouse ball out.
5338710
Yes, I suppose it will be.
5339134
Depending on the video drivers in use, it flips the screen.
Ah, got it. Apparently my computer doesn’t support it or it isn’t currently enabled or something.
If I had better monitor mounts (stupid Dell and their non VESA fastners), I’d flip one of ‘em sideways for better writing. . . .
I remember slowing down and giving his nickname a long, good look while reading the story. It took some time for me to unfreeze, but then I snickered a lot.
True! 👍Sadly, it becomes more and more important to understand this simple thing. I've recently seen a video explaining how easy it is nowadays to tinker with a video and, say, multiply the crowd by ten.
Twitch bits are roughly equivalent to $0.01 each for Twitch associates. (Haven't bought any to donate to other streamers, so I don't know how much they cost viewers. I live on a shoestring.)
Blatant plug: https://twitch.tv/redneckgaijin - If you can put up with low-res streams coming through DSL, check it out.
5339404
Sometimes the jokes just write themselves.
Yeah, there’s a lot of that stuff that’s well above my skill level, but plenty of digital artists to whom it would be a trivial task, especially if it’s meant to be seen in lower quality, or a panning shot, or what have you, where you can leave in lots of sins that wouldn’t fly in an actual movie.
Heck, just look on YouTube at what people can animate with decent computer rigs. Like the Pony Sims videos, for example.
5339584
So def way less than Equestrian bits. I’m sure that they’re slightly more expensive for people to buy, like maybe you get 75 for a dollar or something like that, so Twitch gets its cut.
5339152
5339156
I used to play the original Halo on PC a LOT. Had some kid come into the server and ask how to aimbot. I told him to start with Alt+F4. And there was much rejoicing.
5341413
5338519
Well, there's your problem. You're trying to learn something that doesn't exist.
Seriously, English is the language of the Borg, assimilating whatever it finds useful from other languages.
That said, I can answer at least one of your questions right now:
Yup, it’s several languages all standing on each other’s shoulders, wearing a trenchcoat. Luring other languages down dark alleys to steal what it wants.
Yay! Adjectives are words to describe (or compare) things.
Also, now I need to remember a pony who knows you can make a noun into an adjective by adding -ic, -ish, or -ary. “Yeah, the Fillet of Fish doesn’t have a very fishic patty.”
“Don’t you mean fishish?”
Both story, and blog, were a lot of fun. Glad I could help out! Also you forgot to link this blog to the story (as in, on the right side of the screen it doesn't show the story being related to the blog post.)
5348282
Thank you! It was fun to write
I did, didn’t I?
I can’t do it right away, because I usually post the blog before the story gets through approval, and I must have forgotten to do it after the story passed the waiting period.
For faking the conversations, another option (and more fun) would be to coordinate with another person to recreate the chat. You and the other person change your avatars and screen names to the characters, and then type out messages on the chosen platform following a script in another window/screen. Then screencap the conversation that is formed. Basically, roleplay with a specific purpose, not just "for fun".
5349021
That would work, although it would mean typing both conversations out on a tiny little telephone keyboard.
I could totally do it if I wanted to, though, and I wouldn’t even have to recruit a second person, since I’ve got two cell phones. Although that would take some of the fun out of it.