The Tax Collector Man

writer and games guy. stuff to read on my blog! sometimes not here but usually not dead. making you shiver with @rachel_gmad. thanks for coming! he/they

[The Tax Collector Man @coolgoblinzone]

Out now! Chiaroscuro Imago - a short, narrative-driven horror game about bugs, faith, and honey. Find out what happened to the moths. 🐝📞🍯

https://t.co/NQmjRZU9Zw

[The Tax Collector Man @coolgoblinzone]

ALSO: If you happen to live in (or in the vicinity of) Kansas City and would be willing to open a room to her and her small dog, please get in touch with her. If you don't, but know anyone who does, it would mean the world if you could put them in contact. Thank you so much.

[The Tax Collector Man @coolgoblinzone]

Please, if you can spare anything, do what you can to help @rachel_gmad get away from her horrifically abusive family. If you can't afford to donate, please share as far as you can. She's the love of my life and she's endured more suffering than anyone can know. Help her escape.

[Gmad @rachel_gmad]

i'm starting a gofundme to help me get out of my current living situation, with my fucked up holocaust denying QAnon family. if you can help me out it would mean the world. thank you https://t.co/Tv4ajZVlk3

[Gmad @rachel_gmad]

i think this uses the same sample as the opening of our game??

[The Tax Collector Man @coolgoblinzone]

reckon i’ll be off twitter and on something else soon. i guess that’d be bluesky? don’t think i’ll be much more enthusiastic about being there but this place declined below my minimum tolerance level months ago & now it just feels like a horse kicking me in the head

[The Tax Collector Man @coolgoblinzone]

@LeopardSpider lord of the rings is a great example of otherwise typical romantic fantasy dialogue and rural british argot becoming refined and sharpened by the writer having deep thoughts about how people speak and why. really subtle work! it comes across without, like, iambic pentameter

[The Tax Collector Man @coolgoblinzone]

clips of the new dragon age game keep reminding me of how dire fantasy dialogue is getting. feels like nobody wants (or is allowed) to have people sound weird or different or as occupants of an alien time. immediately lays waste to half the possibilities of the genre

[The Tax Collector Man @coolgoblinzone]

@LeopardSpider the thing about lord of the rings is that tolkien was an insane language nerd and the entire text is marked with fascinating little decisions based on fictional translations that most readers never question or notice. embedded enough that it transfers across adaptations well

[Jauwn @Jauwnio]

I tried playing the Ubisoft NFT game.

The entire game has been unplayable since Friday. Allegedly, a malicious player has found a way to win every single match before the game even begins. Also he is somehow the only person anyone ever matches against.

[The Tax Collector Man @coolgoblinzone]

"people on tumblr have an inflated image of their own writing capabilities amidst a community filled with people who have extremely low standards for literature" is a correct thing to say. however i have unfortunate news about the site you're currently using

[The Tax Collector Man @coolgoblinzone]

i stopped and looked up this person's account thinking they might've responded to this in some way and it really put into perspective how rabid folks get about dumb tumblr posts. totally innocuous type of irksome text resulting out of typical circumstances. why bother to complain

[sentient @NEVERLOGGINGOUT]

Easily one of the Worst Posts Of All Time and is the absolute worst when it comes to “this style”. However it becomes 10x worse when you realize they posted that Reaction Image in response to themselves

[The Tax Collector Man @coolgoblinzone]

see also: the lost context of reaction image being added a year later. just feels like someone had a laugh to themselves about a post they didn't remember writing. everyone coming up with an alternate explanation for its existence sounds dumber than what they're mocking

[Paul Landefeld @plandefeld410]

Not to be a total nerd, but “Wanderer Above the Sea Fog”, an icon of romanticism, and “Christina’s World”, an icon of realism, are so fundamentally different in the feelings they illicit that it could be even argued the latter is a rebuttal to the former

[The Tax Collector Man @coolgoblinzone]

@JoacoN22 a great critic once derided a fantasy novel clearly based around medieval society for having people frequently say they were feeling "guilty" since, in the critic's words, the prevailing emotion of such a time wasn't guilt but *shame*. that kind of thinking is paramount imo

[The Tax Collector Man @coolgoblinzone]

i have no real experience with bioware games but my general estimate is that mass effect and dragon age are way, way closer than they ought to be. i should not be able to imagine Commander Shepard having a coherent conversation with any of these people

[The Tax Collector Man @coolgoblinzone]

i'm not saying you need entire conlangs or a major background in linguistics but at least Have An Idea. any idea! have some characters speaking anglish. embrace the possibility of players accruing a unique cultural understanding. throw in a kenning every now and then, as a treat

[The Tax Collector Man @coolgoblinzone]

just broke our television in front of all my cinephile friends after someone asked to watch Hausu, M.D.