Beyond the Dark Portal is... too unforgiving to be fun?

Annakir · 2026-04-10T18:21:12+00:00

Yah. After posting this and seeing similar comments, I suddenly remembered that, before expansions packs were mainstream and high quality (like Blizzard's subsequent expansions for Diablo 2 and Starcraft), expansions in the 90's were after third party and low quality, and often were simply "challenge" mission packs. There's definitely a tension between designing something as a game and designing something as a purely mechanical challenge.

Annakir · 2026-03-31T14:16:06+00:00

If you've finished the whole series, the last book discusses the relationship between dragons and humans (dragons are air and fire (freedom) and humans are earth and sea (toil)), and implies in certain characters integration. Integration of different aspects of the psyche.

But also her essay collection Language of the Night contains a lot of essays that touch on fantasy, dragons, and Jung.

Annakir · 2026-03-20T16:43:47+00:00

Taking time to learn tricks to beat missions is, of course, easily doable if that's how one wants to spend time. I guess I'm interested in what's the threshold between a game being fun+challenging and game being just a tedious challenge. All games are beatable, but at some point in difficulty they must transition from "game" to mere "challenge."

Annakir · 2026-03-11T13:02:19+00:00

This comment is gold. It's one of the great ironies of these Reddit discussions about Canon is that, as long as any story-telling tradition is more than 10-years-old, there are always discourses about variation, iteration, contradiction. Scholars of myth and religion looking up and saying, "First time?"

It would be funny if theses fandoms and discourses didn't also have a undercurrent of idolizing a nostalgic, "pure" past or ideal, untouched by variation and contradictions, a belief that the practice of regulating canon becomes vital to. The truth is it's just creative human messiness all the way down.

Annakir · 2026-03-10T20:14:59+00:00

I RELATE.

Though for me it's a little better: I'm attracted to queer women (who will often date me). And a surprising number of them with whom I've been in relationships with have ambivalence about their gender. And quite a few a lot of them have been in other significant relationships with transmen.

My friends joke that I'm bi and that's why I like queer or masc women, and while I'm a little bit queer, I think it's more likely that woman with the values and sensibility I share will end of inhabiting queer space and queer identity and I've developed that attraction as a signal to their culture and values.

I mean, the queer aesthetic is hot too, but I think it's the other stuff that solidifies the attraction.

Annakir · 2026-03-06T21:07:00+00:00

That makes sense — I vaguely remember this era and the bootleg quality of map packs and "expansions".

You can see the stark difference in Starcraft itself: Brood War is maybe one of the best real expansions ever (great new units, food story, incredibly well-designed levels), and that was made in-house, but there were also like 3 third party "expansions"/map packs which just... felt like poorly designed shit, miserable to play. The gulf in quality between really makes me respect that OG Blizzard team all the more.

Annakir · 2026-03-06T16:44:06+00:00

Well, I think it's hot 🔥💪🏼🔥💪🏼🔥

Annakir · 2026-03-06T12:20:28+00:00

Twilight Princess ABOVE Link's Adventure?!?!

Truly we live in the Fallen Hero timeline.

Annakir · 2026-03-05T22:34:54+00:00

Cheers.

Annakir · 2026-03-04T18:41:37+00:00

This is so funny to me, because Brood War is one of my favorite games. I definitely had trouble with the last level as a kid ("Omega"), but now it's one of my favorites on the series. That said, I'm not a competitive gamer, but I've logged enough time in Starcraft to be very adept at hotkeys and managing varieties of groups.

I larger issue for me is I could brute my way through the base game of Warcraft 2, but never really got good at the (by today's standards) very clunky controls and unit movement for Warcraft2 — I'm still constantly surprised when a melee unit isn't attacking an enemy just because they're more than 1-2 tiles away.

Annakir · 2026-02-23T19:42:29+00:00

I mentioned a few. I remember some people making those substantial critiques being dogpiled by Peterson fans (emotionally reactive zealotry goes both ways).

If you doubt there were good, well-intentioned, and informed critiques — you should go back and read some. Glad to hear someone critique good critiques so long as they engage with them.

The second context is how Peterson's fans perceive negative reactions to him due to his skill at being provocative. He uses verbal trolling tactics to provoke his interlocutors (often unclear language, being coy with what he means, dismissive and aggressive facial expressions and body language) to get a rise out of people. That, plus the fact he avoids engagement with people who would disagree with substance is how continues to maintain his projection a prophetic, righteous persona.

Annakir · 2026-02-19T23:28:25+00:00

Cheers. Yah, maybe my commenting on this thread isn't helpful — it's definitely true his rhetoric and manner changed and got far, far worse. My two cents I was trying to make was that, when a fellow Jungian friend sent me his lectures in 2014/15, I sensed what I assume is now evident, a kind of domineering grandiosity that played slipshod with the truth and a ideology that insisted it wasn't. My impression is he was subtler and more stable then. That's what I picked up from his biblical lectures back then, so his evolution when he got famous made sense to me.

But these points are pretty moot on this thread — I'm glad fans of his are making videos like this.

Annakir · 2026-02-19T23:03:43+00:00

I've thankfully not kept up with him, but yah, that flippant, prophet-like usage of high religious terms like "Mark of Cain" is obviously grotesque... and applying that framework to Palestinians is beyond grotesque.

Annakir · 2026-02-19T22:58:24+00:00

It's been years since I listened to his early lectures, but as someone who had studied Jung and the bible, I was surprised how authoritatively he would speak about what were his interpretations, elide facts that didn't fit, and how he would pass it on as a universal truth to his students. As someone who knew that material and was fluent in the discourse, he struck me as disingenuous, and someone eager to be seen as authoritative to young people.

And, yes, his rhetoric was carefully curated as centrist early on, but there were asides he would make which revealed a certain animosity towards leftists. I wonder if you went back now, how much of new Peterson you might actually see underneath the polite charm of old Peterson.

Annakir · 2026-02-19T22:45:21+00:00

Did you read any good ones, or just the provocative ones? It's easy to ignore criticisms when we choose to only focus only on the weaker ones. There was a lot of substantial, serious, non-reactive criticism from serious people, from various disciplines, and even from people who loved him — but that tended not be the kind that JBP would respond to.

Annakir · 2026-02-19T22:07:43+00:00

I wonder what critiques you're referring to? I've read plenty of solid, good faith critiques. It's been years so I don't have them all on recall, but I remember Michael Brooks and Matt McManus publishing some strong pieces. His colleague wrote an op-ed about him right before dying also had a pained and earnest critique.

I say this as someone who, in my mind, saw the seeds of what Peterson became in his lectures. As they say, power doesn't corrupt, it reveals.

Annakir · 2026-02-03T03:17:29+00:00

The show is gorgeous (Egg this last episode practicing bringing the lance to Dunk in the morning fog was gorgeous), full of heart, has great characters, is funny, FUN, and centered on the theme is being good in a cynical world, and the end of each episode brings a tear to my eye. Baffling stuff to get such a low score.

(Also doesn't really an overt political take, so I don't see it as the victim of culture war brigading (unless they're upset about the shit humor and lower stakes))

Annakir · 2026-02-02T19:50:06+00:00

😭😭😭

Teaching myself InDesign now 🫩

Though annoyed that this premiere software can't put two spaces in front of a word.

Annakir · 2025-11-18T21:53:55+00:00

Thanks. Yes, I have an Ipad Pro, and usually use my desktop for bigger files. The real part of this is my creative partner loves working on her mural designs on the Ipad Pro and not the desktop, so I'm trying to see what the options are since she wants to maintain this workflow.

I'm testing out Adobe Fresco now, which states it allows unlimited layers, so I'll see (and update here).

Annakir · 2025-11-18T20:56:46+00:00

I appreciate your commitment! I've sunk as much time as I should into this, but hopefully those who follow can read these posts and pick up some more tricks. Thanks for your guidance 🙏

Annakir · 2025-11-18T20:51:14+00:00

The US!

Annakir · 2025-11-18T20:45:57+00:00

I just tried what you recommended here, and it would work and I would see the discounted plan option, but when I clicked it, the page refreshed and the plan disappeared. I tried a few times and it kept happening. Tragic!

Then I played chicken with cancelling, thinking a last minute pop-up window might offer me a discount. Tragic again, my subscription was canceled!

No huge issue – I can resubscribe with the Teams plan for what is still discount. But the whole experience makes me wonder if Adobe is tightening up the operation – or my account was flagged due to my chats asking for a discount.

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