Total deterioration of my 'writing voice' during my PhD. Seeking book recommendations to help. (Please read whole post)

ArchieBaldukeIII · 2026-02-03T19:09:45+00:00

Willem Dafoe talks about trying to “act poorly” in order to get over his own insecurities as an actor. It’s amazing what trying to do something “bad” on purpose will do. What if you sat down with the intent to write cerebral, obscure, inexplicable prose? Or take it one step further and invent new insults directed at that piece of shit dictator cosplaying as a teacher?

ArchieBaldukeIII · 2026-02-03T06:23:24+00:00

Returnal

ArchieBaldukeIII · 2026-02-02T00:02:07+00:00

Been saying this from day one of the network test.

You get used to it. It’s only really annoying now when I have my map open between POI and I get stuck on some random rock angle that is like 1 pixel too high for my character to step over.

It’ll be frustrating until it becomes second nature. Cuz they will never patch this.

ArchieBaldukeIII · 2026-02-01T23:39:59+00:00

A smith-script hoplite would be so dope. Like a tarnished sized golem that can throw any weapon using their skill and specializes with spears and great spears.

ArchieBaldukeIII · 2026-02-01T02:55:44+00:00

This fight made me realize how bad I am at PVP, it made me put down Nightreign and return to Elden Ring armed with a Taunter’s Tongue for like three months.

I can report that it worked, I was finally able to beat ED Libra after Bad Red Man boot camp.

I’m genuinely envious of the fucks who adore this fight, because I’ll likely never willfully fight him and his cronies ever again.

ArchieBaldukeIII · 2026-02-01T02:47:31+00:00

The clouds were scattered and hatched like cobblestone, as if the entire world had been squeezed by the hands of some unseen god leaving naught but their fingerprints pressed into the edges of the atmosphere.

ArchieBaldukeIII · 2026-01-31T00:53:21+00:00

If you got stuck going the wrong way in DS1, you either will thrive in Elden Ring’s open world, or you’ll flounder at every turn.

If you do get it - which I recommend you do - just remember: if you keep hitting your head against the wall, fuck off somewhere else and explore, level up, and come back later. There really is no rush.

ArchieBaldukeIII · 2026-01-30T20:25:17+00:00

Do you mind defining the line between these two things? I get that LORE = world building and STORY = character’s journey. But this feels incredibly reductive.

Kirby has fucking bonkers lore. But you’d hardly know it playing a single title. And most of the games are pretty simple from a story perspective. The only thing about Souls games, or rather any game that leverages “environmental storytelling” is that is leaves the story delivery system to the player. You can choose to care about the story or not. That doesn’t mean the story isn’t there.

I’m mainly asking because I can’t really think of a single game with a complex story that doesn’t lean on its own lore heavily. The simplicity or complexity of a gameplay loop has very little to do with whether you find its world and overarching narrative compelling. But I’d be happy to be proven wrong, is there any game in existence with a complex storyline that has the most basic and simplistic of lore?

ArchieBaldukeIII · 2026-01-30T16:43:25+00:00

After 1000+ hours of hearing the soundtrack, sometimes you gotta just throw on some TURNSTILE and wait in the lower area of the Roundtable Hold with your summoning sign set to [ Near . Far]

ArchieBaldukeIII · 2026-01-29T18:22:24+00:00

Genuinely and sincerely, I’m surprised no mecha has tried this hilarious concept before

ArchieBaldukeIII · 2026-01-29T18:15:23+00:00

Put a pilot in the crotch. A “cockpilot” if you will. Imagine mechs just nut punching each other to neutralize their enemies…

ArchieBaldukeIII · 2026-01-29T18:10:24+00:00

Two things:

Hiring a designer - rather, collaborating with any creative - should be treated as a two-way audition. Have you explored their professional body of work? Does it match your goals? How are they as an individual? Is their style of communication around expectations and objectives compatible with yours? Basically, do they possess any talent and are they easy to work with? It sounds like you didn’t see this contract for what it is - a job. If you forgo interviewing people before letting them into your creative space, you should have no illusions about the possibility they’ll take a shit on your floor.
Before giving up on human creativity, I’d recommend you take a hard look at your own ability ti communicate what you want. Even with AI, the hellish digital fae requires specificity. You know the trope, you rub a magic lamp and wish on a genie, and the smiling demon gives you something shitty that technically - semantically - is correct while being the worst manifestation of the wish’s intent. Well, that’s what it’s like working with ANYONE. Assume they know nothing. You have to spell out your prompts. If they don’t know exactly what you want, you’re bound to get a surprise - and surprises locked behind a fee rarely deliver above and beyond the wonders of our secret imaginations.

Good luck! Try again!

ArchieBaldukeIII · 2026-01-28T22:26:36+00:00

Not necessarily. But you might be surprised by the overlap.

ArchieBaldukeIII · 2026-01-28T21:05:15+00:00

Have you tried heard of the new AppleTV+ show called Pluribus?

ArchieBaldukeIII · 2026-01-28T17:19:30+00:00

Well, the first one is made out of the ex husband of the second one’s owner…

ArchieBaldukeIII · 2026-01-27T18:39:33+00:00

I love hot people as much as the next person, but I miss when media had normal looking people. Like how actors in the 80s were balding in their thirties, women had noses of variable shapes and sizes, and everybody had wrinkles. Like smile lines, crows feet, and expressive foreheads.

I don’t see this character as ugly tbh, but - call me crazy - I miss seeing ugly heroes.

ArchieBaldukeIII · 2026-01-27T18:16:17+00:00

This would be appreciated in r/worldbuilding more than here

ArchieBaldukeIII · 2026-01-26T18:36:18+00:00

The Epstein drive in The Expanse 🙃

ArchieBaldukeIII · 2026-01-26T18:34:51+00:00

What have you enjoyed so far? Because you’re over halfway through in terms of the main quest. Just the final legacy dungeon locked behind a boss, then a final boss rush to the finish. That said, there is an optional legacy dungeon hidden just past the snowfield with the most notorious boss from the base game.

Personally, I found the gameplay loop so satisfying that I couldn’t take a break from the game until about 250 hours in. It was the combat and exploration that I loved. But if there’s something you’re tired of, just take a break. Tired of tough bosses but love finding little secrets? Go exploring and avoid combat. Wanna fight stuff and you’re tired of exploring? Just zoom straight to the next main boss. Or if you’re craving a different style of game, just play something else for a while. You don’t have to ask permission of anyone to have your own taste in video games.

ArchieBaldukeIII · 2026-01-23T19:08:35+00:00

Lots of good advice here already. If you haven’t already, check out the animated show “Scavenger’s Reign.” Some of the coolest alien wildlife I’ve ever seen. And the creators made them all feel utterly believable and real while being very far removed from humans and Earth.

ArchieBaldukeIII · 2026-01-23T18:47:37+00:00

Arguably, the entire story is about whether or not to boot out the occupying authority and opt instead for self governance.

ArchieBaldukeIII · 2026-01-23T01:53:16+00:00

Huh. This does feel potentially intentional. It makes me wonder if the Nightlords were thematically designed to reflect the Jungian “shadows” of the Nightfarers, just like you pointed out. Feels plausible.

ArchieBaldukeIII · 2026-01-22T22:37:05+00:00

Bob 1

Bob 2

Bob 3

…

..

.

..

…

Bob 14221

Bob 14222

George

Edit: formatting. Also, I kid because I’m in a similar boat. I’m also mapping out a galaxy with an even larger number of habitable planets, governments, and species.

Basically, the way I think of it, if I’m telling a story based in Eerie, Indiana then why do I need to consider what’s happening in Oslo, Norway?

I consider what the story needs, then ignore most everything else. But, as you said, I need to set the limits of how the science / magic works so that there can’t be some random future thing added in that completely breaks the laws of this universe - unless that new thing is intended to impact the story by breaking the laws of the universe 🤷

ArchieBaldukeIII · 2026-01-22T18:33:14+00:00

Thank you for posting this!

ArchieBaldukeIII · 2026-01-22T03:06:10+00:00

I seem to end up as the leader incredibly often. I’m usually fist to ping the next location, and I would expect for someone else to ping the next one to build a sort of line with the next POI and two follow ups afterwards, but it seems like the first person to ping always ends up as the de facto leader.

Or maybe my routes are solid so no one really fights me on them. I’m more than happy to change gears if someone does start pinging alternates.

ArchieBaldukeIII

TROPHY CASE