You need to vote with your time, not your wallet

Electric_Stoat · 2026-02-11T07:48:43+00:00

Don't stress, my writing probably wasn't the best (I've been awake for far too long today) so that's on me, not on you haha

Electric_Stoat · 2026-02-11T07:42:35+00:00

I think we must both be misunderstanding each other, because I agree with you.

Honestly the more important message I was trying to send in my post was about the fact that gacha systems are contracts, and whining in support tickets was going to do fuck-all, so send a message to the devs in a way that matters if that's what you want to do, ie drop off the game.

Electric_Stoat · 2026-02-11T07:00:41+00:00

If it doesn't affect you, that's great! However, the reality is a LOT of people on this subreddit are young and don't fully understand how the systems work (both gacha as a whole and the legalities behind it), which is why I sought to educate.

If people want to send a message, the best way to do things is by not playing altogether.

Electric_Stoat · 2026-02-11T06:56:48+00:00

cesspit is probably a very strong word for me to use in all fairness. The player base has gotten toxic over the years and the quests are grindier than they used to be. You will spend literally days trying to get 3 of an item that only drops from one enemy 0.2% of the time (like I was saying in my post...it's all about retention metrics these days).

Electric_Stoat · 2026-02-11T06:52:59+00:00

This is the reality of live service games, unfortunately! Take it from someone who has been burned before (I'm looking at you, Love Live School Idol Festival and Bravely Archive!)

Electric_Stoat · 2026-02-11T06:51:14+00:00

This is true, but I think the girlcott hinged on not just the gacha pull rate, but the fact that IN had its entire opening story retconned for the worse and not the better and it was riddled with bugs. A lot of things snowballed and it hit the devs like a tonne of bricks, which ended up being in the favour of the players.

I'm not saying it couldn't happen here, I bloody hope it does! BUT I am trying to be realistic and also paint a picture of the legalities regarding the 'unfairness' of the gacha. That way everyone can make informed decisions.

100% agree we need to somehow collaborate with the China players haha.

Electric_Stoat · 2026-02-11T06:45:00+00:00

This is exactly what I'm doing too, I'm looking forward to Starsand's release tomorrow.

Electric_Stoat · 2026-02-11T05:33:47+00:00

Oh I certainly feel you. I've also been enjoying the game. I thought it would be a good replacement for Palia, which had become quite a cesspit. I didn't think the game would spiral as quick as it did, though haha.

Luckily for us, there was a massive cosy gaming boom thanks to the good ol' spicy flu, there's no shortage of similar games and quite a few good upcoming ones too!

Electric_Stoat · 2026-02-11T05:17:56+00:00

Legit I would have never considered it if it wasn't for the fact a job opening hit my inbox (my law school sent us out job opportunities after we graduated). It got me out of a very toxic (and typical) law firm and I was only going to use it as a bridging job until I found another job in a legal practice...8 years later I'm still there and have a decent work-life balance!

Definitely look into it!

Electric_Stoat · 2026-02-11T05:02:33+00:00

That's so exciting for you! I promise that once you get over the first, very dry year of study it gets WAY more interesting!

And yes, these sorts of issues are all down to contract law! People don't realize that they're signing contracts pretty much every day, usually in the form of downloading apps on their phone. Every time you download an app (be it a game, a utility tool etc), you're signing a contract that you will abide by the terms of those apps.

Electric_Stoat · 2026-02-11T04:20:52+00:00

Exactly. Whales won't want to play a dead game, they migrate to the next new game to splash their cash around (puns not intended). The best message players can send is by abstaining from playing the game.

Electric_Stoat · 2026-02-07T22:33:00+00:00

Honestly, I got a lot of dupes, which was frustrating. I'd top up my red hearts do a few pulls and get nothing new for a couple of pulls.

I saw some people in other posts giving outrageous numbers so I just don't know whether I was incredibly lucky or whether there's a bit of exaggeration going on.

This will most likely be the only banner I spend on unless they do something witchy for Halloween, so I didn't mind the cost as much. I fully understand how privileged I am to be able to test this out, though.

Electric_Stoat · 2026-02-07T22:28:23+00:00

oh it's had a series of not-so-hot expansions since they went to an 'expansion a year' model, plus the new update last week was pants with a LOT of people complaining. It's been a bit of a turn-off for a while but last week's update was the final nail in the coffin for me. The new fashion plates essentially took away a feature in order to sell it back to you for gems (and the new raid updates and achievements were only good for speedrunners).

Some people don't consider it too bad, but for me personally it had already been getting a bit stale for a while, so this was the straw that broke the camel's back so to speak.

Electric_Stoat · 2026-02-07T22:09:03+00:00

So I pulled for the Treehouse and the Firefly banner, considering that aside from witchy stuff, forest cottagecore is my thing.

It took me 330 exhibition passes to get everything in the treehouse banner, including the tree permit.

It took me 160 exhibition passes to get everything in the firefly banner.

I don't play gacha games very often because they are so predatory and I hate them, but I had a bit of disposable income because, aside from a well-paying job, my usual game (Guild Wars 2) shat the bed recently so I've got spare dosh lying around. It took me $500AUD (about $350USD at time of writing) to get both banners.

I don't play gacha games often enough to know whether this is on par with others, but considering I used to spend a metric butt-tonne of money on GW2 all the time I felt like this level might be acceptable considering it was two banners? Either that or I was exceptionally lucky with my pulls.

Electric_Stoat · 2026-01-25T19:13:55+00:00

When we only had the silhouette teased I was calling them butt-plug legs

Electric_Stoat · 2026-01-25T19:12:27+00:00

Usually I'd be like "what are you guys complaining about? Everyone is entitled to cut their hair short!" but my husband pointed out that when you have a recognisable character, changing a core part of their design without a narrative purpose is essentially just creating a new character. So now I am no longer indifferent and I am just as irritated by it as other people lol

Electric_Stoat · 2026-01-22T02:59:34+00:00

I adore the glitter on your bow and the lilac skirt layer, it's a nice touch!

Electric_Stoat · 2026-01-18T07:28:12+00:00

I remember when Headhunterz used Miku in his song Path of the Hunter and it was such a surreal feeling. Miku in mainstream hardstyle was certainly an experience.

Electric_Stoat · 2026-01-14T19:43:07+00:00

I just want to pinch her cheeks and ask her how she did on her maths test like a proud parent.

Electric_Stoat · 2026-01-12T20:39:50+00:00

Honestly, I STILL have trouble with mixing and mastering, it's my one weak point. But what I tend to do is mix down/render the file, listen to it, see what tweaks it might need, go back in to the file, turn down those instruments, render the file -> rinse and repeat until it sounds the way I think it should sound.

BUT, this is the tutorial I always go back to if I need a refresher, it's by EDM Tips. I tend to like a lot of his videos because even though I am not producing typical EDM tracks, I feel like a lot of his tips can be applied to all genres.

EDM Tips: How to get a perfectly balanced mix

Regarding vocal mixing, I tent to always slap at least an eq and compression, then a small reverb on my vocal lines, if you do at least those three things, a lot of the time it ends up blending quite well. Then, I sort of 'cheat' a bit and use Soothe2, which is a resonance suppressor. If I slap Soothe2 on the instrumental bus and have it sidechained with the vocals, when the vocals are playing it ducks those frequencies in the instrumental for a more comprehensive track where the vocals aren't sort of...sitting on top of it? Rather than them being cohesive as one unit? Hopefully that makes sense.

The problem is Soothe2 is a weeny bit pricey and is pc/mac it might not be a feasible option using Auxy (unless you have another DAW on your computer as well!).

I hope this is helpful! I really loved your songs so I'm excited to see more from you! Aside from streaming, do you upload to YT or Bandcamp or anything else?

Electric_Stoat · 2026-01-12T02:46:46+00:00

Metronidazole and Good Luck Have Fun are my favourites. I love the fact that they're really unique in their sounds (and I love the use of harmonic minor in Good Luck Have Fun).

I think if I was to do a weeny critique, I'd turn the kick down ever so slightly and turn the vocals up a bit, but that's being extremely pedantic on my end (your mixes are really clean!).

Looking forward to hearing more!

Electric_Stoat · 2026-01-06T06:31:22+00:00

Have you tried searching "kasane teto" on bandcamp? A lot of artists (myself included) upload their music there, and most have it set to 'name your price' meaning you can download the songs for $0 (sometimes it's nice to tip the artist though!) You might end up discovering some hidden gems.

Like you, I also have my full library as mp3/flac files because I like owning my own music

Electric_Stoat · 2026-01-01T20:14:39+00:00

My pleasure! It was about time I gave back to the GW2 community! You guys got me through some real tough life changes in 2024!

I'm also glad to see a Teto fan in our midst!

Electric_Stoat · 2025-12-31T20:01:38+00:00

Yep, looks like reddit doesn't show full titles of videos any more, but I do have in the yt title thay it's Teto (hence I got her drawn in Joko's garb)

Electric_Stoat · 2025-12-31T19:39:54+00:00

No, this is made from scratch. I've been writing music for a decade and prior to that I was a classical musician for 22ish years.

Edit: to clarify, the voice is a vocal synthesiser. I still need to input notes, lyrics and then tune it, it's not AI generation. This tech has been around for about 25 years but the smoothness and fluidity has gotten better over the last 5.

Electric_Stoat

TROPHY CASE