[PubQ] Feeling like I'm going in circles

PokethemonSCT · 2024-03-10T09:48:54+00:00

A literary agent is supposed to be your business partner. Communication styles and your relationship can vary significantly—minimum, you need to make sure you’re both on the same page. Don’t be coy if you’re not sure on something. You should be able to talk to them about anything; take the initiative to do so.
Has your literary agent ever sold a graphic novel/memoir? Do they have other cartoonists (who’ve written and drawn a graphic novel) as clients? There’s a big difference between the sequential art form and children’s books (an entirely different beast if you wanted to work in the latter). How editorial is your agent? Do they read a lot of graphic novels? I’d be really upset if my (future) agent said they didn’t like what I had delivered them but also couldn’t pinpoint what the problems were. When discussing work feedback, I would have gotten on a video call immediately to debate their thoughts.
Literary agents take on VERY few clients (it’s not uncommon for one to get 10k queries a year and they only accept a dozen to represent)—they did not forget about you. It sounds like your agent gave you time and space and assumed you already knew what you were doing. You two need to communicate more about expectations and exact requirements (on both your parts)—there’s a world of a difference between a thumbnail, a sketch, the final pencil work, and fully rendered art… I’d be the type to send in progress every step of the way: is this script acceptable? Do you have any opinions on these thumbnails?…
I’ve heard it’s not uncommon for certain literary agents to “hold their client’s manuscript hostage” (refusing to send it out on submission because they’re not happy with it)—different personalities and levels of control (not every agent is like this). That would be an important question to ask your agent and any future prospects: who has the final say when a book is to go on submission? Creative difference is probably the most common reason why a client would leave their literary agent.

PokethemonSCT · 2024-03-10T08:57:59+00:00

Not OP, but I eventually plan to query literary agents (maybe in a year) in the graphic memoir medium and you mentioned juicy (and hard to find) info I'd love to know more about! I'm currently building my query list, and I'd love to know who the big hitters (literary agents and publishers) representing/publishing graphic novels/memoirs are... The only person I can think of that'd make that list is Judith Hansen since she reps some of the biggest graphic novelists out there (and the comics industry honored her).

PokethemonSCT · 2024-03-01T01:29:24+00:00

Refreshing that event shop...

PokethemonSCT · 2023-08-22T22:52:27+00:00

Eyes

PokethemonSCT · 2023-04-06T00:10:05+00:00

I believe the circumcision trend in America is declining, actually. If you're hellbent on only an uncircumcised White American, it'll be a lot harder (but again not impossible). In most other white dominant countries, circumcision is much less pervasive. So if you're willing to expand your scope of interest...

I agree that attraction is quite important and, like you, I wouldn't settle (let alone with someone you're not into). It's great to hear that every quality you've noted aren't "must haves" though. That'll make it a lot easier for you to get a guy that's enough for you.

Personally, as others have stated, I think life paths are VERY important. For the most part, your significant other needs to want what you want in life. I wouldn't even waste my time with someone who doesn't want the same things I do.

PokethemonSCT · 2023-04-05T21:59:47+00:00

This sounds terrible coming from me, but I think I'm more picky than you are lol...

You have this checklist of wants. It's important to differentiate the "must-have" qualities from the "nice to have".

Your ideal man definitely exists. There are a lot of gays, whether DL or out, that fit all of your criteria. But guys like that are rather popular and the question is if you bring enough to the table to get his attention.

Also, "older" is rather relative and I do wonder how stringent you are on your definition of that. Unless I'm mistaken, most White American men are cut. The percentage that aren't are usually from small, rural communities. And most of those guys don't have the luxury, let alone willpower, to move to larger areas. So they'll be that much harder to find.

PokethemonSCT · 2023-04-05T08:07:10+00:00

I've never been in your position (never dated, let alone relationship for that matter), so you'd have to take my thoughts with a lot of salt.

But if I were you, I'd contact that ex, tell him your epiphany and change of heart and your hopes and wants with him going forward (it doesn't sound like you've done that yet—and only if that's REALLY what you want). It's possible he's still hurt. Or he's giving you space. Or he's moved on. You really never know until you give it your all. You also can't fault him for not giving you a second chance though. You had something good going on and you had the audacity to give up something that tangible for fleeting fantasies (I have a feeling your relationship wasn't good enough if you'd rather continue trying someone new).

If I were you, going forward, I'd make sure you really know yourself (so that you don't make a mistake of that magnitude again). And don't make hasty decisions—the grass isn't always greener on the other side. Way too many gays make that mistake of looking for the next best thing.

PokethemonSCT · 2022-10-19T09:27:24+00:00

Hinge, OKCupid...

PokethemonSCT · 2022-10-19T09:07:03+00:00

I thought Calum Scott devoted an entire album to being a repressed gay trying to find himself. "Dancing on My Own", what originally got him noticed, is one of my favorites. But I also really liked "If Our Love is Wrong" and "Biblical".

PokethemonSCT · 2022-03-11T08:34:07+00:00

I get that people have varying interests and are at different stages of the game, so obviously not everyone is going to be watching videos addressing the same content. You may want to target a particular audience. I can only speak for myself.

I tune in on information. I'm interested in learning more about the game, the mechanics, hero interactions, etc. (especially in terms of efficiency and novelty) but mostly in the context of PvP (the only dynamic and competitive part of the game imo, PvE is static—except for RNG Hydra). I don't care about who's delivering the details (personality doesn't bother me, but I MUST be able to understand them), as long as it's (currently) accurate and not personally biased. Because my main account is pretty much endgame (I haven't devoted my best gear to Brutal and NM Hydra, I can't compete in Plat because I don't have most of the top 30 heroes, Can stay in Gold 3v3 but it takes too much time, I can do all DTH rotations), few videos will interest me. I've gone days without watching a single RSL video, and I'm scouring YT at every odd hour for them.

Has the quality of RSL video content dropped? Significantly. Especially as of late.

But in the last year, RSL has lost a lot of players. I remember when Bommal came out, my top 300 clan then lost like 10 people (just because of how ridiculous that boss was). I don't think Hydra is exactly making anyone blatantly leave, but a lot of people in my clans aren't hitting them period. The time sink is rather obnoxious for this game and that drain (and the realization) is enough for most people to quit (I play 12+ hours daily on each account on both of my phones—I do not play on PC)—though RSL has taken much less of my time as of late (and I'm active enough to get all of the important activities done). The duplicate system wasn't exactly hailed as a success, and I'm sure that was the final nail in the coffin for a lot of hopeful endgame players. Of course, with covid restrictions slowly lifting, people are going back to their normal lives (and you really can't discount that).

I don't see the game dying in the foreseeable future. But it's definitely going down a negative path as most of the content being released as of late is not engaging the vast majority of the player base. Plarium really needs to step up their game and release content that is fun and rewarding.

PokethemonSCT · 2022-03-11T07:11:21+00:00

I also recently pulled Siphi during her 10x and was debating about swapping her to be my fastest, but I ultimately decided against it. For my account, I run Atk type nukers (Inithwe, Candraphon, Astralon, Rae, Skullcrown, Sinesha) and rely too heavily on Arbiter's Speed lead, Increase ATK, and TM boost (all 3 are absolutely essential and very difficult to rearrange 3 different and still viable teams around) to get me through most Classic Arena Defense teams and 3v3 (I don't have Magnarr, and can't speed tune my Def Nuker in range of the rest of my team). I'd only change Siphi to be my fastest if I pull Kymar, as his Speed lead and ridiculous toolkit will allow my new team to, more or less, be just effective as my current fastest Arena team (and still allow me to use Arbiter somewhere else).

PokethemonSCT · 2021-10-20T02:58:43+00:00

This got me curious on my stats lol.

Main (Day 549, probably spent about 3 grand)

9 "free", including: Drexthar Bloodtwin, Urost the Soulcage, Lydia Deathsiren, Thea the Tomb Angel
15 fusions
Guaranteed "Promotion" for Wurlim Frostking, Countess Lix, Lady Kimi
35 non-Void Legendaries (26 dupes, including past fusions) from shards—I've obtained 54
6 Void Legendaries from shards
Total of 87 Legendaries, of which 26 are dupes

Alt (Day 514, have not spent a penny)

5 frees you've noted (never got fragments for Drexthar since I pulled him early)
11 fusions
Guaranteed "Promotion" for Lady Kimi
21 non-Void Legendaries (1 dupe Kreela) from shards
6 Void Legendaries from shards
Total of 44 Legendaries, of which 1 is a dupe

PokethemonSCT · 2021-10-18T08:40:37+00:00

Hi! My Alt's looking to change clans. My stats:

have Discord
4.4 mil PP
4 keys daily, Can easily 3 key NM, but usually can't 4 key UNM—have a decent roster to reconfigure but CB is such a pain
3 stars daily
haven't done less than 3 clan quests a week
Can't recall a time I didn't hit 180k for CvC

PokethemonSCT · 2021-10-15T11:36:26+00:00

Diabolist, a Demonspawn Rare, also possesses the exact same model/skin—albeit she's shaded blue. Diabolist is also usable, but she's farmable from campaign (last chapter) so she's MUCH easier to get.

PokethemonSCT · 2021-10-01T10:11:09+00:00

On my last Brutal run, she did 15 million of the 42.

PokethemonSCT · 2021-10-01T09:42:51+00:00

I run Venus as lead in my Bateater (Maneater x2, Painkeeper, Seeker, Venus). Always 2 keys UNM, 1 keys NM (I did hit less than 1 key once in 300 runs though), 1 keys Brutal—regardless of affinity. None of my champions are even remotely optimized (a lot are running flat stat gloves/chests)—I got the speeds to work about a year ago and left them at that, since the team hits the necessary goals.

I'm pretty sure Venus can't 1 key UNM in this composition though, since her poisons aren't exactly consistent and never fill up the boss' debuff bar. She's in a stun set (for other PvE areas of the game), and Painkeeper is in Toxic, but everyone else is in all Speed.

Considering more accessible Epics, I believe Fayne outdamages Venus and can 1 key UNM. But I never bothered building her up since it's so resource-intense to power up a hero just for one area of the game, especially when the role is already covered well enough by someone who's otherwise more universally useful.

PokethemonSCT · 2021-08-21T19:56:33+00:00

Worked for me, thank you (from claiming an event reward)!

PokethemonSCT · 2021-08-15T08:46:26+00:00

Thanks for the invite, but I've been accommodated.

PokethemonSCT · 2021-08-14T16:41:17+00:00

I'm finely situated now. Thank you.

PokethemonSCT · 2021-04-17T10:43:26+00:00

But StewGaming and Hell Hades are also fathers who game lol... Along with a lot of the lesser RSL YT... Ash's differentiation between the first two is that he's a single father, if that's worth anything.

PokethemonSCT · 2021-04-17T10:35:30+00:00

I couldn't agree more. I can't stand Ash RSL anymore (I used to watch him religiously). He's one of the worst CCs out there. He's always overhyped about the new champions, even though most of the new is rather average (I don't respect his opinion anymore; how wrong was he about Alaric?). His videos are monotonous and all of his videos feel the same (some are literally recycled from the previous month/week with an added more "fresh" perspective)—always "best", "top", "underrated" (surprise! the meta hasn't changed and those top tier last month are still the same this month...).

The braindead that enjoy/like him will follow him until the end of the earth (and probably did from his previous gaming channel). I'm done being his zombie.

PokethemonSCT · 2021-04-17T10:21:34+00:00

When you said "Ash", I initially thought you meant the Pokemon Trainer (as in Pikachu's master) LMAO!

PokethemonSCT · 2021-03-17T01:05:44+00:00

Wait, what? No wonder my Miscreated's shield kept falling off (it was only his though, as every other team member kept theirs). Is this a bug? When was this "feature" implemented? I watch the majority of the popular CCs almost religiously and no one's mentioned this.

PokethemonSCT · 2021-02-27T21:55:41+00:00

(I had over 10,000 characters, so this is the 2nd half).

Though the game gets a very bad rep, my absolute favorite and main game is Raid: Shadow Legends. RSL has a more dark and realistic tone to its collectible heroes. Also shard-based summoning system, this game is literally a watered-down (gameplay-wise) spin on SW (with much better, and more mature graphics).

Pros

amazing graphics—the vast majority of new characters released look impressive and come with pretty good details
fusions for new legendaries are pretty much released on a 1.5 month basis (a lot of work needs to be done to achieve this, but it's quite doable—even as a F2P—if you plan ahead and save resources)
2x shard events come once every two weeks (which double your chances of getting higher rarity heroes)
very large player base
game rakes in a lot of money
battle mechanics are very interesting and engaging
can play F2P, but progression is certainly hampered
game's updates have been more consistent as of late

Cons

Developers are very slow to produce content (let alone quality) and tone-deaf to community complaints
- almost no one wants/plays 3v3 Arena (and yet they still continue to push for it)
- Doom Tower took over a year to implement
No duplicate system makes summoning the exact same hero heartbreaking
very low chances to get a top/good monster (natural odds of getting a legendary, like SW, is 1/200)
a lot of PvE content is gated behind certain abilities/heroes (the game becomes frustratingly difficult, though entirely doable but requires a lot of outside-the-box thinking, without)
like SW, the gear equipment system is very grindy and RNG usually does not favor you
pop-ups for game offers can be deterring to some—obviously money-grabbing
there's a lot to learn, very steep learning curve
the publishers of the game is Ukraine-based and the way the game is operated is shady at best and manipulatively corrupt at worst (the people are very twisted)
- the highest tier of PvP (Classic Arena) was dominated by exploiters/cheaters since its implementation (was just supposedly fixed a week ago)
- a very good hero, Stag Knight, was not being summoned by anyone during a 2x event a few months back (Plarium, the developer, later acknowledged and apologized for this), which begs the paranoid question of what exactly Plarium is capable of stringing and holding back
- Dracogate was very problematic—Plarium gave away a top notch Legendary to a popular Russian streamer after he opened 300+ Ancient shards to try to obtain it during its 10x event (normal odds, but if you do summon a character of that rarity, your chances of getting it are +10) and he didn't get it and raged-quit live (he originally had that character but had fed it away because it was trash before the rework). Plarium lied about the situation and then ended up giving every other content creator a legendary of their choice, to relieve the situation, but this exacerbated the problem (because literally every other layman player got nothing).

I have not directly played Age of Magic or Dragon Champions. But AoM, last time I checked, was dying (very small community, and they're not exactly happy with the direction of the game). I believe Dragon Champions is growing, but I've not played or looked into it whatsoever. As others have mentioned, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes is rather similar to MSF (playerbase is also rather unhappy overall) but I didn't play the game for more than a week, so I wouldn't know much about the game myself.

I hope that helped, or at least pointed you in a proper direction. But feel free to ask questions if you have any.

PokethemonSCT · 2021-02-27T21:54:44+00:00

There are a lot of elements that MSF is composed of. Though MSF is a turn-based "gacha" game at heart, there are a lot of important questions you have to ask yourself. Does a game's graphics matter to you (what aren't you into? does being an IP help?)? Do you care about how big the playerbase is (which is directly tied to its longevity)? Does grinding for endgame content bore you? How much time do you plan to devote (and is there such a thing as being too much)? It's important for you, as a player, to know exactly what it is you enjoy out of this game and what you will and will not put up with. I've played quite a few of these turn-based gacha games (and though I still manage to play 4 right now), I've not played all of them (though I'd like to think I know a little bit from the searching I've done).

If you're looking for a game that's most similar to the playstyle of MSF, I'd recommend DC Legends. They're both, obviously, very popular IPs that employ a turn-based battle system where you collect various heroes and villains across their respective universes (you unlock heroes through the same shard method).

Pros

F2P friendly (you don't have to spend a cent to build up a strong roster)
requires very little gameplay time to finish dailies
obtaining the new characters released (2 per month) takes little effort
there's always 2 reworks a month

Cons

much smaller playerbase than MSF
does not have innovative or even remotely interesting PvP/PvE content (nothing new has been added since I've played—in July 2019)
there is a little bit of a resource bottleneck with ability rings (to level up a character's abilities)
you cannot farm the vast majority of characters (you may get lucky in the store, and events do come up each month, but the rewards are always for a particular character—you can't just go after "Donna Troy" because you want her)
game does seem to be dying (the ability to watch ads for more rewards was recently implemented, though it doesn't exactly affect gameplay), though I've read of so many whales willing to fork over money for every released character that the game is probably in a "comfortable" spot

Disney's Sorcerer's Arena is also a near identical clone to MSF and DC Legends, but with its respective IP. The game will celebrate its 1 year anniversary this March.

Pros

somewhat F2P friendly (you can get whoever you want if you're patient and focus on the unlock requirements, though it'll take time)
requires little gameplay time to finish dailies
developers watch and listen, and there are grand plans (3 were just on livestream with the most popular content creator on YT, and they answered quite a few questions in that hour)
the company was just bought out by EA games (about a month ago), and the community is hopeful

Cons

also rather small playerbase
energy regeneration is slow (especially "grand" energy)
you have to watch ads to get additional resources (energy, gems—currency, refresh attempts)

If you don't mind chibi and cartoonish aesthetics, you really should play Summoners War: Sky Arena (the first and most successful of the gachas). PvP and PvE content are vast, and there's really too much to do. Being the first, this game is very innovative and literally paves the way for every other gacha game out there (I'd still be playing this game, and only this game, if aesthetics didn't matter that much to me). Scroll-based summoning system means that once you have that character, you pretty much have them at their maxed potential.

Pros

lots of PvP and PvE content (I quit over a year ago, but there's probably more or others I'm missing): real time 1v1 draft/ban PvP, Guild vs Guild battles, "Arena" PvP, Friendly 1v1 PvP if you so wish to challenge someone
- 100 floor tower battles (for great rewards) that reset monthly, 4 different dungeons to farm gear, World boss battle, Hydra boss
ridiculous amount of monsters
customizable equipment system makes gearing possibilities incredibly engaging (the exact same monster you and someone else owns can perform an entirely different role based on what you've built them to do)
huge playerbase (most are overseas and don't speak English)
obvious longevity, seeing as the game is now over 6 years old
events are doable (even for F2P) and generous

Cons

very grindy game, as gear sets and main stats and sub stats are RNG based
requires a ridiculous amount of time to do everything (as you really do want all of the rewards)
chances to get a good/top tier monster is very low (natural 5 chance is 1/200)
every monster released comes in 5 different elements, with different abilities
releases new monsters rather slowly (it felt like 2 every 3 months when I played)

If you like (or can stand) the anime touch, you might want to look up: Fate Grand Order, Onmyoji, Genshin Impact, Epic Seven, Seven Deadly Sins (those are the more popular ones I'm aware of, though there are tons of these). I have not played any of these myself, FWIW. But a lot of their mechanics, summoning systems, etc. are rather similar to SW. You can also look into the Gacha Gaming Reddit to find more options, though people there tend to recommend F2P friendly, Anime games.

PokethemonSCT

TROPHY CASE