girlofprey

For anyone wondering what 'the Ryan Haywood' thing is - yesterday some accusations started circulating that one of the let's players I follow (Ryan Haywood) and another streamer who works with him had had nudes leaked that they'd supposedly sent to fans, and the worst accusations were that they were to minors. The person who originally posted the stuff later said the minors thing wasn't true or had been proved false, but both the guys are married, and the accusations that they'd been sexting fans and cheating on their wives remained. All I ever really saw was people arguing about it on twitter - some people believing the underage thing, other people saying they were scum who'd cheated on their wives, other people saying the pictures and screenshots had obviously been doctored and weren't real. Rooster Teeth didn't say anything, didn't make any statements on twitter or their site, the stream yesterday apparently was cancelled, but they had a live podcast and didn't mention anything about any of the allegations. But Ryan Haywood has just posted a tweet that he 'made mistakes' and is now leaving Rooster Teeth to try to rebuild his family. So it seems like the cheating stuff is true.

The coincidental thing for me is that he's the Let's Player I was talking about that pissed me off a few weeks ago, and who also around the same time made some weird comments about how he tries to annoy his (working) wife around the house so she'll 'send him to his room' and he won't have to look after the kids or do any chores and can just play with electronics and make videos. And I didn't want that to colour my view of the accusations, people can say that stuff still not actually do anything shitty, but...well. I do think people who have a bad attitude towards women are more likely to treat women badly, particularly their wives. And here we are. He's said a lot of other weird stuff in the past too, but they all have, most men I know and particularly men who think the world needs to hear their voice say weird stuff about women sometimes. But it does suck. I used to really like him. And he's leaving the company, and he is one of the main members of the group I watch and their tech guy, so I don't know how they're going to change after all of this. They're supposed to be having another livestream tomorrow. I feel like maybe it's going to get cancelled too, but we'll see. They might soldier on. I still haven't seen any actual statement from Achievement Hunter or Rooster Teeth. And I don't know about the other guy, but he's not one of the guys I regularly watch. Also I found out a bunch of other stuff about Rooster Teeth I never knew before, which wasn't great. But I still enjoy them. For now. I guess.

It's extra weird because I'm also watching Kinda Funny videos, who are also part of the Rooster Teeth company, and they are criticising Ubisoft for not being more upfront and open about the accusations against them. But silence from their own company is okay, I guess.

Just a quick reminder that for some reason Dreamwidth doesn't always show me posts from my Friends on my reading page, or even on their own home page until a few months after the event sometimes, so if I haven't commented on a post you've made recently it's entirely possible that's why.

The videos on the Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter site have been incredibly blurry for me for the past few months, and the last time this happened it was a problem with the whole site and then they improved things, but now it's just happening constantly for me. So I have to choose between watching new videos on their site, and just squinting through the blur, because I can hear everything they're saying and just about make out what's going on, or waiting a day, a whole day, to watch them on Youtube as they were meant to be seen. My life is very hard.

Things I am genuinely looking forward to:

Proud Mary. This is the film I thought was coming out in January, then February, then they were like "nah, March". It looks wicked. I'm a little concerned that Sony are making so many films at the moment, even with my Playstation love it's a little like they're taking over the world. But I've enjoyed other films they've put out recently, so I have high hopes. All my joy is coming from hitmen and -women at the moment. Hitpeople.

Alpha. This is a film I forgot about. It's about a TEENAGE CAVEMAN, who befriends a WOLF, and is supposedly about the start of our befriending/creating dogs. I'm v happy about anything that's about befriending wolves.

Rampage. Possibly the first great video game movie of our age.

Far Cry 5. It looks great. Give it to me. This is the game they delayed, and what pisses me off is that I suspect they did it to take out microtransactions, or at least constant reminders about microtransactions. They're a subject that is a hot, controversial topic in games at the moment - also they are shit - and the delay was announced really shortly after all the backlash happened with Star Wars: Battlefront 2. And it wasn't a long delay, so it seemed like they weren't doing too much work to it. So, I assume the delay wasn't so much about 'polishing' the game and making it better for us as it was covering up the ways they'd tried to screw us, and if it hadn't been delayed it would be out in a week, and instead it is out in a week and a month. But a game without microtransactions is measurably better than a game with them, so whatever, improve that game. Give it to me eventually.

At the end of last year, I was looking to see what films were coming out in 2018, because I hadn't heard of any besides Marvel films. And I was pleasantly surprised to see quite a few films with women were coming out. Ocean's Eight is one of them, and then there's Widows, a film based on at 1980s ITV series, starring Viola Davis and Michelle Rodriguez. Oh happy day. Red Sparrow was also going to be on this list when I thought it was about a female KGB agent and her difficult love for an American CIA agent, but then I saw the first trailer and she's actually an agent 'trained to ensnare and manipulate with her body', and I was like nope.

God of War. They finally gave this one a release date. It's in April.

Detroit: Become Human and Spiderman. They have not given these release dates. They said they were coming the first half of 2018. We're now halfway through the second month of 2018, and no hint of when they're coming. What is happening Sony? Release dates mean nothing anymore, but still. xckfnvkje. Although Detroit's studio is in a little trouble, so we'll just have to see about that one.

Deadpool 2. Kind of. The first one was kind of basic, plotwise. But Cable's in this one, and I always heard about Deadpool/Cable being one of the big pairings in comics when I was a kid, so who knows? And the trailer does look really nice. I wish more films coming out looked like that, but without Deadpool, and with main female characters.

Venom, after seeing the teaser trailer. I think it was a really good trailer, it does come off a little odd that we don't see Venom, but I think he's going to be a tough character to sell to non comic fan movie-goers, so building it up first with the story (or at least theme) and Tom Hardy is a good move I think. That film's out in October.

Aquaman. Really. Genuinely. Although given Warner Bro's recent treatment of the DC films, it might not be anything like the films I enjoyed. But the director apparently liked working with Zack Snyder and developed his vision for the character while Zack was still around, so maybe. That film is out in December.

I wish I was more excited for Black Panther. I will probably still go see it for support reasons - apparently people are planning to review bomb it because Disney keeps treating black people and women like humans, and because of 'the harm done to DC films among others' or something. But I don't genuinely like the way Marvel does their films, and a trailer for it looked really 'eh' to me. But a recent trailer looked more good, and like it had an actual plot, and reviews have come out saying "it's the first Marvel film about something real", which is nice. And Michael B Jordan does look amazing as the villain. So maybe.

And I tried for TV, I really did, but there's just nothing I can see coming, and I am the worst. I've tried to start watching more things, because I really enjoyed watching Vera, and it's nice to just have a story told to you, in the 'daily minutiae' way that TV does. I watched the first episode of Black Lightning, mostly because I saw this figure, and thought it/he looked wicked. It was alright, a little stiff. I liked his daughters, and the villain seemed cool, and I liked the relationship he had with the city's chief of police. But I haven't gone back to it. And I was quite excited for Altered Carbon, when I finally saw a trailer for it and thought it was about the richest man in the world jumping into a new body so no-one knew who he was, and trying to solve his own murder. But it's actually about a very special, very skilled man from years before the show is set, who doesn't really know what's going on, doing it, which I find more 'eh'.

Pancake Day was yesterday. A glorious day. The only day I really eat pancakes or treacle, because I am a fool. And today is Valentine's Day. I don't date, but I enjoy eating the chocolate. And I have been playing Borderlands 2 again, and they have a few DLC they brought out themed around various holidays, and I've never played the Valentine's Day one. So that is my plan for tonight.

Yesterday I learned that one of the Youtubers I watch - my favourite of the Youtubers I watch - who has a girlfriend who also makes videos about video games and does raunchy cosplay, had someone break into their house a few weeks ago with a gun and try to kill them, and they had to call the police, and the guy got shot dead in front of their house. So that kind of sucks. Massively.

The dog is better, by the way. He was never quite as bad as he was that one day he was really out of sorts, but now he's had all the medicine - sometimes under extreme duress - he seems to be back on form. All eating and regular and whatnot. I was a little worried for a while, because while I was looking after him, at one point he was off the lead and had a huge feather in his mouth. It's size might be a little exaggerated to me compared to what it was actually like, but it was definitely a whole feather, quill and all. And I walked up to him to get him to drop it, and he just swallowed the whole thing before I could get to him. So, we were a bit concerned it was that causing a blockage, because I never saw it come out the other side. The internet was also super unhelpful about whether feathers are indigestible or not - I think not, but dogs in the wild would probably eat them if they ate a bird? So idk. But anyway, if it was causing a blockage, it's obviously stopped now, so as long as he doesn't have a problem I guess there's no point worrying about it.

He's going to my sister's on Wednesday, when my parents are going away. That was their solution to me thinking I would probably find it difficult to look after him and the house while working. Which I think was probably the right decision, because I slept in until 11:05am this morning, and I have to leave for my train at 12pm, and I needed to have a shower. Hopefully that won't be a recurring situation. But I would always worry it might be if I knew I also had a living thing depending on me. Apparently my sister said "yeah, that's fine" when mum suggested it, and we are very much taking her at her word. She looked after him for long enough when she first had him. Although it might be a little confusing for him.

I'm sort of on edge about mum and dad going away - like, I keep forgetting it's happening, and then remembering that no, I will have to go food shopping on Saturday, and the Saturday after, and I won't have any back-up if I'm running late to go for my train and stuff. But I'm sure it'll be fine, and they do deserve it. I just have to remember I have more to do for the next couple of weeks.

A situation is happening in the Let's Play community, and it's kind of gotten me thinking. I'm sure everyone on the internet, particularly people anywhere near Tumblr, knows who Pewdiepie is and that he's kind of a shithead - last week, he used the n-word while streaming a video game, and in response a different company issued a DMCA to take down his old Let's Play of their game, because they didn't want to be associated with him anymore. Which I think is fair enough, but a lot of people think it's going Too Far, and it's kind of reminded everyone who does Let's Plays that they're only allowed to do it - sometimes for a career - by the grace of the game-makers who own the copyrights. And it's just sort of super weird, because I really don't think they're going to stop Let's Plays, any more than they've stopped fanfiction and fanvids (although the content breach is obviously different) - but whether people should be allowed to make money from Let's Plays, and do it officially in that way is another matter. And the money aspect is absolutely part of the reason for the Pewdiepie takedown - the game producer said they were sick of their content helping make him money, especially given he's now a millionaire. And it's sort of brought home to me just how entitled people seem to feel to make money off of, and make a career out of, Let's Plays and other people's copyrighted games. Like, I genuinely think it affects how much a thing is fair use, whether or not you're making money out of it. And the issue has even come up with paid mods and stuff, and how people 'should really be paid for their work' - but being paid or monetising things is literally not an issue with fanfiction, nor is it even really a discussion. And it just seems super-weird, now that I think about it, the way people seem to think 'yeah, this is my take on this game, and it was hard work to make, so I should get paid for it', and literally no-one thinks that about fanfiction, either inside or outside the community - I think Let's Players would be pretty surprised if anyone suggested to them people should get paid for writing fanfiction.

And I know it probably basically comes down to the same old thing - that fanfiction is largely done by women, and Let's Plays are largely done by men, and people automatically see men's work as more creative and valuable than women's. And men are more likely to ask for a reward for their work, and women are probably more likely to be community-minded and do things for free. But it just seems so odd now that this conversation is happening, and literally none of the Let's Players are asking "do we actually deserve to make money off this?". Strange how different views can be to different types of fanworks. Idk. I kind of experience Let's Plays for free anyway, because I have adblocker, and I subscribe to Rooster Teeth mostly for their original content, so I never really thought about it as a monetary thing. But it's interesting. I'll be interested to see how the situation with DMCAs and stuff plays out.

Today at work the two CEOs of my Facilities company were in, and then they said they had a meeting with someone from the new company that's bought out our bank. I can only assume they were discussing our contract with them, or something to do with our relationship with them. I asked vaguely about it, and my boss said they'd apparently talked about cost-cutting measures and our services - but it seemed very much like they were discussing both companies working out some cost-cutting measures, and they weren't just flat-out refusing the contract the previous company had with us. Which makes me feel a little bit better. Even though they could absolutely fail to work out cost-cutting measures and just decide to go with a different Facilities company, or do it all in-house. But as long as they aren't just outright getting rid of our company, they'll always need receptionists, and I'm already doing the job, so there's a good chance I'll stay. So it's a little selfish, considering they might cut down on any of our other staff, but it does make me feel a bit better.

Internet news is so stressful these days, but apparently Anita Sarkeesian stood up to a cunt, so that's much much more wonderful than what I was imagining when I heard she got harassed at vidcon.

The other day I was looking for that clip of Jimmy Carr wrangling kittens on 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown, and I found this lovely clip too:



Like a fool, I also looked up old Ben and Jerry's flavours the other day, and now I'm desperate for pear ice-cream and plum ice-cream, and none is very findable.

And if I had to recommend any Let's Play that the company I watch do, it would probably be this one where three of them put on Southern accents (even the Southern ones) and pretend to go out hunting Bigfoot, ala Mountain Monsters, a show one of them watches.

( Mad Max stuff )

A happy thing: one of the Let's Players I like talking about how he 'really misses' the other one I ship him with, in a video the other dude wasn't in.