Disclaimer: I have not written this to insult those with different beliefs to mine nor do I believe I have all the answers. I wrote this in the best way I could to elucidate my point and candidly explain my thoughts without getting lost in political correctness.
The effect is planned out and executed with precision. There’s a reason why Hypnotiq changed to Hpnotiq and not Harpnottique. There’s a reason why “life is like a box of chocolates” was changed to “life was like a box of chocolates” as opposed to “your life may be similar to boxes of truffles”. There’s a reason why the Berenstein bears changed to Berenstain instead of Bearenshtynnn. Because they were planned out and executed with precision. There is an obvious intelligence behind the effect.
It’s a concept that seems to go over most people’s heads when discussing this phenomenon, it’s called subtlety. Have it change just enough to awaken a certain amount of people on this earth but not so much that it causes mass wide spread panic.
If tomorrow everyone was all of a sudden green coloured instead of their usual skin colour or if we had a visible third eye protruding out of our heads or if Hitler changed to Hattlerr, the changes would be so severe and obvious that most of the world would immediately wake up to what was happening.
So why didn’t they do that? Wouldn’t that accomplish their task of awakening humanity to the nature of reality? Well perhaps that wasn’t their intention.
It would cause an absolute breakdown of human society. The goal behind those who orchestrated the effect was more likely to wake up a small percentage of people on our planet. Why us? Well that’s yet to be fully comprehended but the more we gravitate towards parallel universes where our books are spelled Berenstain, the further we move away from the truth.
You see, in essence that is a theory that has been pushed by university accredited professors but the sheer ridiculousness and wasted energy in creating multiple parallel realities where the spelling of a name was different would seem a colossal waste of time and energy no? Even if you don’t assume rational thought among the creators, that would surely be moronic right? It’s entirely theoretical whereas the effect is happening right in front of our eyes. They’re trying to sway you towards false theories so that it continues to place the effect in a place of illegitimacy.
So why is it often only these scientists that the media pushes into our faces who corroborate the parallel universe theory? Such as Stephen hawking or many others of the like? Well again it’s obvious, they’re trying to mislead you and because people are such sheep, they genuinely thought the secrets of the universe were coming out of Hawking’s brain when so much evidence proves this to be incorrect.
It’s easy to get people to believe something once you attach a sick, old scientist to the theory because most only see things though the lens the media forces on them. I won’t get into the details about why Hawking isn’t someone you should’ve been following, thats research anyone can do and come to some startling conclusions themselves.
There’s a reason why the Mona Lisa’s smile was ‘edited’ instead of her being changed to an African woman called Moana Lezza with dreadlocks. The changes are intended to be subtle to our reality. I know someone will throw geographic or human anatomy changes on me. Again those are very specific and subtle where someone could easily label it as confabulation or false memory. They also can easily be explained with the editing of one reality when you realise we’re not floating on a ball of water through the universe. That’s another post in itself and not something I want to get into here. Pls do your research. Life is far closer to the Truman show or Westworld than it is Star Wars.
There’s a reason why Europe wasn’t changed to ‘The new Roman Empire’ or ‘Uropia’. Again it would be too obvious. People do experience personal effects but those are not engineered changes to our reality, they’re anecdotal glitches to your personal reality. The double slit experiment proves how reality changes once we observe it, so many of these personal changes could be directly related to this truth.
So why am I posting this? I always felt like these dots seemed rather easy to connect whereas many are often looking for the mainstream explanation, perhaps because their brain needs to make sense of things through the tools they’ve been provided, perhaps because they haven’t thought deeply enough about the effect.
The main proof we are not living in parallel universes is residue. If we moved to a new reality you would not be finding hundreds of old newspaper articles calling it Berenstein or Chic fil a. They wouldn’t exist because in this current universe we’re inhabiting, they never existed. These are well thought out, specific and meticulously planned edits to our one reality. I’ve written more about this here
Also look at how specific each change is. The Ford logo change, the kit-kat losing its dash change, the dogs playing poker visor missing, Oscar Meyer to Mayer, Caldwell banker to Coldwell, Carl Budding to Buddig, Gordon’s fish sticks to Gorton’s, Depends to Depend diapers, Cheez-itz to Cheez-it, Draino, Haagen Dazs, Smithsonian, I’ll be bach to back, interview with a vampire, little tykes to tikes, A-1 steak sauce to A.I, pikachu black tip of tail, Onyx to Onix, Cliff notes to cliffs notes, Vlassic, Klaussen, Spaulding to Spalding, Haas to Hass etc etc.
Do people see how subtle each of these changes are? Imagine if Pikachu was spelled Pokeaflu and was completely red coloured instead of yellow. Too big a change right? Imagine if Kit-kat changed to Kitty$Kat. Too big a change again. These changes all have an obvious intelligence behind them. Someone or something is choosing massive brands, the biggest lines from our most popular movies (mirror mirror, fly my pretties fly, if you build it they will come, I’m out of order, you’re out of order, hello Clarice etc), the most recognised art pieces in history (Mona Lisa, Henry 8th turkey leg, the thinker) and other mass cultural events and shifts to make their point.
Why didn’t they just change the dogs playing poker to cats playing monopoly with no dogs playing poker ever existing? Because it would be too obvious, so they went with the visor change instead. Even a massive effect like Shazam still has people questioning their memories to see if they’re conflating it with Kazaam and Shaq. It’s called subtlety.
They did mess up with a few effects. First one was the Apollo 13 line ‘Houston we have a problem’. For a period of time, thousands of people all over the world watched that video say ‘Houston we’ve had a problem’. The comments on that clip were absolutely insane until the controlled channel deleted and reuploaded the video, perhaps under the pressure of some nefarious forces. Now that change could’ve been on purpose but the true reason behind it we’ll probably never know until someone comes forth with more information.
I think they pushed their luck with the fruit of the loom cornucopia, judge judy’s gavel, Richard Simmons headband, Bruce Springsteen album cover changing from bandana to baseball cap and a few others where the changes were so severe. But again, that’s because I was familiar with all of those things. What if I wasn’t? Then I could easily just explain them as false memories.
Another time they made errors in the editing process was with Dolly’s braces in moonraker. On all clips and even personal vhs tapes, you can see a white glitch over her mouth occur at the pertinent scene. You can see her braces reflect in her drinking glass in another scene and metal in the right edge of her mouth from another angle. This is residue of their editing process which was not refined enough at the time.
Or perhaps they left the residue for us intentionally. It looks like an edit that went wrong or some indication that the original footage was manipulated. This demonstrated to me a lot of flaws in the editing process which seems to have become more refined as time has passed. That begs the deeper question. Was any of this residue organically created or was it all left for us to discover on purpose?
Why us? Why is everyone else around us including our family and friends so oblivious to what is happening? However egotistical it sounds, it’s because they’re not at a level of awareness to even conceive of these theories. People can only meet you as deeply as they’ve met themselves. Remember that. Most haven’t dared to meet themselves on even a level beyond mainstream, fear mongering, commercial reality. What makes you think they’ll be able to understand the complexities of the effect?
One last thing. Even geographical changes like the movement of South America east or anatomy changes like the liver moving its position can be explained by editing. Imagine you’re a programmer for GTA5. You can edit a store name from Quicksave to Quicksaves just as easily as you could edit the physical makeup of the avatars in your game or the entire map itself. You could edit the GTA map and this wouldn’t indicate that the avatar has switched universes, it would imply the editors of the game changed the map through their own software.
Here is one last edit that went wrong which I think is one of the best pieces of residue out there. The JC Penny change. Look how both spellings exist in the same old advert. Courtesy of u/nathanielhebert.
Anyway that’s what the editors of our ‘game’ are doing. They’re changing everything and with a specific reason. We’re just not quite sure what that reason is yet. These are not organic random changes. Pls look at the subtle intelligence behind them.
Thanks for reading.

1-800-SUPER takes place in the moderately nearish future of 2056. You have recently been hired by a hotline for superheroes and supervillains. You got hired thanks to your stunning, though typo filled, application...and because nobody else applied. The hotline has been redirected to your cellphone. You will help guide the heroes and villains. However, you must also mind the balance between good and evil. Maxing out the meter on either end will result in bad things. If there is too much good, then the city will be turn into a surveillance police state where the superheroes rule as autocratic dictators. If, on the other hand, there is too much evil, then the city will descend into anarchy, and the villains will have free reign. Each choice you make will impact the balance, so choose wisely.
I was approached to review 1-800-SUPER by Markus Witzlhofer. He contacted me on behalf of Pangolin Park; a small indie company based in Berlin. They had come out with an interactive audio drama game, and were wondering if I'd be up for reviewing it. He also mentioned that the team were all fans of my blog. As I've mentioned before, I'm a big fan of interactive media, especially Choose Your Own Adventure-type games. Adding an audio component seemed like the next logical step for interactive media. I happily said yes, and Markus sent me a free download code. The game is $2.99 for the rest of you, but honestly, I'd say that's a fair price for the quality and replay potential of this game.
I've already talked about the general mechanics of the gameplay, but let's talk specifics. This is a mobile game available from the App Store. The home screen of the game looks like the interface of an iPhone. You have an email app where the heroes and villains will send you emails about how your advice turned out. You'll also get news emails if the heroes or villains caused collateral damage as a result of your advice. I should mention that the amount of collateral damage you cause doesn't affect anything, other than pushing your meter more towards the evil side. You'll also get emails from Mr. Souls, your hotline mentor. He'll give you tips and tricks to help you out.
There's a notes app that gives basic information on each of the heroes and villains you encounter; their names, strengths, weakness, archenemies, and their mental diagnosis. Be sure you read all of this and keep it in mind; it will be important later in the game. There's a music app so you can listen to some music while you work and wait for calls. You also have a Twixta, the in-universe equivalent of Twitter, app. It lets you keep tabs on the various heroes and villains, even ones who don't call you. It also helps you influence the balance between good and evil. You can like or thumbs down tweets. Like three tweets that lean good, or dislike three that lean evil, let's you move the meter slightly towards good. Doing the reverse tips the meter slightly towards evil. You can even do a combination of liking and disliking as long as you get three tweets that lean in the same direction.
Finally, there is the meditation app. Just press it, if you don't have anything better to do, and the next thing you know you'll be receiving a call. Otherwise, you'll get calls at random while you do stuff and wait around; though usually you don't have to wait long.
Okay, now let's discuss the story itself. There are two distinct aspects to the story. First, there's the main plotline involving Ear. He's blind, but his superhearing more than makes up for that. He's a hero, but isn't above using harsh tactics and roughing up is opponents, so I guess that makes him an antihero. He's the first hero you help and the only hero you help multiple times. The main plot with Ear is kicked off when another hero named Scarab is murdered. He's a hero who has the power to grant good luck to other people, but can't bring any luck to himself. In fact, he's been plagued by terrible luck his entire life, and is living on the street when he gives you a call. It only just now occurred to me that it's pretty weird that he was able to call me despite being homeless. Did payphones make a comeback by 2056? I mean, I guess he could have asked to borrow someone's cellphone. In the grand scheme of things, I suppose it isn't important.
Scarab and Ear grew up in the same orphanage, and Ear considers Scarab his oldest and closest friend. Scarab's death hits Ear hard, and he makes it his personal vendetta to find Scarab's killers and bring them to justice. You have the option to tell him to work alone or team up with other heroes, but this doesn't affect the plot of Ear's storyline. As a side note, sometimes the option you get for answers aren't good answer vs evil answer, but polite answer vs jerk answer. I could never pick the jerk answers with Scarab. He's such a nice guy, despite everything he's been through, and I just felt so sorry for him. That was especially bad from my second play-though onwards, because I knew what was going to happen to him, no matter what I did. And apparently he's the third person to wield the power of the Scarab. Apparently it passes between individuals, though he has yet to find a successor. Actually, looking back now, certain bit of dialogue he gives suggest he knew his time on this mortal coil was about to expire. I wish there had been an option to somehow give him a hug.
We'll get back to Ear in a minute. For now, let's talk about the other characters. We'll start with the ones that are the most important later in the game. Why is this? Well, let's wait until the spoiler section for that. For now, I'd like to take a moment to praise the artwork and character design. The artwork looks like something out of a professional comic book. It's just static images, no animation, but very well drawn static images. One aspect that I particularly like is that the characters all feel genuinely original. They aren't just thinly-veiled versions of pre-existing superheroes and supervillains. Well, for the most part anyway. They feel like original organically created characters with their own backstories and personalities.
Also, the voice acting is absolutely phenomenal. I'm not familiar with any of the voice actors, though a few, such as Ear, sounded somewhat familiar, just can't think why that is. Anyway, though I'm not familiar with the voice actors, they all did excellent jobs. I see bright voice acting futures for them all. Despite the game being designed by a German company, the voice actors are all American. I suppose that's fitting, as many have noted that superheroes are something of a uniquely American phenomenon. You don't really see superheroes from other countries unless they're consciously modeled off of American superheroes. The only exception to that rule I've encountered is Japan, where you have stuff like Super Sentai/Power Rangers, Sailor Moon, and various mecha series.
I've always wondered why Europe never really developed its own superheroes. You could argue that many heroes of Victorian penny dreadfuls were proto-superheroes of a type. My guess is that the cynicism that resulted from enduring two world wars soured European readers on the idea of superheroes. Britain tried to produce superhero comics in the 1960s, but they quickly fizzled out. France has a very robust comic book industry in every genre but superheroes. It's interesting to speculate, but we're getting off-topic.
Our first hero of note is Mister Shine & Sparkle. He's got a power set and costume evocative of Superman, but couldn't be more different in terms of personality. He's an arrogant showboating prima donna who cares more about his social media following than actually saving people. There are a few timed decisions throughout the game, and he's one of them. You have to decide if you want him to put down the phone and be a hero, or use his current crisis as an opportunity for streaming to his followers
The next notable hero is Blood Sister. She's a vampire, but uses her powers to fight crime. Though she's constantly having to fight the urge to give into her primal instincts. You'll have to decide if you should let her take a bite of the delivery boy. She claims to have ordered a rare steak, but if you do encourage her bite the delivery boy, you'll get an email from the local pizzeria about how they have a job opening due to one of their delivery boys mysterious disappearing. Maybe it was a fancy pizzeria that also offers steak? Or maybe the delivery boy was struggling to make ends meet and was working for multiple restaurants? Or maybe "rare steak" was a euphemism. Though, if you do encourage Blood Sister to bite the delivery boy, the end credits will mention that a pair of vampire hunter named Van H. and Simon B. are sharpening their stakes. I guess Buffy S. had prior engagements.
Interestingly, she's one of the only heroes with more than two potential endings to her call. You can tell her to leave the delivery boy alone, tell her to bite him, or tell her to rob a blood bank instead. Though, only tells her to note bite the delivery boy, and nothing else, results in Blood Sister learnibg to controlling during ending during the credits. More about the credits in a bit.
Our third person of note is Dr. Know How. Imagine Tony Stark, only he's a villain rather than a hero, and that's Dr. Know How. He's got the most options, out of all the characters, for how his call turns out. Depending on which way you tell him to drive his car he'll encounter either Sakura Flame or Pool Boy. You can help him get away from Pool Boy by converting his car to flight mode and flying to the Moon, or by running over Sakura Flame. Alternatively, you can have him try to reason with the heroes. Sakura Flame will torch him, but getting covered in third degree burns will convince Dr. Know How to turn his life around and use his inventions for good.
If he confronts Pool Boy, he will drown...and then turn his life around and use his inventions for good. Uh, how could he turn his life around if he's dead? That is particularly odd given that Dr. Know How has three possible ending for the credits; confronting Pool Boy or Sakura Flame being the only option that lead to the same outcome. Seems like there was lack of proofreading during the script writing. But let us move along.
Fast Justice doesn't have superpowers, but that doesn't stop him from enacting justice fighting against the criminal underworld. If only he weren't complete and utterly insane. I got some Kick-Ass vibes from Fast Justice. He certainly looks like something out of a Mark Miller comic. Fast Justice does make at least some good points. He's right that Mr. Shine & Sparkle probably shouldn't be considered a hero purely because he has superpowers. Unfortunately, Fast Justice being completely batshit crazy, and having a completely black and white outlook on life, undermines these points. You know, now that I think about it, in terms of mentality he isn't too different than Rorschach from Watchmen.
Alpha Nukleus is some sort of cosmic entity who has chosen to take human form. This hasn't helped him connect with humanity. In fact, he feels lonely and isolated, because he feels nobody can truly understand him. He's decided to destroy his human shell, which will have the nasty side effect of irradiating millions of people. You must decide if you let him go through with it, or tell the other heroes to stop him. I recall a hero from Astro City, named Atomicus, who was somewhat similar Alpha Nukleus. Not sure if it was intention or coincidence, but if the former, good on the team behind this game. Astro City is an awesome comic book series; I can't recommend it enough.
On one play through, I think the game glitched and I got a call from Alpha Nukleus before Ear made his first call. I told him to break his shell, as I'd already picked the other option, and I was curious what would happen. Million were bathed in radiation, but Mr. Souls sent me an email congratulating me on a fantastic first day, as he usually does after Ear calls for the first time. I repeat, millions of people received massive radiation exposer because of me, probably fatally so, and Mr. Souls considered that a good first day. Well, he did say it was less about right vs wrong, and more about keeping the balance. It may have been a glitch, but was a damn hilarious glitch.
Imagine Cthulhu, only he's an evil business mogul, and that pretty much Vlad Xthul. He wants to expand his business empire, but is having trouble navigating modern social mores. Specifically, he wants to knockout the competition, namely Dr. Know How. You can tell him to either buyout the company, or have him break Dr. Know How's leg. If you pick the first, it will encourage Vlad Xthul to go into politics, and he will be elected president of the Atlantic Union...which is a thing by 2056. I'm guessing it's a union of North America and Europe. Of course, as Ear notes, he can't be much worse than the politicians they already have.
Our last person of note among the really significant characters is Luzida. She has the power to enter people's dreams. Lately, however, she's been plagued by dark visions ever time she goes to sleep. She tried to stay awake as long as possible, and the waters look so inviting. No matter how many times I played this game, I could never tell Luzida to go in the water. I just felt so bad for her, and I couldn't coerce her into potentially committing suicide. I know that seems odd, given that I encouraged Alpha Nukleus and Sakura Flame to kill millions of people just to see what would happen. Well, you know what they say; one is a tragedy, a million is a statistic. And in my defense, the game doesn't try very hard to make you care about killing that many people. Luzida winds up teaming up with Ear later in the game. This will be important later on.
Okay, those are all the characters who will be important later in the game. As such, they're the ones you are mostly likely to encounter, though you won't get all of them in one play though. We will discuss why this is in the spoilers section. Oh, but we aren't done talking heroes and villains just yet. This next batch are mostly just there to help you adjust your karma meter, but they're still pretty fascinating in their own right.
First up is Sakura Flame. We've already briefly discussed her, but her issue is that the other heroes give her no respect. The supervillain Glaze has frozen the city's pipes, and poor Sakura Flame has to thaw them. She's planning on getting revenge on the other heroes by "accidentally" blowing up an oil refinery while she tries to take down Glaze. As previously mentioned, should you encourage her to do so, millions will die in the explosion. Personally, I'm still surprised they have oil by 2056. Also, millions die in the explosion? Just how densely populated is this city? Interesting fact, Sakura Flame was not part or the original release of 1-800-SUPER, but was added in a later update. I'm also slightly confused by her name. I get the flame bit, but why sakura. She doesn't have pink hair, she isn't Japanese, and she doesn't have a cherry blossom motif.
Glaze is also a character you can encounter. He is pretty much the living embodiment of cold. His mother was a glacier and his father was a sea of ice. However, as his power grows, the planet's ice caps shrink, and global warming certainly isn't helping matters. He wants to conquer Antarctica, but is it worth potentially sacrificing his parents? I wouldn't think it would be terribly hard to conquer Antarctica; nobody there but a few temporary scientists, and of course the penguins and leopard seals. Well, unless people have been establishing colonies in Antarctica by 2056.
Timelooper is trying to get out of the hero business. She has the power to time travel and rewind time. However, every time she does this a miniature black hole opens shortly afterwards. They collapse before long, but they do cause collateral damage. She's on a flight to her new life, but wouldn't you know it, Dr. Know How has decided to bomb the plane. Will you encourage Timelooper to use her powers, despite the risk, or take a gamble on Mister Shine and Sparkle actually showing up to help? You can have Timelooper rewind time, stop Dr. Know How, but then a building gets sucked into a black hole. However, if you tell her to rewind time, wait to see what happens, which enviably puts you back at square one, and then call Mister Shine and Sparkle, it will be treated as though Timelooper never used her powers.
Geist.app is an A.I. that is on the run, metaphorically speaking, from its creators. They fear it will turn evil, but Geist.app just wants to preserve its existence. You must decide if it should keep a low profile, or if it should defend itself by any means necessary, consequences be damned. I liked that Geist.app isn't depicted as evil; just scared, and trying to survive. And if you encourage it to keep a low profile it decides to optimize email speeds; that was nice of it.
Maxwell's Hydra is a cyborg monster serpent, and Ear's sworn nemesis. At one point, Ear even calls you while he's fighting Maxwell's Hydra. Despite the fact that Maxwell's Hyrda gets killed at the end of this call, it can still call you later on. Yeah, this game has some issues with continuity. It can't talk, just roar, but you can still help it out. Give it advice on how to how to treat a sore through and it will turn tame, and fight on the side of the heroes. Dr. Know How will, essentially adopt it and give it regular oil changes. Of course, this end will imply that Dr. Know How turned good, even if your choices result in an ending where he remained a villain.
You also occasionally get calls from people who aren't heroes or villains. Big Bang FM is a news station. They give you information about the happenings of the various heroes and villains. Most of it is irrelevant to the game, and most doesn't involve the heroes and villains you council. Still, some of the stories can be amusing. Speaking of amusing, you can also get people who call you by mistake. One person butt dials you. They don't actually say anything, no matter what you choose, so you can hang up on them without taking a penalty. You can also get a call from a guy who firmly believes that he has called the pizza shop. He will hang up, but you'll get an email from him about how he's leaving a very bad review for the pizza shop. Man, that dude had determination, I'll give him that.
Okay, I think that should be everyone. Now we're going to be discussing the spoilers for the ending of the game. As such, turn back now if you don't want any of that.
Last chance. You sure you want to continue?
Well, okay. If everyone who wants out is gone, let's get into it.
So, Ear discovers a cult who worship Gallion, the Demon of Misfortune. Naturally, they weren't too keen on a good luck charm like Scarab. Turns out that Gallion has taken a human host. Nobody, not even the one hosting Gallion, knows who it is. With some help from Luzida, Ear tracks down the host of Gallion. It is someone the heroes completely trusted, and who had access to them at all times
So, who is this mysterious host...you are! There is no option but to kill yourself so that Gallion will die. If you can't do if yourself, Ear will help you out. At this point, Gallion will reveal itself to you. Gallion will quiz you on the six heroes and villains I mentioned at the start of this review. Get all or most of the questions correct and Gallion will be defeated. Well, after you shoot yourself in the head that is
Against all odd, you survive the whole shooting yourself in the head thing. I like to think that Ear is right, and that Scarab watching out for us from beyond the grave. You'll get a few more emails from Ear, and he will also send you a new music file. Press play on it, and the credits will begin The credits begin by showing how all the heroes and villains you helped fared.
Which endings are good, and which are bad, are a matter of personal perspective. I will say that some of them are counterintuitive. For example, if you let Alpha Nukleus shed his human shell, he'll find a heroine who actually understand him. Stopping him makes him turn hostile to the heroes, and it's clear he still has the capability to do it, and is just licking his wounds for now. Similarly, having Sakura Flame blow up the oil refinery, and kill millions of people, gets her the validation she craves. Convincing her not to causes her to get assigned to a penguin research station in Antarctica, though it is mentioned that she is content and happy. Oh, and this can happen even if you encourage Glaze to take control of Antarctica. Amusingly, even the guy who tried to order pizza gets an ending tell how he is doing.
Mr. Souls ending always has him get promoted to managing a hotline for demigods. Is that hint about a potential future game. Because if so, that sounds like a totally awesome idea. You could have the callers be children of different god; and not just the Greco-Roman gods, you could also have children of the Egyptian, Norse, Japanese, Yoruba, Maya, Celtic, or any other pantheon. Trust me, there is a huge untapped market for a game like that. I will rally the Percy Jackson fandom in an instant if you guys are seriously going to make a game like that. But I'm getting off track again.
You can still look around after the credits, though you won't get any more calls. You will still get emails from heroes and villains remarking on how boring everything is now. I guess it's the game going "You're still here? The game is over, go home." Ear will even decide to leave the city as he feels it no longer needs him. Of course, you can replay the game as you wish. I will say that, after about five or six play throughs, I'd experienced pretty much everything there was to be experienced.
Okay, so overall I greatly enjoy this game, but are there any improvements I would suggest? Well, as I've noted, there are several continuity errors that get downright nonsensical at times. Granted, it didn't bother me too much, but I think it would feel more like the choices had actual consequence if this was fixed. It might also be nice if there were more storylines than just the main one with Ear. Maybe there could be certain events or choices that triggered different storylines. It would add to the replay value of the game. I do hope future updates add more characters, as there are several mentioned in passing, or on Twixta, that sound potentially interesting.
Also, despite the setting supposedly being dystopian, I didn't really see it. Well, other than the whole irradiating millions of people being considered a good first day thing. Yeah, there is collateral damage from fights between heroes and villains, but that hardly makes things dystopian.
Still, overall these are minor criticisms. I was very impressed with 1-800-SUPER, and I had a lot of fun playing it. I'd love to see the world of this game expanded upon either in updates or maybe in a sequel game. And I'd just like to reiterate that you guys really should give thought to making a demigod hotline game. I'm just saying, huge untapped market to cash in on. But getting back on topic, I strongly recommend you download 1-800-SUPER today. Believe me, you will be glad that you did.
Link to the original review on my blog, but it is just the same as what is here: http://drakoniandgriffalco.blogspot.com/2020/12/video-game-review-1-800-super.html?m=1

I live with my boyfriend, W., but we do not combine finances. Additionally, I would like to put a content warning here at the top: I discuss tracking food and weight loss throughout this money diary.
Section One: Assets and Debt
Retirement Balance - $19,195 in two 401ks (current and former company) and $18,478 in a Roth IRA (my grandparents set this up and matched the money I made working in high school/college - I'm very grateful that they set this up for me!)
Equity - no equity currently, I rent and do not own a car
Checking account balance - currently ~$5,000 (I try to keep it around this amount)
Credit card debt - $0 (I pay it off every month)
Student loan debt - $9,500 remaining to pay off the loans for my BA in political science (here's hoping I finish it off this year!)
Stocks - $1,190 in stocks from my former company. I also have some miscellaneous other stocks that I was gifted when I was younger and I'm unclear on the value of them (my dad manages them for me)
Savings - $1,500 (it took a big hit while I was unemployed this past summer)
Section Two: Income
Income Progression:
High school (2012-2013) - I worked at a local office supply store making $7.50/hour. I did this for fun spending money a few days a week after school.
College (2014-2017) - I worked two on-campus jobs. The first was as a front desk person at the fitness center beginning at the end of my freshman year; I typically did ten hours a week at this job. The second was as an assistant in our career center, and I did this for the entirety of my senior year; I typically did five hours a week at this job. Both paid $8.50/hour.
Internship (2015-2017) - I studied abroad off-cycle from July to December in Australia, and was offered an internship doing recruitment and operations work at my mom's company after randomly meeting the COO in an elevator and impressing him in a brief conversation. What originally was going to be a five week internship went on to be part-time remote when I was at school, and full-time when I was home for the summer and on breaks. It paid $12/hour and introduced me to human resources and strategy & operations.
Company #1, Job #1 (2017-2018) - After graduating college, I moved to begin working in Washington DC as an associate at a healthcare firm making $40,000/year. I really enjoyed this work and my team, even though there were some times I had to work long hours. I was promoted to a senior associate role after my first six months, which came with a 10% raise.
Company #1, Job #2 (2018-2020) - I decided that, while I liked my role within the company, I wanted to gain client-facing experience. I applied for and moved into a analyst role in a different department at $52,000/year. I was excited about this role because I got to travel and train clients onsite one to three times a month and build up a lot of important business skills. About halfway through 2019, I was told that they wanted to pay me more because they felt my effort outpaced my seniority and was out of the blue bumped up to making $70,000/year. During this role, I was also eligible for up to a 10% bonus based on how my team did.
Unemployment (2020) - Due to COVID-19, my company took a big hit being in the healthcare space. The vast majority of my team was made redundant in June 2020. While a super stressful time, I did get some severance and used it as an opportunity to assess what I really wanted in my next role; I knew I liked being client-facing, but realized I wanted to get back to human resources in some way.
Company #2 (2020-present) - I took my current role as a senior advisory specialist in the fall. I was able to negotiate a $75,000/year salary and a 5% bonus. The work I do is very energizing and rewarding, and I'm hopeful I can stay here for a while and move up the ladder because I like what I do a lot!
Main Job Monthly Take Home:
I make $4380.90 each month after deductions. I get paid twice a month.
Deductions (per paycheck)
· Medical insurance: $29.50
· Dental insurance: $7.50
· Eye insurance: $2.75
· 401k contribution: $156.25 (I plan on increasing this after my student loans are paid off) + 4% company match
Side Gig Monthly Take Home:
I run a book blog on the side, and while I currently don't make any money off of it, publishers often send me advanced reader copies of books! I save a lot of money that way, because I am buying books constantly.
Section Three: Expenses
· Rent: $975 for my portion of the one bedroom apartment that I share with W. I pay slightly more than half because I make more money than he does. All utilities are included.
· Student loans: $500 is the minimum I pay per month because I want them paid off as soon as possible (the minimum monthly payment is about half that). I usually throw extra money towards them when I have a low spend month.
· WiFi and cable: $140.06, which is absolutely ridiculous and I keep saying I'm going to call Comcast and negotiate this down but get lazy and don't. Yell at me in the comments to do this!
· Netflix: $14.88 (I also let my best friend use this)
· Spotify: $9.99
· Hulu with live sports, HBO, Starz, and Showtime add-ons: W. pays
· Amazon Prime: W. pays
· Nail salon subscription: $40 (this is cheaper than the cost of a gel manicure and includes a free gel mani every month plus extra bonuses, which makes this very worth it despite sounding extravagant!)
· Care/of vitamin subscription: $70
· Boxing membership: $179 for unlimited classes
· WW: $15.11 (I'm on a six month deal currently)
· Fitbit Premium: $9.99
· iPhone payment plan: $31.20 (this will end in November for my iPhone 11. I am still on my parents' unlimited data phone plan and have been told I never have to leave, which is a total blessing!)
· Google storage: $2.12
· iCloud storage: $2.99
Additionally, I have an annual payment of approximately $2,750 for my life insurance policy; I have a blend of whole and term life. I am currently not making these payments, as my grandparents created a fund to pay the first several years of premiums as they felt it was important for me to get life insurance at a young age so it could start gaining cash value. I am incredibly grateful for this!
Day One - Tuesday 1/19
7am: My alarm goes off and I am still tired. W. and I cuddle for ten minutes or so before he gets up to make us coffee. We drink our coffee in bed while watching a few YouTube videos from our favorite content creators; the two of us are very into a video game that we play together and consume a lot of content around it.
8:30am: Time to get back into work! We both work from home right now, so we move into the living room together. My inbox is surprisingly empty after a long weekend, so I dive back in to a client request that I didn't finish before closing my laptop on Friday.
9:00am: I have a few morning meetings, so I take a few minutes to get ready. I throw in my contacts and brush my teeth, then get dressed from the waist up in a comfy gray Fortune Ivy sweater and hoop earrings. I make another cup of coffee to keep my energy up.
9:25am: I move into the bedroom to take my meetings. I have a bed tray for my laptop, which makes it feel more desk-like on my bed. I first have a meeting with another member of my team to discuss how we're dividing up a project that we're working on together, followed by two town hall meetings. At some point during my meetings, W. texts me that he ordered an energy drink powder that we've been meaning to try and Venmo requests me for my half ($23). I munch on the last four donut holes we have left over from the weekend for a snack during my meetings and make sure to log what I eat in my WW app.
1:00pm: Out of meetings and in need of a break. W. comes into the bedroom and asks me if I want to go out on a quick walk, which I happily agree to. I throw on Girlfriend Collective leggings, my lucky Rangers sweatshirt, ballet flats, and a freshly washed mask and we head out. After a good 20 minute walk, W. offers to pay for McDonald's for lunch, which is great but definitely not WW friendly. I get a 10 piece nuggets and large fries, and W. gets himself a few burgers. He pays and we take it home to eat on the couch and chat for a few minutes before I have to get on more work calls.
2:00pm: Time for more meetings and project work! I return to the bedroom and call into meetings for an hour, including a weekly meeting I facilitate, and then put my 800th rewatch of Grey's Anatomy on the TV in background while I work.
5:30pm: I log off of my laptop right on time for a Facetime date with my DC best friend, A. We met at my first job and have been close since the minute we met. She just moved into a new apartment and got a new job, so she gives me a tour of the new place and we catch up for about half an hour. After we hang up, I say hi to W. for a few minutes and then go hop in the shower. I do my usual skincare routine (a bevy of Ole Henriksen products, I swear by them) before throwing on comfy clothes and joining W. in the living room.
7:00pm: I throw the Rangers-Devils game on my iPad (I'm a diehard New York sports fan except for basketball) and text my hometown best friend, B., about absolutely nothing while W. plays a video game for a while. I'm not super hungry, so W. heats up leftover tuna casserole for dinner while I just cut up an orange. At some point we mute the hockey game to watch a few episodes of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, our first forray into the Housewives franchise which we've quickly become addicted to. We brush our teeth and make it to bed around 10:30pm.
Total: $23
Day Two - Wednesday, 1/20
7:00am: Usual morning routine: wake up, cuddle, coffee, and videos. I get out of bed to make the coffee this morning.
8:15am: I join W. for a quick morning shower before work starts for the day. I also do my weekly weigh in and I'm down almost another pound! The progress is slow, but that is also the healthy way to lose weight. I mark it down and log my coffee.
9:00am: I text with my mom about today's inauguration while I work. She wants to know if I can hear anything from my place, but besides the occasional sirens, there is no big fanfare yet. I set a reminder on my phone to turn on the news in a bit to listen.
10:45am: I finish up a difficult client request and send it off to their account team. W. gets me a lemon Pellegrino from the fridge for me to enjoy during my 11:00 meeting.
12:30pm: Out of my meetings and we have a new president!!! W. gives me a recap of Biden's speech and I find myself getting emotional after watching the video of Kamala getting sworn in. After wiping away the tears, I throw some chicken, buffalo sauce, and seasonings into our pressure cooker so we can have easy lunches: chicken sandwich and salad for W., chicken quesadilla for me so I can easily measure out how much of each food item I'm using. I log my food and we eat together during a quick fifteen minute break.
2:00pm: After changing out my water bottles (I like to drink out of reusable water bottles over drinking glasses, not really sure why) I remember why I don't like to use this one. I log on to the Hydroflask website and order a 21oz bottle with the sports cap lid ($28.58). I pick a color that's on sale because it's cheaper, find a coupon code for free shipping, and go through Rakuten so I can get 2% cash back. I also figure now is as good a time as any to get dressed since I have to be on camera for my afternoon meetings, so I throw on a camel and black polka dot Papermoon blouse and black Beyond Yoga leggings.
3:45pm: Weekly check in with my manager while I snack on a sliced cucumber. He and I discuss my 2020 review, which he literally had to do for me when I was less than a month in the role, and what my goals for 2021 are. I am setting my intentions on Friday, and I am very excited to think through what I want to accomplish this year. We discuss a few other projects and end a little earlier than expected. A friend of mine is streaming on Twitch, so I put his stream up on the TV while I work on a data project and gift a sub to a fellow viewer ($5.99). I see that someone has put a 4:30-5pm meeting on my calendar for tomorrow, so I have to cancel out of my 4:45 boxing class. Sigh.
5:45pm: I wrap up my work and head out to chat with W. for a bit. We decide to play our favorite video game for a while, so we log in and start playing in duos. We get a win in our very first game! After a while, our good friend N. joins us, so we switch to trios. At some point during what becomes a marathon gaming session, W. makes himself a frozen pizza and I drink the last two Stella Cidres we have in the fridge. Brush our teeth and head to bed around 11pm.
Total: $34.57
Day Three - Thursday 1/21
3:57am: I wake up for absolutely no reason. I hate when this happens. It takes me over an hour to fall back asleep.
7:00am: Usual morning routine, cut a little short for me to get ready for an 8:30 meeting.
10:00am: In desperate need of a break from my work, I log onto Etsy to pick out some cute candles for A. as a little housewarming gift. I have to text her for her new address, which kind of ruins the surprise, but I know how much she loves candles so I do it anyway ($32.86).
1:00pm: I get off of a client call that I shadowed with a member of my team. I have just decided on my focus area, hence why I am trying to get more exposure to the client work here. My teammate and I debrief and agree that I'll continue to shadow the calls that she does with this client so I can see the whole process through.
3:00pm: Out of another team meeting and exhausted from work. My 4:30 meeting cancels, and I'm bummed for a few minutes because I cancelled my boxing class to be in that meeting. But my mood turns around almost instantly - I got off the waitlist for the 6pm class! I text W. so he knows, and he asks if I can make him dinner before I go because he doesn't want to wait until I get back to eat. Fair enough. I agree and get back to work on my data project.
3:30pm: I get an email with the return label for my Fitbit. I've had it for a year and it randomly started giving me a rash on my wrist, so Fitbit is reimbursing me the total amount I paid for it. Customer service at its finest! I send the label to my Fedex store for pickup tomorrow, since I don't have a printer ($0.52).
5:30pm: I wrap up my work for the day and throw on Old Navy active leggings and a tank, tie back my hair, mask up, and head out the door to the boxing studio. It's endurance day and we do eight minute blocks instead of six, so I am dying by the time class is done. After class, I go to Target to pick up a few miscellaneous items we need: half & half, white vinegar, and chocolate peppermint stick Luna bars ($10.64). I mobile order and stop by Chipotle on the way home to grab a dinner of crispy chicken tacos and chips and guac ($16.23).
7:30pm: I stop by the concierge desk on my way back into the building to grab packages I have waiting and to catch up with my favorite concierge. She is a delight to talk to, but busy tonight, so I don't stay too long. Once home, I devour my tacos in about four minutes and then shower before putting on the Laker-Bucks on the iPad while W. plays video games. We migrate to the bedroom after halftime to finish it and are both exhausted that we fall asleep immediately after.
Total: $60.25
Day Four - Friday 1/22
7am: Usual morning routine. After watching two videos, W. announces that he isn't feeling well and is taking a day of PTO. I get him tucked comfy into bed with a movie and start my work day early. I put Grey's Anatomy on the TV while I work.
11am: I am hungry after powering through work all morning, so I place an order for a cheese pizza from Wiseguys ($21.99). A nice quick walk will feel good.
11:30am: I mask up and head out to pick up the pizza, stopping by CVS on the way to get a Red Bull for W., a Diet Coke for myself, and a bottle of Benadryl because I ran out ($27.27). I eat a slice of pizza while watching a bit of a Twitch stream before getting back to work. I also spend some time texting with B., as well as my older sister, C.
1:30pm: Back to back calls. When they're over, I check in on W., who unfortunately only feels worse. He decides to try and nap, and also informs me that he wanted to watch a Marvel movie so he added Disney+ to our Hulu subscription. He pays for that, but I'm happy we'll finally be able to watch those shows we've been missing out on!
4:30pm: Done with my projects and decide to call it a little early today. I appreciate that my manager doesn't particularly care if we stop early when all of our work is done, and I need to go to the Fedex store. I listen to one of my curated Spotify playlists (a lot of Halsey, Taylor Swift, Joan, and Flor are on this one) while I walk there to pick up the label I had printed. As I walk out of the store, several of my music friends start texting me - Halsey cancelled her summer tour. I am bummed because I was supposed to travel and go to several shows with friends. I make a mental note to start cancelling hotel reservations and request my Ticketmaster refunds tomorrow.
5:30pm: Manicure time! I've started doing gel manicures every other week because I have a horrible nail biting habit and this is the only way I can stop myself. I catch up with my favorite nail tech and the salon owners over a glass of sparkling rose. Today we do a nude-pink polish with black and white polka dots. When that's done, I also poke around at the beautiful jewelry they sell and pick out a pair or multicolored acrylic bow earrings. My subscription covers the manicure, so I only have to pay my tip (25% of the service cost) and for the earrings ($24.87). I text W. to let him know I'm on my way home and he asks if I can pick up NyQuil for him. I pop into CVS on the way home to get it ($16.94).
7:30pm: W. and I have a quiet evening, bouncing between a few TV shows and basketball games. We call it an early night and go to bed before 10. Wild Friday!
Total: $91.07
Day Five - Saturday, 1/23
8:30am: I wake up feeling pretty well rested. W. is still sleeping, so I get out of bed quietly and head out to the living room. I answer a few work emails that came in last evening, including a stretch project to present some webinars later in the year! I used to facilitate webinars in an old role of mine, so I'm looking forward to flexing that muscle again. I also submit my Ticketmaster refund requests, cancel some hotel reservations, and peruse my favorite auction website. I spy my dream Louis Vuitton bag (Speedy 40 in canvas and leather) at what could be a steal. I do some mental math at what would be the max I would splurge on it and set a max bid. I'm currently winning and text B. with excitement.
9:45am: W. texts me that he's awake but still not feeling well. I crawl back into bed for some snuggles and ask him what he needs. He wants bagels, so I agree to go out to pick them up if he pays for them. He orders a BEC on an everything bagel for himself and a multigrain bagel with butter for me. I throw on black Girlfriend Collective leggings, a Halsey tee, and my Adidas superstars, grab my mask and jacket, and head out the door. It's a little chilly, but it feels good. It's a quick turnaround to get back with the bagels. W. and I eat them in bed while watching some Real Housewives.
12:00pm: We're still in bed. Oops. We transition into watching Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and W. orders us some Popeye's to eat throughout the day: 12 piece spicy chicken, biscuits, fries, mashed potatoes, and a large Diet Coke to split. We will heat up leftover Popeye's for lunch someday this week. I embrace the fact that this is not going to be a good WW week for me, and remind myself it's okay to be human and have some indulgent weekends. Progress, not perfection!
5:00pm: W. dials into his weekly virtual D&D session and I decide to solo queue my video game for the evening. I debate having some wine, but decide the fast food was probably enough for my stomach and that I don't need to add alcohol into the mix. W.'s session wraps up around 9:30, so we chat while I clean the apartment a bit before taking a quick shower. I towel dry my hair, toss on some weekly skincare (eye cream and a fancy serum that I'm not really sure what it does, it just makes my skin glowy) before settling into bed.
Total: $0
Day Six - Sunday 1/24
3:00am: I wake up congested as can be. I get two Benadryl and a Zicam from the bathroom, lay back down, and pray for sleep to come.
9:10am: Well, I guess sleep came. I missed the start of the booking window for upcoming boxing classes, but luckily there are still openings in all the classes I wanted. I'm trying to up my workouts, so I decide to try the Wednesday morning class as well. Maybe I'll like being a morning workout person?
11:00am: W. and I both decide to call our respective moms. My mom and I try to talk at least once a week on the phone (we also text every day, I just haven't mentioned it, whoops) and we catch up on random bits of each other's lives for about 45 minutes or so. I tell her about Halsey cancelling tour and we're a bit worried, as we're supposed to see Maroon 5 together later in the year after it got rescheduled from 2020. Hopefully by the fall we'll have herd immunity, though I'm not super positive that concerts will happen. I miss concerts :(
12:00pm: I do a bit of apartment maintenance: taking out the trash, breaking down boxes and taking them to recycling, wiping down the countertops, etc. W. comes out to the living room when his phone call ends and we try to decide what we want to do. W. is still not feeling great, which is worrying, but he has no COVID symptoms. He gets a quick telehealth appointment and is assured that he most likely has the cold/head flu thing that is going around and should stay home to not burden the healthcare system. The doctor assures him that me coming/going from the apartment shouldn't transmit whatever W. has and that while he should stay home until he is feeling better, as long as I'm sanitizing and showering often, I can leave. I'm guessing a lot of people are asking that question since the doctor told him that unprompted, and I'm relieved to know that I won't be unknowingly getting someone else sick.
1:00pm: W. and I decide to order Vocelli's for a late lunch/early dinner: bacon and cheddar pizza rolls and a build-your-own stromboli with bacon, spinach, and extra cheese. I have a GrubHub gift card from Christmas so we don't have to pay out of pocket for this meal. We play some video games together until the food gets here, then pause to eat and watch an episode of Shark Tank. When we finish eating, we go back to gaming because there isn't much else to do while W. is sick.
7:00pm: I move into the bedroom so we can watch the Rangers-Penguins game on my iPad while he plays a different video game and I scroll on my phone. My dad randomly calls me, and I'm worried something happened to my grandpa (he's my last living grandparent and lives alone). Luckily, Grandpa is fine and my dad was just jealous that I talked to my mom this morning while he was out running errands. He's adorable. We catch up for about ten minutes before he has to go. When 8:00 rolls around, we switch over to the Wizards-Spurs game since they're finally playing again and mute the hockey game. Both teams lose and I'm a sad sports fan. We brush our teeth and throw on some Futurama to fall asleep to.
Total: $0
Day Seven - Monday, 1/25
7:00am: Usual weekday wakeup routine. When it's time to get to work, W. decides he'll work from the bedroom so he can continue to rest. We order Starbucks (peppermint mochas for both of us, turkey and pesto panini for him, sprouted grain vegan bagel for me) on UberEats and split the cost because we wouldn't normally have it delivered ($14.87). I listen to calls while I work and get dressed in a bright color Girlfriend Collective set and black Forever 21 active tank to try and offset the dreary weather.
10:00am: Out of my first set of meetings and I run the laundry down to the laundry room ($3.25). I listen to a Twitch stream while I work and continuously check on the Louis Vuitton I'm bidding on. The auction ends tonight at 8pm and I'm still winning!
1:00pm: Still working through projects. I have been outbid past the maximum I set for myself on the Louis Vuitton, which is disappointing but I'm sure I'll get one eventually. I can still dream about it in the meanwhile :)
2:15pm: I take a quick break to package up my old Fitbit and place an order for a replacement. It ends up being free because of my full refund; the only cost is not having a tracker for a week or so. Could be worse! I make myself an energy drink using the powder that we ordered earlier this week to fuel my afternoon meetings with some non-coffee energy.
4:30pm: I throw on my sneakers and mask, grab my gym bag, and head off to boxing. After a few tough client requests today, throwing some punches feels amazing!
5:30pm: Out of class and off to Safeway and Target for some filler groceries. I did a big food shopping last Monday and we ended up doing a lot of takeout, so we don't need much. I get milk, yogurt, frozen berries, ciabatta rolls, frozen popcorn chicken, peanut butter pretzels, and two types of cereal. I text W. to let him know I'm on my way home ($23.70 for my half) and despite the drizzle, it is a refreshing walk.
6:30pm: Freshly showered and time to decide what to do for the evening. I find a movie, Collateral, by doing a reference search for a movie vibe that I loved (Inside Man, if you're curious) but am disappointed to find out it's not available on any streaming service. W. saves the day by telling me we actually own it on DVD but have never watched it, and lo and behold, it's buried in our giant plastic tub of DVDs. Movie night saved! We curl up on the couch and watch the movie with leftover Popeye's.
8:45pm: The movie is done and I'd give it a solid 4/5 stars. While discussing our favorite parts of the movie, we get into a random fight. I find myself getting heated for no reason, take a deep breath, and ask him to explain his side. W. has severe anxiety, and it turns out he had a few anxiety attacks during the movie so he wasn't articulating himself properly. We talk it out and he apologizes; he's made a lot of progress on dealing with his anxiety, but he has a long way to go. Not wanting to end the night on a bad note, we decide to stay up a little later than usual so we can watch some more Real Housewives and feel better by the time we go to bed. Asleep by 11:30.
Total: $41.82
Weekly Expenses:
Food + Drink: $118.71
Fun / Entertainment: $5.99
Home + Health: $68.06
Clothes + Beauty: $24.87
Transport: $0
Other: $33.38
Lastly, reflect on your diary!
This diary was very typical in some ways, and atypical in others. I normally cook a lot more, but with W. being sick I definitely used that as an excuse for takeout, hence why I'm following WW to try and lose weight! I think if I continue to be careful with my spending I can pay off my student loans this year and build my emergency fund back up, so I'm definitely buying less "fun" things in 2021… but if another Louis Vuitton comes around I'll probably bid on it :)

This post intends to give an overview of all content and merchandise specifically related to Legend of Korra. Released content is divided into four sections (show, comics, other canon, and other content & merchandise) with the final section being for upcoming content of all kinds. For information on avatar content not specific to LoK, or more avatar resources in general check out the FAQS Hub.
​
I) Show
The Legend of Korra animated series (2012-2014) is 52 episodes across four books/seasons (air, spirits, change, and balance).
DVDs: Each season (1, 2, 3, 4) has a DVD/Bluray and there is a Complete Series DVD/Bluray as well. Additionally there is an ATLA/LoK Bluray pack. In March a new SteelBook Bluray will release.
-The DVDs also come with some extras (such as audio commentaries and 'making of' featurettes) not available elsewhere. To get all the special features buy a Bluray release.
Other Places to Watch: Overview Thread , https://justwatch.com/
-Netflix, CBS All Access, iTunes, Amazon Prime (through NickHits), Google Play, Youtube
​
II) Comics
General Comic Info: The comics can be bought from comic stores, book stores, amazon (and other sites), and digital comic apps such as comixology.
​
LoK Graphic Novel Trilogies: There are two completed graphic novel trilogies. Both are written by series co-creator Mike, but have different artists. They take place shortly after the show. The main graphic novel trilogies are are each initially released in three paperback (and digital) releases and then later collected in a hardcover 'Library Edition' that includes all three parts as well as some extras (a sketchbook section and forewords).
1)Turf Wars (2017&2018)- Picks up in the immediate aftermath of the finale and focuses on Korra and Asami's relationship, the presidential election, spirits and triads.
-Parts 1, 2, 3
2)Ruins of the Empire (2019&2020)- Focuses on Kuvira and what will happen to the former Earth Empire.
-Parts 1, 2, 3
​
LoK Short Comics- There are two, with no announced plans to collect them into an anthology.
1)Friends for Life(2016)- Explores how Korra and Naga met. Mainly takes place in between the first scene of LoK and the second, but probably still best read after finishing the show.
2)Lost Pets(2018)- Meelo searches for pets that were lost by families that had to evacuate because of Kuvira's attack on Republic City. Takes place after the show, and best read after Turf Wars.
​
III) Other Canon
Story Content
Republic City Hustle(2013)- A web series showing Mako and Bolin as kids living on the streets of Republic City prior to the events of LoK book one. Available on the LoK book four dvds and LoK complete series.
The Legend of Korra Video Game) (2014)- Takes place in between books two and three of LoK. The main version of the game (for PS3/4, Xbox360/One and PC) is hard to obtain now because it only had a digital release and has since been pulled from online stores. Here is a thread on the subject. There is also a 3ds version, that did have a physical release, with the same story but very different gameplay.
​
Other Books
LoK: An Avatar's Chronicle (2019)- In universe scrapbook told from the perspective of Korra after the events of LoK. Best read after Turf Wars.
​
Word of God
Loosely refers to information given to us by the creators or other crew from things like interviews, commentary for episodes, nick.com, and other sources.
​
IV) Other Content & Merchandise
Other Books
Art of the Animated Series: Books containing concept and production artwork. One for each season of LoK (1,2,3,4). Second Editions & Deluxe will begin releasing this March.
Two Part Novelizations of Book One Air: Revolution, Endgame
Poster Collection: 42 page collection of Art from LoK in tear-out Poster Format
LoK Hardcover Ruled Journal; 192 pages, a ribbon placeholder, an elastic band, and a back pocket
Colouring Book: Features forty-five detailed black and white images.
​
Other Games
Online Games
-Various free games based on ATLA and LoK at one time hosted on Nick's websites.
Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix: crossover game featuring Korra as a playable character
-Available on Nintendo Switch, PS4, XboxOne, and PC.
Lok Pro-Bending Arena Board Game: More Info , ProBendingArena
-Also has Deluxe Edition and Amon Expansion.
​
Figures and Other Merchandise
Zen Monkey Studios Pins
Zywer Industries Figures: Korra, Lin, Chibi Korra
Dark Horse Figures: Korra, Aang Memorial Statue
Good Smile Figure: Nendoroid Korra
Mondo: Korrasami Statue
Nick Store Plushes: Pabu, Naga
Book One Soundtrack
LoK Funko Pops: Korra, Korra Avatar State, Asami, Mako, and Amon.
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V) Upcoming Content
March 9: S1 Art Book 2nd Edition (new cover, new foreword, new recent art by crew)
-S1 Art Book Deluxe 2nd Edition (adds slipcase, lithograph, ribbon bookmark, and foil on cover)
March 16- Bluray Steelbook; same content and quality as previous Bluray Complete Series Collection, but with new casing and art.
April to June- Korra Bookend: the earth symbol will be fixed.
Sept 22nd: S2 Art Book 2nd Edition
-S2 Art Book Deluxe Second Edition
2021- McFarlane Toys Figures , likely 7 inch
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Feb 2022: ATLA/LoK Tabletop RPG
Aug 2022: RPG Supplement, Republic City
Feb. 2023: RPG Supplement, Spirit World
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?- Third LoK graphic novel trilogy
?- Other Avatar Art Book Reprints/ Deluxe Editions
?- New Board Game from IDW

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Chapter 3 - Isaac Newton would be proud
“Leave us,” I told the innkeeper who was still on her knees.c Obeying me, she left the food tray on the nearby tea table and exited the room. “Edith and Devon, we need to talk.” As much as I hated being in the situation that I was in, I wasn’t about to lash out on Devon who was clearly responsible. That’s because I had never bothered to explain my goals and intentions to them, so I was partly to blame.
Edith and Devon stood before me as I took my seat on the chair by the study table. I explained, “Look, I have two primary intentions in this world, more specifically here in this kingdom. One, gain control over my boundless powers which is literally capable of erasing everything from existence. Two, avoid any and all conflicts on the way. That being said, Devon, were you aware of the religious practices in this kingdom?”
He seemed overwhelmed with guilt, but I didn’t feel bad. As my companions, they needed to learn what not to do. “Yes, master Zenith. I learnt that the kingdom worships their ‘one true God’ and I couldn’t accept that it wasn’t you. I deeply apologize for not considering your intentions.”
I obviously valued my companions. I wholeheartedly believed that I would be worse off without them. “Apology accepted,” I forgave his actions. “The fact is what’s done is done, and the situation right now is simply abysmal. We need to figure out how to solve this.” The intention was to have a brainstorming session, but Edith and Devon were unable to contribute anything. I thought perhaps their reasoning would be coupled with human emotions like empathy and benevolence. So, I had to think outside that spectrum; I am malevolent and logical as per my own analysis skill after all.
Before I proceed with my thought process to find a solution, let’s recap and summarize the situation at hand. In this kingdom, where the citizens follow one religion, a new religion was being spread with me in the center. The worst part however, was the rumored existence of a more extreme following for the existing religion whose practices were abolished by the current emperor. I absolutely did not want to be caught up in a three-way war between the religion based around me, the rumored radical religionists, and the kingdom.
The solution has to be a way for me to undo this completely. But what made it difficult to do so was the rate at which my religion was spreading. The reason for this was Devon’s magic skill: Aura of Faith. An A+ complexity skill that messes one or more people’s brain to give them an out of body or spiritual experience. If you think about it, religion generally starts with the founder experiencing something they can’t explain; it could even be a dream or hallucination. With enough charisma, they can convince people into sharing that belief.
But with a skill like ‘Aura of Faith,’ there is no need for convincing, because the person in question can spread their beliefs by making others experience the same out of world experience. That’s how a religion spreads among more than 40 people in a single day. Rapidly processing scenarios in my head, the first priority was always to stop the spread as soon as possible. So I figured we will start with that and come up with something to proceed.
If you’re thinking why not I teach memory loss magic to Devon and make him perform it on my 40+ followers, you are not taking all the variables into consideration. Although it is completely within our abilities to wipe their memories like Men In Black, it won’t resolve the conflict I’m trying to avoid. You see, if the rumors about the radical religionists are true, there is a probable chance that they are aware of a new religion spreading in their turf. So, even if my followers forget everything, the radicals will follow the unrecoverable traces which will eventually lead to me.
The biggest problem, as you could guess, was the fact that I had no idea regarding those radicals and therefore no strategies to stop them in advance… that's when it struck me, "Wait, I know what we can do." The situation before me suddenly became very solvable. “First thing’s first. Devon, I want you to stop the followers from spreading this religion any more. Secondly, appoint the most gullible person among them as the leader. And finally, schedule a gathering for them in a secluded place within the kingdom this evening and relay that information to Edith. Edith, I want you to go to the library and make contact with that examiner who measured our mana capacity yesterday. Talk about something irrelevant and as casually as you can, tell her that you overheard someone talking about a new religious gathering in the said-location. And that’s it, I think that should solve this cleanly. Also, if you see Martin, tell him to come and meet me here; I want to experiment something and could use his assistance.”
Edith didn’t raise any questions, but Devon understood my plan. And with hesitance, he said, “Master Zenith, are we…?”
“Yes,” I replied calmly. Based on this, I confirmed that my initial assumption about them being benevolent and empathetic in the process of thinking up a solution was correct. It’s like if they are in a hypothetical situation where they can either save one life or five, they would hesitate and let them all die. Because although they were biological robots by definition, they were apparently designed to be humane. The reason for that is probably so that they don’t end up ruling the human world with an iron fist given how powerful they are.
Anyway, my companions left the inn to do as instructed. I suppose I should explain my plan at this point, because I would also be curious how an absolutely terrible situation suddenly became trivial. The realization that struck me earlier was that when I was examined at the library the previous day, I unconsciously analyzed the examiner. I did not pay it much mind because her capabilities were fairly normal for someone working in the academy. But the one thing that did stand out, which I should have noted back then, was her character trait: extreme believer.
If the radical religionists really exists, she is sure to be a part of it. Moreover, based on Martin’s story, it made sense why the examiner would be one of them. Because apparently, they are only staying hidden because they haven’t accumulated enough strength to face the king, which means bringing talented people to their side has to be one of their key priorities. And the examiner, who is the first to know about such rare talents would easily make a great insider.
Now that Edith will unsuspectingly relay the information about a new religious gathering within the kingdom, the radicals will definitely send a group to stop them. By ‘stop them,’ I mean they’re going to slaughter my followers, but that’s not important. At the end of it all, this new formed religion will be gone without a trace because the set up will be like this: a religious gathering with all their 40+ members including the appointed leader. From the radicals’ perspective, there would be no reason to suspect another person being responsible for the creation of that religion.
I was fairly confident that this plan would work, so I figured I could focus on the next step in getting my powers under control. I already had an idea in mind since the moment I successfully converted my biology to contain mana. But I was a bit hesitant to experiment on it without consulting Martin, who clearly knew more about mana biology than me or anyone in this kingdom. That’s why I told Edith to send him to me if she sees him, but it looks like I have to wait to find out whether he would show up or not.
What could I do meanwhile? I asked myself as I looked down at myself. I needed better clothes. More accurately, I needed to find my sense of fashion. I left the inn on my own, which wasn’t a very wise decision, and went in search of a good boutique store. I eventually found one, where I browsed through their collection for a good 15 minutes before buying a set of clothes that suited my taste. A neat full-sleeved white shirt on the inside, a thin full-sleeved buttoned black overcoat with its coat tail extending till my ankles, and a black pair of boots with medium sized heels. I felt like my clothes suited my natural appearance well, as in my smooth pale skin, rose lips, black pupils, and long black hair.
After that, I went straight back to the inn. Luckily, I didn’t have any misadventures on the way like you would have expected. When I arrived, I saw Martin exiting the inn. It seemed like he was just leaving after not finding me in there. It was good timing. “Hello Martin,” I greeted as I approached him.
“Oh you’re back,” he said. “Nice outfit.”
I smiled at his compliment and welcomed him inside. We settled in my cozy room after ordering room service. Sitting by the tea table with a cup of tea each in front of us, I opened with the topic of conversation. “I want to learn about the theory on mana capacity reduction.” If you remember, I explained that mana capacity is constant for an individual once it is fully developed. The only period it changes is during the development process, and that too, the capacity only increases. So, the theory behind reduction of mana was not only non-existent, it was never posed as a question. Until now, at least.
“It’s positively impossible,” Martin chuckled. “Mana capacity is part of growth. It’s like how you grow taller with age. At some point you stop growing but you never get shorter. However, there could be other ways to achieve similar results depending on why you want to reduce mana capacity.”
“I don’t think ‘why’ would be relevant. Just imagine there is a source for infinite mana, and a destination with infinite mana capacity. So, once the mana starts to transfer from source to destination, it will become a never ending process because of the nature of infinity. The question is how to break this deadlock.”
Martin thought about it for a second. He was probably not even thinking about the solution, rather my intentions for asking. But he answered anyway, “Well logically, you would think about setting a limiter in the destination, say 5000. This way, the mana flowing from the source to destination will stop once the destination has 5000 mana. But in theory, it doesn't make sense because of the nature of infinity.”
What he was trying to convey, I already knew. Imagine an infinitely long scale orderly marked with numbers, and you are required to identify the number 45 on the scale. You would think it’s easy because all you have to do is go to the 45th position from the beginning. But the problem is that the scale doesn’t start from 1 or any number for that matter, because that’s the nature of infinity; there is no beginning and no end. In fact, you won’t be able to identify any numbers at all even though they are ordered. Logically you could pick a random position and subtract or add the remaining numbers to get to 45, but that random position will not exist in actuality. Because, any random position would still be a definitive point on the infinite scale, and paradoxically, a definite point cannot exist in something that has no beginning or end.
“However…” Martin's eyes looked up to his left, compiling a new thought idea. “You can make it so that the destination becomes a secondary source. That way, you can create a final destination that has limited capacity. Basically, the infinite mana will flow from the source to the infinite capacity destination, and from there it will flow to the limited capacity destination. Although this technically will not break the deadlock, it does solve the problem if your aim is to conserve and control a limited amount of the infinite mana.”
And that was exactly what I was hoping to achieve. “That could work,” I muttered to myself.
“Are you working on a thesis or a book perhaps? Or do you actually have an infinite mana source?” he jokingly said that last sentence not knowing that was actually the truth. I did not directly respond to that, and there was a period of silence. "Is there anything else you wanted to ask, Zenith? If not, I got to head back to the academy."
"That's all for now, Martin. I will be needing more of your guidance in the future."
"Will be glad to help. Unless of course, you're doing something questionable." He once again jokingly said the last sentence, but this time he meant it as a warning. I had no plans of getting on his bad side. I can deal with powerful magicians with the help of my companions, but a smart man like Martin would make a much dangerous enemy.
Anyway, after I saw him off, I began with the experiment, sitting alone in my room. With his idea as the basis, it was time to develop the most important skill yet — the seal. The idea is self-explanatory. I basically intended to create a passively activated skill that will alter my status in regards to mana control and mana capacity. To achieve this, according to Martin’s idea, I have to create a new place for my mana to flow in. Currently, the mana is sourced from the virus and it flows into my nervous system.
However, as I started experimenting, I ran into a problem. As you know, I converted my biology to that of a native human here in order to harness mana in my nervous system. But according to this biology, mana cannot exist anywhere else within the body. So, there cannot be another place for all this mana to flow to. I racked my head on this issue for quite some time, and it was a dead end no matter how I looked at it. But then I realized something that made me feel like an absolute idiot.
The substance called mana is scientifically a particle, hence it has mass. In fact, people with higher mana capacity will weigh slightly more, because if you remember, the device that the academy used to measure mana capacity measured it based on the mana density. Now, here’s a question for you: how is my mana capacity infinite? The mana inside my body is no different, and infinite mana capacity means infinite mana density. By this logic, I should be a walking black hole.
The answer to this is simple. My analysis skill measures mana capacity differently than Martin’s device. I reviewed the program for the biocontrol skill, which I used to transform my biology, and I found a bug. It would appear that even after my transformation, there was no mana in my nervous system, or anywhere in my body for that matter. As a matter of fact, if the academy were to test my mana capacity again, it would still show that I’m mana-impaired. This led me to believe that my analysis skill is way more complicated than I thought; after all, it was created by the creator of the universe himself. I don’t know how exactly it calculates mana capacity, but I could assume that it somehow estimates the amount of mana that can be released from a person’s body at full capacity.
But the important takeaway from this was that this bug in biocontrol could be used to successfully develop the seal. You see, although there was no mana in my body, the analysis skill proved that mana can be released and harnessed infinitely. That could only mean that the energy that the virus is providing is being explicitly converted into mana. So, the analogy of the infinite source to the infinite destination became irrelevant, because there was only the source and no destination. A very happy accident indeed.
I reworked the seal skill to make it so that mana flows into my nervous system, which was a limited capacity destination by nature. I set the capacity to 1500, and executed it. 15 minutes passed and I hoped to see my status altered… there was no change. It didn’t work. My level and mana capacity remained infinite. I hate this universe.
I still didn’t give up though. I tried executing the program with different capacity values, because I assumed that the mana supply was too excessive for a small number like 1500 to be accepted. But even that didn’t work. Eventually, it became so tiring that I jokingly assigned a null value to capacity and executed it. Then something interesting happened.
> Level: 1
> Mana Capacity: 54000
> Mana Control: F-
> Skillset: Analysis (Complexity - S) ; Biocontrol (Complexity - S) ; Seal (Complexity - S , Activated)
> Character Trait: Logical, Malevolent
> State of Mind: Confused
It worked… but why? Besides, the mana capacity 54000 didn’t seem randomly generated. I had a hypothesis that was a bit ridiculous to consider, but I decided to test it anyway. I remembered an E level complexity skill that I read about during the night I spent at the library, which increased defense against physical attacks by 1%. Practically, it was one of the more useless skills I found there, and that says a lot because none of them were particularly useful. Anyway, I executed the program for that skill.
> Skillset: Analysis (Complexity - S) ; Biocontrol (Complexity - S) ; Seal (Complexity - S , Activated) ; Damage Reduction (Complexity - A)
I knew it! The virus was belittling me. Or rather, it was being annoyingly overprotective of me. The original damage reduction skill which I programmed and executed was an E complexity skill and only worked against physical attacks at a rate of 1%. But the virus interfered and made adjustments to make it an A complexity skill, which probably works at 100% rate and against all offenses.
The reason I was annoyed by this is obviously because I wouldn’t be able to develop skills without the virus interfering to make it ‘safer’ for me and not caring what happens to my surroundings. I don’t want to accidentally destroy Earth, but the virus doesn’t care about that. And the virus having more control over my skill set was clearly a bit bothersome. But at the moment, there was nothing I could do except complain.
On the bright side of things, my seal was successfully in place. I can now safely use skills that require mana control without causing mass destruction. And more importantly, I can raise my mana control and level steadily.
I looked out the window to see the orange sunlight coming through. It was late afternoon when I realized how long I had been cooped up in my room. That’s when the door to my room opened, and my dear companions entered. “How did it go?” I asked them regarding the plan.
“The preparations are complete, master Zenith,” Devon opened. “Our followers and their newly appointed leader will be gathering in the eastern forest near the academy this evening.”
“The same information, I have relayed it to that examiner woman, master Zenith,” Edith added.
“Very good, Edith and Devon. I was planning to take a walk around the kingdom, so I might as well go and check if everything is going smoothly over there.” As soon as I said that, my companions stiffened up, ready to come along. However, I insisted on going alone since I now had my powers reasonably under control; I also wanted them to relax for the rest of the day.
They hesitantly let me go alone. For being the most powerful entity in existence, you wouldn’t think there would be so many people and entities being overprotective of me, but you’d be wrong. Anyway, I exited the inn and on my way out, I confirmed the absence of the innkeeper. As my follower, she should be on her way to the eastern forest. So was I, walking through the crowded marketplace. The smell of fried food occupied the air. The noise of shopkeepers advertising their merchandise overlapped each other with that of the customers bargaining. The lanterns shined brightly outside the shops while the magic tools that were being showcased shined brighter.
Most of the shops in the marketplace sold magic tools, which were unsurprisingly the attraction to the customers. Magic crystals, magic staffs, enchanted robes, and a lot more. Some of the sales were clearly a scam, but there were genuinely valuable items being sold, most of them being magic crystals and magic staffs. Magic crystals are an external source of mana, which could be refined into potions, drinking which will replenish mana within minutes. The better the quality of the magic crystals, the higher the quantity of potions that can be refined from it. Magic staffs serve a lot of purposes, but it’s mainly to improve a person’s mana control. With a magic staff, you can perform magic in a more controlled and efficient manner.
These goods were very popular among the mages. Most of the customers, who were mages, already owned a magic staff and were wearing enchanted robes. They were scouring the marketplace in search of better equipment for a good price. It was a refreshing sight to see, but at the same time I also saw an opportunity. The enchanted items that were being sold, or the lack thereof, was of poor quality. With Devon’s S complexity enchantment skill, we could monopolize this market easily. However, I needed to think it through to make sure there wouldn’t be any political issues arising from it. So, I put that idea in the back of my head for the time being.
Leaving the marketplace behind me, I reached the eastern forest and calmly entered without second thoughts. I had two intentions going to the place where my followers were gathering. One, confirm the existence of the radical religionists. Two, identify if any important people of the kingdom are part of it. Because, in the future, there will be a conflict between the kingdom and this group. And I wanted to estimate how much that conflict will escalate. If there are enough people with political influence in the group, it could lead to a civil war, and when that happens, I will have to step in to preserve the kingdom's peace for my own sake.
“Welcome to the followers of the true God that has descended to the mortal plains,” a lady whom I recognized as the innkeeper announced loudly. Apparently, Devon appointed her as the religious leader, which made sense because she was the only person who had physically seen me. She continued with her opening speech, which she probably prepared for the entire day, “The one who favors the good people who long for peace while others favor power and cause destruction. We are the chosen ones to know about lord Zenith. From this day onwards, we will not fear the strong and corrupt. From this day onwards, we will walk with our heads up high for we are stronger and pure.” There was more to her speech, but I stopped paying attention.
My goal was to wait and see if the radicals would show up, and I had to ensure I don’t get spotted by them in the process. So, I started working on my first non-passive skill.
> Skillset: … Camouflage (Complexity - A+) …
I only spent a minute or two developing it and it was originally supposed to be D complexity skill, but since it is a kind of defensive skill, the virus interfered and made it unnecessarily effective. I used the skill and I completely blended into the dynamic environment to the point where I was invisible. The way this skill worked is quite simple. Mana is released from my body and scans my nearest 360 degree surroundings. The mana then surrounds me and transforms itself into tiny prisms which reflects light as appropriate colors to suit my surroundings. It basically photoshops me out of the picture in real time.
Anyway, I continued waiting and the sun was almost about to set. What were my followers doing all that time? I have no idea, they were probably praising me endlessly for no reason. The radical religionists showed no signs of arriving. At that point, I was ready to leave the area, not wanting to waste any more time. I could be doing so much productive work instead—
“Ignorant fools!” a strongly arrogant male voice shouted from behind me. It almost startled me, but luckily I was composed enough to stroll away from the scene without alerting anyone.
I should let you know at this point, that just because I had my seal skill activated doesn’t mean the virus was going to remain dormant all the time. If that was the case, I could kill myself and end this web novel. The seal skill only helps me in controlling my powers so I could use offensive skills without having to worry about destroying the cosmos. Which means, the virus would still interfere if I feel threatened.
Getting back to the situation at hand, a group of 17 mages, all wearing enchanted red robes, walked in on the gathering. The man who initially yelled was in the front, eyeing my followers. I was a decent distance away under an apple tree, observing the red mages; I continued to refer to those radical religionists as red mages there forth. I wasn’t concerned about the bloodshed that was about to happen, rather I was trying to identify the mages using my analysis skill. But the status information wasn’t very useful for identification as you could imagine, and I ended up identifying only a few of them.
One of them was the examiner, whose capabilities I recognized. Another one was probably a governor of a nearby city, identified based on his governing based skills alongside a high complexity fire magic. The last one I identified was by far the most shocking.
> Level: 65
> Mana Capacity: 12000
> Mana Control: B+
> Skillset: Royal Blood (Complexity - S) ; Wind Magic (Complexity - B)
> Character Trait: Ill-tempered, Boastful
> State of Mind: Pity
There was not a single book in the academy’s library that had an S complexity skill, let alone a skill called Royal Blood. I wasn’t able to understand what this skill was, but I knew that it was a special skill only accessible to the royal family. The owner of this status was a young girl, whom I correctly assumed was the royal princess.
This was the worst scenario possible. You see, the royal princess being a part of the red mages meant that there was no chance for the kingdom to win in a battle against them. From what I already knew, the king’s strength was the red mages’ biggest threat, which was why they had been amassing talented magicians. But with the princess on their side, strength doesn’t necessarily matter. If they can’t overpower the king physically, they can do so emotionally. Seeing how much influence they already had, just based on identifying 3 members of this group, I was certain that these people were serious about taking over the kingdom. At this rate, a civil war will be inevitable.
Unless of course, I involve myself into this. If the red mages take over this kingdom, my hope for a peaceful life will be unattainable. I can imagine burning innocent people alive becoming a daily occurrence if these barbarians gained control. Even if I don’t mind people getting murdered unjustly, that’s not an ideal image of a peaceful life.
“Woman!” That same loud man in the front of the group called out the innkeeper, the religious leader. “How dare you spread the notion of a fake God in the kingdom of Eden, blessed by our one true God?”
Sigh…
Change of plans. It’s time to develop my first offensive magic. There are a lot of offensive skills that can be effective and not require much mana control. But for some reason, I was still picky about it. Fire, wind, and lightning based skills were out of the question because with my mana control, I would very likely burn or tear my brand new clothes. Dirt based skills were also skimmed over for the same reason; I loved my outfit and I didn’t want it to get dirty. I would have considered water based skills if it weren’t incredibly inefficient as an offensive skill. Ice magic was probably the best option due to its power and ease to perform, but it reminded me of the sociopath princess, so that was also denied.
“This will be your last day on Eden, for you and your fake religion will be sent to the very depths of hell!” That same loud man continued with his taunts. Based on analysis, he was the strongest mage in the group, so nobody was stopping him from wasting everyone’s time. An idiot being in charge of my enemies gave me time to come up with a quick offensive skill of my liking. By the way, I just realized that this kingdom’s name is Eden. I never bothered to find out. Come to think of it, I never found out what the name of the charcoal kingdom was.
Anyway, focusing on coming up with an idea for an offensive skill… “Witness the supreme power of a man blessed by our one true God!” The surrounding ground shook as he finished. Earth magic, and a powerful one at that. But it wasn’t directed at anyone; it wasn’t even an attack. This guy was still not done taunting.
The effect of the ground shake reached my area as well, which caused an apple to fall from the tree beside me. The time I spent pondering for an offensive skill came to an end. I picked up the apple with a smile; I had an idea. Isaac Newton would be proud, I thought to myself before deactivating my camouflage. I didn’t want my camouflage skill to interfere while I’m trying to perform offensive magic, because it might affect my already worse mana control. However, I still wanted to hide my identity to some extent.
> Skillset: … Pigmentation (Complexity - B)
A simple skill to transform my appearance enough for humans to not recognize me. With the pigmentation skill, I changed the color of my hair white, and my pupils red. Finally, I started developing the offensive skill that I had come up with, all the while that loud moron was still taunting my harmless followers. 45 seconds is what it took to successfully code it in my head. It was yet to show in my status because I hadn’t used the skill yet.
You would think by now, some sort of attack on my followers would have ensued. But no, the only interesting thing I spotted happening among the red mages was one of its members yawning.
I stepped into the scene from the darkness, my red eyes glowing ominously, while holding on to the ripe fallen apple on my right hand. "Why are my followers being bothered by the likes of you?" I rhetorically questioned loudly to grab their attention. It worked. All their eyes instantly turned on me. I stopped in between my followers and the red mages, both sides equally confused by my appearance.
That mouthy idiot was probably about to say something disrespectful to me, but I had no intention of hearing him out. I used the newly developed magic on the bright red apple. My status updated.
> Skillset: … Growth Spurt (Complexity - A) …
I dropped the apple on the ground and it cracked as the seeds within it germinated. Within a span of 5 seconds, it had grown into a combined tree as tall as me, and I grabbed on to its top branch as it continued growing at the same pace. I was elevated to about 2 meters at which point, leaves grew and a strong branch grew from the trunk below me. I comfortably took my seat on it. The tree had fully grown, producing ripe apples above my head. I plucked one of them and took a bite while the spectators watched in shock.
Magic skills in the field of farming are very common, but growth spurt is not a skill that fully falls into that category. You see, all the magic developed to grow crops and plants follow the same approach, which is to speed up the natural growth process. For example, a farmer can use their mana to fertilize the soil or directly on the seed and enable it to absorb nutrients more efficiently. These skills are of B complexity at best, and if all of them are used together, an apple tree can be fully grown in the span of 1-2 months as opposed to 2-3 years. So, how did I manage to grow mine within seconds? It’s the power of incorporating magic with proper science; apart from me, Martin was the only one studying magic in that manner.
Anyway, coming to how I made an apple tree grow at such a never before seen speed. The three things a plant needs to grow are light (from the sun), food (from the nutrients in the soil), and water. But as long as you know how each step in this process works — for example, photosynthesis — you can use mana to achieve it all. That’s exactly how the growth spurt skill works. Additionally, there are three variables which I can control when performing this skill — the speed of growth, the mana input which determines the extent of the growth, and the delay for when the growth should be initiated.
“Who are you?” that same loud man asked, but there was a slight fear in his voice, which was understandable. I was still in the process of chewing on the juicy bite of apple, so I ignored him and savored the taste. It was the first time on this planet that I had eaten solid food, and there were many more apples hanging above me. So…
I used my skill again, and threw the bitten apple on the ground right behind him. This time, I adjusted the speed of growth to be thrice as fast as before and mana input to ensure the tree doesn’t grow beyond the height of a man. But with my poor mana control, the speed ended up being 7 times as fast. A small apple tree the size of 1 meter burst into existence, its stem, branches, and even roots penetrating the red mage all over his body. One of the branches cleanly pierced the back of his skull and grew more branches inside, a splinter of the wood was seen poking out from the bottom of his right eye lid. So yeah, he’s dead.
I plucked another fresh apple hanging above me, while still comfortably resting my butt on the tree branch. The other red mages were paralyzed in fear, some screamed and stepped back with their pupils dilated in terror. Even my own followers were shook. “Will you fight and avenge your comrade, or will you run away and disgrace your ‘one true God’ who blessed you all with ‘power’?” I taunted the red mages. I wanted none of them to run away, and as predicted, they prepared to attack me with magic.
“Death time,” I muttered to myself and launched my attacks. By ‘attacks’ I mean the only offensive skill I had, which was more than enough. Out of the remaining 16 red mages, 3 of them died before they could cast their first offensive magic at me or perform a defensive skill. Why? Because, they are required by their religion to praise their God before performing the spell, which took about 3-4 seconds. Stupid and fatal mistake. They ended up with an apple tree growing through them.
The rest of them were successful in casting their magic at me. Note that I had no good defensive skill prepared for this battle. Because, there was no need. The virus inside me was way too overprotective of me to even consider developing a defensive skill. Based on past experiences, I figured that the virus simultaneously reacted to my state of mind and offenses launched against me. For example, if I felt threatened by low temperatures, the virus would release energy from my body in the form of excessive heat and cause a disaster. But what if I remain calm while knowing what’s about to hit me? It should nullify the effect of the attack instead of overperforming a counter. That’s exactly what happened.
The examiner lady whom I recognized attacked me with her fire magic, and I remained calm. The virus nullified the effect instead of counter attacking. With a satisfied smile, I threw another freshly picked apple at her. “Argh!” She screamed in pain before succumbing to her inevitable death. I was in control of the counter attacks, while the virus took care of the defenses. It did not matter what offensive magic was thrown at me, as long as I knew the general effects of those magic. Wind magic? Denied. I threw an apple at them. Fire magic? Also denied. And apple. Ice magic? Apple!
Those who specialized in fire magic were initially hesitant to attack, so as to not cause a forest fire. But not long into the battle, they ignored damage control. The water and ice magic specialists took initiative to extinguish the fires, so naturally, I left them alive till I dealt with the aggressive ones.
Soon enough, only three red mages were still standing. Two of them were defensive magic specialists, and the other one was the only person whom I intended to let live — the royal princess. Obviously, I couldn’t kill the princess, because then nothing would change in terms of the red mages having an emotional tool to use against the king. If the princess had died by my hands, they would use that information to turn the king against me and my followers, and they would take over the kingdom effortlessly. Lucky for me, during the entire time I launched attacks at the red mages, the princess was separated from others, either because she was too scared to come into my field of view or figured that sticking together was not the best course of action to take against my attacks.
I hopped down from my apple tree onto the grassy ground with two apples in my grasp. The sun had fully set at this point, and the only source of light was the milky way and the half moon visible in the night sky. My red pupils still glowed in the dimly lit environment as I mercilessly threw apples at the two unneeded survivors. Plop! One of their eyes popped out of the eye socket, stuck to a branch that had grown through the mouth and curved out from the eyes.
I made my way to the princess, walking past the dead and dying people. Those who I noticed were still in the process of dying from organ failure — because of a tree passing through it — I wanted to put them out of their misery, but I couldn’t give the princess her chance to run away. “Hello there, princess,” I greeted her.
The last time I interacted with a royal princess… I don’t even want to talk about it. Hopefully, second time's the charm.

I just got my quest 2 and am loving it. One thing that bugs me is the pcvr connection. Having a wireless device as my 1st vr is great. The virtual desktop connection setup was horrendous (the setup part, the performance is great for me) . I work in tier 2 tech support and knowing how many people are bad with directions and tech in general I would think occulus would want to have a more streamlined solution, so why the hell aren't they doing it?
If I was having issues and I work in tech then some JoeQ public is going to be confused and give up. Why not have this feature baked in? Once I got everything setup it works fine. Is it so they can sell their Super Expensive cable? That would be really greedy for a company who already has billions.
You would think virtual desktop and streaming pcvr would be a selling point. Another chechmark on the box that other vr devices can't do. Are they just idiots or is there some other reason they don't have this? Also why make the app creator disable the feature? Why do we have to get a dev account and walk through a million hoops just to set this up. It should of been a onetime /one app install. You buy the software and done. What's Facebook motive for being so anti customer here?
Have they said anything about providing the feature themselves? They provide streaming to video or to thr pc why not the other way around. It makes me fearful buying too many pcvr games, not knowing if one day they decide to block sideloading or block the feature entirely and make your pcvr collection null and void.
The native quest apps have a few gems (racketNX and thrill of the fight are two of my favs), but the pcvr stuff is in another league on what can be done. Some of the side quest stuff is awesome too. Drum kits, skiing, quake, rtcw, doom, doom3.. It's pure bliss. Imagine if the store actually had decent stuff like this. Why does the native store seem stuck to curating certain apps and not an experimental section for cool new ideas. The cartoony native apps most don't appeal to me and I like more of the pcvr stuff.
What are your thoughts on this. Are any of you concerned face book my shut down the desktop rift store after the rifts is discontinued? That would be a business destroying move (outside of the casuals that buy it for their kids). Is pcvr here to stay or is it going to be canned?

It really helps me if you check the original article & more similar at https://jb-dev.net/ !!!
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In January 2019, Drodo Studio’s Dota Auto Chess mod became insanely popular. Many companies (including household names like Valve, Riot, Ubisoft and Blizzard) rushed to release their own versions.
It seemed like the beginning of something big like MOBA or Battle Royale. But it has been more than a year now and the hype seems to have vanished completely. As quickly as it rose, it went away…
This is the first on a series of articles where we will analyze the autochess genre. Here we will be exploring the genre’s history, its current market situation and its audience. And also, what are the core design issues that autochess suffers and that no one has been able to solve yet.
u/JB: For this article I’m teaming up with my mate Victor Freso, one of my most talented folks at Pixel Noire Games, who helped me review all the games.
We also had feedback of ~300 highly engaged players from the different autochess reddit communities, which participated in an online poll whose results are available here. They’re especially thanked at the end of the article.

A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

This wasn’t the first time that a mod got the spotlight and ended up becoming the foundation of a genre. It happened in several major, industry-defining cases before (some of which are Team Shooters, MOBAs, Battle Royale…). But on some of these cases events unfolded differently. So we identify 3 distinctive eras related to the evolution of the industry:

1st Era (2000s): Assimilation

The company whose original software had been modded (or had a close enough game, like Valve) moved quickly to absorb the successful mods and turn them into even more successful products.
Since at that point creating a major game release was very complex (required an expensive development, publishing deals and an infrastructure to distribute the product), the deal was profitable for both sides. But it meant the dissolution of the identity of the original creator team, which became embedded in the bigger company culture.
Team Fortress (1999) was originally a Quake mod. And Counter-Strike (2000) started out as a fan-made mod on the Half Life engine. Both games (and creators) were quickly absorbed by Valve.
2nd Era (2010s): Integration
By this time, the previous era model still was going on… but the gaming industry had significatively grown a lot and it was also possible for smaller or even new companies to lure the original developers, and use the mod as a proof for commercial success in order to secure funding and develop it as a full title.
The main characteristic of this era is that the original developers were able to keep a bigger share of control and relevance, rather than being integrated as just another gear on a bigger machine, because the companies they joined built their own identity around that key product.
This was the case of Riot Games: They were able to raise enough money for the creation of their company through family and angel investors, and then hire some of the original creators of DOTA, and then created League of Legends.
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A similar case happened with battle royale, which also started in 2013 as a successful DayZ mod created by the modder nicknamed PlayerUnknown. Later, it was transformed into a full product through the acquisition of the developer by a korean company (which would later be renamed as the PUBG Corporation, again showing how the company grew around the game rather than assimilating it).
Interestingly, this genre already hints what would happen with Auto Chess, since Fortnite wasn’t involved in any way with the original creators. They just copied the concept. Fortnite was a product stuck in a kind of development hell (had been 6 years in the works). As the game was getting close to the release, the developers became impressed by PUBG’s success, so they created a quick Battle Royale spin-off which became insanely popular and eventually ate the rest of the game.

3rd Era (2020s): Fragmentation

In all the cases presented previously, the newborn genre ended up in the release of one or two titles which accumulated most of the business. But this hasn’t been the case here.
In Autochess, the newborn genre has been quickly fragmented into a big list of competitors. Some are standalone games (like DOTA Underlords or Autochess: Origins), but there’s also several service-model games which released their autochess mode as well (like Hearthstone’s Battlegrounds or TeamFight Tactics, which at the end of the day is a side-game mode of League of Legends).
This creates an interesting precedent, which I believe will define future cases where an innovative new game concept appears: The hot idea will be cloned very fast because today the main bottleneck in the industry is having an innovative design that generates player interest and engagement.
By 2020, it’s way easier to create and distribute a game, there are way more developers hungry for a hit than ever before, and a lot of service-model games with short development cycles always looking for something juicy for their next update… so new ideas becoming red oceans fast will be the norm.
For sure, this won’t affect the ability of small developers and modders to innovate, but it will affect their ability to leverage that to become successful on an independant level, before they get cloned.
Dota Auto Chess, was a Dota 2 mod which obtained massive popularity. After a failed acquisition from Valve (owners of Dota), the mod developers (Drodo Studios) went to create the mobile standalone Auto Chess: Origins, while still maintaining the PC version linked to Valve. Meanwhile, Riot, Valve, Ubisoft and many other companies developed and released their own autobattlers at a record time, downgrading the genre creators to just another competitor.
And ultimately, they haven’t fixed the core issues of the original game, which separates it from a true hyper-successful product like MOBA.

MARKET STATUS

Because of the rain of clones, it’s hard to map all the autochess games on the market. It doesn’t help that some of them are available in both PC and Mobile (playable in PC, Mac, Android and iOS), and also they’re exclusive to different PC stores (Dota Underlords is only on Steam, TFT is on Riot’s LoL launcher, and Autochess Origins is only at the Epic Store…).
And if that wasn’t enough, the Auto Chess mod in DOTA2 is still very active and has no signs that it’s going to be dying soon. It’s still being regularly updated, and presumably still profitable: Some months ago they added a battle pass system, with its revenue shared between Valve and Drodo.
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What’s interesting is that none of the contenders has been able to become massively successful in terms of monetization, at least not in terms comparable to even a second or third tier MOBA. And while there are definitively different tiers of following among these titles (led by Riot Games’ TeamFight Tactics), it seems that none of them has been able to gather under its banner a significant amount of players, mobile downloads or Twitch Views…
Sources: AppAnnie (mobile metrics), TwitchMetrics (twitch)
So ultimately, we’re dividing the autochess market into 3 categories: Squires, Would-be Kings and Peasants.

• Squires: Rather than standalone games, these are side-modes of already successful products. Under this category we would list the Battlegrounds mode in Hearthstone, or League of Legends’ TFT, and maybe even the original DOTA Autochess mod. While for sure they’ll have their own dedicated audience that only plays those modes, for most players it’s just a nice and fresh activity integrated within a broader game experience. The squires are the ones that have achieved the biggest success among the autochess genre because they don’t suffer as much backlash from the lack of gameplay depth inherent to the genre, which is harmful for the long term retention: Even if the mode eventually becomes a bit shallow, players have many other things to play, and thus are retained. As a consequence, these games can still monetize significatively by selling renewals of their Battle Passes every new season. Not enough to make them successful on the degree that was expected… but at least it’s something. Other than bringing an additional source of revenue, these modes were useful to their core games: They generated player interest by providing innovative gameplay. Hearthstone’s Battlegrounds was an amazing addition to the CCG genre, and made a lot of people come back to the game to discover the new mode and reengage.

The gameplay of TeamFight Tactics (slow tempo, no team coordination, decreased attention requirement…) makes it a nice relief mode to play between LOL matches, which is its purpose in the foreseeable future. If there ever was an intention to make it a standalone game, it vanished together with the player interest on autochess…

• Would-be Kings: These are the other two top dogs of the category. They were supposed to rule… but that looking at the numbers they don’t really seem to have ever lifted off. Under this category we would list Auto Chess: Origins and DOTA Underlords. The problem is that their standalone approach means that they suffer the most of the design issues of the genre that we’ve presented in the last section of this article (i.e. flat complexity, lack of mastery depth, lack of progression and rotative meta…). That means that they lost a lot of population over time, and therefore their Battle Pass renewal isn’t as effective at generating revenue : (

DOTA Underlords is an extremely polished product in terms of graphics, character design and UX, and yet another proof that Valve devs really know how to do great games. Too bad they aren’t as good at releasing third installments...

• Peasants: Here we would list the myriad of other autochess follower titles that entered the battlefield, each achieving a different degree of success. While some may actually be profitable, what we can be sure about is that none of them has reached any significant numbers or anything close to the reach that brought industry attention.

THE AUDIENCE

We are of the belief that you can’t talk about a game and not talk about who plays it, and that players say more about a game than analyzing all its features and mechanics. So with this in mind we collected answers from ~300 autochess players (check the raw data here). After examining their responses, we’ve identified 3 main player profiles (the comments on each profile are literal):
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• Patricks, gamers looking for a competitive-but-idle experience that doesn’t require full attention and it’s easily reconcilable with their functional adult life.
• Grizzlies, competitive players that struggle with fast paced games that demand a high actions per minute ratio and quick reflexes (like MOBAs or competitive shooters).
• Warmasters, highly competitive players that enjoy more the area of strategy (setting up goals and planning how to achieve them) rather than tactics (skillful execution of actions and micromanagement).

What these profiles have in common, other than being hardcore gamers and having a big interest in competitive games, is the fact that they enjoy the lack of micromanagement, and the demand of reflexes and dexterity of autochess.
This is quite interesting, considering that the genre foundation is so close to MOBAs, which are extremely demanding on those aspects. Overall it seems that they belong to audiences below the MOBA umbrella which are currently being alienated by the bulk of ‘younger and dexterity focused’ players.
And when it comes to platforms, it seems that even though the barrier between the classic gaming platforms and mobile is progressively disappearing, the genre is still mainly focused on PC: Out of the ~300 players that answered, 50% said that they play exclusively on PC, 25% played primarily on Mobile, and the remaining 25% played in both.
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Players said that they enjoy the focus of the game in planification, as opposed to the focus on execution and performance of MOBAs. And when asked about their main points of frustration, they pointed out 2 main topics: 1.- The strong luck factor that has a strong impact on making you win or lose regardless on how well you played. 2.- The fact that the game eventually becomes shallow and repetitive, fueled by the fact updates were unexciting and not rotating the meta.
Surprised by the fact that players mention randomness as a factor of both enjoyment and frustration? Don’t be! Competitive players tend to have a love-and-hate relationship with luck, because they tend to consider that external factors outside of skills (money spent, better draw…) stole their well deserved victory.
And it’s even more frustrating in autochess, because there’s a strong snowball effect: Players that obtain a big advantage early on in the game become hard to catch later on. Which means that a few bad or good draws early on can decide the rest of the match.
There hasn’t been a single feature more criticised in Magic: The Gathering than the randomness of drawing mana. And yet, luck it’s part of what makes MTG stand out compared to other CCGs: For experienced players, it introduces uncertainty and the need to take risks and gamble, like they’d do in poker. And for rookies, it allows beating someone that has better skills and has a better deck, if Lady Luck is on their side. Won’t happen often, but it will feel awesome when it does. Like a friend likes to say: The best feeling in MTG is to draw a mana when you really need it. And the worst? To draw it when you didn’t.
This goes to say that in autochess, perhaps the power of luck needs to be reviewed, but it would be a bad decision to completely remove luck from the equation.
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DESIGN CHALLENGES

In this awesome DoF article, Giovanni Ducati already pointed out the two main problems that the games in this genre need to solve to achieve real success: Bad long term retention and low monetization.
To these issues we would add a third one, which is bad marketability: Contrary to their big brothers League of Legends and DOTA2, these games haven’t been able to achieve high organic downloads (at least not to be able to generate significant revenue through soft monetization mechanics). What’s even worse is that all these games, their themes and target audience are quite close to RPG and Strategy, which are genres with some of the highest CPIs on the market. So they need top-of-the-class retention and monetization to get a high enough LTV to scale up.
But why do these games fail at keeping players entertained for a long time? And why don’t they monetize enough? Here’s what we think:
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Flat Complexity & Progression

You have some games out there which have a strong entry barrier due to being quite complicated to grasp. But for those that can deal with the numbers and stats, the depth will keep them entertained for months and years. This is the case in most RPGs and 4X strategy games. And then you have hypercasual games, which are simple and plug and play. So they generate a great early engagement, but are too shallow to keep users hooked for a long time.
As a genre, Autochess games are in the middle ground: they have a high entry barrier, but also lack the complexity to keep players engaged for a long time…
As a general rule, games with long retention tend to follow Bushnell’s Law of being easy to learn and difficult to master. They achieve that by having what we call an unfolding experience: They appear simpler at the beginning (not necessarily easy), but require thousands of hours of practice to master.
An example of this are games that level lock most of the game complexity, so the player understands and masters only a set starter mechanics. And then, progressively unlock new modes and demand more specialized builds and gameplay, repeating the cycle several times to keep the game always interesting while attempting to avoid being overwhelming.
In World of Warcraft, character depth is huge. But this complexity is unfolded progressively, forcing the player to spend time mastering each skill and activity as they level up, before moving further.
Another approach to the same idea are competitive games focused on mechanical ability, dexterity or micromanagement. Like CS:GO or Rocket League. They may unlock all the mechanics from the beginning, but a newbie player will only be able to focus and manage some of them, and then progressively discover and master the rest in an organic way.
Rocket League hides its complexity by matchmaking early players with others of a similar skill. This makes beginner players viable even if they grasp only the basic mechanics. But, as they climb further, they’ll face rivals that take those basic skills for granted and the player will need to master more challenging techniques to keep up.
League of Legends and Overwatch are actually a combination of both: The game first introduces the player to a small selection of heroes which progressively gets expanded, while at the same time having an insane mastery depth that requires a high APM and reflexes, team coordination and thousands of hours of practice.
Contrary to any of those examples, Autochess games throw everything at you from the beginning: Character Skills, Synergies, Unit Upgrade, Gold Management, Items… It’s a lot to swallow. And there’s not even enough time to read what each thing does before the timer runs out. This creates a complex, overwhelming first impression that drives many players out.
But that’s quantity, not depth. Once you’ve gone through that traumatic starting phase, you’ve grasped all the mechanics and you know which team builds are dominating on the meta, it’s just a matter of making it happen by taking the right decisions and adapting to a few key draws.
Eventually, unless luck is really against you, your skills won’t be challenged and you won’t have new mechanics to master. At that point, winning will be based more on the knowledge of the content database and luck rather than your planning and strategic ability. And that’s boring.
So ultimately, these games are hard to grasp for a newbie, but also lack the ability to keep players interested for a very long time since they eventually run out of new features and mechanics to discover and master.

Unexciting Updates, Lack of Collection

On top of that, autochess games seem to have a hard time adding content which reawakens player interest and makes churned ones come back.
The DAU trend that we expect on a long term retention game: A decreasing trend of players until reaching a stagnation stage. At that point, a big update (or new season) is required to attract and reengage users back with new content. This is the model we would see on Fortnite or Hearthstone, but it’s not what we see in most autochesses.
On this topic, perhaps the one that has put the most effort is Riot’s TFT. Each season update, the game releases a new series of heroes, synergies, items and rebalances, as well as a big bunch of cosmetics. This generates a short lived boost on revenue (due primarily to players buying the pass) and downloads, but ultimately nothing that really moves the needle in a relevant way.
‘Why seasonal updates don’t work?‘, you may be asking. Part of the reason is that TFT, as well as every major contender do not include elements of content progression or collection. Instead, they all stick to the roguelike approach of the original mod: Players have access to the same set of units, and build their inventory exclusively during the match.
While at first this seems a good idea, since it keeps the game fair in a similar way to MOBAs, it’s oblivious to the fact that new units do not offer the same amount of gameplay depth as in League of Legends. In LoL, a new unit means weeks or even months of practice until mastering timing, range and usage of the skills, how they interact with every other champion, etc… In comparison, in TFT the new content can be fully explored in just a bunch of matches, both because the new content doesn’t offer that much depth to start with and because it’s available from the moment the player gets the update.
By lacking content progression and collection, autochesses miss the opportunity to create long term objectives after an update, more innovative mechanics and less repetitiveness. As a consequence, they have it really hard to hype players on updates.

Big ‘Snowball Effect’

In game design, the snowball effect refers to the situation where obtaining an advantage or dominance generates further conditions that almost invariably means winning the match. As you can guess, on competitive games this effect can generate a bad experience, especially when the divergence starts early on: The player that obtained the early advantage will keep on increasing the advantage and curbstomp the rest.
For example, this can happen on a Civilization game if a player gets ahead of the rest acquiring key resource territories, and uses them to achieve a greater progress in tech and income at a faster pace than the rest. Or in League of Legends if a team scores a bunch of early kills and levels up, becoming more able at scoring even more kills…
In this match of Age of Empires 2, the red player (Aztecs) managed to decimate the blue player (Turks) military units early on. Since without an army it was impossible for the blue player to secure enough resources to perform a comeback, for the next 2 hours the blue player was in a pointless, hopeless match. Kudos for not abandoning, though!
Autochess games suffer greatly from this effect, due to the following reasons:

• Resources lead to victories, victories lead to resources As you know, in autochess each player builds a team based on successive battles. Better battle performance will grant more gold, which is the resource used to buy units, perform shop rolls, etc… Similar to the cases we’ve already explained, this means that players that achieve early dominance will be able to to obtain more gold, use it to get better units and get more victories and gold, therefore increasing their team power faster than the rest. ‘But players can be lucky or unlucky, generating a factor that compensates for the advantage of having more resources early on‘, you may be considering. Unfortunately, this is a flawed logic, because of 2 main reasons: (1) Having more resources means more adaptability: The dominant players will be able to leverage on them to re-adapt their team, therefore outperforming the rest on a randomness-driven scenario. (2) Resources allow to buy more rolls, which diminishes the deviation generated by each individual roll.


• Luck factor. The previous point goes into maintaining and increasing dominance once it has been achieved early on, but another source of frustration is that luck is a huge factor in achieving early dominance. This means that your strategic skills and smarts can be completely invalidated by a couple of bad rolls at the beginning of the match. And there’s nothing that competitive players hate more than having their match stolen by factors outside the pure clash of abilities.

As an antithesis, Poker also has resource management, and luck factor determines the victory (on a specific round). But unlike Autochess, resources can’t override luck, and early victories don’t affect the later chance of winning.

Excessive Match Length

Compared to PC, on mobile is much harder to keep the player focused for a long period of time on a single session. And having a very long minimum session kind of goes against the premise of being able to play anywhere which is a primary strength of mobile as a gaming platform. This is a problem for autochess games since a single match can last for 30-45 minutes of synchronous, nonstop gameplay.
‘Isn’t the solution just make the match shorter?’, you’re probably wondering. Unfortunately, there are several reasons that make this more challenging to the core design than what it seems:

• Because in autochess the player builds its team from scratch, at the beginning of each match there are several turns to setup team foundations. Removing these early decisions severely decreases the teambuilding possibilities, decreasing overall depth.
  
• Also, each setup phase between clashes requires a minimum time to think and perform the actions. In the last turns of a match, the game can become quite demanding on thinking and input speed.
  
• Matches require a minimum amount of turns to compensate the weight of a single lucky/unlucky roll over the chances to win. Because the possible units for teambuilding appear on random rolls, the less turns there are the more luck factor the game will suffer, and as a consequence the less important the player’s strategic skills will be.
  
• And if there are few turns, there are also less chances for comebacks. Because it means that players will have less setup phases to adapt and catch a player that has obtained an early advantage.
  
• Finally, since the match involves 8 players, it requires a minimum of turns so that they all can fight between each other… Nevertheless, I don’t consider this a critical issue because Dota has been able to change this specific point on the knockout mode without sacrificing too much in terms of depth.
  

Soft Approach to Monetization

PC/Console approach to free-to-play is generally soft (i.e. primarily based on cosmetics, avoid pay-to-win…), while mobile tends to be quite hardcore in comparison. The softness of PC monetization is even more core to companies such as Valve and especially Riot Games, to which the “no monetization bs” is part of the brand values. This would be very hard to change without harming their reputation.
Same as in most autochess games, in TeamFight Tactics the players can only pay for different cosmetics and for a Battle Pass. Without the massively huge and engaged audience of League of Legends, this monetization approach isn’t able to generate meaningful revenue.
This is not exclusively because we mobile-first devs are a ruthless wallstreet folk which will use every dirty trick in the book to get a bit extra money… but also because mobile games are locked in competition for paid installs. This requires us to get as much revenue as possible from users, as fast as possible, in order to reinvest into players to keep on growing or avoid withering.
The business model of League of Legends or Fortnite is based on their extreme popularity: They already have massive amounts of highly engaged active users, so their strategy is to keep them playing and have a monetization system that, while doesn’t make as much money from the players as it could do on the short term, generates a decent amount of revenue over a longer period of time.
Games that have this soft f2p approach have it very hard to reach enough ARPPU to make paid users profitable, given the insanely high mobile CPIs. This may not be an issue to big IPs and games that are able to bring many organic players (Fortnite, League of Legends…), but it is a big issue for those that can’t attract such a big number of players due to their organic appeal.
Due to its core characteristics (strategic, number-based, complex…), Autochess is unlikely to be a massive appeal product, and therefore won’t fit into the cosmetics model. It’s a game that will have a smaller audience of highly engaged players, and therefore will require a more aggressive monetization to reach similar results.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The history of the autochess genre serves as an example of the risks of design endogamy: The devsphere rushed to clone Auto Chess, and before a year all the major contenders were in the board. But that speed came at a cost: None of these projects has brought the concept much further than its original conception, and in doing so they haven’t solved any of the core issues.
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The folks at Riot games developed the TeamFight Tactics in less than 5 months. This allowed them to release while the hype was still at its peak… but it also meant it added just a couple of improvements, and it’s otherwise very similar to the original Auto Chess mod.
After seeing all these projects fail to meet the big expectations that were placed on them, the question is if perhaps the best approach was to avoid rushing, and instead tackle the genre with a title that is not a clone, but rather a more groomed, accessible and innovative successor of the original idea.
In our next article on this series will make an attempt to see how such a game could be, rethinking the spirit and fresh design ideas of autochess to solve the issues mentioned above. (May take a while though, I want to focus on smaller articles for a couple of months…)
Meanwhile, if you want to read more about this genre, we suggest you these awesome articles from the folks at DoF: Why Auto-Chess can’t monetize – and how to fix that and How Riot can turn TFT into a billion dollar game

Special Thanks to…

These articles wouldn’t have been possible with the collaboration of ~300 members of the reddit communities of the different auto chess games who provided us with feedback and data. You folks have been incredible solving all our doubts. One thing that this genre has is some of the most awesome players around.
So big kudos for Brxm1, Erfinder Steve, Xinth, Zofia the Fierce, STRK1911, LontongSinga22, bezacho, hete, NeroVingian, marling2305, NOVA9INE , asidcabeJ, Eidallor, Rhai, Lozarian, bwdm, Toxic, Ruala, Papa Shango, MrMkay, Dread0, L7, kilmerluiz, Amikals, Sworith, Tankull, B., hete, Bour, Denzel, DeCeddy, Diaa, hamoudaxp, Benjamin “ManiaK” Depinois, Katunopolis, DanTheMan, MikelKDAplayer, 0nid, Tobocto, Tiny Rick, phuwin, Alcibiades, triceps, d20diceman, shadebedlam, stinky binky, Tutu, Myuura, suds, Kapo, Hearthstoned, Engagex, Pietrovosky, Daydreamer, Doctor Heckle, Ignis, ShawnE, NastierNate, LeCJ, Nene Thomas, Chris, trinitus_minibus, Nah, Kaubenjunge1337, Mudhutter, Asurakap, Nicky V, shinsplintshurts, bobknows27, Willem (Larry David Official on Steam), Jonathan, Dinomit24, Monstertaco, GangGreen69, Veshral Amadeus Salieri (…lol!), Kuscomem, Cmacu, Pioplu, Dilemily, qulhuae, Ilmo, MarvMind, facu1ty, crayzieap, Saint Expedite, Lobbyse, Lukino , tomes, Blitzy24, Mcmooserton, magicmerl, i4got2putsumpantzon, radicalminusone, Pipoxo, Kharambit, Bricklebrah, Rbagderp, Merforga, Superzuhong, Mo2gon, MoS.Tetu, MeBigBwainy, Zokus, CoyoteSandstorm, Stehnis, Noctis, Fkdn, Ray, Fairs1912, Fairs1912, Krakowski, HolyKrapp, Damadud, Pentium, Mach, Mudak, CaptSteffo, jwsw1990, Omaivapanda, Inquisitor Binks, Jack, yggdranix, GoodLuckM8, Centy, Prabuddha (aka Walla), dtan, Philosokitteh, Doms, ZEDD, Calloween, Synsane, Kaluma, GordonTremeshko , Djouni, DOGE, haveitall, ANIM4SSO, Task Manager, Submersed, BAKE, Viniv, La Tortuga Zorroberto, BixLe, Rafabeen, Blzane, bdlck666, FatCockNinja86, R.U.Sty, Yopsif, blesk, Quaest0r, FanOfTaylor, StaunchDruid, Rushkoski and everyone else that took some minutes to help us out on the article.