Nico

Back when I would design banners for the site, I had to design a template from scratch due to, well, the fact that this wasn't a thing that we did here yet. When I designed the template, it included all necessary components of the navigation layout, including the glows, border colors, font colors, etc. This way, when sending in the design to Feld0, I could also report the Hexadecimal Colors to him for each individual piece of the banner to achieve the exact look that I desired.

Funny enough, I actually do still have my template for this, and if people would like, I would gladly post it up for everyone to use, in PSD form, even.

Okay, so let me get this straight. Valve is a greedy, money whoring company because of micro-transactions? Let's see if I can possibly allude to you why this is nothing more than a good business practice for them and does absolutely nothing at all to hurt you.

First off, Portal 2. Memes? So what if they're forced? I didn't particularly feel that they were, but I honestly didn't care that much. Why? Because I still enjoyed the game for what it was: A damn good game. Portal and Portal 2 are both undeniably classic hits of this generation, and will never be viewed as anything less. They pioneered a whole new kind of puzzle-solving game and gave birth to yet another exceedingly popular character who doesn't talk, as well as talking robots that everyone loves.

Memes are everywhere for these games, you're right. And they may have done that on purpose. But ultimately it's us, the gamers, who are at fault, because after all, we make the damn memes. Not like memes ever affect you playing the game, though. Doesn't change the gameplay. There isn't a "keyboard/nyan/lol cat" puzzle to solve or anything.

Also, as for the micro-transactions in Portal 2... They're OPTIONAL and PURELY COSMETIC, meaning they do not affect gameplay, give players any advantages, etc. So, therefore, if someone wants to sink money into something that is, effectively, quite worthless, then why does it bother YOU that Valve gave them that option to buy a hat for their robot?

Meanwhile, to make a complaint about how the game has a perpetual lineup of levels to play by way of a very well thought out level editor is just foolish. Valve is a large company that is busy, believe it or not. They still publish updates for their games, including Team Fortress 2, a game you seem to hold disdain for, but they don't necessarily have the time to exactly create a veritable Portal 3.  Therefore, having community made maps gives players more to do for, what, $20 these days? It's nothing if not an amazing value.

Then there's Team Fortress 2. To complain about this game is the equivalent of receiving free candy, chewing it a bit, and then spitting it back out and saying: "Well, thanks for the candy, but I don't like lemon flavor, jackass!"

This game is completely free with optional in-game purchases that are completely unimportant and unnecessary! You can enjoy the entire gameplay of this game for free, having never paid a dime for it. Not only that, but Valve finds the time to continuously update this game in which they could quite possibly make no profit off of and add new content to it. When people buy items from the Mann Co. store, it's of their own free will, and it's the only profits TF2 sees. Without these people who enjoy hats and guns, TF2 may not be able to receive the updates that help it remain a fun game.

Not saying Valve is perfect, here, but come on... They're not money-grubbing anymore than any other company you love out there, and they're sure as hell providing good enough service to constitute something. My rant is finished now.

The images were stolen straight from Kyronea's blog entry.

 

Well, not all of them, man. I mean, that picture of Zoop in the middle is totally from somewhere else.

Bald man for president~

Bald man would be a terrible president, honestly. He'd make everyone bald. But what would you care, you're in Sweden anyway. @_@

While there are certainly times where I can see a base and not view it as a valid piece of art, such as using a Pony Generator to design something, I would never say that using a base is something that can't ever be qualified as art.

As an artist who specializes in creating things almost exclusively with others' parts, I do know that creating something new out of something old can be classified as a unique form of art in its own right. Is it as impressive as creating something from scratch? No, and I know that when I go into it. Even still, though, I create the art out of sheer desire to see just what something might look like, or to put together things in an artistic way for something such as a wallpaper.

Take this image of mine as an example. It's a vector traced over a drawing that was originally of Pinkie Pie, seen here. The similarities are obviously there, and I do nothing to hide that I worked off of that piece of work, in fact trying to push the fact that I did so. However, the fact still also remains that my piece of art is different in many substantial ways from his, and in having it exist it does offer something that others may be interested in what with having color, or of being a different pony.

I'm not trying to say that I make amazing artwork of my own right or anything like that. I'm simply saying that, even working with a base, my art still stands on its own with enough differences that to deny that it is art would be ignorant, honestly. Similar, yet different; the same, yet not. It's almost insulting to insinuate that just because I used a base my art isn't valid, so I thought that I would throw this out here.

I knew you would make a large blog entry, but a random one? Wut.

 

What is this I don't even

For the uninitiated, this is based off of the comedy list-style writings of cracked.com!