Smokage of the Burning Leaf

(Beartato and Reginald, in a museum, gaze upon the Mona Lisa) BEARTATO: There it is. The Mona Lisa. The most famous painting in history. REGINALD: Wow! What's it do? BEARTATO: It... what? REGINALD: Why's it famous? What's it do? (Beartato thinks.) BEARTATO: I don't know. REGINALD (to nearly museum employee): Excuse me! Sir? What's it do? EMPLOYEE: You're the first person to ask! Watch this! (The employee yanks a pull-string. Mona Lisa's eyes spin around and her mouth opens like a puppet) MONA LISA: Honk honk! Honk honk! (Everyone is delighted. This is true art.)

True Art

I see

I need you all to understand that I went to my local Dunkin to get coffee and the middle-aged white woman working the counter who knows me cuz I'm a regular went "wait, is that uh... shit, is that uh, sukihime (said incorrectly)" and my brain froze for a full second before I said yes

I read a lot of @pattheflip.bsky.social 's work when I was first learning fighting games and was blown away by his writing style and how easy it was to apply his writing to life. Reading Pat's work now is all that and more: a grounding force with realistic takes that I learn from in every article.

depending on where you got your vaccines, your provider should have it documented in their online records (walgreens, cvs, whatever), so just pull that.

high praise, thank you so much for reading and sharing!

just wait until the Why Ranked Sucks post drops

REG SO WE CAN GET PIZZA PLS

One of the fun parts of writing this essay was getting to describe the fighting game genre as a developer instead of a player, and explain how stuff like camera expectations and single-screen multiplayer do a lot to constrain the design space to keep the focus on combat above all else.

True to some extent (skill crossover varies across games and there's still an early point where the novelty of the new game outweighs the frustration) but the people who have stuck around long enough to learn multiple fighting games are very rare.

hyu_man: Whats so guilty about this gear? amadeus46art: killed his wife hyu_man: Oh just__avery: lol abridge2: multiple times hyu_man: No innocent gear? amadeus46art: that's his daughter hyu_man: well then, I understand the lore now

gonna use this screenshot in my "guilty gear lore" panel at acen

Lmao oh man that reminds me i learned this a while back

Yeah! We actually tried some screen specific info for Rising Thunder (loadouts, cooldown timers, Crow's invisibility) but it didn't really feel worth the cost.

March 2026 Caliburst The best place for March 2026 Caliburst brackets, streams, standings and schedules all in one place!

CALIBURST IS BACK 3/7 @ GAMECENTER
- 1PM Venue open
- 2PM Xrd Bracket
- 5PM Xrd Beginners
- 6PM CvS2, MBAACC, Suika Game
- $10 venue
-💉SEPT 2025 COVID VACCINE REQUIRED
- Sign up for 🍕
start.gg/caliburstirl #rev2forev2

This is a good excuse to post my bit on Ranked from my latest book, From Masher to Master 2:

You can go get it here: patrickmiller.itch.io/from-masher-...

Gamer Motivation Profile

You might be interested in reading up on some of the game motivation work apps.quanticfoundry.com/surveys/star... it's good for getting a clearer idea of the different reasons why people play games, and how different games can fit themselves into different use cases.

yeah, it was part of an gift bag for an early SF4 promo event by Capcom. included those red Ryu headbands and a Shadaloo t-shirt.

One of the fun parts of writing this essay was getting to describe the fighting game genre as a developer instead of a player, and explain how stuff like camera expectations and single-screen multiplayer do a lot to constrain the design space to keep the focus on combat above all else.

Yeah I read it in a Jr year English class

I don't think Fight Club was mandatory watching for the younguns so if you didn't catch the reference, it's this:

we've only received a few entrants, so this is a reminder that my bsky DMs are open + the server link is in a reply on the original post, you can DM me on discord there

in addition, I've decided to match ANY donation shown to me until the tournament!! please donate if you can, every dollar helps!!

If you live in Maryland, you have power right now that THE REST OF US DO NOT. Please call your representatives. Bring Lud home.

Spoke to Donald Norcross’s office which offered more clarity than my senators. Was basically told that focus needs to be on Maryland reps and Lud’s reps specifically, because reps outside of the jurisdiction really can’t do anything on this case. #FREELUD

17 years.

‘He's my home': Maryland gamer detained, faces deportation to Cameroon A Prince George’s County man is facing deportation to Cameroon. Ludovic Mbock’s loved ones and friends say he’s been in custody for two weeks. According to Mbock’s attorney, he was detained by Immigra...

A Prince George’s County man who loved ones say created a life working in the DMV while competing in and winning multiple regional gaming championships is facing deportation to Cameroon.

sunny wasn't photoshopped! he was actually there behind me

‘He's my home': Maryland gamer detained, faces deportation to Cameroon A Prince George’s County man is facing deportation to Cameroon. Ludovic Mbock’s loved ones and friends say he’s been in custody for two weeks. According to Mbock’s attorney, he was detained by Immigra...

NEW ARTICLE #FREELUD

- Lud came to the US in 2002 when his mother married his stepfather
- they divorced, impacting immigration status
- Lud was allowed to stay in the US for work if he checked in w/ immigration annually
- he was detained AT THAT CHECK-IN
www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/h...

numbers for these games are usually not public but old ones i've seen in the past showed that ranked players were a minority, but were the most engaged until they burned out and churned or switched to lower-intensity modes. with FGs i'd expect most players to churn if they're done with ranked.

team games aren't a great comparison bc they serve a wider range of motivations than FGs do and "hang out and play a game with your friends" is one that QM serves well. it's also good for "get good w/o costing your team ranking points." so ranked players will still use QM as a supplement.

That's sunny but yeah