If You Know Me From Elsewhere: No You Don't
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The Hiveworks Artists Guild has released a statement alleging various incompetence and mismanagement in Hiveworks leadership. You should read the whole thing, but the main claims are
- Hiveworks leadership was a forbidden enigma of mystery and no one knew what the fuck was going on at any time.
- Hiveworks spent money inappropriately, most notably Xel using Kickstarter money to make a"large personal purchase".
- Less dramatically but still bad, money was spent on ads for comics that were long-dead instead of active ones [This is the only claim I can say 100% is true; I’ve seen ads for dead comics on Hiveworks sites a lot and have long been confused by it]
- Hiveworks leadership were just generally huge assholes
- Hiveworks staff has not been getting paid, and Hiveworks has $17,000 in unpaid wages floating, and $340,000 in debt.
- Support Hiveworks Artists in this trying time
- Don’t spread speculation and rumors
Pretty much every claim made here has been floating around for years, so I believe every word of this, and know how difficult it is for the Hiveworks Artist Guild to stand up so officially like this. If you know any struggling Hiveworks artists that you like, maybe now’s a good time to throw ‘em a few bucks on Patreon.
(via skullchicken)
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Training the Squire.
She took a certain swordtok channel talking about dual daggers as a bad weapon choice as a challenge.
This was a clip from her first time fencing using two daggers against me with my greatsword.
Somehow, after multiple attempts, she got the angle of the parry just right, and parried my sword, while stabbing me in the armpit.
Later, she managed this…
And a few other plays in which she hooked my sword with her off-hand dagger, before stabbing me.
She’s got a lot more to work on, but she’s determined to make “dual dagger combat” viable for the girlies.
I hope she succeeds, rooting for her
She’s only just started with this, so she’s really carving her own path on it. So far, she has a few moments of brilliance amidst failures, but that’s what we both expected for her 1st/2nd time ever trying it.
Give her a year or two, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she was able to do this the way Booktok girlies imagine their heroines.
I’m gonna be honest, there’s a reason I don’t talk about Sellsword Arts, and it’s mainly because I just don’t like them as I find them obnoxious. That’s not a condemnation of people watching them, I just don’t enjoy them.
The other reason is that they know just enough to give an opinion that is entrenched in absolutist HEMA ideology with no room for experimentation or nuance, or in stage combat. I can’t fault the latter, I don’t do stage combat, so it’s not something I can comment upon. But the rigidity of HEMA can bother me increasingly as it stifles development and informed speculation where we lack information, or takes the written word as gospel in a way that is somewhat difficult to reconcile with the reality of practise.
This means that I try to avoid their content, as it often starts with a position which is fairly well researched by people in HEMA, and devolves into David making blanket statements without any nuance. And that’s when he’s talking about well researched content. His video on axes being generally bad weapons was outright incorrect in almost all aspects, to the point a member of the group I’m in (who is something of an expert on axes, having recognised the lack of info and put years of study into actually learning how to make them work) addressed the topic.
Similarly, my squire is a dagger enthusiast, and she knows she’s going to be at a disadvantage for it. She still manages to win more often than most people in the same position, and actually fighting her with a dagger against dagger especially is a losing battle. So of course, she heard “dual daggers doesn’t work”, and we decided we’d test it.
Right off the bat, we have some issues with how David approached the topic. First, in his video, he mostly spends time running blindly in, not parrying or binding, then claims it won’t work. Compare with the clips of Squire Jess entering with a parry, and using the second dagger to attack into the opening underneath…
We’ve concluded that dual daggers (so far) is certainly not an ideal selection for combat, but also that (1) it is possible and can definitely be used to fight other lightly armoured opponents. And that (2) given practise, dual daggers can make an effective response to other larger weapons. It’s also worth pointing out that from my perspective, dual daggers is up there with giant sword: not always the most practical choice, but it is a power fantasy for the target audience, and certainly feasible within a proper context. That’s not even mentioning the use of dual short blades in, say, Kali.
So I hope Squire Jess and I can help support the Booktok and fantasy girlies that want to imagine their fighting style working, because Squire Jess is a 5ft-nuthin’ girl half my weight and size, who regularly stabs me and throws me to the floor. Which I take as a point of pride—after all, I taught her!
I’ve done a lot of stage combat, and especially in writing and performances I’ll admit that while I think a healthy dose of realism is good to ground things, power fantasies are fun to explore for a reason.
I also wholeheartedly agree with the stance that being too rigid in foundational points kills the ability to explore and grow. Foundations should always be a starting point to build on - and yeah, maybe not everything you explore ends up being good, but you never know what discoveries there are to make along the way. And that’s part of the joy and art of things like this.
Obviously it makes sense that dual daggers is going to be at a disadvantage in a lot of situations. But the power fantasy of it is exactly - being at a disadvantage, and being able to find ways to use it anyway. To find the advantages others might overlook. I think the comparison to great weapons is perfect in that regard.
All of that is to say - I love seeing people approach something that is cool and fantastical from the stance of ‘Is it possible, how can we make it more reliable, what can make this work, what can we learn from it?’ as opposed to a stance of condemnation.
An absolutely valid and based take, thank you for adding your input to this! :)
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In a trend that raises serious questions about consent on the social media platform, rising numbers of X users have been asking the Grok chatbot to put more clothes on pictures of Elon Musk, sources confirmed Monday. “We live in an age when all a user needs to do to generate a fully clothed photo of a tech entrepreneur like this is input the prompt ‘@grok, Elon Musk but with baggy windbreaker,’” said University of Chicago social media expert Danielle Anjos, whose lab detected a 375% increase in deepfake imagery in which every inch of the 54-year-old Musk’s flesh was covered in layer after layer of cargo shorts, oversized hoodies, and shape-concealing sweatpants.
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Quincey Harker: *is born exactly on Quincey Morris’ violent death anniversary*
Quincey Harker: *his mother believes that he has Quincey Morris’ soul within him*
>not a single teenage/adult Reincarnated Cowboy Dracula’s Slayer media
>five trizillion Reincarnated Wife Mina media
Literally 1984
(via unpretty)
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One Of Nation’s Oldest Newspapers Shutters After Almost 240 Years
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, one of the nation’s oldest newspapers with roots dating back to 1786, will cease all operations after years of financial losses and labor disputes, with the closure leaving a major local news void. What do you think?
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Your honor I think you’ll find that my message “I am going to kill you with a hammer tomorrow morning as you leave for work I know your routine and I will catch you” did not have “/srs” attached to it
(via writerbytrade)
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The Trouble with Hiveworks: an Open Letter
It’s been a long ten years and I finally get to talk publicly about what happened behind closed doors.
Please take the time to read this letter linked above and please avoid working with these people. You are more valuable than an opportunity for people like them to use you as cash cow for your work.
Three years ago, I was approached by many artists at Hiveworks asking if their mistreatment was normal. That their feelings of horrible self worth within the company was really just a ‘them’ problem.
Turns out, it was unfortunately normal in that we ALL felt that way.
Stolen funds, reworked projects without permission, favouritism, opportunity sabotage- These were the common occruances over at Hive. Artists felt used, ignored, and walked all over to pay Hives bills and ego. People didn’t know what to do.
I helped co-found the guild in response to so many artists feeling this way, and we slowly gathered together to make a better Hive. Yeah, that’s right- we thought we could help change and save the company if we all colaborated, hurt set aside and transparency deeply needed.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t in the cards. We spent 3 years going back and forth with staff to understand the debt, the mistreatment, the empty promises only to realise that the staff who was left to deal with the mess (because the CEO and COO went hands off or left) couldn’t fix what was destroyed.Hiveworks was supposed to be a beacon for webcomickers. It was supposed to be an indie opportunity to flourish in the small ways we can. But it became yet another example of a greedy publisher who saw an opportunity to take and take and take.
It was also a vanity project for Isa and Xel too. They wanted the prestige of working in 'publishing’ but didn’t care a lick about the artists who brought readers in. If you were someone she thought was an artistic threat, Isa would go out of her way to humble you and put you in your place.
That happened Many MANY times to me and my fellow creators. Not only was Hive using our work, it also would remind us how worthless we were in the same breath. Everything felt like some sort of competition, and Isa and Xel made sure artists didn’t talk to ecahother about it too. So many instances of the two of them going around gossiping in public about 'the real story’ when it came to their mismanagment and inability to handle their job. They would use someone else as a scape goat and pretend they did all they could. It was highschool stuff.As for my particular case, I was the bane of their existance apparently. I was rumoured to be out for Isas job because artists would go to me for support and she hated that. I was apparently trying to ruin things because I saw those cracks.
Squeaky wheel and all that. I took the risks I did, i didn’t care about being 'everyone’s friend’ or missed out on 'the connections’ because I didn’t want to play that game. Artists were feeling used, stolen from, and neglected. I spoke up, and many others started to feel safe to do so too.
The more we shared stories (and man, there are HORROR stories) the more we realised that the inner workings of Hive were more tangled than we thought. Our years of organising lead us to approach the cartoonist co-op for extra help. We tried our best to do what we could for Hive to survive.After we were hit with the 'actually we’re in a quarter of a million in debt’ and they wanted us to help financially (while owing artists and staff money) it was the curtain call for Hive as a company.
Isa left the sinking ship previously to avoid responsibility, and Xel ghosted the rest of us.
All of this is to say that these kinds of people who promise the world with your work and take advantage are such a common and frustrating thing in not only comics, but all creative avenues.
And speaking up and against them is the only way to make these cycles stop.Please support the artists who were affected by this. Please spread the word and speak up against people who use artists like this. Hiveworks is an example in a sea of greedy people who want our work to inflate their ego.
Don’t let them forget we can bite back, and without us, THEY are nothing.(via bludragongal)
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I have never read a more excellent article
This is a great take and I would like to adopt “Feelings Yakuza” in English actually, I feel like it conveys the whole thing way more obviously than “anti” (not to mention the muddled meaning of “proshipper”).
To avoid harassment, EA and SEA artists have started pre-emptively blocking users with “proship DNI” or any variation thereof in their profiles as a result of this article and said feelings yakuza are getting pissed that their DNIs are being hard enforced by the other side. How very dare.
I’m screaming with laughter at the actual Japanese term, o-kimochi yakuza. The “o” is an honorific indicator to indicate how prissy and self-important these people are being.
I don’t know if Maromi intended this to be the incredible takedown that it is, but I couldn’t not share it:
ALT(via malevtolous)
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HOW TO TURN OFF GOOGLE AI in GMAIL:
- Open Gmail in your browser
- Click on the Gear Icon ⚙️ in the upper right
- In the General Tab, scroll down to “Smart Features” and UNCHECK THE BOX. It is about halfway down.
- Then, right below that is Google Workspace smart features. Click on the “Manage Workspace Smart Features” and make sure both toggles are OFF
(via lousidity)
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tried to find the original airy poster again and the account is fucking deactivated we lost a real one
Anonymous
OH MY GOD NOOOOO
