November 2022
Newsbytes archive for October 2022
Posted by Anon on Tue 1 Nov 2022 - 16:33Happy Hallowe'en! Contributors this month include 2cross2affliction, dronon, earthfurst, and GreenReaper.
'Shredder’s Revenge': Turtle brawlers remain timeless
Posted by Sonious on Fri 4 Nov 2022 - 18:49There are strange things that you can collect in the story mode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. VHS tapes, newspapers, maybe even the concept of diaries have since faded in a world where information is stored and shared nearly instantaneously in a digital format. However, it appears the mean reptiles in green have remained a constant when it comes to providing good 2D brawlers. 3D ventures, maybe not so much.
It’s been thirty years since the release of one of my childhood favorites, The Manhattan Project, for the original NES. In those three decades, many things have changed, but the fact that the TMNT franchise lends itself so well to the brawler genre remains consistent.
Twitter gets Musky - Furries contemplate exodus from social media site
Posted by Sonious on Mon 7 Nov 2022 - 19:05
On October 28th, 2022 a deal that had been in discussions for half of the year finally completed. Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, closed on his purchase of Twitter and took it from a publicly traded company to a private venture. The final price tag of $54.20 a share gives out a total of around $44 billion dollars. He had put in this offer back in April of this year.
After taking over, the new owner is moving quickly to shake up staffing and push for proposals such as making the verification check mark be a paid McGuffin at an $8 recurring monthly payment rather than a measure of someone being of social import and prevent people from scamming others by pretending to be that person, as the tool was originally designed to do.
In an interview with the Baron Fund, Musk indicated that the monthly subscription would prioritize ‘access’ to paying feeds over non-paying users on the platform. It has yet to be seen how this subscription process would have safeguards in place for those with money and means to use a bunch of verified accounts to promote their products or political causes inorganically.
These proposed changes have caused concerns for those in the fandom that believe that moderation will be biased toward those with capital or those who hold social influence with Elon, taking a public square and making it into a gated community. Those who believe so have begun to look for alternatives.
Lord Winklebottom Investigates - A Whodunit where you don't
Posted by Sonious on Wed 16 Nov 2022 - 10:15
As a giraffe detective and his hippo sidekick are called to an island by an old friend to join a party where he wanted to make a grand announcement, they find themselves showing up to the scene of a murder. In Lord Winklebottom it is up to you to search for clues on this island and find out who killed the head of the household, and why.
In it you will find a rogue's gallery of suspects: a feline journalist, an alpaca seer, a pelican actress who is hard of hearing, a walrus priest, a chameleon scientist, a goat maid, a sloth butler, a slug gardener, and a toad lawyer. Yes, this game is very, as Fred Patten would put it, zipperback. These characters could very well be replaced by human counterparts, but where is the fun in that?
In spite of the animal characters, though, I could not actually recommend this as a game. If you do enjoy detective stories this one is kind of forgettable, if you enjoy games this is not much of a game. If you do like quirky animal character adventures, this one is passable but there are better options out there these days. If you like playing a story that has light interactivity then this may actually be your cup of tea. As long as you don’t put the tea in first — or was it don’t put the milk in first? Either way the tea is just okay.
Streaming review: 'Zootopia+'
Posted by 2cross2affliction on Sun 20 Nov 2022 - 06:54
Oh, look, another Zootopia review!
It's been six years since Zootopia was released to theaters. In that time, a lot has happened. America has managed the change to two different presidents. Across the pond in the UK, where the movie was known as Zootropolis, they've managed to beat that turnover rate for heads of state with four new prime ministers, plus a new monarch. That's kind of prescient for a movie where the titular city burns through two mayors over the course of its plot.
In all that time, Zootopia has managed to remain popular with furries. It also, perhaps a bit surprisingly, has managed to remain popular with non-furries. It is one of only three Disney Animated Studio movies to break into the billion dollar club (the other two are both Frozen). It also managed critical and industry awards accolades to go along with the commercial success, giving it the hat trick of movie success criteria. So, a lot of people would probably not be averse to a sequel, right?
Well, how about a series of animated shorts released over half a decade later with little fanfare to a streaming service, instead?
Member of Colorado Furry community injured during Club Q shooting
Posted by Sonious on Wed 23 Nov 2022 - 08:40The Colorado Furry Community has reported that a member of the local community, Tompla, was sent to the hospital to recover from wounds during the Club Q shooting that occurred in Colorado Springs on the weekend of the 19th of November.
The Club Q shooting has made headlines as the a latest mass shooting event in the United States and left 5 patrons of the club dead in the aftermath. Given that the attack was against an LGBTQ night club and the alleged shooter being the grandson of a Republican politician, there is suspicion of the shooter’s motivations being driven by rhetoric that is hostile against LGBTQ communities.
The investigation is ongoing.
A link to an organization to donate to help the victims was provided on the Colorado Furry Community’s statement.
Wolves and humans: How can we reduce conflict?
Posted by Rakuen Growlithe on Sat 26 Nov 2022 - 09:25
Despite unhappiness from certain portions of the population, wolves in Slovakia are likely not in imminent danger. As quoted on Deutsche Welle (the German state broadcaster), Juraj Lukac of the WOLF Forest Protection Movement says:
All of this hype about wolves is just fake. They did not harm anyone, and, since the European Commission had made a clear statement on the matter, the conservation of wolves is safe for now.
Movie review: 'My Father's Dragon' (2022)
Posted by dronon on Sun 27 Nov 2022 - 11:56
My Father's Dragon is a 2D animated children's fantasy film, the latest from Cartoon Saloon, directed by Nora Twomey. The studio kept an amazingly tight lid on this 99-minute production, with its trailer only becoming available five weeks before the film was released on Netflix. I'm very glad this project didn't get cancelled, what with partially being made during the Covid pandemic.
The main character is a quick-thinking boy named Elmer. After he shows kindness to Whoopi Goldberg-- I mean, to a talking cat, the magical neko tells him there's an island where he can find a dragon. And if Elmer can bring the dragon back, its novelty will save him and his single mom from financial ruin! So off Elmer goes, equipped only with a bunch of random stuff he happens to have in his bag. The situation on the island is difficult, and Elmer isn't the only one who needs the dragon.
How furry is it? Sssort of. Only in the sense of having animals that can talk; none of them are physically anthropomorphic, aside from a few primate species. A diplomatic gorilla is the closest this film gets to having an antagonist. As for the dragon, he has a very... unique design, because he's based on illustrations from a 1948 children's book that inspired this film. Despite getting top billing, the dragon is not especially interesting.
What this film does well is provide a sense of adventure and danger. Drawn in Cartoon Saloon's signature geometric artstyle with excellent use of color, it continues the common theme of their other films, a child protagonist trying to persevere against a situation that looms over them. Story-wise, it's a little uneven. It's primarily for younger children.
I wouldn't call it a must-see, unless you're a fan of Cartoon Saloon's work; personally I would much more highly recommend Wolfwalkers (exclusively on Apple TV+). My Father's Dragon scores 87% with critics and 77% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. I'm with the audience, although I'd give it a 68% "Enh, maybe". Check it out if you're interested though!
As for being a book adaptation... That's something to rant about. Major spoilers ahead.
Digging Up Positivity November 2022
Posted by Pegla on Mon 28 Nov 2022 - 18:48This episode of Digging Up Positivity: Furry conventions with charities and fundraisers from all around the world, animal news and a lovely interview with Piti Yindee; an amazing animator form Thailand who worked on the Cuphead DLC, the award winning animated short Fossils and much more.
Fur Affinity informed they are barred from advertising on Twitter following premiere of blue-paw Furrified status
Posted by Sonious on Tue 29 Nov 2022 - 13:08On November 28th, Dragoneer posted a message that Fur Affinity's account received on Twitter. It was from the social media site's advertisement team. In the message they indicated that the adult website would not be able to advertise on Twitter.
A user associated with your account is ineligible to participate in the Twitter Ads program at this time.
This determination is based on the following Twitter Ads Policy:
@furaffinity: Adult sexual products and services.[...]
We appreciate your interest in Twitter Ads
Flayrah investigates: Are Pokémon starters too anthropomorphic?
Posted by 2cross2affliction on Wed 30 Nov 2022 - 21:24
In the core Pokémon video game series, most main entries begin with the player making a choice between three Pokémon, one each Grass, Fire and Water type, which becomes their first Pokémon. These Pokémon, known as "starter", and also their third and final "evolutions", are given unique prominence in the minds of players, mostly for sentimental reasons, as everybody remembers their first, and partially because these Pokémon are slightly stronger than average, especially during early game. They are also rare, as the beginning of the game is usually the only time they are available, outside of trading with other players or breeding duplicates (which the game makes harder for starters by making them predominantly male, when offspring species is determined by the female in a breeding pair).
Due to this prominence, the character designs for the starters and their final evolution are heavily scrutinized. In more recent generations of Pokémon, a common complaint has been a rise in bipedalism and "human like" designs for the characters, a complaint that resurfaced with the evolution of quadripedal Grass Cat Sprigatito into bipedal Meowscarada (bipedal cats seem to especially stir strong reactions, if the earlier reaction to Incineroar is any indication). Now, partially, this is all aesthetic preferences, and it all comes down to personal choice, but there does seem to be a strong "no furries" aspect to the complaining from some quadrants. Furries definitely seem to prefer the bipedal look, with Meowscarada showing up over 550 times on e621, while Quaqaval the duck is a distant second with just over 60, which is still double third place Skeledirge the quadrupedal crocodile with not even 30 pieces as of this writing. And there is reason to doubt this is a "recent" trend among Pokémon starters, as well.