Recent Events
Well, I may have missed the monthly update post, but at least I took the time to thoroughly examine all of the Easter Eggs throughout the awesome Marvel/Netflix show Daredevil, which was quite a fun exercise for a massive Marvel geek such as myself. If you haven't already checked that out, click here.Speaking of Marvel, The Avengers: Age of Ultron came out at the beginning of the month. Don't get me wrong, it was a fun and entertaining movie, but on the whole I was rather disappointed. It seemed to be more concerned with expanding the MCU's lore and setting up future installments than telling its own story. One of the things that impressed me about the first film was how well Joss Whedon balanced the ensemble cast, giving an equal amount of focus to each character. However, this sequel seemed to have an opposite effect, with a cast so large that there's an equal lack of focus for each of our heroes. But with that being said, it's still a great movie featuring some iconic comic characters (*cough* Vision) that I never thought I'd get to see proper portrayals of on the big screen. In the end, I think this film is only guilty of not blowing me away as the first one did, but it's still a far far cry from terrible, and I'm looking forward to the future of the MCU that has been set up in this film.
P3
Though we've been lacking in live action content as of late, there's still been plenty of things to watch on our YouTube channel. Most notably a new series we've started up called War Stories, where I basically take awesome moments and challenges from our live streams and edit them into narrative-driven highlight videos. I was really inspired by the way one of my favorite youtubers, Maximillian Dood, used editing to turn regular gameplay into intense short films in his Boss Rage and Hype and Rage Compilation series. I loved the concept, and I figured that since I'm an experienced editor I could attempt to do a similar sort of thing. Anyway, the first two are from a challenge we did in Mortal Kombat X and an adventure one of our mods sent us on in Minecraft. The Minecraft adventure is particularly awesome, and I put a lot of work into both of them, so I recommend you check them out if you haven't already.
We're also working on a very big and very special project that will be uploaded to the channel sometime down the line. It's a submission for RoosterTeeth's RvB Season 13 music video contest, and we're definitely giving it our all. It's without a doubt our single most ambitious video to date, so be looking forward to that in the coming weeks.
Photo Shoot
Loryn's been working hard at graphic design for our stream channel. We recently did a photo shoot to get elements for our offline image (which can be seen here provided we're not streaming), and there were quite a few good shots. Here are a couple samples featuring yours truly. The rest can be found on Loryn's Deviant Art.
P2
We've had more success than I'd anticipated with streaming on Twitch. It's been only 2 months, but we're already up past 1,000 total views and 30 followers. We've also become quite adept at handling the mobs of trolls that flood our stream a couple times a week. In fact, I'd like to share a rather beautiful story that occurred on stream in regards to that. The Parable of Ciaran
You see, on May 1st we were doing one of our regular Friday night Chill Streams when we were introduced to a viewer we'd never before seen: Niglet123456789 (whose very name reeked of internet buffoonery). And sure enough, with Loryn hosting the stream, it didn't take long for him to descend into incessant derogatory remarks regarding his "gender fluid" association. We eventually had to put him in timeout, but still Loryn remained calm, level-headed and respectful the whole time.On the next Chill Stream, I was playing Mortal Kombat X by my lonesome when Niglet returned. Of course, at the time I wasn't too thrilled to see his name pop into the chat, but as Loryn did, I tried to remain cool and courteous. The first question he asks is if Loryn was there. I truthfully said no. At that point I was certain he only wanted to continue trolling and antagonizing, so it came as a shock when he instead said he wanted to apologize for his previous behavior. I also recall him mentioning that our channel was "impossible to find on Xbox One..." When I checked later that night, I confirmed that he had not actually followed our channel, which led me to an astounding conclusion: On the internet, where nobody is accountable for anything and anyone can be as derogatory as they wish, this man went far out of his way to deliver an apology... And why? Well, as he'd once stated, because Loryn showed him reason and respect, even when he had not done the same in return.
On May 8th, the next Chill Stream, he showed up in our chat once again. We talked for quite some time throughout the stream. In fact, he was the only person who stayed for almost the entirety of it (which ended up being upwards of 5 or 6 hours). On that day he learned a lot about us, and us about him. We found out his real name is Ciaran. He told us all manner of things about himself and his Scottish culture, and by the end of it the three of us had grown into close friends.
"It's incredible," he'd said towards the end of the stream. "How a few people who've never even met can talk like we've been friends."
"It is," I said. "If you ask me, that's the beauty of the internet, and the age we live in."
Following that stream, Ciaran created a new account name and was promoted to moderator status on our channel. He's been a regular ever since.
I hope it's all right with Ciaran, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to share that story. Through compassion we nurtured one man's transformation from troll, to follower, to friend, to moderator. Different worldviews may interpret this story in different ways, and that's fine, but I personally saw nothing less than God working in someone's heart and mind. But either way, I think it's a potent illustration of the power love and respect holds over argument and strife. If Loryn had chosen to do the worldly thing and butt heads with him at the first sign of conflict, then how different would things have turned out? Would we ever have gained such a loyal follower and friend? I shudder to think about it.
There's an important moral to be learned from this story. I think it's a moral so many people throughout the world need to know. We live in a world plagued by conflict, where everyone is pitted against one another and we're encouraged to attack the ideals of those who disagree with us. I can go on and on about the topic of coexistence (heck, I wrote a whole speech about it in my senior year of high school), but instead I'll leave you with this: How many problems can be solved if we simply offer kindness and respect to everyone, regardless of whether their preference or worldview aligns with our own? As we'd realized during the stream, the internet is a powerful tool that bridges cultural and geographical boundaries and brings us all to the same place. Use it spread kindness, and the results will change people.
