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2024 In-Review
9 months ago
Welcome all, and thanks for reading my YEAR IN REVIEW for 2024!
I hope your's went well. Mine contained some ups, and some downs, but on-net, mostly ups! I feel like these "YEAR IN REVIEW" articles have been downers over the last few years. But this year, I have a renewed sense of optimism.
Last year, I wrote that every-year you get older, there seem to be more things vying for your attention. There's always more that has to be done, and the amount of free time in-which to do it never grows to accommodate it. This year is no different in that regard, but I do feel like I've dug myself out of some of the "backlog" of things I need to do (and have been putting off), and it's lifted a bit of weight from my shoulders. I wrote last year that I procrastinate too much, and that may still be true, but I made a list and was disciplined about chipping away at it, and a year later: feeling much better. In hindsight, I think we don't realize how much of a toil it puts on us when we let those burdens heap up on our shoulders. The "Bread and Circuses" of video games and TV give us a reprieve and allow for a moment of relaxation, but the burdens are still there. The only real solution is to put down the game and fix the issues.
Anyway, lets chat about 2024!
ETHERAS ACHIEVEMENTS
In all honesty, I haven't been tracking milestones as closely as I used-to. Like a fun little game, I used to track hits and followers and likes and all that stuff. But I'm much too busy these days.
So, Etheras...
.... uploaded a bunch of art!
... conquered a bunch of countries!
... subjugated some subjects!
... and all that business. ;)
IRL PERSONAL NEWS
I got a new job, actually. Some of you know that I work in video games, and the industry is in pretty bad condition RN. Covid caused a surge in video game investment, since people were locked at home with nothing to do and stimulus-cheques in-paw, what did they buy? Video games! They couldn't leave their homes, so they explored digital worlds instead.
This caused a boom in both game sales and... frankly... lazy video games with lots of shallow, soulless procedural content (looking at you, Starfield!) rushed-out content to capitalize on the lockdown situation. And eventually, when the world opened back up, that money dried up, and the games industry contracted. But it was a bit of a delayed-fuse as studios wanted to retain their talent pool, but eventually realized it was untenable.
I managed to find one of the few small studios that's growing and has a reliable income stream, and hitched my wagon to them. Seems like a good way to weather the storm. And that took a big weight off my shoulders. Though I am still a little worried that the contraction isn't over.
Other than that, not much else to talk about. Some unfortunate health news concerning friends and family, but that's not something I want to go into on a public forum.
FURRY FANDOM NEWS
It seems like the fandom is moving more into immersive media. I started learning some animation tools, but it got back-burnered and abandoned with the deluge of other things vying for my time. I'd like to return to that in 2025.
Other than that, the consolidation of the fandom onto Twitter and Bluesky seems to be a continuing trend. Though the old sites seem to have a new spark of life in them as-well (at-least recently, I've seen more engagement. How about you?)
And of course, we lost Dragoneer this year. Dragoneer was a visionary and dedicated to the fandom. FA really brought the fandom together in one place in a way that hadn't been seen before. He will be missed.
IN THE WORLD
Wars everywhere, tensions rising, it's not looking great. Clearly something has to give, but I'm not sure what that "something" is.
Inflation is like crazy. Everything is expensive, and I don't think that's likely to change anytime soon. It wasn't that long ago that $25 was the price of filet magnon with mushroom sauce. Nowadays, you can only get a pasta plate for that price. (A pasta plate that would have been like $9 a decade ago.) I think the government inflation numbers are way too low. Inflation, particularly in food and energy, is much higher than they're saying. At least, that's what I am seeing in my own budget. I feel like I'm making less now (in terms of buying power) than I was when I was fresh out of University.
IN TECHNOLOGY
AI seems to be the new hotness. I'm not sure what to make of it. Is it really the revolution that technologists claim? I haven't seen a huge impact from it - yet. Maybe in artwork. I do use it sometimes to look things up when I'm feeling lazy, but I've caught it lying several times. Is a program that collates information still valuable if it sometimes returns incorrect information? If you have to double-check its results? I feel like the answer is: no. And I really do not believe that AGI can be born out of a LLM. Its just a smarter version of mad-libs.
Space stuff (I'm a huge space nerd): Nothing really happened except SpaceX catching that rocket - which was very impressive. Like Elon or hate him: that was pretty amazing. Also some interesting stuff from the James Webb Space Telescope about galaxy formation. That's about it.
IN MOVIES AND SHOWS
The Denis Villeneuve "DUNE" (part 2) was this year, wasn't it? It feels so long ago. Villeneuve is really standing out as the best director in Hollywood these days. (And that Hans Zimmer soundtrack! WOW!)
In terms of movies, I haven't watched a lot of new stuff this year. I think covid kinda broke movies for me. I used to go with friends to the cinema constantly. Then we got used to watching stuff at home, and now the urgency of Opening Night has been lost. You watch stuff when you "get around to it", which often means waiting for streaming. But also, there isn't much that I really want to rush out and see these days.
In terms of indie shows/movies, I am a big fan of Evan Royalty, and he dropped a STALKER-themed movie on YouTube on Halloween called "STALKER: Shadow of the Zone". I became totally obsessed with it for like... a month. (Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gwNrYJ5VKM !)
IN GAMING
PalWorld and Helldivers2 came out. I never really got into PalWorld, but I played Helldivers2 to heck and back. Got really good at it too! For Democracy!
Space Marine 2 also came out. Very fun, albeit short campaign. Otherwise, I tried to catch up on STALKER before STALKER2 dropped. Missed the mark. (Still working on it.)
In terms of other "Grim Dark" stuff, The Forever Winter came out, and though I think it has a lot of technical and balance problems, the art style is amazing. Nasty, visceral, over-the-top. It makes Warhammer 40K look downright friendly. Big ups on art direction, but its too bad the rest of the game falls a bit short. Its worth checking out the screenshots and art and lore though, even if the game is very mid.
UNREACHED ACHIEVEMENTS
... still haven't launched those games. I'm waffling. I can't seem to settle on ideas. But I think that's changing (thank goodness).
For the most part, I kept my to-do list short last year. Perhaps I thought that it would make things more manageable. And perhaps it did!
GOALS FOR 2025
... launch 2 games (again this year). (These are my own games, not the games for my day-job.)
... build the YouTube channel ( it's been on hiatus since about September )
... I feel like I should make more youtube channels for more of my various activities, but for now that just seems like a logistical nightmare. I had a hard enough time just running ONE.
... maybe just be more mindful and at-peace. Continue to organize my life, so that I can be more effective in the future.
CONCLUSION
I hope you liked my "YEAR IN REVIEW" for 2024. Here's to another year, another opportunity, and hopefully: great things! And thank you all, once again, for being a fan of my lil fennec prince again this year. ^.^
Cheers,
~ Etheras
I hope your's went well. Mine contained some ups, and some downs, but on-net, mostly ups! I feel like these "YEAR IN REVIEW" articles have been downers over the last few years. But this year, I have a renewed sense of optimism.
Last year, I wrote that every-year you get older, there seem to be more things vying for your attention. There's always more that has to be done, and the amount of free time in-which to do it never grows to accommodate it. This year is no different in that regard, but I do feel like I've dug myself out of some of the "backlog" of things I need to do (and have been putting off), and it's lifted a bit of weight from my shoulders. I wrote last year that I procrastinate too much, and that may still be true, but I made a list and was disciplined about chipping away at it, and a year later: feeling much better. In hindsight, I think we don't realize how much of a toil it puts on us when we let those burdens heap up on our shoulders. The "Bread and Circuses" of video games and TV give us a reprieve and allow for a moment of relaxation, but the burdens are still there. The only real solution is to put down the game and fix the issues.
Anyway, lets chat about 2024!
ETHERAS ACHIEVEMENTS
In all honesty, I haven't been tracking milestones as closely as I used-to. Like a fun little game, I used to track hits and followers and likes and all that stuff. But I'm much too busy these days.
So, Etheras...
.... uploaded a bunch of art!
... conquered a bunch of countries!
... subjugated some subjects!
... and all that business. ;)
IRL PERSONAL NEWS
I got a new job, actually. Some of you know that I work in video games, and the industry is in pretty bad condition RN. Covid caused a surge in video game investment, since people were locked at home with nothing to do and stimulus-cheques in-paw, what did they buy? Video games! They couldn't leave their homes, so they explored digital worlds instead.
This caused a boom in both game sales and... frankly... lazy video games with lots of shallow, soulless procedural content (looking at you, Starfield!) rushed-out content to capitalize on the lockdown situation. And eventually, when the world opened back up, that money dried up, and the games industry contracted. But it was a bit of a delayed-fuse as studios wanted to retain their talent pool, but eventually realized it was untenable.
I managed to find one of the few small studios that's growing and has a reliable income stream, and hitched my wagon to them. Seems like a good way to weather the storm. And that took a big weight off my shoulders. Though I am still a little worried that the contraction isn't over.
Other than that, not much else to talk about. Some unfortunate health news concerning friends and family, but that's not something I want to go into on a public forum.
FURRY FANDOM NEWS
It seems like the fandom is moving more into immersive media. I started learning some animation tools, but it got back-burnered and abandoned with the deluge of other things vying for my time. I'd like to return to that in 2025.
Other than that, the consolidation of the fandom onto Twitter and Bluesky seems to be a continuing trend. Though the old sites seem to have a new spark of life in them as-well (at-least recently, I've seen more engagement. How about you?)
And of course, we lost Dragoneer this year. Dragoneer was a visionary and dedicated to the fandom. FA really brought the fandom together in one place in a way that hadn't been seen before. He will be missed.
IN THE WORLD
Wars everywhere, tensions rising, it's not looking great. Clearly something has to give, but I'm not sure what that "something" is.
Inflation is like crazy. Everything is expensive, and I don't think that's likely to change anytime soon. It wasn't that long ago that $25 was the price of filet magnon with mushroom sauce. Nowadays, you can only get a pasta plate for that price. (A pasta plate that would have been like $9 a decade ago.) I think the government inflation numbers are way too low. Inflation, particularly in food and energy, is much higher than they're saying. At least, that's what I am seeing in my own budget. I feel like I'm making less now (in terms of buying power) than I was when I was fresh out of University.
IN TECHNOLOGY
AI seems to be the new hotness. I'm not sure what to make of it. Is it really the revolution that technologists claim? I haven't seen a huge impact from it - yet. Maybe in artwork. I do use it sometimes to look things up when I'm feeling lazy, but I've caught it lying several times. Is a program that collates information still valuable if it sometimes returns incorrect information? If you have to double-check its results? I feel like the answer is: no. And I really do not believe that AGI can be born out of a LLM. Its just a smarter version of mad-libs.
Space stuff (I'm a huge space nerd): Nothing really happened except SpaceX catching that rocket - which was very impressive. Like Elon or hate him: that was pretty amazing. Also some interesting stuff from the James Webb Space Telescope about galaxy formation. That's about it.
IN MOVIES AND SHOWS
The Denis Villeneuve "DUNE" (part 2) was this year, wasn't it? It feels so long ago. Villeneuve is really standing out as the best director in Hollywood these days. (And that Hans Zimmer soundtrack! WOW!)
In terms of movies, I haven't watched a lot of new stuff this year. I think covid kinda broke movies for me. I used to go with friends to the cinema constantly. Then we got used to watching stuff at home, and now the urgency of Opening Night has been lost. You watch stuff when you "get around to it", which often means waiting for streaming. But also, there isn't much that I really want to rush out and see these days.
In terms of indie shows/movies, I am a big fan of Evan Royalty, and he dropped a STALKER-themed movie on YouTube on Halloween called "STALKER: Shadow of the Zone". I became totally obsessed with it for like... a month. (Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gwNrYJ5VKM !)
IN GAMING
PalWorld and Helldivers2 came out. I never really got into PalWorld, but I played Helldivers2 to heck and back. Got really good at it too! For Democracy!
Space Marine 2 also came out. Very fun, albeit short campaign. Otherwise, I tried to catch up on STALKER before STALKER2 dropped. Missed the mark. (Still working on it.)
In terms of other "Grim Dark" stuff, The Forever Winter came out, and though I think it has a lot of technical and balance problems, the art style is amazing. Nasty, visceral, over-the-top. It makes Warhammer 40K look downright friendly. Big ups on art direction, but its too bad the rest of the game falls a bit short. Its worth checking out the screenshots and art and lore though, even if the game is very mid.
UNREACHED ACHIEVEMENTS
... still haven't launched those games. I'm waffling. I can't seem to settle on ideas. But I think that's changing (thank goodness).
For the most part, I kept my to-do list short last year. Perhaps I thought that it would make things more manageable. And perhaps it did!
GOALS FOR 2025
... launch 2 games (again this year). (These are my own games, not the games for my day-job.)
... build the YouTube channel ( it's been on hiatus since about September )
... I feel like I should make more youtube channels for more of my various activities, but for now that just seems like a logistical nightmare. I had a hard enough time just running ONE.
... maybe just be more mindful and at-peace. Continue to organize my life, so that I can be more effective in the future.
CONCLUSION
I hope you liked my "YEAR IN REVIEW" for 2024. Here's to another year, another opportunity, and hopefully: great things! And thank you all, once again, for being a fan of my lil fennec prince again this year. ^.^
Cheers,
~ Etheras
Any year that still has you in it will be that much the better!
Speaking of fandom treasures, Terrie Smith has returned to making art, and is saying she would want to return Havoc and Chester related projects, I hope to see that, and for the whole fandom to get to know her and Chester once more!
Anyways, glad to hear you're bubbling away merrily with life, happy new year pretty Fen! 💖
RN I'm watching Pantheon on Netflix (AMC anime thing) and its really good so-far. I believe it came out in 2024, so it probably should be on the list, but I didn't start watching it until present.
I'll check out KNEECAP, thanks! ^.^