Mikko Rautalahti
@mikkihel.bsky.social
I do game narrative stuff. Also some other narrative stuff! Also just stuff.
Yeah, of course, most democracies haven't!
November 11, 2025 at 8:18 AM
Yeah, of course, most democracies haven't!
And I'm not saying our system is somehow perfect or faultless. We have a lot of problems. But even so, the system's designed so we don't suspend services and benefits or leave huge numbers of people unpaid just because the people we elected are petty bitches who can't get their shit together.
November 10, 2025 at 6:48 AM
And I'm not saying our system is somehow perfect or faultless. We have a lot of problems. But even so, the system's designed so we don't suspend services and benefits or leave huge numbers of people unpaid just because the people we elected are petty bitches who can't get their shit together.
You know I love that stuff!
November 8, 2025 at 9:44 AM
You know I love that stuff!
Zero scarves so far.
November 7, 2025 at 9:58 AM
Zero scarves so far.
Yeah, I'm not surprised to hear that! I'm pretty sure we also did that. There was a strong push to just teach us stuff about other countries, which I think was on the whole a very smart move.
November 7, 2025 at 7:53 AM
Yeah, I'm not surprised to hear that! I'm pretty sure we also did that. There was a strong push to just teach us stuff about other countries, which I think was on the whole a very smart move.
I feel like this is a badly written thread with way more typos and missing words than I'd prefer. This shit just makes me genuinely angry. I can absolutely imagine that scene in the classroom, and I just want to go over there and sit the teacher down and be like, "what the fuck is wrong with you?"
November 6, 2025 at 7:47 PM
I feel like this is a badly written thread with way more typos and missing words than I'd prefer. This shit just makes me genuinely angry. I can absolutely imagine that scene in the classroom, and I just want to go over there and sit the teacher down and be like, "what the fuck is wrong with you?"
I'm not mad that the song was there; that's understandable. But for the teacher get pissy about it, rather than simply say, "I'm sorry, of course you're right; this song is in the book but we're gonna be skipping this from now on" is just plain stupid. Like, why die on that hill? What an idiot.
November 6, 2025 at 7:44 PM
I'm not mad that the song was there; that's understandable. But for the teacher get pissy about it, rather than simply say, "I'm sorry, of course you're right; this song is in the book but we're gonna be skipping this from now on" is just plain stupid. Like, why die on that hill? What an idiot.
When I was a kid, this was an extremely insular country in a way that people only familiar with modern Finland can't fully comprehend. You could still assume that the student body was fairly homogenous. Now you _have_ to take a broader view of things. This teacher's failure to do so is pathetic.
November 6, 2025 at 7:44 PM
When I was a kid, this was an extremely insular country in a way that people only familiar with modern Finland can't fully comprehend. You could still assume that the student body was fairly homogenous. Now you _have_ to take a broader view of things. This teacher's failure to do so is pathetic.
But we we weren't at war with any of those countries. For us, these songs were not culturally connected to oppression or trauma. So for us a song like "Kalinka," already over a century old at the time, was just a song.
It was different for this student. They had extremely valid reason to protest.
It was different for this student. They had extremely valid reason to protest.
November 6, 2025 at 7:44 PM
But we we weren't at war with any of those countries. For us, these songs were not culturally connected to oppression or trauma. So for us a song like "Kalinka," already over a century old at the time, was just a song.
It was different for this student. They had extremely valid reason to protest.
It was different for this student. They had extremely valid reason to protest.
I know it can sound weird to sing Russian songs, but at least when I was a kid, the music curriculum was intentionally designed to be quite international; you'd have a bunch of music and music styles from all over the world, typically with words translated into Finnish. That's fine.
November 6, 2025 at 7:44 PM
I know it can sound weird to sing Russian songs, but at least when I was a kid, the music curriculum was intentionally designed to be quite international; you'd have a bunch of music and music styles from all over the world, typically with words translated into Finnish. That's fine.
Well, I mean, be fair, moving to another city is a big thing for anybody, it'll probably take them at least until the end of the week just to finish packing. But it's definitely happening, these are highly reliable people with a great track record of honesty and integrity.
November 6, 2025 at 10:42 AM
Well, I mean, be fair, moving to another city is a big thing for anybody, it'll probably take them at least until the end of the week just to finish packing. But it's definitely happening, these are highly reliable people with a great track record of honesty and integrity.
Yeah, and no number of disclaimers is ever going to satisfy them. That whole "okay, so ignore the appearance, nobody's worked on that yet at all, this is purely about the functionality at this stage"/"but it doesn't look very good" dance is eternal.
November 6, 2025 at 10:37 AM
Yeah, and no number of disclaimers is ever going to satisfy them. That whole "okay, so ignore the appearance, nobody's worked on that yet at all, this is purely about the functionality at this stage"/"but it doesn't look very good" dance is eternal.
That is so wildly removed from reality, you have to wonder what their everyday life is like. It's not so much that they don't know how it works, but just that bold assumption they make. Some truly classic Dunning-Kruger behavior right there.
November 6, 2025 at 10:35 AM
That is so wildly removed from reality, you have to wonder what their everyday life is like. It's not so much that they don't know how it works, but just that bold assumption they make. Some truly classic Dunning-Kruger behavior right there.
Oh, sure! It's just a delightfully weird thing for this tiny kid to fixate on.
He also wants a plushie shark with noises and lights. As far as anyone knows, this is not a thing that exists, he has just decided he wants to have one.
He also wants a plushie shark with noises and lights. As far as anyone knows, this is not a thing that exists, he has just decided he wants to have one.
November 4, 2025 at 10:24 PM
Oh, sure! It's just a delightfully weird thing for this tiny kid to fixate on.
He also wants a plushie shark with noises and lights. As far as anyone knows, this is not a thing that exists, he has just decided he wants to have one.
He also wants a plushie shark with noises and lights. As far as anyone knows, this is not a thing that exists, he has just decided he wants to have one.
Pretty much, yeah! It was infuriating, trying to explain that yeah, this here is just a marker for when the lights go out, but we can't do that because there's no real lighting in the level at all, and this is where enemies come in but we don't have functional enemies, so it's a placeholder. No go.
November 4, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Pretty much, yeah! It was infuriating, trying to explain that yeah, this here is just a marker for when the lights go out, but we can't do that because there's no real lighting in the level at all, and this is where enemies come in but we don't have functional enemies, so it's a placeholder. No go.
I've told this story before and I often get comments that try to tell me that this was understandable and he must not have understood what was going on. Trust me, that was not it. His objection was the crude whitebox he saw was a crude whitebox AT THE CRUDE WHITEBOX STAGE. He couldn't imagine it.
November 4, 2025 at 9:58 PM
I've told this story before and I often get comments that try to tell me that this was understandable and he must not have understood what was going on. Trust me, that was not it. His objection was the crude whitebox he saw was a crude whitebox AT THE CRUDE WHITEBOX STAGE. He couldn't imagine it.
Eventually, we managed to get past that, but being locked in that conversation for hours just sucked the will to live out of everybody else in the room. We were making a highly atmospheric, story-driven game, being able to understand intent was such a basic requirement for it. He did not have it.
November 4, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Eventually, we managed to get past that, but being locked in that conversation for hours just sucked the will to live out of everybody else in the room. We were making a highly atmospheric, story-driven game, being able to understand intent was such a basic requirement for it. He did not have it.
And he absolutely would not understand why we wouldn't build that stuff in, even though to implement it would be a ton of extra work, and the whole point of a whitebox is to build a rough version so a high-level concept can be approved without spending months on it. It was incredibly frustrating.
November 4, 2025 at 9:58 PM
And he absolutely would not understand why we wouldn't build that stuff in, even though to implement it would be a ton of extra work, and the whole point of a whitebox is to build a rough version so a high-level concept can be approved without spending months on it. It was incredibly frustrating.
It was supposed to be weird and a little bit spooky, and build up to a big reveal of a thing, immediately followed by a big fight. Pretty standard stuff, honestly.
A guy in charge of approving the plan could not get it. He was like "it's boring and not scary, nothing's going on, we can't do this."
A guy in charge of approving the plan could not get it. He was like "it's boring and not scary, nothing's going on, we can't do this."
November 4, 2025 at 9:58 PM
It was supposed to be weird and a little bit spooky, and build up to a big reveal of a thing, immediately followed by a big fight. Pretty standard stuff, honestly.
A guy in charge of approving the plan could not get it. He was like "it's boring and not scary, nothing's going on, we can't do this."
A guy in charge of approving the plan could not get it. He was like "it's boring and not scary, nothing's going on, we can't do this."
So illustrate where those events were supposed to be, there were placeholder signs that popped up -- "catch a glimpse of something" here, "hear weird shit" there. So you could understand what the intent was once everything was implemented properly.
November 4, 2025 at 9:58 PM
So illustrate where those events were supposed to be, there were placeholder signs that popped up -- "catch a glimpse of something" here, "hear weird shit" there. So you could understand what the intent was once everything was implemented properly.
So we had a whitebox version of that built, which had none of the actual content implemented, it just had the basic level geometry. So you had the structure ("you enter through this doorway, you climb up here, you drop down there, then there's a long hallway") present, but not the any of the events.
November 4, 2025 at 9:58 PM
So we had a whitebox version of that built, which had none of the actual content implemented, it just had the basic level geometry. So you had the structure ("you enter through this doorway, you climb up here, you drop down there, then there's a long hallway") present, but not the any of the events.