The first half of this post is a vent about recent events I have to get out of my system. Below is some hopefully actually interesting content about the constructed conpidgin Viossa.

If you are interested in languages & linguistics and, like me, are not immune to the draw of short-form video content, you are probably familiar with the creator Etymology Nerd. He makes shorts on TikTok and other platforms about all things linguistics, usually pointing out some cool facet or etymology. The videos are, due to the their length, often very surface level, but they’re informative and fun, and for the most part, accurate enough – at least as far as I can tell. However, two days ago, he posted this short on TikTok and then a bit later to YouTube: conlangs are so back. It points the spotlight on a constructed language by the name of Viossa: A collaborative con-pidgin, that is, a conlang created by users attempting to establish communication despite speaking different languages. This is rather meaningful to me, as I was one of the original co-creators of Viossa – more on that below. At first, I was quite happy about this, until I went to check out the Discord server and found it effectively on fire. While there were about 1700 members on the discord server, the number of active members was much smaller, certainly less than 100.

In the first day after the TikTok video, over 1000 users sought out the discord server and joined it.

Etymology Nerd didn’t ask for permission, he did not even give a heads-up. He found and joined the server on the 27th, asked a few questions, and then posted his short on TikTok two hours later. And while he learned that the server’s moderation was getting overwhelmed, he reposted the video to YouTube unchanged the next day anyway, merely leaving a pinned comment asking people to be respectful. The Viossa discord is currently on lockdown (invites paused) until things settle down. In the meantime, the short has amassed close to two million views on TikTok & Youtube combined. While I don’t think this can be called malicious, it speaks of a lack of care of the impact it can have to shine a spotlight on a small community when you have such a big following. Who cares what happens to them, I got my clicks, right?

But that’s enough venting. Time for some history. As I mentioned above, I was one of the people who started this whole thing. Back in 2014, before Discord, there was a Skype group for people interested in conlangs. I was in high school at the time, as were most other members – reddit demographics. We realized that many of us spoke at least one language other than English, and decided to conduct an experiment: Could we establish communication through those other languages by finding common grounds and learning each other’s words for things? So on Christmas Eve that year, six of us hopped into a video call and tried to communicate without using English. Each of us would contribute with one or two languages: Norwegian, Finnish, Japanese, Irish, Albanian&Greek and Swiss German. Within the first night, we had a few words and could ask simple questions. Within the first week, we had a few hundred words and were able to hold uninterrupted, if simple, conversations. We had some other people join the project over the course of the first year, and presented the results on reddit:

• Viossa, an experimental pidgin, one year in the making. Ask us anything!

Things continued quietly from then on. The number of members grew slowly, while others got bored and dropped out of the project. At some point, Discord rolled around and the community moved there – a far easier platform to join than Skype. Some copycat projects sprung up, but to my knowledge, sadly none really persisted. In 2017, I held a talk at the Language Creation Conference about this style of language creation, and on Viossa in particular. The conference was livestreamed, so you can watch it on Youtube here (ca. 30 minutes):

• Ka Du Hanasu?—Collaborative Conpidgins

A major influx of new members came in 2020, when Jan Misali made a video on the language as part of his Conlang Critic series. His video is extremely well put-together, and created in close collaboration with many regular members of the community, and it really is the best showcase of what Viossa had become in the six years since its inception. You can find it here:

• Conlang Critic: Viossa

This video put the project on the radar for many more people, and it has definitely changed the language. When you get many learners in a short amount of time, the things they pick up tend to reinforce each other, and you get sudden drastic shifts. I’m finding that I struggle with understanding a lot more of the language used by people who joined after this video than from other oldtimers. Then things settled again, until the etymologynerd post two days ago.

And that’s the history of, weirdly, one of the more successful constructed languages, built on just two rules:

1. If you can understand it, it’s correct Viossa.
2. Learn Viossa through Viossa, no translation.

Inspired by the post about "petty reform" platforms, I noticed a trend, that matched with my own brain musings.

People have an inherent problem with number conceptualization(Poor natural magnitude conception?).

I recall this being a problem as old as time. Things that have helped me grapple with this are things like Fermi Problems and someone who used a grain of rice to represent the scale of wealth discrepancy in the world, using Bill Gates or Elon Musk as an example (can't find the original video, all the derivatives have been turned into TikTok-esque drivel).

I ask the people of Tildes, what types of scale descriptors, demonstrations, etc. have you found moving in your life? Really putting something into perspective. I will give bonus points for "positive" examples, not just doom and gloom, but welcome anything that tickles your fancy.

Gonna try and get a handle on everything shown off at TGS this year. It will probably be less structured compared to the Sony State of Play thread I posted, as language barriers, time zones, and finding official trailer sources I gonna be a lot more time consuming than just going to the Playstation youtube channel.

DAY 1

Gamirror Games Now TGS 2024 Speical

XBOX Broadcast
METAL GEAR SOLID Δ: SNAKE EATER - Official Trailer #2
Overwatch 2 x My Hero Academia | Collaboration Trailer
Age of Mythology: Retold - Immortal Pillars Teaser
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle - Trailer | TGS 2024
TANUKI: Pon's Summer Announcement Trailer
Threads of Time - First Look Game Announcement
We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie - Xbox Game Pass Trailer
Fragpunk - Trailer | TGS 2024
Metaphor: ReFantazio | Xbox Tokyo Game Show 2024 Broadcast Trailer
A Deep Dive into the Magical World of Atelier Yumia
ASURAJANG Xbox Announcement Trailer
BLEACH Rebirth of Souls – Announcement Trailer
SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada – Release Date Trailer
All You Need is Help Launch Trailer
Slitterhead: Learn More from Gaming Legend Keiichiro Toyama
Starbites - Xbox & Windows Announcement Trailer
DRAGON QUEST III HD-2D Remake: TGS Demo Playthrough
Trials of Mana | Xbox Announce
Legend of Mana | Xbox Announce
Final Fantasy I-VI Pixel Remaster | TGS Xbox Announcement

SNK Special Program
FATAL FURY: CotW × STREET FIGHTER｜Teaser Trailer

Koei Tecmo Broadcast
“DYNASTY WARRIORS: ORIGINS” TGS Official Program

Level 5
HOLY HORROR MANSION – Teaser Trailer Saw some discourse online about this game using AI art
INAZUMA ELEVEN RE – Teaser Trailer
INAZUMA ELEVEN: Victory Road – PV7
DECAPOLICE - Theme Song Trailer
Professor Layton and the New World of Steam – Trailer
FANTASY LIFE i: The Girl Who Steals Time - 2nd Trailer
MEGATON MUSASHI W: WIRED – New Content Announcement Trailer

Capcom
A Beginner's Guide to Monster Hunter Wilds
Monster Hunter Wilds: 4th Trailer | Release Date Reveal (Extended Kut)

Day 2

Most of these devs don't seem to have anything up on YouTube (or in some cases don't have an easily identifiable channel). So It's mostly just the live stream broadcast here.

Aniplex
The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- SPECIAL PROGRAM

Sega
SEGA/ATLUS Special Program in TGS2024

Square Enix
"EIKO KANO'S CRITIKANO HIT" TGS2024 SP

Infold Games
Infinity Nikki Special Program at TGS 2024

Dungeon Stalkers TGS2024 Special Program

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