title: New Progressive Party (Puerto Rico)

text: As 2005 began, Rosselló became a Senator for the Arecibo district after Senator Víctor Loubriel resigned from the seat to which he'd been elected, effectively gaining a seat for which he did not run. Thus started a struggle between Senate President Kenneth McClintock and Rosselló for control of the Senate Presidency. The dispute ended in a stalemate as McClintock refused to leave the position, a stance respected by the PDP minority senators and five other NPP senators. This led to the expulsion from the party of McClintock as well as two of the NPP senators who backed him, a matter which led McClintock to file suit in San Juan Superior Court, winning the case, which was confirmed by the Puerto Rico Supreme Court in a 5-1 ruling. The infighting ended when Rosselló was defeated in the 2008 primary and when McClintock co-chaired Sen. Hillary Clinton's successful Democratic primary campaign and helped lead her to a record-setting 68-32% victory in the waning days of her bid for the Democratic nomination.


title: New Progressive Party (Puerto Rico)

text: On March 7, 2007, Rosselló stated that he was no longer interested in the Senate Presidency and then focused his attention in preventing Resident Commissioner Luis Fortuño from winning the March 2008 gubernatorial primary, and allowed his name to be placed in nomination for the party's gubernatorial primary. McClintock and four other senators won in San Juan Superior Court a suit to nullify the sanctions and expulsions that the party leadership has levied against them. The Puerto Rico Supreme Court confirmed the lower court decision by a 5-to-1 vote. As a result, McClintock and his supporters were recognized as NPP members and free to run under the party banner. Shortly after the primary polls closed on March 9, 2008, Pedro Rosselló conceded the victory to Luis Fortuño after a large margin of votes in favor of his opponent in the NPP party primaries for the presidency of the party and gubernatorial nomination. Rosselló "admitted" defeat even before the votes were completely tallied claiming Fortuño as the next candidate of the PNP party. On March 10, 2008, Rosselló sent the media a written statement regarding his future in which he confirmed he will be retiring from active politics and will not be campaigning for any candidate, however he would finish his term as senator for the Arecibo District, which he did.


title: New Progressive Party (Puerto Rico)

text: Most of Rosselló's supporters were elected in the primary and endorsed Fortuño as their candidate for governor. However, several prominent NPP members demonstrated strong opposition to Fortuño's candidacy and victory.


title: New Progressive Party (Puerto Rico)

text: Ramírez was a candidate for Resident Commissioner in the primaries and was openly supporting Rosselló. She lost to Fortuño's candidate, Pedro Pierluisi, and to another Rosselló supporter who was also defeated, former Senate President, Charlie Rodríguez. When Ramírez was asked by the media if she will vote for Fortuño, she replied "My vote is secret".


title: New Progressive Party (Puerto Rico)

text: Another strong voice against Fortuño was NPP former President Leo Díaz. Díaz accused Fortuño and his wife of having ties to PDP law firms and to colonialist interests. At a November 4, 2007, rally called "Con Fuerza para Vencer" (With the Strength to Win), Díaz said, "In this primary the life of this party is in jeopardy. The other candidate, Fortuño, isn't a real statehood defender! He should explain why he has ties with PDP's law firms and why the colonialist special interests are financing his campaign[...]". He has since rejoined party activities and chairs Santini's 2012 reelection efforts.


title: New Progressive Party (Puerto Rico)

text: San Juan mayor Jorge Santini also made strong statements against Fortuño during the primary campaign, as he supported Rosselló. He said that Fortuño wasn't a "full-time leader" and that he "made arrangements with other causes". He subsequently campaigned for Fortuño, both in 2008 as well as 2012.


title: New Progressive Party (Puerto Rico)

text: On November 4, 2008, the NPP retained and expanded super-majorities in the Legislative Assembly, and won both the Resident Commissioner and Governor race by a landslide.


title: New Progressive Party (Puerto Rico)

text: While Gov. Fortuño failed to win reelection on Nov. 6, 2012, his running mate Pedro R. Pierluisi Urrutia became Puerto Rico's top vote-getter. In a separate matter, in 2012, the NPP won by wide margins the two questions posed in a separate political status plebiscite ballot. Fifty-four percent rejected the continuation of the current territorial political relationship with the United States while 61% of those choosing another political status voted for statehood.


title: New Progressive Party (Puerto Rico)

text: On November 8, 2016, the NPP's gubernatorial candidate Ricardo Rosselló beat the PDP's candidate, former Secretary of State David Bernier, to become the Governor of Puerto Rico. In the same election, Jenniffer González became the new, and first female, Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico. The New Progressive Party became the majority in the Legislative Assembly by winning 21 seats of the Senate and 34 seats of the House of Representatives. However, the PDP retained a majority of the mayoralty races in the island, with a total of 45 out of 78 municipalities. The New Progressive Party (PNP) won a total of 33.


title: New Progressive Party (Puerto Rico)

text: In January 2021, the new delegation of 21 PNP elected officials pledged to not increase taxes citing an unemployment rate of 14% in Puerto Rico. Instead governor Pierluisi opted for cuts in pensions to balance the budget, which was received with protests from 18 unions in Puerto Rico. The protestors rather favoured Bill 120, proposed by PNP representative Lourdes Ramos, to guarantee a "dignified retirement".


title: New Progressive Party (Puerto Rico)

text: Three NPP gubernatorial candidates registered nationally as Republicans (Luis A. Ferré, Baltasar Corrada and Luis G. Fortuño) while four NPP gubernatorial candidates registered nationally as Democrats (Carlos Romero Barceló, Carlos Pesquera, Pedro Rosselló and Ricardo Rosselló). When Fortuño was governor, his top administration officials were also split in national politics. His last chief of staff, Miguel Romero, and his Secretary of State (and first in line of succession), Kenneth McClintock, are Democrats, while his last Attorney General, Guillermo Somoza, is a Republican. House NPP Leader Jenniffer González and Senate Minority Leader Larry Seilhamer are Republicans.


title: New Progressive Party (Puerto Rico)

text: The party is strongly associated with the color blue in Puerto Rico because of its logo. Since the logo features a palm tree, many Puerto Ricans call the NPP "La Palma". The use of the coconut palm tree as a symbol by the PNP persists to this day.


title: New Progressive Party (Puerto Rico)

text: The logo's original version consisted of a light blue palm tree, partially encircled by words in a semicircle (the exact color hue for the logo being that of the United Nations flag, as a result of a personal request from party founder Luis A. Ferré). The original logo had the party's name surrounding it; eventually, the words ""estadidad, seguridad, progreso"" ("statehood, security, progress" in English) substituted the party name. The logo later enclosed the palm tree in a blue oval and reversed its colors. The tonality of blue used in the newer logo was eventually changed to a deep navy blue, as to liken it to that of the canton of the United States' flag.


title: London dispersion force

text: London dispersion forces (LDF, also known as dispersion forces, London forces, instantaneous dipole–induced dipole forces, fluctuating induced dipole bonds or loosely as van der Waals forces) are a type of intermolecular force acting between atoms and molecules that are normally electrically symmetric; that is, the electrons are symmetrically distributed with respect to the nucleus. They are part of the van der Waals forces. The LDF is named after the German physicist Fritz London. They are the weakest intermolecular force.


title: London dispersion force

text: The electron distribution around an atom or molecule undergoes fluctuations in time. These fluctuations create instantaneous electric fields which are felt by other nearby atoms and molecules, which in turn adjust the spatial distribution of their own electrons. The net effect is that the fluctuations in electron positions in one atom induce a corresponding redistribution of electrons in other atoms, such that the electron motions become correlated. While the detailed theory requires a quantum-mechanical explanation "(see quantum mechanical theory of dispersion forces)", the effect is frequently described as the formation of the "instantaneous dipoles" that (when separated by vacuum) attract each other. The magnitude of the London dispersion force is frequently described in terms of a single parameter called the Hamaker constant, typically symbolized formula_1. For atoms that are located closer together than the wavelength of light, the interaction is essentially instantaneous and is described in terms of a "non-retarded" Hamaker constant. For entities that are farther apart, the finite time required for the fluctuation at one atom to be felt at a second atom ("retardation") requires use of a "retarded" Hamaker constant.


title: London dispersion force

text: While the London dispersion force between individual atoms and molecules is quite weak and decreases quickly with separation formula_2 like formula_3, in condensed matter (liquids and solids), the effect is cumulative over the volume of materials, or within and between organic molecules, such that London dispersion forces can be quite strong in bulk solid and liquids and decay much more slowly with distance. For example, the total force per unit area between two bulk solids decreases by formula_4 where formula_2 is the separation between them. The effects of London dispersion forces are most obvious in systems that are very non-polar (e.g., that lack ionic bonds), such as hydrocarbons and highly symmetric molecules like bromine (Bra liquid at room temperature) or iodine (I a solid at room temperature). In hydrocarbons and waxes, the dispersion forces are sufficient to cause condensation from the gas phase into the liquid or solid phase. Sublimation heats of e.g. hydrocarbon crystals reflect the dispersion interaction. Liquification of oxygen and nitrogen gases into liquid phases is also dominated by attractive London dispersion forces.


title: London dispersion force

text: When atoms/molecules are separated by a third medium (rather than vacuum), the situation becomes more complex. In aqueous solutions, the effects of dispersion forces between atoms or molecules are frequently less pronounced due to competition with polarizable solvent molecules. That is, the instantaneous fluctuations in one atom or molecule are felt both by the solvent (water) and by other molecules.


title: London dispersion force

text: Larger and heavier atoms and molecules exhibit stronger dispersion forces than smaller and lighter ones. This is due to the increased polarizability of molecules with larger, more dispersed electron clouds. The polarizability is a measure of how easily electrons can be redistributed; a large polarizability implies that the electrons are more easily redistributed. This trend is exemplified by the halogens (from smallest to largest: F, Cl, Br, I). The same increase of dispersive attraction occurs within and between organic molecules in the order RF, RCl, RBr, RI (from smallest to largest) or with other more polarizable heteroatoms. Fluorine and chlorine are gases at room temperature, bromine is a liquid, and iodine is a solid. The London forces are thought to arise from the motion of electrons.


title: London dispersion force

text: The first explanation of the attraction between noble gas atoms was given by Fritz London in 1930. He used a quantum-mechanical theory based on second-order perturbation theory. The perturbation is because of the Coulomb interaction between the electrons and nuclei of the two moieties (atoms or molecules). The second-order perturbation expression of the interaction energy contains a sum over states. The states appearing in this sum are simple products of the stimulated electronic states of the monomers. Thus, no intermolecular antisymmetrization of the electronic states is included, and the Pauli exclusion principle is only partially satisfied.


title: London dispersion force

text: London wrote a Taylor series expansion of the perturbation in formula_6, where formula_2 is the distance between the nuclear centers of mass of the moieties.


title: London dispersion force

text: This expansion is known as the multipole expansion because the terms in this series can be regarded as energies of two interacting multipoles, one on each monomer. Substitution of the multipole-expanded form of V into the second-order energy yields an expression that resembles an expression describing the interaction between instantaneous multipoles (see the qualitative description above). Additionally, an approximation, named after Albrecht Unsöld, must be introduced in order to obtain a description of London dispersion in terms of polarizability volumes, formula_8, and ionization energies, formula_9, (ancient term: ionization potentials).


title: London dispersion force

text: In this manner, the following approximation is obtained for the dispersion interaction formula_10 between two atoms formula_1 and formula_12. Here formula_13 and formula_14 are the polarizability volumes of the respective atoms. The quantities formula_15 and formula_16 are the first ionization energies of the atoms, and formula_2 is the intermolecular distance.


title: London dispersion force

text: Note that this final London equation does not contain instantaneous dipoles (see molecular dipoles). The "explanation" of the dispersion force as the interaction between two such dipoles was invented after London arrived at the proper quantum mechanical theory. The authoritative work contains a criticism of the instantaneous dipole model and a modern and thorough exposition of the theory of intermolecular forces.


title: London dispersion force

text: The London theory has much similarity to the quantum mechanical theory of light dispersion, which is why London coined the phrase "dispersion effect". In physics, the term "dispersion" describes the variation of a quantity with frequency, which is the fluctuation of the electrons in the case of the London dispersion.


title: London dispersion force

text: Dispersion forces are usually dominant over the three van der Waals forces (orientation, induction, dispersion) between atoms and molecules, with the exception of molecules that are small and highly polar, such as water. The following contribution of the dispersion to the total intermolecular interaction energy has been given:


title: Arjun (Firoz Khan)

text: Arjun Firoz Khan is an Indian actor, best known for playing the character of warrior prince Arjuna in B. R. Chopra's epic television series "Mahabharat". He has also acted in negative roles in several Hindi language movies and television series.


title: Arjun (Firoz Khan)

text: Firoz Khan is married to Kashmira. The couple has three children – a son and two daughters. His son, Jibran Khan is also an actor who played the role of Dhruva in Vishnu Puran and played the role of Krishna in Kabhie Khushi Kabhie Gham.


title: Arjun (Firoz Khan)

text: Due to the similarity with the name of actor Feroz Khan, he changed his name to Arjun professionally, with suggestions from B. R. Chopra and Rahi Masoom Raza, the director and the writer of "Mahabharat" respectively.


title: Domestication of animals

text: The domestication of animals is the mutual relationship between animals and the humans who have influence on their care and reproduction.


title: Domestication of animals

text: Charles Darwin recognized a small number of traits that made domesticated species different from their wild ancestors. He was also the first to recognize the difference between conscious selective breeding (i.e. artificial selection) in which humans directly select for desirable traits, and unconscious selection where traits evolve as a by-product of natural selection or from selection on other traits. There is a genetic difference between domestic and wild populations. There is also a genetic difference between the domestication traits that researchers believe to have been essential at the early stages of domestication, and the improvement traits that have appeared since the split between wild and domestic populations. Domestication traits are generally fixed within all domesticates, and were selected during the initial episode of domestication of that animal or plant, whereas improvement traits are present only in a portion of domesticates, though they may be fixed in individual breeds or regional populations.


title: Domestication of animals

text: Domestication should not be confused with taming. Taming is the conditioned behavioral modification of a wild-born animal when its natural avoidance of humans is reduced and it accepts the presence of humans, but domestication is the permanent genetic modification of a bred lineage that leads to an inherited predisposition toward humans. Certain animal species, and certain individuals within those species, make better candidates for domestication than others because they exhibit certain behavioral characteristics: (1) the size and organization of their social structure; (2) the availability and the degree of selectivity in their choice of mates; (3) the ease and speed with which the parents bond with their young, and the maturity and mobility of the young at birth; (4) the degree of flexibility in diet and habitat tolerance; and (5) responses to humans and new environments, including flight responses and reactivity to external stimuli.


title: Domestication of animals

text: It is proposed that there were three major pathways that most animal domesticates followed into domestication: (1) commensals, adapted to a human niche (e.g., dogs, cats, fowl, possibly pigs); (2) animals sought for food and other byproducts (e.g., sheep, goats, cattle, water buffalo, yak, pig, reindeer, llama, alpaca, and turkey); and (3) targeted animals for draft and nonfood resources (e.g., horse, donkey, camel). The dog was the first to be domesticated, and was established across Eurasia before the end of the Late Pleistocene era, well before cultivation and before the domestication of other animals. Unlike other domestic species which were primarily selected for production-related traits, dogs were initially selected for their behaviors. The archaeological and genetic data suggest that long-term bidirectional gene flow between wild and domestic stocks – including donkeys, horses, New and Old World camelids, goats, sheep, and pigs – was common. One study has concluded that human selection for domestic traits likely counteracted the homogenizing effect of gene flow from wild boars into pigs and created domestication islands in the genome. The same process may also apply to other domesticated animals. Some of the most commonly domesticated animals are cats and dogs.


title: Domestication of animals

text: Domestication has been defined as "a sustained multi-generational, mutualistic relationship in which one organism assumes a significant degree of influence over the reproduction and care of another organism in order to secure a more predictable supply of a resource of interest, and through which the partner organism gains advantage over individuals that remain outside this relationship, thereby benefitting and often increasing the fitness of both the domesticator and the target domesticate." This definition recognizes both the biological and the cultural components of the domestication process and the effects on both humans and the domesticated animals and plants. All past definitions of domestication have included a relationship between humans with plants and animals, but their differences lay in who was considered as the lead partner in the relationship. This new definition recognizes a mutualistic relationship in which both partners gain benefits. Domestication has vastly enhanced the reproductive output of crop plants, livestock, and pets far beyond that of their wild progenitors. Domesticates have provided humans with resources that they could more predictably and securely control, move, and redistribute, which has been the advantage that had fueled a population explosion of the agro-pastoralists and their spread to all corners of the planet.


title: Domestication of animals

text: This biological mutualism is not restricted to humans with domestic crops and livestock but is well-documented in nonhuman species, especially among a number of social insect domesticators and their plant and animal domesticates, for example the ant–fungus mutualism that exists between leafcutter ants and certain fungi.


title: Domestication of animals

text: Domestication syndrome is a term often used to describe the suite of phenotypic traits arising during domestication that distinguish crops from their wild ancestors. The term is also applied to animals and includes increased docility and tameness, coat color changes, reductions in tooth size, changes in craniofacial morphology, alterations in ear and tail form (e.g., floppy ears), more frequent and nonseasonal estrus cycles, alterations in adrenocorticotropic hormone levels, changed concentrations of several neurotransmitters, prolongations in juvenile behavior, and reductions in both total brain size and of particular brain regions. The set of traits used to define the animal domestication syndrome is inconsistent.


title: Domestication of animals

text: Domestication should not be confused with taming. Taming is the conditioned behavioral modification of a wild-born animal when its natural avoidance of humans is reduced and it accepts the presence of humans, but domestication is the permanent genetic modification of a bred lineage that leads to an inherited predisposition toward humans. Human selection included tameness, but without a suitable evolutionary response then domestication was not achieved. Domestic animals need not be tame in the behavioral sense, such as the Spanish fighting bull. Wild animals can be tame, such as a hand-raised cheetah. A domestic animal's breeding is controlled by humans and its tameness and tolerance of humans is genetically determined. However, an animal merely bred in captivity is not necessarily domesticated. Tigers, gorillas, and polar bears breed readily in captivity but are not domesticated. Asian elephants are wild animals that with taming manifest outward signs of domestication, yet their breeding is not human controlled and thus they are not true domesticates.


title: Domestication of animals

text: The domestication of animals and plants was triggered by the climatic and environmental changes that occurred after the peak of the Last Glacial Maximum around 21,000 years ago and which continue to this present day. These changes made obtaining food difficult. The first domesticate was the domestic dog ("Canis lupus familiaris") from a wolf ancestor ("Canis lupus") at least 15,000 years ago. The Younger Dryas that occurred 12,900 years ago was a period of intense cold and aridity that put pressure on humans to intensify their foraging strategies. By the beginning of the Holocene from 11,700 years ago, favorable climatic conditions and increasing human populations led to small-scale animal and plant domestication, which allowed humans to augment the food that they were obtaining through hunter-gathering.


title: Domestication of animals

text: The increased use of agriculture and continued domestication of species during the Neolithic transition marked the beginning of a rapid shift in the evolution, ecology, and demography of both humans and numerous species of animals and plants. Areas with increasing agriculture, underwent urbanisation, developing higher-density populations, expanded economies, and became centers of livestock and crop domestication. Such agricultural societies emerged across Eurasia, North Africa, and South and Central America.


title: Domestication of animals

text: In the Fertile Crescent 10,000-11,000 years ago, zooarchaeology indicates that goats, pigs, sheep, and taurine cattle were the first livestock to be domesticated. Archaeologists working in Cyprus found an older burial ground, approximately 9500 years old, of an adult human with a feline skeleton. Two thousand years later, humped zebu cattle were domesticated in what is today Baluchistan in Pakistan. In East Asia 8,000 years ago, pigs were domesticated from wild boar that were genetically different from those found in the Fertile Crescent. The horse was domesticated on the Central Asian steppe 5,500 years ago. The chicken in Southeast Asia was domesticated 4,000 years ago.


title: Domestication of animals

text: The biomass of wild vertebrates is now increasingly small compared to the biomass of domestic animals, with the calculated biomass of domestic cattle alone being greater than that of all wild mammals. Because the evolution of domestic animals is ongoing, the process of domestication has a beginning but not an end. Various criteria have been established to provide a definition of domestic animals, but all decisions about exactly when an animal can be labelled "domesticated" in the zoological sense are arbitrary, although potentially useful.


title: Domestication of animals

text: Domestication is a fluid and nonlinear process that may start, stop, reverse, or go down unexpected paths with no clear or universal threshold that separates the wild from the domestic. However, there are universal features held in common by all domesticated animals.


title: Domestication of animals

text: Certain animal species, and certain individuals within those species, make better candidates for domestication than others because they exhibit certain behavioral characteristics: (1) the size and organization of their social structure; (2) the availability and the degree of selectivity in their choice of mates; (3) the ease and speed with which the parents bond with their young, and the maturity and mobility of the young at birth; (4) the degree of flexibility in diet and habitat tolerance; and (5) responses to humans and new environments, including flight responses and reactivity to external stimuli. Reduced wariness to humans and low reactivity to both humans and other external stimuli are a key pre-adaptation for domestication, and these behaviors are also the primary target of the selective pressures experienced by the animal undergoing domestication. This implies that not all animals can be domesticated, e.g. a wild member of the horse family, the zebra.


title: Domestication of animals

text: Jared Diamond in his book "Guns, Germs, and Steel" enquired as to why, among the world's 148 large wild terrestrial herbivorous mammals, only 14 were domesticated, and proposed that their wild ancestors must have possessed six characteristics before they could be considered for domestication:


title: Domestication of animals

text: The sustained selection for lowered reactivity among mammal domesticates has resulted in profound changes in brain form and function. The larger the size of the brain to begin with and the greater its degree of folding, the greater the degree of brain-size reduction under domestication. Foxes that had been selectively bred for tameness over 40 years had experienced a significant reduction in cranial height and width and by inference in brain size, which supports the hypothesis that brain-size reduction is an early response to the selective pressure for tameness and lowered reactivity that is the universal feature of animal domestication. The most affected portion of the brain in domestic mammals is the limbic system, which in domestic dogs, pigs, and sheep show a 40% reduction in size compared with their wild species. This portion of the brain regulates endocrine function that influences behaviors such as aggression, wariness, and responses to environmentally induced stress, all attributes which are dramatically affected by domestication.


title: Domestication of animals

text: A putative cause for the broad changes seen in domestication syndrome is pleiotropy. Pleiotropy occurs when one gene influences two or more seemingly unrelated phenotypic traits. Certain physiological changes characterize domestic animals of many species. These changes include extensive white markings (particularly on the head), floppy ears, and curly tails. These arise even when tameness is the only trait under selective pressure. The genes involved in tameness are largely unknown, so it is not known how or to what extent pleiotropy contributes to domestication syndrome. Tameness may be caused by the down regulation of fear and stress responses via reduction of the adrenal glands. Based on this, the pleiotropy hypotheses can be separated into two theories. The Neural Crest Hypothesis relates adrenal gland function to deficits in neural crest cells during development. The Single Genetic Regulatory Network Hypothesis claims that genetic changes in upstream regulators affect downstream systems.


title: Domestication of animals

text: Neural crest cells (NCC) are vertebrate embryonic stem cells that function directly and indirectly during early embryogenesis to produce many tissue types. Because the traits commonly affected by domestication syndrome are all derived from NCC in development, the neural crest hypothesis suggests that deficits in these cells cause the domain of phenotypes seen in domestication syndrome. These deficits could cause changes we see to many domestic mammals, such as lopped ears (seen in rabbit, dog, fox, pig, sheep, goat, cattle, and donkeys) as well as curly tails (pigs, foxes, and dogs). Although they do not affect the development of the adrenal cortex directly, the neural crest cells may be involved in relevant upstream embryological interactions. Furthermore, artificial selection targeting tameness may affect genes that control the concentration or movement of NCCs in the embryo, leading to a variety of phenotypes.


title: Domestication of animals

text: The single genetic regulatory network hypothesis proposes that domestication syndrome results from mutations in genes that regulate the expression pattern of more downstream genes. For example piebald, or spotted coat coloration, may be caused by a linkage in the biochemical pathways of melanins involved in coat coloration and neurotransmitters such as dopamine that help shape behavior and cognition. These linked traits may arise from mutations in a few key regulatory genes. A problem with this hypothesis is that it proposes that there are mutations in gene networks that cause dramatic effects that are not lethal, however no currently known genetic regulatory networks cause such dramatic change in so many different traits.


title: Domestication of animals

text: Feral mammals such as dogs, cats, goats, donkeys, pigs, and ferrets that have lived apart from humans for generations show no sign of regaining the brain mass of their wild progenitors. Dingos have lived apart from humans for thousands of years but still have the same brain size as that of a domestic dog. Feral dogs that actively avoid human contact are still dependent on human waste for survival and have not reverted to the self-sustaining behaviors of their wolf ancestors.


title: Domestication of animals

text: Domestication can be considered as the final phase of intensification in the relationship between animal or plant sub-populations and human societies, but it is divided into several grades of intensification. For studies in animal domestication, researchers have proposed five distinct categories: wild, captive wild, domestic, cross-breeds and feral.


title: Domestication of animals

text: In 2015, a study compared the diversity of dental size, shape and allometry across the proposed domestication categories of modern pigs (genus "Sus"). The study showed clear differences between the dental phenotypes of wild, captive wild, domestic, and hybrid pig populations, which supported the proposed categories through physical evidence. The study did not cover feral pig populations but called for further research to be undertaken on them, and on the genetic differences with hybrid pigs.


title: Domestication of animals

text: Since 2012, a multi-stage model of animal domestication has been accepted by two groups. The first group proposed that animal domestication proceeded along a continuum of stages from anthropophily, commensalism, control in the wild, control of captive animals, extensive breeding, intensive breeding, and finally to pets in a slow, gradually intensifying relationship between humans and animals.


title: Domestication of animals

text: The second group proposed that there were three major pathways that most animal domesticates followed into domestication: (1) commensals, adapted to a human niche (e.g., dogs, cats, fowl, possibly pigs); (2) prey animals sought for food (e.g., sheep, goats, cattle, water buffalo, yak, pig, reindeer, llama and alpaca); and (3) targeted animals for draft and nonfood resources (e.g., horse, donkey, camel). The beginnings of animal domestication involved a protracted coevolutionary process with multiple stages along different pathways. Humans did not intend to domesticate animals from, or at least they did not envision a domesticated animal resulting from, either the commensal or prey pathways. In both of these cases, humans became entangled with these species as the relationship between them, and the human role in their survival and reproduction, intensified. Although the directed pathway proceeded from capture to taming, the other two pathways are not as goal-oriented and archaeological records suggest that they take place over much longer time frames.


title: Domestication of animals

text: The commensal pathway was traveled by vertebrates that fed on refuse around human habitats or by animals that preyed on other animals drawn to human camps. Those animals established a commensal relationship with humans in which the animals benefited but the humans received no harm but little benefit. Those animals that were most capable of taking advantage of the resources associated with human camps would have been the tamer, less aggressive individuals with shorter fight or flight distances. Later, these animals developed closer social or economic bonds with humans that led to a domestic relationship. The leap from a synanthropic population to a domestic one could only have taken place after the animals had progressed from anthropophily to habituation, to commensalism and partnership, when the relationship between animal and human would have laid the foundation for domestication, including captivity and human-controlled breeding. From this perspective, animal domestication is a coevolutionary process in which a population responds to selective pressure while adapting to a novel niche that included another species with evolving behaviors. Commensal pathway animals include dogs, cats, fowl, and possibly pigs.


title: Domestication of animals

text: The domestication of animals commenced over 15,000 years before present (YBP), beginning with the grey wolf ("Canis lupus") by nomadic hunter-gatherers. It was not until 11,000 YBP that people living in the Near East entered into relationships with wild populations of aurochs, boar, sheep, and goats. A domestication process then began to develop. The grey wolf most likely followed the commensal pathway to domestication. When, where, and how many times wolves may have been domesticated remains debated because only a small number of ancient specimens have been found, and both archaeology and genetics continue to provide conflicting evidence. The most widely accepted, earliest dog remains date back 15,000 YBP to the Bonn–Oberkassel dog. Earlier remains dating back to 30,000 YBP have been described as Paleolithic dogs, however their status as dogs or wolves remains debated. Recent studies indicate that a genetic divergence occurred between dogs and wolves 20,000–40,000 YBP, however this is the upper time-limit for domestication because it represents the time of divergence and not the time of domestication.


title: Domestication of animals

text: The chicken is one of the most widespread domesticated species and one of the human world's largest sources of protein. Although the chicken was domesticated in South-East Asia, archaeological evidence suggests that it was not kept as a livestock species until 400 BCE in the Levant. Prior to this, chickens had been associated with humans for thousands of years and kept for cock-fighting, rituals, and royal zoos, so they were not originally a prey species. The chicken was not a popular food in Europe until only one thousand years ago.


title: Domestication of animals

text: The prey pathway was the way in which most major livestock species entered into domestication as these were once hunted by humans for their meat. Domestication was likely initiated when humans began to experiment with hunting strategies designed to increase the availability of these prey, perhaps as a response to localized pressure on the supply of the animal. Over time and with the more responsive species, these game-management strategies developed into herd-management strategies that included the sustained multi-generational control over the animals’ movement, feeding, and reproduction. As human interference in the life-cycles of prey animals intensified, the evolutionary pressures for a lack of aggression would have led to an acquisition of the same domestication syndrome traits found in the commensal domesticates.


title: Domestication of animals

text: Prey pathway animals include sheep, goats, cattle, water buffalo, yak, pig, reindeer, llama and alpaca. The right conditions for the domestication for some of them appear to have been in place in the central and eastern Fertile Crescent at the end of the Younger Dryas climatic downturn and the beginning of the Early Holocene about 11,700 YBP, and by 10,000 YBP people were preferentially killing young males of a variety of species and allowed the females to live in order to produce more offspring. By measuring the size, sex ratios, and mortality profiles of zooarchaeological specimens, archeologists have been able to document changes in the management strategies of hunted sheep, goats, pigs, and cows in the Fertile Crescent starting 11,700 YBP. A recent demographic and metrical study of cow and pig remains at Sha’ar Hagolan, Israel, demonstrated that both species were severely overhunted before domestication, suggesting that the intensive exploitation led to management strategies adopted throughout the region that ultimately led to the domestication of these populations following the prey pathway. This pattern of overhunting before domestication suggests that the prey pathway was as accidental and unintentional as the commensal pathway.


title: Domestication of animals

text: The directed pathway was a more deliberate and directed process initiated by humans with the goal of domesticating a free-living animal. It probably only came into being once people were familiar with either commensal or prey-pathway domesticated animals. These animals were likely not to possess many of the behavioral preadaptions some species show before domestication. Therefore, the domestication of these animals requires more deliberate effort by humans to work around behaviors that do not assist domestication, with increased technological assistance needed.


title: Domestication of animals

text: Humans were already reliant on domestic plants and animals when they imagined the domestic versions of wild animals. Although horses, donkeys, and Old World camels were sometimes hunted as prey species, they were each deliberately brought into the human niche for sources of transport. Domestication was still a multi-generational adaptation to human selection pressures, including tameness, but without a suitable evolutionary response then domestication was not achieved. For example, despite the fact that hunters of the Near Eastern gazelle in the Epipaleolithic avoided culling reproductive females to promote population balance, neither gazelles nor zebras possessed the necessary prerequisites and were never domesticated. There is no clear evidence for the domestication of any herded prey animal in Africa, with the notable exception of the donkey, which was domesticated in Northeast Africa sometime in the 4th millennium BCE.


title: Domestication of animals

text: The pathways that animals may have followed are not mutually exclusive. Pigs, for example, may have been domesticated as their populations became accustomed to the human niche, which would suggest a commensal pathway, or they may have been hunted and followed a prey pathway, or both.


title: Domestication of animals

text: As agricultural societies migrated away from the domestication centers taking their domestic partners with them, they encountered populations of wild animals of the same or sister species. Because domestics often shared a recent common ancestor with the wild populations, they were capable of producing fertile offspring. Domestic populations were small relative to the surrounding wild populations, and repeated hybridizations between the two eventually led to the domestic population becoming more genetically divergent from its original domestic source population.


title: Domestication of animals

text: Advances in DNA sequencing technology allow the nuclear genome to be accessed and analyzed in a population genetics framework. The increased resolution of nuclear sequences has demonstrated that gene flow is common, not only between geographically diverse domestic populations of the same species but also between domestic populations and wild species that never gave rise to a domestic population.


title: Domestication of animals

text: The archaeological and genetic data suggests that long-term bidirectional gene flow between wild and domestic stocks – including canids, donkeys, horses, New and Old World camelids, goats, sheep, and pigs – was common. Bidirectional gene flow between domestic and wild reindeer continues today.


title: Domestication of animals

text: The consequence of this introgression is that modern domestic populations can often appear to have much greater genomic affinity to wild populations that were never involved in the original domestication process. Therefore, it is proposed that the term "domestication" should be reserved solely for the initial process of domestication of a discrete population in time and space. Subsequent admixture between introduced domestic populations and local wild populations that were never domesticated should be referred to as "introgressive capture". Conflating these two processes muddles our understanding of the original process and can lead to an artificial inflation of the number of times domestication took place. This introgression can, in some cases, be regarded as adaptive introgression, as observed in domestic sheep due to gene flow with the wild European Mouflon.


title: Domestication of animals

text: The sustained admixture between different dog and wolf populations across the Old and New Worlds over at least the last 10,000 years has blurred the genetic signatures and confounded efforts of researchers at pinpointing the origins of dogs. None of the modern wolf populations are related to the Pleistocene wolves that were first domesticated, and the extinction of the wolves that were the direct ancestors of dogs has muddied efforts to pinpoint the time and place of dog domestication.


title: Domestication of animals

text: Charles Darwin recognized the small number of traits that made domestic species different from their wild ancestors. He was also the first to recognize the difference between conscious selective breeding in which humans directly select for desirable traits, and unconscious selection where traits evolve as a by-product of natural selection or from selection on other traits.


title: Domestication of animals

text: Domestic animals have variations in coat color and craniofacial morphology, reduced brain size, floppy ears, and changes in the endocrine system and their reproductive cycle. The domesticated silver fox experiment demonstrated that selection for tameness within a few generations can result in modified behavioral, morphological, and physiological traits. In addition to demonstrating that domestic phenotypic traits could arise through selection for a behavioral trait, and domestic behavioral traits could arise through the selection for a phenotypic trait, these experiments provided a mechanism to explain how the animal domestication process could have begun without deliberate human forethought and action. In the 1980s, a researcher used a set of behavioral, cognitive, and visible phenotypic markers, such as coat colour, to produce domesticated fallow deer within a few generations. Similar results for tameness and fear have been found for mink and Japanese quail.


title: Domestication of animals

text: The genetic difference between domestic and wild populations can be framed within two considerations. The first distinguishes between domestication traits that are presumed to have been essential at the early stages of domestication, and improvement traits that have appeared since the split between wild and domestic populations. Domestication traits are generally fixed within all domesticates and were selected during the initial episode of domestication, whereas improvement traits are present only in a proportion of domesticates, though they may be fixed in individual breeds or regional populations. A second issue is whether traits associated with the domestication syndrome resulted from a relaxation of selection as animals exited the wild environment or from positive selection resulting from intentional and unintentional human preference. Some recent genomic studies on the genetic basis of traits associated with the domestication syndrome have shed light on both of these issues.


title: Domestication of animals

text: Geneticists have identified more than 300 genetic loci and 150 genes associated with coat color variability. Knowing the mutations associated with different colors has allowed some correlation between the timing of the appearance of variable coat colors in horses with the timing of their domestication. Other studies have shown how human-induced selection is responsible for the allelic variation in pigs. Together, these insights suggest that, although natural selection has kept variation to a minimum before domestication, humans have actively selected for novel coat colors as soon as they appeared in managed populations.


title: Domestication of animals

text: In 2015, a study looked at over 100 pig genome sequences to ascertain their process of domestication. The process of domestication was assumed to have been initiated by humans, involved few individuals and relied on reproductive isolation between wild and domestic forms, but the study found that the assumption of reproductive isolation with population bottlenecks was not supported. The study indicated that pigs were domesticated separately in Western Asia and China, with Western Asian pigs introduced into Europe where they crossed with wild boar. A model that fitted the data included admixture with a now extinct ghost population of wild pigs during the Pleistocene. The study also found that despite back-crossing with wild pigs, the genomes of domestic pigs have strong signatures of selection at genetic loci that affect behavior and morphology. The study concluded that human selection for domestic traits likely counteracted the homogenizing effect of gene flow from wild boars and created domestication islands in the genome. The same process may also apply to other domesticated animals.


title: Domestication of animals

text: Unlike other domestic species which were primarily selected for production-related traits, dogs were initially selected for their behaviors. In 2016, a study found that there were only 11 fixed genes that showed variation between wolves and dogs. These gene variations were unlikely to have been the result of natural evolution, and indicate selection on both morphology and behavior during dog domestication. These genes have been shown to affect the catecholamine synthesis pathway, with the majority of the genes affecting the fight-or-flight response (i.e. selection for tameness), and emotional processing. Dogs generally show reduced fear and aggression compared to wolves. Some of these genes have been associated with aggression in some dog breeds, indicating their importance in both the initial domestication and then later in breed formation.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE is a 2015 role-playing video game developed by Atlus and published by Nintendo for the Wii U home console. The game is a crossover that combines gameplay, narrative, and aesthetic elements from Atlus's "Shin Megami Tensei" and Nintendo's "Fire Emblem" series. It was released in Japan in December 2015 and worldwide in June 2016. An enhanced port for the Nintendo Switch, Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE Encore, was released on January 17, 2020.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: Taking place in modern-day Tokyo and featuring real-life locations such as Shibuya and Harajuku, the game centers around hostile beings known as Mirages who seek to harvest energy known as Performa from humans and are responsible for several disappearances. The story follows a group of teenagers who become allied with friendly Mirages, based on characters from the "Fire Emblem" series, and merge with them to become Mirage Masters. Under the guise of the Fortuna Entertainment talent agency, the Mirage Masters fight to protect innocent people from the Mirages and find out who is behind the attacks.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: The game was first proposed by Nintendo producer Kaori Ando, who envisioned a crossover between the "Fire Emblem" and the "Shin Megami Tensei" series. Although initially reluctant due to their workload, Atlus agreed to the collaboration, and much of the early work went into deciding what genre of game it was going to be and how best to incorporate both series while creating an original game. The production period lasted five years. A notable feature was musical numbers produced by Japanese entertainment company Avex Group.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: The game was announced two months after full development began. Its Western release retains the Japanese voice track with subtitles rather than an English dub. Reception of the game was generally positive; many praised the battle system, reactions to the story were mixed, and other elements such as dungeon designs and a lack of "Fire Emblem"-related elements were criticized along with technical problems. The game was later chosen by critics as one of the best games for the Wii U.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: "Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE" is a role-playing video game (RPG), and a crossover between the "Shin Megami Tensei" and "Fire Emblem" series. Set in modern-day Tokyo, the game follows the members of a talent agency during their conflicts with hostile beings from another world called Mirages. To help them, the main cast are allied with friendly Mirages inspired by characters from multiple "Fire Emblem" games. The game's story is split up into several chapters, with the player also able to participate inside stories for various playable and supporting characters, as well as take quests from non-playable characters (NPCs) in Tokyo. The game alternates between real-world Tokyo and the Idolaspheres—alternate dimensions where enemy Mirages roam.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: Players control the main protagonist Itsuki as he explores both worlds, interacting with various characters. Players can spend money earned from battles to purchase restorative items that replenish health points (HP) and energy points (EP). Players can also purchase protective accessories, with shops offering lottery tickets allowing players to win additional items. Players can also find various items in the Idolospheres, either by finding hidden treasure chests or defeating enemies in battle. The Wii U GamePad displays an in-game social app known as Topic where players can receive messages from other characters, keep updated on available Unity fusions, and view a map of each area.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: By utilizing a place called the Bloom Palace, players can perform two kinds of Unity ritual to strengthen their party: Carnage Unity and Radiant Unity. Carnage Unity uses Performa, which are obtained in battle by defeating monsters and performing crowd-pleasing techniques, to create new weapons for each character. Each weapon carries four skills which a party member can inherit by earning experience in battle. These include Command Skills, which allow the party member to perform various attacks and spells, Passive Skills, which offer passive stat boosts and effects, and Session Skills, which are used to chain together Session Attacks. Each character can only hold six skills of each type, but if they inherit a skill they already have, it is stacked on top and becomes more effective. Radiant Unity uses Performa that is born from within each party member, either through plot progression and clearing side stories, or by increasing a character's Star Ranking in a battle to grant them Radiant Skills. These are permanent skills separate from those inherited from weapons, and include passive effects such as increased health or extended Session Attacks as well as skills that can be performed in battle.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: The party's activities alternate between events in the real world and exploration through dungeons in the Idolospheres, each designed around a specific theme. Unlocked by progressing through the story, the party navigates through multiple floors, activating switches and devices to solve puzzles and advance while avoiding traps and encountering or avoiding enemies represented by sprites on the field. The dungeon map is displayed on the GamePad. Once cleared, dungeons can be replayed at any time. Friendly NPC mirages also act as merchants within dungeons. Battles are triggered when an enemy touches the party touched. The player can attack a Mirage on the field to stun it, allowing them to perform a pre-emptive attack or avoid battle.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: The game features a turn-based combat system in which party members and enemy Mirages take turns to perform actions such as attacking, casting spells, and using items. The player's party consists of three main characters which, except main character Itsuki, can be swapped out both inside and outside of battle. Similar to both "Fire Emblem" and "Shin Megami Tensei"s battle systems, party members and enemies each have strengths and weaknesses against certain types of physical attacks, such as swords and arrows, and elemental attacks, such as fire and ice. The affinities of each party member change depending on the weapon they have equipped.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: Session Attacks are combination attacks that can be triggered by targeting an enemy's weakness. If another party member possesses a Session Skill linking to the type of attack used, they will automatically perform a pursuit attack, which may then trigger another attack and so on. For example, if one party member attacks with an ice attack, another party member with an Ice-Elec skill will follow up with an electrical attack. Session Attacks may also be carried out by the enemy if they target a party member's weakness. By building up a special meter through attacks, players can earn SP which can be used to trigger Performance attacks, which can be earned through Unity and by completing side-stories. These are called Duo Attacks which are performed by a partner's Mirage. Dual Attacks, on the other hand, can be triggered during a Session Attack to extend the combo at random times. Additionally, party members can learn Ad-lib Performances which may randomly activate while performing certain skills.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: Along with items and money earned from battles, winning battles earn experience points which increase each party member's level and allows them to learn skills from their weapons. Performing well in battles, such as achieving quick victories or successful Session Attacks, increases party members' Stage Level, which unlock Performa for Radiant Skills and opens up new side stories. The game ends, sending the player back to the title screen, if all party members are knocked unconscious by running out of HP.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: "Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE" is set in modern-day Tokyo, Japan. The story moves between multiple well-known city districts, such as Shibuya and Harajuku. In the universe of "Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE", everyone holds energy called Performa that enables them to pursue their dreams. Performa attracts beings called Mirages, who hail from an alternate dimension called the Idolasphere: while some Mirages harvest Performa for malicious motives, others form alliances with humans to protect the real world. Those who form alliances with friendly Mirages are referred to as Mirage Masters. The main casts are employees and associates of Fortuna Entertainment, a talent agency that secretly acts as a hub and recruiting organization for Mirage Masters.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: The main protagonist is Itsuki Aoi, a high schooler who by chance becomes involved with Fortuna Entertainment, and is initially uninterested in the business. The other human main characters are Tsubasa Oribe, an optimistic and hard-working classmate of Itsuki who seeks to become a pop idol; Touma Akagi, an impulsive friend of Itsuki and Tsubasa working to become an actor in a tokusatsu show; Kiria Kurono, a famous idol and veteran Mirage Master; Eleonora Yumizuru, a successful half-Scandinavian actress; Mamori Minamoto, a cooking show host with a taste for Shōwa period clothing and music; and Yashiro Tsurugi, a superstar male idol who is initially hostile towards the party and their ambitions. The group are aided by Maiko Shimazaki, a former model who is the head of Fortuna Entertainment; and Barry Goodman, a strict instructor from overseas with a love of otaku culture. The Mirages who ally with the cast are Chrom, Virion and Tharja from "Fire Emblem Awakening", and Caeda, Cain, Draug and Navarre from "". A different Mirage is Tiki, who provides assistance to the Mirage Masters and is portrayed in the real world as a popular "utaloid".


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: "Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE" opens five years before the game's main events: at an opera attended by a young Tsubasa and Yashiro, everyone apart from Tsubasa vanishes without a trace. In the present, Itsuki encounters Tsubasa at the One of Millennium talent audition event, where she is hoping to begin her career as an idol. The MC is possessed by a hostile Mirage, and everyone in the building apart from Itsuki and Tsubasa is stripped of their Performa. Itsuki follows Tsubasa into the Idolasphere, and both are attacked by hostile Mirages. Awakening to their Performa, they use it to cleanse the Mirages: their attackers are revealed to be Chrom and Caeda, who ally with Itsuki and Tsubasa respectively. With help from Touma, who is the Mirage Master to Cain, the party frees the MC from the hostile Mirage's control. Leaving the Idolasphere, they encounter Maiko, who offers them positions alongside Touma in Fortuna Entertainment so they can both forward their entertainment careers and help fight Mirage attacks alongside Kiria and her Mirage Tharja. They are aided by Tiki, who is suffering from amnesia similarly to the other allied Mirages.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: Further attacks follow at multiple locations throughout Tokyo, each focusing on leading entertainment and media figureheads being possessed by hostile Mirages: these Mirages are revealed to be servants of a greater power. During one mission, the group rescues producer Yatsufusa Hatanaka, who later keeps a close watch on them. They also gather new allies in the form of Elenora and her partner Virion; and Mamori and her partner Draug, who was the former partner of and initially possessed Barry. On many missions, Yashiro and his partner Navarre watch and sometimes act as an antagonistic force, before Itsuki's leadership and strength persuade Yashiro that he can help him avenge his father, who was the lead singer in the opera five years before. The group finds an item called a Dragonstone, which restores some of Tiki's memories. She reveals that she and the other friendly Mirages unsuccessfully attempted to stop the dark mage Gharnef from summoning the Shadow Dragon Medeus into their native realm with a ceremony called the Opera of Shadows. Tiki was banished into the Idolasphere, which acted as an intermediate dimension between the real world and her world, and she was instrumental in preventing Gharnef from performing the Opera of Shadows a second time to enter the real world as his native realm had become drained of artistic energy. His attempt sparked the mass disappearance of five years before, and Tiki shielded both Tsubasa and Yashiro at the cost of her memories.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: After this, the Cosmic Egg Stadium is consumed by an Idolasphere portal. Heading to the Cosmic Egg, the party are stopped by Hatanaka, who reveals himself to be the willing Mirage Master of Gharnef: the two are planning to perform the Opera of Shadows, summoning Medeus to consume the real world's Performa. The group recover Dragonstones from the conquered Idolasphere realms and restore Tiki's memory: she reveals that they must find the pieces of the Fire Emblem and perform the Opera of Light to summon the power of the Divine Dragon Naga, the only force capable of stopping Medeus. Collecting the Fire Emblem pieces, they learn the story of the Hero-King Marth, a warrior from ancient times who bested and sealed away Gharnef and Medeus. The group encounters and defeats Hatanaka and Gharnef, but their sacrifice coupled with the offering of Marth's soul completes the Opera of Shadows and summons Medeus. Traveling to the final Idolasphere realm, Itsuki is fatally injured by Medeus, but the Fire Emblem gems free Marth's soul, which saves Itsuki and allows the group to perform the Opera of Light and defeat Medeus. The Mirages, with their memories restored and Medeus gone forever, return with Tiki to their native realm.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: Alongside the main narrative are side stories involving various members of Fortuna Entertainment, whom Itsuki can help as he learns from working in various sectors of the agency's business. These quests' storylines include Tsubasa working to create her idol persona; Touma's wish to become an inspirational actor; Kiria's discomfort with her softer side, which clashes with her professional identity; Eleanora's attempts to polish her abilities as an actress in preparation for a hoped-for Hollywood career; Mamori pushing to expand her professional range beyond her cooking host role; Yashiro breaking out of his self-imposed personal and professional isolation, culminating in a battle with his father's spirit; the often-tipsy Maiko's efforts to maintain Fortuna's public and private functions; Barry's antics and his growing insecurity after losing his Mirage Master abilities; and Tiki wanting the chance to experience the real world. If all the side stories are completed, a post-credits scene is unlocked where Maiko returns to modelling, and Itsuki is unanimously instated as the new manager of Fortuna Entertainment.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: "Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE" was the brainchild of Nintendo producer Kaori Ando, who voiced her wish to make a "Fire Emblem" crossover to fellow producer Hitoshi Yamagami in 2010. Ando's initial vision was for a collaboration between the "Fire Emblem" and "Pokémon" series, but this was rejected as a similar collaboration was being developed in the form of "Pokémon Conquest". Ando redrafted her proposal and submitted it a week later as a crossover between "Fire Emblem" and "Shin Megami Tensei". Atlus, the developer of the "Shin Megami Tensei" series, had previously worked with Nintendo on a game titled "Itsumo Purikura ☆ Kuradeko Premium" for the Nintendo DSi and 3DS. When the project was originally pitched to Atlus in 2010, it was assumed that they were not interested after their unenthusiastic response and later said they were too busy to undertake the collaboration. Over a year later, Atlus inquired as to whether the subject was still open for discussion, and it transpired that they had been highly enthusiastic while still being too busy with other projects. Shinjiro Takada, who was also working on "", was appointed as a producer. While he had viewed "Fire Emblem" as a rival and quality goal for his work, he was honored to be given the chance to develop a title related to "Fire Emblem". The game's directors were Mitsuru Hirata, who was supporting director on "", and Eiji Ishida, who worked on both "Strange Journey" and "Shin Megami Tensei IV". Hirata was originally the project's sole director, but seven months after the game's public announcement, Ishida was brought on to co-direct so the amount of work needed for the title could be managed. According to Ishida, it was the company's first original game for eighth-generation consoles. Full development began in 2013. From conception to release, production on "Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE" lasted five years.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: During its early production, what type of game it would become relied on whether Atlus or "Fire Emblem" developer Intelligent Systems would develop it. One of the problems that needed to be overcome was the form of the initial proposal, which was for a simulation game similar to "Fire Emblem" developed by Atlus. Atlus, who was better known for making traditional role-playing games, was unsure which series to emulate. The decision was eventually made to create something along the lines of a traditional RPG, so Atlus took on primary development. Their first concept turned out to be a grid-based strategy game with strategic positioning elements similar to "Fire Emblem", but they were eventually convinced by Yamagami and staff from Intelligent Systems to keep within their skill set rather than attempting anything radically different. The final product was visualized as a game only Atlus could make, incorporating elements from both series while standing as an original title that could be enjoyed by fans of both "Shin Megami Tensei" and "Fire Emblem". The game's platform was chosen based on the recent successful "Fire Emblem" entries for the 3DS: as "Fire Emblem" had appeared on the 3DS, "Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE" was to be a different "expression" designed for the Wii U. During these early stages, proposals were also made for a 3DS version, but this never materialized. Despite the final product, some of the conceptual ideas were taken from early plans for "Fire Emblem Awakening" to take place in a modern-day setting. The inclusion of a sharp symbol in the title, which represents a semitone increase in the pitch of a note in musical notation, denoted the game's status as a unique hybrid of the two series. The inclination of the logo was also designed to represent the game's altered perspective on the "Fire Emblem" series. The game's cutscenes were created by Studio Anima, who handled the animated cutscenes for "Fire Emblem Awakening" and "Fire Emblem Fates", and Studio 4°C.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: The scenario was written by Yoh Haduki and Makoto Miyauchi. Haduki was in charge of the main narrative, while Miyauchi handled the side stories for the main cast. During the early scenario development, it was thought that the main characters would be reincarnations of "Fire Emblem" characters, but this was dismissed as it would link it too strongly to the "Fire Emblem" series. When going through how to help incorporate "Fire Emblem" characters within the "Atlus mythos", they decided to use a concept from Japanese Shamanism called the "kami oroshi", which stands for a deity possessing and communicating through a priest or ritual dancer. A further extension of this was the incorporation of the kagura ritual dance, which in turn led to the inclusion of the entertainment theme. Inspiration was also from traditional Noh theater. The character of Itsuki Aoi, who is not directly associated with any branch of Japanese media and entertainment, was created to introduce the setting and characters from an outsider's point of view. Itsuki was also a rarity among Atlus protagonists in that he took an active role in conversations with other characters rather than being a silent protagonist.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: The side stories were created so the player could better understand and empathize with the struggles of entertainers in the industry and their private lives. Part of the team's struggle was balancing the main story and side missions and making both appealing to players. During an earlier stage, there was no divide between these two mission types, which ended up clashing with major story events and prompting players to ignore the side stories. To counter this, "Intermission" periods were created where side story chapters could be accessed. In the end, the side stories became a large part of the game's thematic base, causing Yamagami to consider them something more. The general infusion of Japanese pop idol culture and the performing arts into the title was Atlus's take on traditions within Japanese Shamanism where the dancing of priestesses brought them closer to the gods they worshiped: in the game, it is through their performances that the main characters draw the attention of the Mirages and summon them into the real world. Also working on the scenario was Aoi Akashiro, a writer whose resume included anime and video games.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: Aesthetically, the game used "Fire Emblem" elements as motifs, but took its setting and premise of a clash between worlds from "Shin Megami Tensei". The battle system was originally going to be similar to a "Fire Emblem" game, but while it did incorporate elements such as the Weapon Triangle, it ultimately became a turn-based RPG battle system. After Atlus was made primary developer, the story was set in modern-day Tokyo and written around a group of young people facing challenges together. Its upbeat focus on character drama was a deliberate shift away from the dark scenarios of the "Megami Tensei" series. The game takes place in multiple locations around Tokyo, including Shibuya and Harajuku. The modern setting provided challenges for incorporating "Fire Emblem" characters, as characters in medieval armor just dropping into a modern setting would have looked strange. Among the considered possibilities were introducing "Fire Emblem" characters as human party members. In the end, it was decided to make them summoned helpers similar to the demons of "Shin Megami Tensei", drawn into the real world from their Idolosphere dimension.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: To make real-world locations as realistic as possible, the team went on multiple scouting trips, taking photographs of locations like the Shibuya 109 department store. They originally wanted to mimic the chosen areas of Tokyo very closely, but they needed to consider how this might make travel times between locations overly long for players: this was done by incrementally reducing the scale of environments while keeping the scenery and aesthetic intact. According to Hirata, the process of designing Shibuya alone took between one and two years. Battles were designed around the concept of a stage, with an audience made up of Mirages raised into excitement by the party's performance. In-battle rewards of money were designed to be "ohineri" (paper-wrapped offerings) rewarded to the party for their performance. An early version of the battle transition screen was an "assistant director" using a clapperboard, then offering in-battle commentary. These elements were completely cut from the game. Other elements that were cut included a high amount of camera movement during battles and booing from the audience when the party made mistakes.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: The game's art director was Fumitaka Yano of Atlus. The main aesthetic chosen for the game revolved around bright colors, a noted shift from the majority of Atlus's previous games. The bright colors were designed to emulate the focus on the entertainment industry, with various shades and effects portraying a colorful world. In contrast, the dungeons were designed around fantasy motifs and meant to embody the Mirages having been robbed of "expression". The game's dungeons were based around real-world locations within Tokyo, and had gimmicks inspired by a chosen location: for instance, one dungeon inspired by Shibuya 109 was themed around fashion. The main characters were designed by toi8, a Japanese artist noted for his work on ".hack//The Movie". When he was approached, he was finishing work on the cover of a light novel and wondering what he would be doing next. While his previous work used a low color saturation, for "Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE" he used high color saturation suited to its setting. According to Takada, the team asked toi8 to design the world in this way to create "a feeling of both friendliness and splendor". The Mirage characters were designed by Hideo Minaba of Japanese design company CyDesignation, and were based on characters from "Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light" and "Awakening". They were designed to contrast with toi8's character designs with the deliberate exception of Tiki, having a machine-like appearance. This was due to the long battle the characters had been facing: their armor reflected the dark events they had faced, and parts of themselves unneeded for survival have degenerated. Minaba had been a fan of the "Fire Emblem" series and encountered difficulties designing the characters. His main aim was to remain true to the original characters while emulating the sharp and dark character style of Atlus games.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: From an early stage, Atlus wanted to have Avex Group cooperating on musical numbers. The planned style, which would have vocal themes performed like music videos or sample trailers, needed a level of professionalism the team felt only Avex could provide. The in-game music was composed by Yoshiaki Fujisawa, who was famous for his work on the Japanese multimedia project "Love Live!". Fujisawa was contacted in late 2013 by George Aburai, an in-house composer who also worked with multiple well-known entertainers at Avex Group. Fujisawa found the composition difficult as he was more used to composing for television series rather than video games. To help him, Atlus's sound team gave him advice about aspects such as the timing, feel, and emotive elements of tracks. Ultimately, he found the working environment fun and was pleased when he first saw a test video featuring one of his songs. As a central story theme was the entertainment industry, the soundtrack was filled with vocal tunes and "groovy" tracks. The game features stage performances involving the main characters, which were produced and choreographed by Aburai for Avex Group. The performances made use of full-motion capture, and the 3D animation for the choreographed performances was handled by Studio Anima.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: Aburai formed a group from various areas of Avex Group to work on production. After forming his team, Aburai worked to analyze the personalities and traits of the main cast to determine how their performances would play out, in addition to other factors such as their professions' impact on their portrayal. The only vocal theme composed by Fujisawa was "Fire Emblem ~Drama of Light~", which used an arranged version of the "Fire Emblem" theme composed by Yuka Tsujiyoko. The remaining vocal themes each handled by different composers, many either working with or with previous ties to Avex Group. A prominent theme was "Reincarnation", which was the first song to be created and gave Aburai the most trouble as it would set the standard of the game's music. Two notable songs not performed by the main cast were "Distance between you and me" by the fictional idol group Emotional Key, performed by Karin Nanami, Yumi Wakatsuki and Mina Nakazawa; and the in-game anime theme "Dia Sweet Witch" performed by former "Idoling!!!" singer Mayu Sekiya.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: A commercial CD release featuring all the game's vocal themes, "Genei Ibunroku ♯FE Vocal Collection", was released February 10, 2016 by Avex Group's music label Avex Trax. The CD included eighteen songs, all full versions mainly not heard in the game itself. A full soundtrack album, "Genei Ibunroku ♯FE Encore Best Sound Collection", was released by Avex Trax on January 17, 2020. The 3-CD album included all the original vocal themes, official versions of the in-game music, and new music and the song "She Is..." from "Encore".


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: Due to the performing aspect of the game, the team were faced with the difficulty of finding voice actors and actresses who could both act and sing. Voice actor Ryōhei Kimura was given the role of Itsuki, which he played so Itsuki would lack a strong personality as he was essentially the player's avatar. Itsuki's only two songs were "Fire Emblem (Drama of Light)" and "Smile Smile", which both focused on strong bonds with the other cast members. Actress and singer Inori Minase voiced Tsubasa; Minase played Tsubasa as the opposite of her normal persona, and encountered difficulties portraying her as "normal". Touma was voiced by actor Yūki Ono, who called the role "straight and refreshing". Ono also sang Touma's theme "Jump! Ōga!". Kiria's actress Yoshino Nanjō strove to portray her character in a "cool" way without her coming off as cold, reflecting the character's inner softness. Nanjō found recording the songs strenuous as she was unused to character-based singles. Nanjō's performance of Kiria's song "Reincarnation" needed to be redone around ten times until it fitted properly with the character's personality. Ayane Sakura voices Eleanora, who despite being nervous made an effort to portray the character in a bullish yet clumsy way, pushing to balance her forward manner with making her appealing for players.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: Kaori Fukuhara, the actress for Mamori, portrayed her role so the character would sound childlike without being overly childish in her manner and tone. Yashiro's voice actor Yoshimasa Hosoya found singing for the role difficult as he lacked a natural sense of rhythm. Yashiro's main song was made deliberately complex, as the character singing it on stage would emphasise his skills. Tiki's voice actress Sumire Morohoshi found the role difficult due to Tiki's role as an explanatory figure, together with the dramatic elements of her amnesia and wish to experience the real world. Tiki's first song "Beastie Game" drew from multiple musical genres to reflect her status as a Vocaloid. When recording "Beastie Game", Morohoshi was surprised upon hearing her voice processed to sound like a vocaloid. For her second song, "Not A Phantom World", Morohoshi had to record multiple chorus elements which were then layered as backing for the main song, encountering difficulties making all her harmonies work together properly. Yuichi Nakamura portrayed Barry as the group's mood maker, while Maiko's actress Ami Koshimizu worked to make her character both aloof and charming. During voice and song recording, Aburai actively talked with the cast about their vocal nuances and interpretations of each song.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: The game was announced in January 2013 as part of a Nintendo Direct presentation under the English working title "Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem", announced as one of many planned collaboration projects with third-party developers for the Wii U. The trailer featured artwork of characters from the "Shin Megami Tensei" and "Fire Emblem" series, and concluded with the message "Development in Progress". There was much initial speculation by journalists as to the game's genre due to the trailer's vague nature. Atlus confirmed the following day that the game was an RPG, and that it would be developed by Atlus and produced by Nintendo. At the time of its announcement, many parts of the game had yet to be developed and finalized, as it had only been two months since the beginning of development.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: The lack of reports after the initial announcement raised concerns that the game had been cancelled. During an interview at E3 2014 concerning "" and whether its development was affecting "Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE", Yamagami confirmed that the game was still in development and on schedule. In April 2015, a gameplay trailer was released during a Nintendo Direct broadcast, which also confirmed the game's Japanese title and release window. The Japanese title, "Genei Ibunroku ♯FE", translates to ""Illusory Revelations ♯FE"". First-print runs of the Japanese release included codes for special costumes inspired by other Atlus games. In addition, Atlus produced a "Fortissimo Edition", containing a special box, an original artbook, a six-track CD release including "Reincarnation", and downloadable content (DLC) outfits for the playable characters. A Wii U bundle was also created, featuring similar content in addition to special stickers and special lyric cards. Between its original reveal and the retail release, Kiria's stage costume for her number "Reincarnation" was altered to be less revealing. DLC was created for the title as both promotional material and post-release content, which included downloadable scenarios including a "Hot Spring" scenario.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: An English version was announced at E3 2015, with the release date being revealed in a Nintendo Direct presentation in March 2016. It was released in North America and Europe on June 24, 2016, and in Australia the following day. A limited edition similar to Japan's "Fortissimo Edition" was made available as an online exclusive through Amazon.com and GameStop: it is titled the "Special Edition" in North America and "Fortissimo Edition" in Europe. Aside from the Hot Springs scenario and its associated swimwear outfits, all Japanese DLC was released in the West for the game's launch.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: Due to the game's Japanese setting and focus, in addition to many people preferring overseas songs in their original languages, the Western version of the game features Japanese audio with subtitles rather than an English dub. Finding English actors to perform the game's songs would also have lengthened the estimated localization time by a whole year. Its localization was handled by Atlus staff rather than Nintendo's internal localization division Nintendo Treehouse. Atlus was chosen over Nintendo due to fan expectation of the type of localization common to an Atlus-published title, and the wish to make the game appeal to long-term fans of the company's work. This placed the game in contrast with the majority of other Nintendo titles localized for the West, where Nintendo's attitude was described as "very hands-on".


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: Some aspects of the game were changed for its Western release: these changes included the removal or alteration of several revealing costumes, the removal of visual and dialogue references to Gravure modelling, and changes to the ages of certain characters. Multiple sections of dialogue were re-recorded to match these changes. The game's Hot Springs scenario and associated costumes also went unreleased. The removed outfits were replaced with Western-exclusive outfits. Changes to content were attributed to Nintendo's varying content requirements and regulations for the regions the game was released in. Staff later defended these changes as necessary adjustments based on the regions they would be releasing the game in, while working on keeping the core identity intact. After the game's Western release, staff were divided on the issue: Yamagami was positive about the game's adaption for a Western audience, while Hirata was initially disappointed with the alterations before seeing positive responses to the game from Western fans. Following the game's Western release, a fan-developed patch was released that reverted all the localization changes, ranging from cosmetic alteration to script changes.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: An expanded port for the Nintendo Switch, titled "Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE Encore", was released on January 17, 2020. The port includes new story content and additional party members along with new music. Some new content was also incorporated from more recent "Fire Emblem" and Atlus titles such as unlockable costumes based on "Persona 5", Etrian Odyssey Nexus and "". Content that was previously DLC was now incorporated into the base game. As Nintendo were aiming for a simultaneous worldwide release, they decided to use the Western version — including its localization changes — as their base. Nintendo later issued a formal apology and offered pre-order cancellation options to Japanese buyers for failing to provide information regarding the changes ahead of time. A live concert organised by Avex Group, where the voice actors will perform their songs in front of a live audience, was originally scheduled to take place on June 27, 2020, but it has since been postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: Japanese gaming magazine "Famitsu" found the story's premise entertaining and interesting, and praised the side stories' focus on the supporting cast. Chris Carter of Destructoid noted that its focus on Japanese culture and similarity to fringe anime such as "Revolutionary Girl Utena" might put some people off, while "Game Informer"s Kimberley Wallace called the narrative both amusing and predictable. Cassandra Khaw of Eurogamer praised the character portrayals and the story's inclusion of the entertainment industry's darker elements. Game Revolution's James Kozanitis praised the game's over-the-top display and tone, enjoying the story despite its slow start, feeling that the pace was better suited to players who enjoyed anime. Alexa Ray Corriea, writing for GameSpot, found the story to be "a bit of a cheesy mess", but positively compared side stories to the Social Link systems from the "Persona" series. David Roberts—writing for GamesRadar—noted the story's lighthearted tone compared to other Atlus projects despite its dark opening premise, and Meghan Sullivan of IGN found the characters bland and the narrative poor compared to other aspects of the game. Nintendo Life's Conor McMahon noted the story's blatant use of its contemporary setting and entertainment theme, praised the side stories and praised the way the personalities of "Fire Emblem" characters were preserved. Daan Koopman of Nintendo World Report enjoyed the narrative due to its brisk pace and highlights of the Japanese entertainment industry, while Polygon's Janine Hawkins positively compared the story to magical girl anime, calling it "a co-ed version of "Sailor Moon" for the "Love Live!" age". Multiple reviewers noted a lack of "Fire Emblem" references, with several expressing disappointment with this imbalance.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: "Famitsu" praised the aesthetics and user interface design, while Cartar enjoyed the art design despite clear technical limitations. Khaw praised the animated cutscenes, and Wallace praised the character and monster designs despite finding the graphics dated and environments lacking detail. McMahon positively referred to the visuals as "undoubtedly one of its greatest strengths, with every aspect of its visual design firmly planted in the vibrant world of idol culture". Koopman also praised the visuals despite criticizing long load times. The music received praise from multiple reviewers, with several praising both environmental tracks and the musical numbers.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: "Famitsu" generally praised the gameplay, comparing it favorably to the "Persona" series while also commenting upon its unique elements. Carter greatly enjoyed the combat systems, saying they made up for more formulaic aspects such as general progression, Wallace praised the controls and combat, finding satisfying depth in its systems despite a need to grind for experience points. Khaw enjoyed the mechanics and style of the combat system, and praised the game for its relaxed pace. Kozanitis praised the blending of elements from both series, praising the combo mechanics and character growth systems. Corriea found the overall experience entertaining and engaging, but found boss fights brought down the experience due to becoming endurance tests rather than requiring any strategy. Despite criticizing the limit on skills, Roberts enjoyed the complexity and strategy of combat, praising it for removing the more tedious elements of its parent series. Sullivan praised the combat, calling the Session attacks its best feature and enjoying the overall spectacle and customization systems. McMahon praised the game's unique systems along with its blend of series elements, but found the GamePad difficult to use. Koopman said the battle system "[hit] the sweet spot" between "Persona" and "Fire Emblem" in its use of gameplay elements from both series in combination with its unique features. Hawkins also enjoyed the Session attacks, and praised the combat system and growth systems. Several reviewers found dungeon progression difficult due to backtracking or bland puzzles.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: According to "Famitsu", the game debuted at #13 with 23,806 units, having a moderate sell-through rate. At release, the game ranked as #8 in Nintendo's weekly download charts. The following week, it dropped to #16, selling another 9094 units, bringing total sales up to just under 33,000 units. By mid-January, it had dropped to #27, but its sell-through rate had increased. According to Media Create, the game reached #14 on their charts, with all versions selling 26,340 units. By the following week, it had dropped out of the top twenty. According to "Dengeki Online", the game had sold 32,896 units by January 2016. In its first week on sale in North America, the game sold 50,000 units. Upon its UK debut, the game reached #18 in the all-format charts and #16 in single-format.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: The Nintendo Switch version, "Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE Encore", debuted at #6 in Japan with 18,797 units sold according to "Famitsu", while "Media Create" reports the game debuted at #5 in Japan. In the UK, the game debuted at #17 in the all-format chart, and launch sales are reported to be 17% stronger than the original Wii U release. As of March 2020, the port has outsold the Wii U version in Japan, with a total of 39,182 copies sold.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: Critics were generally positive. The game scored an 80 out of 100 on aggregate site Metacritic based on 62 critic reviews. It was ranked by the site as the sixth best Wii U game of the year. "Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE" was awarded the "Dengeki Online" Award 2015: "Dengeki" referred to the game as a "masterpiece", calling it one of the best recent role-playing game and applauding the evolved "Megami Tensei" battle system and lighter-toned story. Destructoid awarded it as their best Wii U game of 2016, while RPGamer awarded it for Wii U RPG of the year. It was also nominated for and was the runner-up for IGN's "Wii U Game of the Year" in their "Best of 2016" awards. In Nintendo Life's 2016 Game of the Year awards, the game came third in the "Readers Votes Wii U Retail Game of the Year" category behind "" (#2) and "" (#1). GameSpot ranked it among the best Wii U games of 2016. It has been ranked by Kotaku, USGamer, Polygon and GamesRadar as one of the best video games for the console, and was included on "Business Insider" and "Polygon" list of Wii U games they wanted to see re-released on the Switch.


title: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

text: In 2020, Itsuki, Tsubasa, Kiria, Eleonora and Mamori were also introduced in "Fire Emblem Heroes", also featuring other characters from across the franchise's history, marking the first time characters from the game featured in a title explicitly marked as "Fire Emblem". Two years earlier, Tsubasa was featured in "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" as a Spirit.


title: Everything (video game)

text: Everything is a simulation game developed by artist David OReilly. It was released for the PlayStation 4 on March 21, 2017, for Microsoft Windows and macOS on April 21, 2017, and for Linux on April 28, 2017. A Nintendo Switch version of the game was released on January 10, 2019. It was released in Japan on February 13, 2020. The game sees the player take control of various lifeforms and inanimate objects, exploring the procedurally generated world and finding new things to take control of. "Everything" features quotations from philosopher Alan Watts and has no clear goal aside from occupying more objects within the game.


title: Everything (video game)

text: "Everything" is a simulation game where the player has the ability to explore a procedurally generated universe and control various objects within it. The player starts as one of many possible creatures and has the ability to move around. Initially, the player can shift their control to any creature or object smaller than the current one they occupy; this shifts the scale of the game to reflect this. Eventually the player can only shift into smaller and smaller parts of matter, down to the sub-atomic level, after which the game then allows the player to shift to larger objects as well. From this point, the player can take forms that include landmasses, planets, and whole star systems. As the player moves and shifts forms, they will find other creatures or objects speaking to them. The game uses a number of levels of "existence", representing different length scales, which the player can move between as they shift into different objects.


title: Everything (video game)

text: When a player "bonds" with a form for the first time, by moving or "singing", that object is added to an in-game encyclopedia catalogued by type. At any time, the player can shift to any form they have already previously inhabited, though this form will be scaled appropriately to the current scale the player is at: taking the form of a planet in the middle of a street will produce a miniature-sized planet. A goal of the game is to complete this encyclopedia and occupy all objects available in "Everything". Throughout the game, quotes from philosopher Alan Watts are given to the player. If the player lets the game sit idle, the game will cycle through various scenes on its own. Once the player has completed the game through completing the encyclopedia, they can start in a New Game Plus-type mode, but here starting from any random object in the game.


title: Everything (video game)

text: "Everything" was developed by Irish artist David OReilly. He previously had developed the game "Mountain", in which players had limited interactions with a virtual mountain. "Mountain" had been developed using the Unity game engine, which OReilly had to teach to himself. As he worked with the engine, he saw the potential about representing nature with real-time systems within Unity, forming part of the inspiration for "Everything".


title: Everything (video game)

text: The game was published by Double Fine Productions, who had also published "Mountain". In the initial announcement, OReilly described the game as "about the things we see, their relationships, and their points of view. In this context, things are how we separate reality so we can understand it and talk about it with each other". He also considered "Everything" to be a continuation of themes he had introduced in "Mountain". Later, OReilly described his hope for players of the game: "I want "Everything" to make people feel better about being alive. Not as an escape or distraction, or arbitrary frustration, but something you would leave and see the world in a new light." Besides the ideas of Watts, OReilly said that "Everything"s approach and narrative includes Eastern philosophy, continental philosophy, and stoicism.


title: Everything (video game)

text: The game was developed by a three-person team, including Damien Di Fede, who had assisted OReilly in programming "Mountain". With the small team on an experimental title, several simplifications were made; for example creatures do not have walk cycles but instead simply flip head to feet to move. OReilly said such decisions, while breaking the reality of the game are "the most interesting solution to particular problems in order to create a totality" for the work. Additionally, OReilly considered how these animations were similar to the work done in early days of classical animation, where artists would attempt to animate a wide range of objects. The ability for the game to auto-play should the player go idle captured OReilly's idea that nature itself occurs on its own, without any intervention.


title: Everything (video game)

text: "Polygon" reviewed the game favorably, noting that it is a "magical playpen of being, rather than doing", while also pointing out its confusing, contradictory nature.


title: Everything (video game)

text: An 11-minute trailer for "Everything", featuring a voice-over by British philosopher Alan Watts, won the Jury Prize at the 2017 Vienna Independent Shorts film festival in May 2017; due to this, it was on the longlist for consideration for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 90th Academy Awards, making it the first video game trailer to qualify for the Oscars. "Eurogamer" ranked the game 37th on their list of the "Top 50 Games of 2017", while "Polygon" ranked it ninth on their list of the 50 best games of 2017.