#Franchising opportunities for veterans

[franchisingmagazineusa]

Veterans and Franchising: Exploring the Best Franchises to Buy

For many veterans transitioning from military service to civilian life, owning a business can be an attractive opportunity. The discipline, leadership, and problem-solving skills developed in the military make veterans particularly well-suited to entrepreneurship. One of the most accessible pathways for veterans to start their own business is through franchising. With a proven business model and ongoing support, franchising opportunities for veterans can offer the structure and guidance many former service members are looking for.

In this blog, we’ll explore some of the best franchises to buy for veterans and why franchising can be an ideal choice for those looking to own a business.

Why Franchising is a Great Fit for Veterans:

Veterans often excel in franchise ownership due to their experience working within systems, following procedures, and leading teams. Franchising provides a business model that aligns with these strengths. By purchasing a franchise, veterans gain access to an established brand and a proven system of operation, which reduces many of the risks associated with starting a business from scratch.

Additionally, many franchisors recognize the value that veterans bring to their business and actively seek them as franchisees. These franchising opportunities for veterans often come with special incentives such as discounted franchise fees, financing assistance, and training programs tailored to meet the specific needs of veterans.

What to Look for in the Best Franchises to Buy:

When evaluating the best franchises to buy, veterans should consider several factors to ensure that the opportunity aligns with their goals, interests, and financial situation. Here are some key aspects to look for:

1. Initial Investment and Financial Support:

The cost of buying a franchise can vary widely, so it's essential to understand the initial investment required. Some of the best franchises to own offer flexible financing options and discounts specifically for veterans, making it easier to get started. Veterans should also consider the ongoing costs of running the franchise, such as royalties, marketing fees, and operational expenses, and ensure these align with their financial capabilities.

2. Franchisor Support and Training:

One of the most important factors to consider when evaluating franchising opportunities is the level of support and training offered by the franchisor. The best franchises to buy provide comprehensive training programs, marketing support, and ongoing operational guidance to help franchisees succeed. Veterans should look for franchisors who have a strong track record of supporting their franchisees and fostering a community of collaboration and success.

3. Industry Fit:

Another important consideration is the industry in which the franchise operates. Veterans should think about their skills, interests, and long-term goals when choosing a franchise. Whether it's a home-based business, a retail operation, or a service-oriented franchise, the best franchises to own are those that align with the franchisee’s values and career aspirations.

Top Franchising Opportunities for Veterans:

Many veterans find success in a variety of industries, and the best franchises to buy span sectors such as fitness, home services, education, and health care. One popular option is service-based franchises, which often require low start-up costs and provide essential services to local communities. These types of franchises can be ideal for veterans who enjoy hands-on work and want to engage with their local communities.

Additionally, fitness and health-related franchises are on the rise and can offer excellent franchising opportunities for veterans with an interest in wellness and physical activity. These industries tend to attract customers who prioritize their well-being, providing stable demand and opportunities for growth.

Finally, the growing demand for eco-friendly and sustainable business solutions has opened up many franchising opportunities in the green sector. Veterans who are passionate about the environment and want to make a positive impact can benefit from these franchises, which offer a fulfilling and profitable venture.

Conclusion:

Franchising presents an exciting path for veterans to transition into business ownership while leveraging the skills and discipline honed during their military service. With numerous franchising opportunities for veterans available, it's important to evaluate each opportunity based on factors such as initial investment, franchisor support, and industry fit.

The best franchises to buy are those that align with the veteran’s personal interests and long-term goals while offering strong support and a proven business model. Whether it’s in-home services, fitness, or eco-friendly industries, veterans have the potential to thrive as franchise owners and contribute to their communities in new ways.

For those seeking the best franchises to own, now is a great time to explore the many franchising opportunities designed to help veterans succeed in the world of entrepreneurship.

Source:https://franchisingmagazineusa.blogspot.com/2024/09/veterans-and-franchising-exploring-best.

[felassan]

Venturebeat article: "Former BioWare executive producer Mark Darrah has returned to work on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf as a consultant. On top of that, Electronic Arts said that the Mass Effect team will help with the production of Dragon Age: Dreadwolf as the production and polishing tasks ratchet upward.

The Mass Effect team can do that because the next Mass Effect title is still in the pre-production stage with a small core team working on it, GamesBeat has learned.

“Our studio is focused on creating the best Dragon Age: Dreadwolf while the core Mass Effect team continues their pre-production work,” said Gary McKay, BioWare general manager, in a statement to GamesBeat. “We continue to iterate and polish Dreadwolf, focusing on the things that matter most to our fans. As we further connect this new experience with the series’ legacy Mark Darrah will join the team as a consultant, bringing with him years of experience working on Dragon Age. We’re proud to have this team, with strong leadership at the helm, working together to realize the vision we have for the game.”

EA said that Dragon Age: Dreadwolf has been in post-production since September and the team’s been hard at work — spending lots of time iterating and making it better. Now that the team has the ability to do a complete playthrough, it can iterate and polish on the things that matter most to fans.

EA has previously used other teams to complete another game as the deadline approaches to ship a game. For instance, Criterion helped Dice and other studios ship Battlefield.

McKay previously said in a blog post that the Dreadwolf team hit alpha last fall. As development continues, EA is optimizing the team and bolstering it.

Darrah was a former developer and executive producer on the Dragon Age titles at BioWare. He left the studio along with Casey Hudson in December 2020. Recently, he approached BioWare about returning, and the team thought it was an opportunity to bring back a seasoned veteran who was integral to the last three Dragon Age games. 

Darrah’s focus will center on ensuring that the team is connecting this new experience with the legacy of the franchise. Respecting the Dragon Age legacy while sustaining the vision for this beloved franchise is a top priority. Corinne Busche (game director), Benoit Houle (director of product development), John Epler (creative director) and Maciej Kurowski (technical director) continue to lead the Dragon Age team.

Meanwhile, the core Mass Effect team, led by Mike Gamble, will continue with pre-production work on Mass Effect. Dragon Age: Dreadwolf doesn’t have a launch date yet. Players are anxious to know when that will be.

“BioWare has a long history of making amazing single-player games with powerful stories that fans can immerse themselves within,” said Samantha Ryan, senior vice president and group general manager at EA, in a statement. “They’ve been taking their time on the next Dragon Age, trying new things, bringing in the right people, and making sure they’re refining their game. That’s normal for a complex game of this genre. This phase of production takes time, and the studio wants to make sure it gets it right for its fans.”

Ryan is in charge of the BioWare, Full Circle, Maxis and Motive studios at Electronic Arts."

[source]

emphasis mine

[fxdltc88]

Happy Anniversary Little Caesars!

Little Caesars was established at 32594 Cherry Hill Rd.

May 8th 1959, in Garden City, Mi.

Mike Ilitch played second base for the Tigers and a couple of other teams beginning in 1952.....thanks to a knee injury, he had to retire in 1955.

Little Caesars' history says it all began as a love story in 1954, when Ilitch and Marian Bayoff were thrown together on a blind date by Mike's dad. Fortunately, they hit it off, and it was just a few months later when they married. The two of them pooled their life savings in order to open their own business: a pizza restaurant.

1962 Little Caesars first franchise opened in Warren, called “Little Caesars Pizza Treat”. This featured the “Little Caesar guy eating a slice of pizza” logo. From there, Little Caesars really began to branch out and became the fastest-growing pizza chain in America.

That single mom-and-pop pizza shop grew into the third largest pizza chain in the world with stores in more than 27 countries and territories worldwide, including in each of the 50 U.S. states.

The growth of Little Caesars helped Mike and Marian create other leading brands in the food, sports and entertainment industries.

The couple purchased the Detroit Red Wings in 1982. While the team was known as the Dead Wings at the time, Mike and Marian believed they were a sleeping giant and immediately took charge to turn the team around. By 1997, the Red Wings won their first Stanley Cup in 42 years, and they went on to win three more.

Mike encouraged the Ford family to bring the Detroit Lions back to Detroit from the suburbs and build a new stadium right next door to the ballpark by relinquishing a portion of land to make way for the new stadium. The new football venue allowed Detroit to host the Super Bowl in 2006.

Today - true to Mike and Marian's vision for a bustling downtown area - the Ilitch organization is developing The District Detroit, a dynamic urban destination that provides a dense neighborhood experience featuring a variety of developments alongside Detroit's premier sports and entertainment venues. This includes the new highly innovative and state-of-the-art Little Caesars Arena, home of the Detroit Red Wings and Detroit Pistons, and the recipient of the 2018 Sports Facility of the Year award, presented by Sports Business Journal.

Throughout Mike’s life, he remained true to his hometown and was a zealous supporter of Detroit, working tirelessly to help it prosper and to bring pride to the city. In 1988, Mike and Marian purchased the neglected Fox Theatre and carefully restored it to its original 1928 splendor.

One year later, they moved the Little Caesars world headquarters from the suburbs into the newly renovated Fox Office Center adjacent to the restored theatre. This was during a time when many businesses were fleeing the city.

Mike displayed further commitment to the city he loved when he purchased the Detroit Tigers in 1992 and built a new state-of-the-art ballpark for the team. Remembering his early years as a minor league baseball player with the Tigers, he did everything in his power to make the fan experience at Comerica Park a memorable one.

Mike and Marian believed passionately in giving back to the community. As the parents of children who played hockey, the couple wanted to provide other children the opportunity to play the sport as well. So, they established the Little Caesars Amateur Hockey Program in 1968, and it has provided opportunities for tens of thousands of youngsters to play the great game of hockey over the years. Hundreds have gone on to play at colleges, universities and in the National Hockey League.

Inspired by the story of a veteran returning to civilian life, Mike founded the Little Caesars Veterans Program in 2006. The program provides honorably discharged veterans with financial incentives and other support to help them open a Little Caesars franchise.

Since 2000, grants and giving from Marian and Mike, the Ilitch companies and its charitable affiliates have totaled $220 million. This includes Marian and Mike's personal gifts of nearly $50 million to Detroit's Wayne State University - $8 million to the Department of Surgery and $40 million to build a new home for the Mike Ilitch School of Business, prominently located on Woodward Avenue.

[beautifullache]

🦄The Sims 4🦄

🥞Breakfast Bundle🧇

💕EARLY RELEASE 4.26.2024💕

Denny's

Since 1953, we have served quality food and healthy portions at a fair price. No matter where we are, our light is always on inviting guests around the world to a place where everyone is welcome. Open means so much more to us than just being open for business 24/7. It means being open to all people, appetites and budgets. It says we are open-minded and open to new ideas. Honest, warm and inviting. Open is the way we think and act every hour of every day. Denny's, Inc. is committed to providing equal employment opportunity for all persons regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, citizenship status, disability, veteran's status or genetic information, or other protected characteristic.

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IHOP

We’re in the business of spreading joy, and our Team Members and Franchisees are a key ingredient in our recipe. We believe they are each one in a million – just like our Buttermilk Pancakes! Being part of the IHOP Team allows you to be something more than just a traditional employee. You help create smiles for the future. You bring a sense of belonging, togetherness and joy to our guests. We believe everyday life has enough rules, but enjoying a delicious, comforting meal at one of our restaurants shouldn’t have any.

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Waffle House

Waffle House is a privately held, short-order restaurant company founded in 1955 in Avondale Estates, Georgia by Joe Rogers and Tom Forkner. Operating over 1,700 Company and 200 franchise locations in 25 states, the headquarters are located in Norcross, Georgia (though senior leaders are more likely to be found in the restaurants). Waffle House employs over 35,000 associates to serve a diverse base of customers and communities 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

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[mariacallous]

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. won’t be on the presidential debate stage next week to answer questions, but he is fielding them on TikTok Live.

On Thursday night, a group of TikTok creators livestreamed a town hall with Kennedy titled “The Sickening of America.” For around an hour, Kennedy, a noted anti-vaccine conspiracist, answered questions from the creators and their followers on food and vaccine safety. Kennedy spoke at length about the unfounded claims that vaccines and gluten could cause or worsen autism.

It was the second town hall the long-shot independent candidate has done with TikTokker Tiffany Cianci and her community. Cianci has become known for organizing livestreams with third-party campaigns and other creators over the past year. Thursday’s event was the fourth event, and though it reached just a few thousand viewers, Cianci says they’ve received hundreds of thousands of views in the past.

“Our very first one had almost 100,000 [viewers], and we only had two days notice,” says Cianci, who has more than 150,000 followers. “That was our first interview with Robert F. Kennedy. And we didn't really know what we were doing at that point. We were flying blind.”

While Cianci handles most of the logistics, other creators are invited on as panelists and to ask their own questions to the candidates. The group of creators hosting Thursday’s town hall included two wellness accounts, a conspiracy channel, and a pair of homesteading creators.

The TikTok town halls are not unlike the town halls many candidates participate in along the IRL campaign trail. But instead of answering questions in pizza shops and Veterans halls, they operate more like a giant Zoom call with technical difficulties and all. And unlike televised town halls with news networks, it’s the creators vetting questions and moderating the conversation, instead of journalists.

Few of the creators have professional backgrounds in politics, but they share a skepticism of politicans and institutions. These virtual events are meant to challenge candidates like Kennedy and provide “real people” an opportunity to hold a potential future president accountable ahead of the election.

“The point of this is to have a conversation with politicians on a mainstream stage where they come directly to us on our platforms, rather than moderated by mainstream media and mainstream questions that are filtered and screened before they talk about,” one of the creators known as @cancelthisclothingcompany said on TikTok before Kennedy spoke.

Cianci, who used to be a franchise owner for a toddler gym in Maryland called Little Gym, first met Kennedy after his campaign reached out to schedule a conversation with her on private equity last year. The Kennedy campaign recorded their discussion and posted clips of it across social media. When Cianci and her fellow creators decided to start holding these town halls, she reached back out to Kennedy’s team for the first one.

Since Kennedy first announced his campaign last year, he has gone on countless podcasts that have allowed him to speak on his controversial views for hours without fact-checking or disagreement, while platforming conspiracies. Despite the group’s plans to hold candidates’ feet to the fire, Kennedy’s concerning remarks went unchallenged. Instead the panelists agreed with much, if not all, of what he said.

“I think it’s important that presidential candidates take the time to speak to Americans without the mainstream media controlling the conversation,” Kennedy said in a campaign email announcing the event Thursday night.

Green Party nominee Jill Stein and Libertarian Party nominee Chase Oliver, who have both appeared in the livestream town halls, agreed.

“This is like motherhood and apple pie,” Stein tells WIRED. “This is what campaigning should be. Political dialog should be open with candidates. I think the less filter, the better.”

“I want to hear directly from as many voters as possible, and platforms like a town hall just allow me to do that,” says Oliver. “It also allows me to demonstrate that, unscripted, off the cuff, I can come up with articulate responses and speak to my platform and speak to those concerns that those voters have without the need being scripted or on a teleprompter like the major party candidates.”

Without receiving the constant horse-race coverage like major-party candidates, third-party campaigns have sought attention through less traditional means for decades. In 2024 however, it’s more difficult than ever to reach vast amounts of voters even online. The content moderation policies and changing leadership at platforms like Facebook and X balkanized social media, causing users to flee to new platforms. The filterless nature and the potential to reach sympathetic audiences is what makes these town halls attractive to candidates like Stein and Kennedy.

Other similar events are springing up as well. After Cianci’s first Kennedy town hall, Kennedy and Trump agreed to a similar format on X’s Spaces platform. The conversation would be part of a series called “the People’s Town Hall” moderated by NewsNation hosts and journalists. Viewers will be able to submit questions moderators may select before and during the event, according to Axios. No final dates have been set.

Cianci also says that the creators are open to non-third-party candidates as well. “We are hopeful that the Trump campaign is going to come on. We have been told the Biden campaign won’t, but we are hopeful that the Trump campaign will,” says Cianci. “We are not exclusionary. We want every single third party, a major party, represented. We are a nonpartisan group. We argue with each other, constantly, constantly.”

The Biden and Trump campaigns did not respond to requests for comment.

“Younger people aren't getting their news and want to reach their politicians in new ways,” Cianci says. “Understanding that is key to changing things for the better, because this is the only path we have.”

[disneytva]

Disney Branded Television Announces Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Reboot Under The Working Title "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 2.0" At Disney Television Animation, Slated For 2025

One of the most popular shows on Disney+ since launch is “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse”, and today, Disney Branded Television has announced it will be releasing a new iteration of its flagship preschool series as a reboot named "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 2.0", the reboot is set to debut in 2025 on Disney Junior and Disney+.

“Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 2.0” (working title) follows Mickey and pals as they welcome everyone back to the clubhouse for all-new adventures filled with songs, laughs, handy helping, and fun new surprises. The new series will see the clubhouse expanding with a brand-new area just for Minnie and the addition of Duffy the Disney Bear, Mickey’s trusted teddy bear, who will make surprise appearances in multiple episodes. The new series is being produced by Disney Television Animation and will be executive produced by Disney TVA veteran Rob LaDuca, and co-produced by Kim Duran, who is also the story editor on the show.

The announcements was by Ayo Davis, president of Disney Branded Television and VP of development of Disney Television Animation, during the “Disney Junior & Friends Playdate” event at Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim, California, who said in a statement:

“Disney Junior captures the hearts and imaginations of preschoolers and their families everywhere with stories and characters filled with magic, wonder, adventure and heart.  From providing early entry points into classic Disney franchises to introducing brand-new IP that becomes the latest kid obsessions, Disney Junior is always there with infinite opportunities to engage and play.”

The original Mickey Mouse Clubhouse created by Bobs Gannaway premiered on 2006 on Playhouse Disney and become one of Disney Television Animation's most beloved hits of the 2000s, the series ended on 2015 after 4 seasons and 125 episodes.

"Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 2.0" continues Disney Television Animation's goal of reboots/revivals to re-introduce legacy characters new generation of kids and families with other projects like The Proud Family Louder and Prouder on Disney+, Darkwing Duck as a reboot for Disney+, Royal Prep Academy as a spin-off based on Sofia The First for Disney Junior and Phineas and Ferb as a revival for Disney Channel and Disney+.

Other projects rumored on development include TaleSpin as a reboot on Disney+ by Point Grey Pictures, a animated revival/reboot movie for Kim Possible leading to a potential Season 5 and Season 6 of the show both for Disney+ and Recess as a reboot by the original creators also for Disney+.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 615

I forgot until now that about two weeks ago I was playing a game called Doronko Wanko. It’s a strange game, not just in premise, but in who designed the game. The game was developed by Bandai Namco Studios, but published by Phoenixx Inc, instead of Bandai Namco themselves.

It’s unusual for two reasons, one, Bandai is the company most well known for Tekken (and maybe Soulcalibur back in the mid 90s to early 2000s), along with a bunch of anime franchises, and two, the game was for free. 

Completely free, not even any microtransactions as far as I can tell. It is just a cute, short game about a mischievous muddy pomeranian who gets a whole clean house dirty. 

That it’s, that’s the game.

You play a pomeranian and the purpose is to get the whole house full of mud and paint, racking up a huge cleaning bill in the process. It’s an adorable, silly game with game mechanics so easily learnt and well built tutorial, that even if you forget to change the language to English, you can still play the game. The gameplay loop is so tight that even though the game is only an hour long (less than that if you sped through it) it’s enjoyable from beginning to end. It came up with a silly game mechanic and then proceeded to execute perfectly.

It’s just really weird that it’s Bandai Namco, who have been in the gaming sphere for a long time. If this game had been released by a small indie dev, for free, one would assume it was just someone’s pet project. Though it does make me wonder, if maybe it was still a pet project, or rather a training project. 

There has been some talk about the lack of learning opportunities within the very large gaming studios. Gaming studios that tend to focus on AAA games with incredibly large scopes and very specific genres, or franchises. As a result, there isn’t a chance to learn new skills in making games for both new developers coming into the field and veterans in a way that doesn’t have a high cost. Making a smaller game like Doronko Wanko gives developers a chance to learn new skills without it costing a larger game. And if they happen to make a new franchise as a result of excellent feedback, all the better.

This could be very well a test run for another type of game. Or maybe, one day we’ll just get a longer game about a muddy pom out to make a mess of everything. Not sure how you’d make a longer game out of that, but it sounds like fun.

[shihalyfie]

Digimon Survive’s production background, story themes, and relationship with Adventure

Here's a little story. Fresh of the heels of the relative success of Re:Digitize and working on the 2013 PSP adaptation of Digimon Adventure for the franchise’s 15th anniversary project, Digimon game producer Habu Kazumasa (known for being rather communicative with the fanbase at a time the franchise had a tendency to be a bit out of touch with them) had the opportunity to work with Kakudou Hiroyuki, Adventure’s original director, who was working on voice direction for the game. Around then, Kakudou told him about a certain background concept he’d had for Adventure: that Digimon may have originally been like youkai that had made human contact before, but become more recognizable to the human world via technology (a concept that was alluded to in 02 and related media but not explicitly stated).

Habu was enthralled with this idea, and two years later, he directly used it as inspiration for the “ghost story”-like quests in Cyber Sleuth, released in 2015. This carried over into the game’s later-released interquel, Hacker’s Memory, released two years later in 2017 -- but, interestingly, in interviews for it, Habu alluded to working on another Digimon game with “set partners”, or a game that would allow for “what-if” scenarios that allowed you to pursue different evolution branches...

And so, one year later, in July 2018, Digimon Survive was announced. (And then it got delayed for a few years due to development circumstances, but that’s not the point.) So what is this game? How does it relate to Adventure, and the ideas behind its production that captivated Habu all the way back in 2013?

This post spoils all four routes, so please be aware of this before reading further. (I also will be spoiling Adventure and 02, in case you haven’t seen those yet. Hey, you never know.)

Two Years’ Vacation and Lord of the Flies

Back when Survive was first announced in 2018, frankly speaking, it was a lot to take in for a Digimon fan -- “survival horror visual novel” was not exactly something you would easily expect from the Digimon franchise (the SRPG part was probably the least weird part of it). The “survival horror” part especially ended up turning off some game publications off the bat, declaring that this kind of content was unfit for Digimon, but veteran fans coming from the days of World and Adventure were quick to point out that it’s not like Digimon hasn’t��been a mild survival horror before. The over-the-top silliness made it harder to really feel the weight of it, but “getting trapped in another world where a lot of things are interested in killing you” could even be said to be a return to origin in a sense.

Shortly after the initial announcement, Habu explained that it would be a reimagining of Adventure’s concept with a more direct expression of Adventure’s “Digimon partners as a literal part of their human partners’ souls” and “Digimon as youkai” concepts -- but also more vividly depicting the “survival story” part of Adventure’s isekai, describing it as the Lord of the Flies equivalent to Adventure’s Two Years’ Vacation. What does that mean?

Let’s dip a bit into a brief history of survival stories, as well as Survive and Adventure’s relationship with them. “Two Years’ Vacation” is an 1888 novel by French author Jules Verne (you probably know him from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Around the World in 80 Days, and other similar adventure stories). Two Years’ Vacation is virtually unknown to English speakers, but is very popular in Japan due to a famous translation from 1896 with the new title “The Castaway Story of 15 Boys”, followed by more Japanese retranslations and media adaptations, including a Toei anime. (Although the "15 Boys" version of the title is more well-known in Japan, there have since been other Japanese translations that use the original "Two Years' Vacation" title, and interestingly, Kakudou's own references to the book have used the original title, perhaps unsurprisingly for someone who tends to be rather infamously in-touch with Western media.)

Two Years’ Vacation itself is one of a whole bandwagon of “Robinsonades”, a trend of books all taking after the 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe, a story about a man who learns to survive after getting shipwrecked on a deserted island. Verne wrote Two Years’ Vacation under the idea of making Robinson Crusoe for kids as a way to show that kids could be brave and admirable under harsh circumstances, too. Thus, after getting stranded on an island during what was supposed to be a British school summer vacation, fifteen boys set up a home there, brave harsh seasons and wild animals, fight and make up, and eventually hijack a passing slave trafficker’s boat and escape. In line with Verne’s usual work, it’s a feel-good story about kids being cool and brave.

The 1954 novel Lord of the Flies by British author William Golding (which you’re probably more likely to have heard of) is a much more cynical take on the concept. Golding wrote the novel as a scathing response to another survival Robinsonade called The Coral Island, an incredibly, incredibly imperialistic narrative involving British boys fighting against “savage, uncivilized native” archetypes and converting them with the goodness of Christianity. (While Two Years’ Vacation was not immune to racist or imperialistic notions, especially regarding the part where the boys treat Moko’s lower status for being black as a given fact of life, it was generally more focused on the boys figuring out how to survive in the first place, and the differing social backgrounds between the boys is depicted as a source of conflict they have to overcome.) Thus, Golding wrote Lord of the Flies with thinly-veiled parodies of Coral Island’s protagonists, with the point being made that instead of being righteous Christians who purge the area of evil, the evil instead comes from the boys themselves as they turn on and try to kill each other.

With Two Years’ Vacation being so famous in Japan, it’s no wonder that it was directly specified as a reference for Adventure all the way down to its original planning documents. (Naturally, most Japanese fans of Adventure are easily able to spot this as the inspiration.) And thus, Adventure is a story of kids from different backgrounds being put in a survival situation together, bonding, and proving their resilience and wit. But when Kakudou released his non-exclusive list of works that were used as reference for Adventure, among Two Years’ Vacation and a number of other charming adventure and coming-of-age stories, Lord of the Flies is also there. (In case anyone’s wondering, Kakudou later revealed that it was mostly to do with the part with Pinocchimon and Yamato and such.)

So, all things considered, I think the metaphor of Survive being the Lord of the Flies to Adventure’s Two Years’ Vacation is actually pretty apt -- but not just in the sense of Survive being Adventure except with more fighting and kids dying. Two Years’ Vacation had its share of friction between the boys, and Adventure itself had a bit of Lord of the Flies in it too; it’s just that Survive takes the parts about putting internal loyalties and individual characters’ selfishness more to the test.

I also do feel the need to point out that despite what it looks like at first glance, Survive is still, to the very end, a love letter to Adventure (no matter how morbid that may sound to some people at first glance). A frustrating byproduct of having works that are supposedly something “but darker” or “a deconstruction” of something (to which I will simply respond with this well-worded tweet “a deconstruction is when I like something in a genre I disrespect”) is that they often tend to be malicious works that are condescending towards the original by insinuating that it’s “unrealistic” or “too idealistic”, and even if the work itself isn’t actually like that, the fans are certainly likely to read it that way, both in well-meaning and insidious senses. But even if you didn’t know the fact that Habu is infamously known for being a hardcore Digimon lover to the point he convinced staff members to join him out of sheer passion (basically, if you know anything about him, it’s laughable to even imagine he would willingly treat Adventure with that kind of condescension), playing Survive itself and seeing how its endings are framed makes it evident that at no point does it ever ask the player to give up on the idealistic values Adventure is built on. The setup is harsher, and the kids are put through the kinds of trials that the Sunday morning kids’ timeslot would be very unlikely to approve of, but the journey to reach the best possible ending still falls under the same lines, and the outcome that everyone strives to reach is the same.

The four routes and endings

Although the game presents the three main routes as much as they’re “equivalent”, that’s not really true, and in fact the routes and their outcomes are pretty obviously presented on a scale of morbid to ideal:

Wrathful: Aoi/Plutomon attempts to assimilate the Master and everyone and forcibly yanks the gate open herself, resulting in the two worlds rapidly fusing even after the party defeats her. Without Miyuki around to manage the gate, and with humanity given no time to prepare, the end result is in chaos, destruction, and social strife, forcing Takuma and his friends to form a resistance group and shelter Kemonogami and their partners. Although Takuma and his friends take as positive of a stance as they can, this ending is so bleak for everyone involved that Takuma himself even outright wonders if this really was supposed to be how their adventure ended (or in other words, the game directly hint-hints that this really isn’t it).

Harmony: The party defeats VoltoBautamon, but the gate remains open and the worlds slowly merge. With not everyone finding their partners and with humanity not given enough time to learn about Digimon, social strife breaks out between those with partners and those without, and Miyuki isn’t there to manage the gate nor is the Professor there to be able to conduct studies, leaving the kids to have to set up research facilities and try to bridge the gap hoping for a better future. Aoi considers themselves to be “chosen kids” for the job of pioneering relations between humans and Kemonogami.

Moral: The party defeats the Master, although as he dies he ominously mentions that he was responsible for maintaining the stability of the Kemonogami world; with the worlds threatening to fuse and the kids’ partners sensing that this isn’t the right time to start trying to unite the worlds, the kids leave their partners behind and return to the human world with Miyuki closing the gate behind them. The human world returns back to normal, leaving the kids, the Professor, and Miyuki unsure if they’ll meet their partners again, but they decide to come back to the campsite a year later for a trip, and the Professor speculates that the Kemonogami world being sustained by everyone’s feelings and modern digital communication will make it resemble the human world more so the gate can open again someday.

Truthful: The party discovers the truth behind Haruchika’s situation and, with the help of the Four Holy Beasts’ partners, Yukiha’s spirit, and the feelings of the world, manage to put his soul to rest. The worlds begin to slowly merge (Miyuki explicitly states that it’ll be happening at a slow pace) to return to the state they once were as one world, while humans begin to slowly seek out and accept their partners. While the Wrathful and Moral endings emphasized that not everyone was able to find their partners due to the chaotic nature of the worlds merging, this ending implies that everyone will eventually be reunited with their other halves in due time (presumably because of the more graceful way the worlds began to merge again, instead of everything falling apart due to the one upholding it being violently killed).

As you might have noticed, the Moral ending is the one most analogous to Digimon Adventure’s, whereas the Truthful ending is the one based more on the 02 epilogue (which is driven in further when members of the “new generation” of kids chance upon a Chibimon -- note that the V-mon line, along with the other lines from the 02 quartet, is not recruitable in the base game). In fact, the 02 epilogue was actually intended as the ending for Adventure before it was greenlighted for a second series, and was always the planned endpoint for Adventure’s “story of humanity’s evolution”, so it follows that this would be treated as the outcome Survive’s characters end up reaching as their ideal as well.

The correlation between the accumulation of Takuma’s karma choices over the game and how this leads to the routes is a bit vague, since the lineup of whether Miu (Harmony), Saki (Wrathful), or nobody (Moral) dies doesn’t take direct influence from Takuma’s choice in Part 8, but the outcomes do roughly correlate with the general ongoing theme behind the alignments:

Wrathfulness choices correlate with Takuma prioritizing himself and forcing his way through regardless of how others feel; Takuma’s choice in Part 8 is that he decides to save the world only for Agumon’s sake. As a result, Saki feels even more determined to not die with regrets and sacrifices herself during the amusement park incident, Aoi falls apart from the extra stress of having had to take extra charge as de facto leader, and the ending involves Takuma’s closest allies (besides Minoru) being Kaito and Miu, with Kaito addressing things with physical fighting while Miu is freely doing her own thing.

Harmony choices correlate with Takuma picking choices along the lines of “doing enough to not rock the boat” (this route is deceptive because although it’s ostensibly about “teamwork”, it has somewhat of a passive “as long as everyone gets along” nuance to it); Takuma’s choice in Part 8 is that he’ll save the world because he doesn’t just want to sit around and do nothing while the world ends; thus, he manages to maintain good relations with Aoi and Saki, but it’s not enough to prevent Miu and Kaito from fighting, and Kaito from completely snapping in response to Miu’s death to the point of refusing to see reason. The end result is that Takuma and his friends end up in a situation where they can at least do something to try and establish peaceful human-Digimon relations, but the uncertainty is thick and the sentiment lukewarm.

Moral choices correlate with Takuma picking choices that are about “the right thing to do”, whether it’s about not abandoning friends or saving people who need help, or basically the kind of values that shows like Digimon Adventure would like us to take to heart. Takuma’s choice in Part 8 is that he can’t abandon his friends (the choice initially seems to be a Harmony one in that it prioritizes friends, but the nuance is that Takuma’s doing it because he knows he has a duty to not abandon them, rather than simply doing something only because he doesn’t want the world to end around him); thus, he takes charge during the amusement park visit in Part 9 in trying to save Miyuki and prevent victims, the group doesn’t split up, and nobody else dies. The end result is that Takuma and his friends momentarily give up on their desire to stay with their partners for the time being so that the world can be in peace for the time being. This is blatantly the game’s favored route out of the three main ones, since it has a significantly more “complete” story and resolved plotline compared to Wrathful and Harmony.

The Truthful route involves Takuma going out of his way to connect with Ryo in spite of Ryo not initially looking cooperative, and in helping Ryo have the will to survive the events of Part 3, Ryo helps keep the group together even further and gets to the root of Shuuji’s issues in turn, which results in Shuuji assisting the Professor in learning the truth behind the Kemonogami world and Haruchika, allowing to get to the complete source of the problem and resolve it at the root. Thus, the ending involves reaching a solution that allows everyone to achieve the goal of the worlds coming together again in a way that’s more appropriate.

(All this being said, the fact this game so blatantly favors Moral does make this one of the franchise’s most glaring examples of its tendency to be biased towards Vaccine types. Strangely, Wrathful/Harmony/Moral do not correlate to Virus/Data/Vaccine’s expected parallel with Chaos/Neutral/Law. It’s understandable that, as a part of a franchise with its deepest roots in a kids’ series that’s traditionally favored the power of friendship and doing the right thing, the game would have a bias towards Moral, but many of the Moral choices in the game are closer to what you’d expect from Neutral alignments on the Law/Neutral/Chaos scale, so seeing this correlate to Vaccine is a bit unusual.)

So although there isn’t technically a strict cause-and-effect correlation, you can see how Takuma’s attitude in approach has an influence on the course of the story, and the take-homes are: try not to be too selfish or self-centered, be proactive in doing the right thing, and try to make sure you know what’s really going on in making decisions. It’s a surprisingly didactic game for something that’s not advertised as kids’ media, but, again, this is probably what happens when it’s something that owes so much of its lineage to it.

Incidentally, while it wasn’t outright stated in 02, the time period between 1995 and 2028 involved the number of Digimon partners doubling every year. In particular, early contact with the Digital World was minimal, and the early years had the pioneer Chosen Children (like those depicted in Adventure and 02) helping keep things on the downlow, and access to and from the Digital World was still dependent on gates that could be opened or closed -- that is to say, it certainly didn’t involve the worlds messily fusing into each other. Given that, the world actually had a pretty reasonable “slow burn” period to adjust to the presence of the Digimon and adjust society to accommodate for them, so when you think about it, the 02 epilogue had it comparatively easier than the chaotic scenarios in the Wrathful and Harmony endings.

While we’re here, let’s also discuss why this game is a visual novel with branching paths. The first reason is to do with Digimon evolutions; Habu stated (in a part of an interview that’s totally about Survive, even though it wasn’t formally revealed yet) that he wanted to find a way to express branching possibilities of evolution with what-if scenarios, citing the SkullGreymon incident in Adventure as an example. But beyond just that, it also allows us to see sides of certain characters that would happen in different, mutually exclusive scenarios, and see how characters would reach rock bottom under what circumstances and situations, with their weaknesses cracking under the worst of stress tests. This means that even when you go into the “better” endings like Moral and Truthful, you understand what those characters had to overcome by not going in that direction, even if it wasn’t directly expressed in those routes. Thus, I don’t think any one of the routes alone constitutes the “complete” game, because certain routes are obviously written in ways to show off those contrasts (in particular, Wrathful shows Kaito and Miu doing spectacularly well in contrast to Saki and Aoi’s unfortunate fates, and vice versa for Harmony). And while the Survive characters can’t really compete with the Adventure kids having 54 episodes plus major recurring appearances in another 50 plus an unholy amount of drama CDs, material books, theatrical movies, and even a novel adaptation to flesh out their characters in excruciating detail (and that’s before we get into the post-2014 additions), the visual novel format allows the characters to explore them in a certain kind of intimate depth not always possible in other formats.

A Digimon game that can barely be called a Digimon game

Most of us know that Adventure is so influential on the Digimon franchise that pretty much everything that’s come after it has taken massive cues from it in some way. And given that Survive is pretty shameless about referencing Adventure in particular, this should only go without saying. But to put things in perspective, let’s imagine you went back in time before Digimon Adventure began airing and struck up a conversation with someone who knew “classic” pre-Adventure Digimon (with V-Tamer, Digimon World, and the like). And then you tell them there’ll be a game like this:

There is no Digital World; there is an “other world”, but it’s a youkai world that’s implied to have existed since feudal Japan

There is no Digivice

The Digimon aren’t depicted as being made of data per se

The Digimon aren’t even called Digimon, but are instead “Kemonogami” and are connected to human souls

...they’d probably look at you funny and think something has gone fundamentally wrong with the Digimon franchise. Of course, the fun of Digimon “null canon” is that it’s not something every work has to be particularly married to, but this game has almost none of the standbys that should normally define something as a Digimon work, with the only ties to the “digital” premise being that a smartphone seems vaguely able to interface wtih the world, and eventually the Professor’s prediction that the prevalence of digital technology and social media will become the sustaining force for the Kemonogami and their world. So when you think of it this way, Survive is getting away with what it’s doing because it’s taking so many things directly from Digimon Adventure...but moreso the “Adventure” parts than the “Digimon” parts.

That being said, while those parts aren’t necessarily solidified as part of the Digimon franchise as null canon rules, they’re definitely a part of the franchise identity to the point people now assume they come part and parcel with Digimon partnerships. Think about how immersed it is in public memory now that Digimon evolution is tied to human mental epiphanies; had it not been for Adventure, we could have easily had many more series where evolution was tied to item fetch quests or martial arts training (the latter would certainly be more V-Pet-accurate). Even entries like Tamers or Ghost Game, which are stronger on emphasizing Digimon individuality distinct from that of their partner, tend to imply some kind of emotional connection being directly linked to evolution. Of course, there are exceptions that do handle emotional growth and Digimon evolution on a separate basis, but the Adventure-based concept of “partners” is generally considered to be the default at this point.

It’s interesting that this game’s development timeline ended up coinciding with Last Evolution Kizuna’s production cycle as well (from what we’ve heard about official statements on the matter, the game and anime timelines are generally almost entirely separate with the exception of minor things like collab DLC, so any major similarities are likely to be coincidental). In short, we basically got two things playing around with and more directly addressing the implications and potential extremes of this kind of Adventure-established partnership, especially since Adventure’s take on it is probably the most intensely psychological out of all of them. The part about Digimon partners being literally a part of the human’s own being was not actually something stated outright in the original Adventure nor 02; it was really something you had to glean by context, the word “partner” didn’t even come up as much as you’d think, and while “Digimon partners die when their human partners do” was part of the original lore, it never came up in the series and we only found this out through behind-the-scenes stuff and post-series interviews, probably because Adventure and 02 had more than enough morbidity before adding that on top of it. But here, Survive spells all of this out clearly for its own Adventure-inspired setting; the phrase “destined partner” (localized as “fated partner” in Survive, but the term is “unmei”, the same one that had plot relevance in Kizuna) is prominent, the characters have strong awareness of partnership as a concept from the very beginning, and the link between their life and death is clearly depicted from right off the bat.

However, there is one significant difference between Adventure and Survive’s takes on the issue. In Adventure’s portrayal, it was implied (although still considered an unknown by the character in-universe) that there had been limited contact with the Digital World over the years, and it was only very recently that digital technology became able to connect with it on a more reliable basis. (The narration describing the history of the Digital World in the Adventure novels implies the connection with the human world to be just as new to the Digimon as it was for the humans.) On the other hand, Survive’s lore states that the Kemonogami world and the human world were actually supposed to be one to begin with and were split apart by the fallout from the Minase family’s actions and their impact on Haruchika and his friends. You can especially see the difference in the way the Four Holy Beasts are treated between Adventure and Survive’s takes; Adventure(’s novels) had the Four Holy Beasts be partnered to some of the earliest Chosen Children, implied to be from around 1997-1999, and the “first Chosen Child” retroactively implied to be from 1995, but Haruchika’s discovery of the concept of human partnership (thus making him Survive’s equivalent of the first Chosen) and the establishment of the Four Holy Beasts goes back to around the Kamakura feudal era of Japan from around 1000 years ago.

(Incidentally, a brief digression in terms of production and meta: Huanglongmon didn’t exist at the time Adventure and 02 were produced, but the 15th anniversary drama CD has a skit where the kids are given advice by the Four Holy Beasts in the Digital World to try and recreate the original Chinese/Japanese setup with their own partners in Kyoto. The end result is that they end up using some comedically forced reaches in trying to force their Digimon into the roles of Gabumon as the "blue dragon", Gomamon as the "white tiger", Piyomon as the "vermillion bird", Tentomon as the "black turtle", and Agumon as the “yellow dragon”. The natural conclusion of Agumon ending up representing Huanglong is fitting, but the rather irreverent, comedic tone of the CD drives home the idea that while the Four Holy Beasts are still important to Adventure’s world and connected to Japanese folklore around Kyoto, they’re not necessarily formative presences in both worlds, considering that the issue was ultimately addressed not by the Four Holy Beasts’ power, but by bribing a rock.)

So why the difference? Adventure and 02 only used the concept of historical connections with the spiritual world as a minor note in a story that was mostly about the present and future, so it still had a strong sense of being about digital technology as it was starting to become more involved with the world. That was something facilitated by its setting and the year it was produced; 1999-2002 made up of the years where digital technology was just starting to become something normal in households and kids were starting to get a feel for how it even worked. On the flip side, despite eventually becoming a story to do with an era long before digital technology even existed, Survive premises its existence as a “Digimon” narrative by saying that the transmission of thoughts and feelings is synonymous with digital technology, illustrated by people liveblogging Agumon and Piemon’s fight on social media and the resulting inflow of support from the crowds coming in almost immediately -- something that wasn’t easily as imaginable in this sense back in 1999-2002 when the Internet was still on dial-up (something like Our War Game! or Diablomon Strikes Back would be the closest you could get).

This was pointed out even back when Appmon finished airing in 2017, but “and then the kids were separated from the Digital World for an indefinite amount of time” feels a lot more incongruous these days than it did in Adventure, now that wifi and smartphones and so many other things are prevalent in our lives to the point it’s a better argument that you can’t escape technology these days. Conversely, with Survive’s context both in-universe and in real life, suddenly the idea of “digital technology is so fundamentally intertwined with human communciation and thought that a world made of thoughts will become more attuned to said technology” seems much less far-fetched.

Adventure frames the “Digimon evolution as human growth” metaphor with the idea that the road to the 02 epilogue and everyone having a partner is “humanity’s evolution” -- that is to say, the idea that the ability to have self-awareness in the way a Digimon partner gives you would be the next step in how humanity “evolves” overall. Therefore, the focus mainly sticks to portraying the kids as pioneers into completely unknown territory. On the other hand, Survive, being somewhat more conscious of its position as a reimagining of an anime from 1999, has a stronger theme of taking things from the past and passing it onto the future in a new form. Part of the reason Haruchika is initially unable to move on from his rage is that he and Huanglongmon still expect the world to be as war-torn as his original era (Yukiha says that Huanglongmon being purified means he’ll finally be able to “gaze upon the world” as it is), and Yukiha is only able to reach out to them by having faith that one of her descendants can convey the will she was never able to in life. The kids are still referred to as the “new generation” that’ll be able to make something out of the world in the current age, but even then, another “generation” of kids is depicted a year later as being about to go on their own Digimon adventure inspired by Takuma’s.

The flowers yearn for the leaves, and the leaves for the flowers

Thanks to this changed setting, Survive’s premise regarding the concept of separating human and Digimon partner is that they were originally supposed to be parts of the same whole, so separating them is actually going against what was supposed to be the case originally. (While Adventure had Digimon partners meeting them before they were formally partnered, with cases such as Oikawa Yukio, it also had partners like Taichi’s Agumon not being born until after 1995, or Daisuke’s V-mon having been born in 1999.) Thus, both humans and Digimon partners are portrayed as having somewhat of a sense of loss if they’re torn apart, and recreating something resembling the Adventure ending in the Moral route is given a more dissatisfying aura than it had in the original series due to this. In particular, looking back at the Moral route after knowing about the revelations from the Truthful route, insisting on keeping the worlds separate is basically reinforcing Haruchika’s cynicism about the world in a way (and to be fair, it’s not like even the Truthful outcome is a guarantee everything will go well, and as far as the circumstances in the Wrathful and Harmony routes go, he wasn’t entirely wrong about that one).

The themes of the game are reflected in its theme song, “Kizuna” -- first in the sense that it talks about the yearning of those meant to be together but torn apart, and in the sense that it advocates to “turn hatred into love”. It’s a fairly simple concept, and perhaps not even a particularly deep one, but it is nevertheless a theme that’s part of the core of both Survive and the franchise as a whole. Back in Adventure, Apocalymon served as something that tried to inhibit or hold back evolution out of grief and jealousy that the entire world got to evolve instead of him, and the kids defeat him by resolving to move forward with the help of the world’s feelings; in Survive, Haruchika succumbs to his own resentment from his isolation and feelings that are trapped in the past, and is ultimately saved by his sister and the world’s feelings reaching out to him.

That concept of “bonds saving people from their negative feelings” is basically a fancy way to say “power of friendship”, but nevertheless, the ending makes it clear that it wasn’t just human and Digimon partnership that constitutes a bond, but also the bonds between Akiharu and Miyuki allowing them to retain faith in each other despite being separated, the bonds between Takuma and his friends as he chose to go back to save them after having a chance to return to the real world, the bonds that Ryo and Shuuji are able to successfully form after being saved, the bonds between people as they’re bridged by digital networks, and so on and so forth. It’s a recurring, important theme through the Digimon franchise (again, it’s pretty funny we coincidentally had a movie also named “Kizuna” just now, but it’s a word constantly used over iterations of the franchise for good reason).

The game itself leans on symbolism regarding the spider lily flower, and most people familiar with Japanese anime instantly picked up its associations with death and therefore the fact this game was advertised as potentially having characters die. The theme song, however, brings up another meaning of the flower: that it represents bonds between those who are separated, represented by its leaves and flower petals never being visible at the same time, yet still part of the same plant. Haruchika initially lost faith in his bond with his sister after he believed she betrayed him, but Akiharu and Miyuki never did even after being separated for fifty years. Even if they’re torn apart, whether it’s through digital networks or emotional connections, it’s important to never give up on those bonds.

[staringdownabarrel]

Really, the problem with Neelix is twofold. The first problem is that he was radically misused--instead of being a character who's regularly the centrepiece of serious plots, he's mostly just a character relief character. The second problem is that he's an every episode (except for one or two at the end) character instead of being a couple of times a season character.

There really wasn't any problem with Neelix being a serious character. Jetrel, one of the first episodes to focus on him, was arguably the best episode of Voyager's first season, and while Mortal Coil wasn't the best episode of season four, it's still a pretty decent episode. The former deals with themes of war, mass killings, and trauma; the second deals with themes of death, loss of faith, and suicide.

Both these episodes demonstrate that Neelix could have been a very layered character if the writers had have put in the effort. I think there was also a lot of room to explore what Neelix's experiences as the only Talaxian onboard a ship of 140 or so humans was like and how it contrasted to Torres' experience as the only Klingon/half-Klingon.

There was also a lot of room to contrast his experiences to the other long-time combat veterans onboard--the Maquis crew were all veterans of guerilla-style warfare against the Cardassians, after all. This would have also provided an interesting contrast between DS9 and Voyager, because while DS9's exploration of war-related trauma was mostly based around trauma stemming from a currently ongoing conflict, Voyager's could have been based around armed conflicts that had been over for a while.

I feel it's very telling that one Neelix-centric episode--or, at least, Neelix-adjacent episode--has also traditionally been one of the most contentious episodes of the entire franchise. One of the easiest ways to start a flame war in any given Star Trek community online is to express an opinion one way or the other on the ethics of Tuvix, after all.

While Tuvix didn't necessarily spring forth from any part of Neelix's background, it did show how Neelix and Tuvok could have balanced each other out to some extent. It also could have been the starting point of their dynamic evolving from annoying gremlin with no sense of boundaries and irritated old man who's too professional to whack him to one of greater understanding. Instead, what we got we got was another several seasons of the annoying gremlin/irritated old man dynamic.

The point of all of this is that while Neelix was mostly used as a comic relief character, he didn't need to be. There's a few different roads they could have taken him down and done some really interesting things with him that would have been completely on-brand for the franchise. Instead, what we got was mostly comedic Neelix-centric scenes at a time when the franchise's attempts at humour tended to be very hit-and-miss.

This tendency to try to force Neelix to be the comic relief character was evident even very early on. In The Cloud (the "there's coffee in that nebula" episode), Neelix's big contribution was basically a joke-y scene where he's on the bridge trying to convince Janeway not to go into the nebula. This is despite the fact that even in this early role of being a guide to the Delta Quadrant, this was one of Neelix's first opportunities to, y'know, actually be useful.

The other big issue was that Neelix was an every episode character and not a once-in-a-while character. If Neelix had have been one of the characters who showed up a few times a season, I think it would have forced the writers to focus on the more serious elements of his character rather than trying to force him to be the funny one.

I think this was more of an issue early on, though. Especially in the first couple of seasons, it's very clear that they weren't really sure what to do with Neelix, so they ended up giving him scenes that didn't really contribute a whole lot to the plot, but did fulfill their apparent contractual obligations with Ethan Phillips to have him in every episode.

Really, I feel like the biggest drawback to having Neelix as a once-in-a-while character would have ended up being that the writers would have forgotten he existed. This is basically what happened with Joe Carey--he got temporarily restricted to his quarters and then the writers forgot he existed for several seasons. This is also what happened to Samantha Wildman, despite Naomi being a semi-regular character: it seems like they kinda forgot she was meant to be there for several seasons.

Still, I do feel like having him be a once-in-a-while character would have been a better choice for him. Guinan wasn't part of TNG's permanent cast, but when she showed up, it contributed to the episode. It's the same deal with Garak in DS9. I'm not sure if either of these characters would have benefited as much if they'd been part of the permanent cast the same way Neelix was.

[msclaritea]

Amazon Studios: Big Swings Hampered by Confusion and Frustration – The Hollywood Reporter

Despite ambitious bets like 'Daisy Jones & The Six' and the upcoming 'Citadel,' insiders complain that there’s still "no vision for what an Amazon Prime show is." But chief Jen Salke says they are missing the point: "You don’t reverse-engineer true creative vision."

BY KIM MASTERS

APRIL 3, 2023 12:43PM PDT

It’s long been an open secret that Jeff Bezos has yearned for his own Game of Thrones, and that Amazon’s big swing as it reached for its own massive hit was The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, believed to be the most expensive series ever made.

Last September, the show began with a bang, delivering the biggest debut ever on the streamer in what Amazon Studios chief Jennifer Salke called “a very culturally defining moment” for the company. But when season one wrapped, the show was less defining than hoped, falling short of being the breakout hit that Amazon had envisioned.

While Amazon, like other streamers, provides only limited data — and internally, it held information even more closely than usual on the series — sources confirm that The Rings of Power had a 37 percent domestic completion rate (customers who watched the entire series). Overseas, it reached 45 percent. (A 50 percent completion rate would be a solid but not spectacular result, according to insiders). The show has not been a major awards contender, either, overlooked by the major guilds with the exception of one SAG-AFTRA nomination for stunt ensemble.

But according to Salke, the series has worked. “This desire to paint the show as anything less than a success — it’s not reflective of any conversation I’m having internally,” she says. The second season, currently in production, will have more dramatic story turns, she adds. “That’s a huge opportunity for us. The first season required a lot of setting up.”

Data from Nielsen on minutes watched reveals that when it comes to original shows generally, Amazon has lagged. In 2022, Netflix hoovered up the top 10 spots for original streaming series, with Amazon’s The Boys in 11th place — ahead of The Rings of Power at No. 15. Using the same measurement, none of the top 15 originals of 2021 came from Amazon. (Netflix again took all the slots except for Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale in 10th place, Apple’s Ted Lasso at 12, and Disney+’s WandaVision in the 14th spot.)

Many current and former Amazon executives, as well as showrunners who have series at the streamer and agents who make deals there, believe that this is no accident. They describe Amazon Studios as a confusing and frustrating place to do business. When it comes to movies, where Amazon’s footprint is expanding following the $8.5 billion acquisition of MGM a year ago, a veteran producer says that, in recent years, “there has been no sense of what the philosophy is.”

On the series side, numerous sources say they cannot discern what kind of material Salke and head of television Vernon Sanders want to make. A showrunner with ample experience at the studio says, “There’s no vision for what an Amazon Prime show is. You can’t say, ‘They stand for this kind of storytelling.’ It’s completely random what they make and how they make it.” Another showrunner with multiple series at Amazon finds it baffling that the streamer hasn’t had more success: Amazon has “more money than God,” this person says. “If they wanted to produce unbelievable television, they certainly have the resources to do it.”

But Salke believes the studio’s approach fits Amazon’s broad remit. “I have never been one to say [to the creative community] ‘We need five action franchise shows and three workplace situation comedies.’ That’s the kiss of death,” she says. “You don’t reverse-engineer true creative vision. We are programming for over 250 million households across the entire globe. We would say we have a big, broad audience, and we are looking for content that entertains the four quadrants.” (That is, male and female, under 35 and over 35).

The question that makes many in Hollywood nervous is whether the Amazon Studios overlords in Seattle believe they are getting enough bang for their megabucks. The last thing the industry wants at a time of belt-tightening is a cutback in spending from a deep-pocketed buyer. According to Salke, that concern is misguided. “The proof exists that the giant tentpole shows are driving people to subscribe to Prime,” she says. “Do we pressure ourselves to be more disciplined, more strategic? Of course. We consistently examine if we’re producing the right amount of content at the right value to drive the most engagement across our service.”

Like Apple, Amazon is not a traditional entertainment company but a huge retailer with a side hustle in Hollywood. Amazon’s view is that the more hours you spend watching Prime Video, the more likely you are to renew your membership and the more likely you are to shop on the site. As Amazon, like Netflix, pursues overseas growth in the wake of saturation in the U.S., Salke notes that in some countries like South Africa and Argentina, Amazon’s programming is the tip of the spear, entering the territory before retail sales or fast, free shipping is even available. “International is everything,” she says. “It is our business to deliver global shows for a global audience.”

The streamer has certainly had its success stories, including buzzy shows like Transparent, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Fleabag, and popular series like The Boys, Jack Ryan, Jack Reacher and The Terminal List. But it has arguably never had a brand-defining show that is a commercial and critical juggernaut in the vein of HBO’s Game of Thrones, Netflix’s Stranger Things or Apple’s Ted Lasso. And all of those Amazon series, except Jack Reacher and The Terminal List, were launched when Salke’s predecessor, Roy Price, ran the studio. (Price departed in 2017 amid allegations of improper conduct; Salke took over in 2018.)

Jennifer Salke CHARLEY GALLAY/GETTY IMAGES

One of Salke’s first greenlights was Daisy Jones & The Six, based on the Taylor Jenkins Reid novel and co-produced by Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine. Lauren Neustadter, president of film at Hello Sunshine, says she and Witherspoon had lunch with Salke just as she was starting at Amazon. “She was really clear and articulate in her vision” for what she wanted to do with the job, Neustadter says. “Reese and I both said Daisy is all the things she was talking about. The book, the show, fashion — we had big dreams for this.”

Amazon put more than $140 million into production, in part due to high COVID protocol costs. The show dropped March 3 with solid numbers and eventually topped Parrot Analytics’ weekly engagement chart. The 2-year-old novel popped back onto Amazon’s best-seller list, and the retailer is able to sell tie-in merchandise. Aurora, an album featuring songs from the fictional band, is climbing the Billboard charts. However, insiders say the show remains shy of the breakout hit the studio hoped for. (Released around the same time, Donald Glover’s Swarm is also delivering strong results for Amazon at a more modest $30 million budget.)

A far more costly and troubled production was the Russo brothers’ Citadel, which debuts on April 28. Anthony Russo says Salke first approached AGBO, the Russos’ production company, with a general concept of making a U.S. show with international foreign-language versions. AGBO came up with “a global spy show where you would have a mothership U.S. language show” alongside foreign-language versions in other countries, Russo says. The various versions are “related to one another, but they also exist independently and distinct from one another.” Some of the international shows may be set in different time periods, he adds. 

Amazon has committed to three seasons of three versions of the show; so far, a local-language production is underway in Italy and in early stages in India. “We love the ability to communicate with people all over the world, and to connect people through stories,” Russo continues. “Amazon and Jen basically brought us a brand-new opportunity to do that at a scale that’s never been attempted before.”

But in December 2021, with production well underway, the Russo brothers decided to replace showrunner Josh Appelbaum. “It was clear after some audience feedback and discussion that some changes needed to be made,” says Mike Larocca, president and co-founder of AGBO. “We felt like it needed some more character work early to draw people into the show. It was that straightforward.” Appelbaum declined to comment.

David Weil took over as showrunner. When Joe Russo came on set, a “huge bunch of material” was tossed out, an insider says. Sources say the cost of the series climbed toward $300 million, making it Amazon’s second-most expensive show after LOTR. (In an onstage March 10 conversation with Salke at SXSW, Priyanka Chopra said her work on Citadel was the first time she had achieved pay parity in 22 years. That prompted some Amazon executives to joke internally that this was actually the first and second time, since she and the other leads on the show got paid significantly more than planned due to the massive reshoots.)

Joseph Russo (R) and his brother Anthony Russo

Directors Anthony and Joe Russo are executive producers on Citadel, Amazon’s high-stakes, $300 million bet on a multinational franchise. SUJIT JAISWAL/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

While the original plan called for eight hourlong episodes, the show that will drop on Amazon in April ended up at six, roughly 40-minute episodes. Amazon has already renewed it for a second season of six hourlong episodes. “There are a couple of relationships where I don’t really understand the bet that is being made,” says one Amazon veteran of the commitment to the project. “But Jen believes in the Russos.”

The challenges on Citadel can happen with the “best-managed creative endeavors with the highest level of talent,” Salke says. “Given the choice of making it mediocre or fucking great — we made the right call there. And at the end of the day, our customers will be the judge.”

Hunters and A League of Their Own, which is ending with a truncated season two, stand out as expensive disappointments of the Salke era. The latter cost in the ballpark of $90 million for eight episodes, including a premium paid to Sony for certain rights.

What generates some of the frustration that sources cite in dealings with Amazon is that Salke, who was previously president of NBC Entertainment, seems to be pursuing conflicting goals. Despite her assertion that Amazon is “a home for talent,” insiders say the mandate is increasingly not on finding the kind of curated hit that defines HBO, but more middle-of-the-road, meat-and-potatoes shows like Jack Reacher. “We’re so desperate right now for safe hits,” an Amazon exec says. (Netflix has also been pursuing broader material.)

But at the same time, current and former Amazon executives say Salke has a pattern of “chasing what she perceives as hot,” as one insider puts it. That person cites as examples paying a premium for Daisy Jones because of the Witherspoon connection, or making a Dead Ringers series, based on the 1988 David Cronenberg film, that came with Rachel Weisz attached. Salke makes deals with auteur talent to “deliver Jack Reacher results,” says an Amazon veteran. “But they don’t.”

Amazon recently renewed The Peripheral, a sci-fi drama from Jonah Nolan and Lisa Joy that cost close to $175 million for eight episodes (sources say their final eight-episode season of Westworld at HBO cost about $140 million). Amazon has ordered six additional hours of The Peripheral despite what sources say has been lukewarm audience engagement. “It probably should have been canceled,” says an insider. “But they made a megadeal and the political capital they would lose with Lisa and Jonah would be too great. And they have other shows coming.” Fallout, the next show from Nolan and Joy, is also “extremely expensive,” says a source.

Nolan and Joy’s deal has been worth at least $20 million a year since they signed on in 2019. One insider calls the Nolan deal the worst example of Salke’s mantra that Amazon is “a home for talent.’” He adds: “We cede decisions to powerful producers. We hold the line on other producers who do great work for us.” Nolan and Joy declined to comment.

Some rich Amazon deals have failed to produce anything at all. In the wake of serving as an executive producer on Them, Lena Waithe got a two-year deal worth $8 million a year that yielded nothing; in November 2021, she moved her banner to HBO Max.

And in September 2019, Amazon announced a deal with Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who had just swept up six Emmys for the second season of Fleabag. The plan was for Waller-Bridge to collaborate with Donald Glover on a Mr. and Mrs. Smith series, based on the 2005 film.

But within a few months, Waller-Bridge departed the show due to clashing creative styles. Her three-year deal, at $20 million a year, bore no fruit, yet Amazon recently renewed it, announcing that Waller-Bridge would write (but not star in) a Tomb Raider series. Some Amazon insiders have questioned how much she will contribute to the project, noting that Amazon has been seeking a showrunner to help write and oversee it.

The low-key Sanders bristles a little at the assertion. “Phoebe has not only fully embraced Tomb Raider and I think is feeling very committed to it, but she’s in a writers room right now working on it,” he says. Waller-Bridge is developing other material for the streamer as well, he adds, “She’s a perfectionist, so she absolutely wants to make sure that what she does is great and right, but she’s proven that when she does deliver, she delivers.” Waller-Bridge declined to comment.

But a showrunner with considerable experience at Amazon sees it differently: “They don’t learn from their mistakes.

They [say], ‘We can’t do any more deals like that.’ You turn around and they’re right back to — the impolite term is ‘star-fucking.'

” For creative executives at the studio, the result has been exasperation. “They say, ‘We don’t want to buy from outside studios,’” says a former Amazon exec. “Then packages come and they buy everything that comes through the door, and our development is thrown out.” 

One of Salke’s early hires at Amazon was Sanders, who had worked very closely with her as head of current programming at NBC. At Amazon, Salke initially made him co-head and then sole head of television. Before coming to Amazon, Sanders was overseeing NBC shows that were already up and running rather than developing and launching shows. Some Amazon insiders complain that he doesn’t offer them enough in the way of direction.

Vernon Sanders

One of Salke’s first hires at Amazon was Vernon Sanders, now head of television for the studio. AMY SUSSMAN/GETTY IMAGES

“No one knows what he likes,” says a former executive at the streamer. In a similar vein, a producer who’s worked with Amazon says, “Vernon seems so sincere, but when you talk to him about a project, you come away not knowing where you stand. What kind of shows does he really care about making? At the end of the day, that makes it hard for talent to truly trust him.”

Sanders says his job is simply not to program for his own taste, echoing Salke’s point about the importance of international. “We have over 250 million global customers, so our goal is to program for everyone — we have a big, broad and diverse audience,” he says. “We see that as one of our strengths. We can produce global tentpoles as well as inventive, character-driven series, with plenty in between. And our customers welcome it all. That’s why Lord of the Rings and Swarm can co-exist and succeed on our service.”

Rings and Swarm can co-exist and succeed on our service.”

Another complaint is that Sanders relies heavily on feedback from focus groups, which tend to favor broad and less inclusive programming. Several Amazon insiders say the reliance on testing and data led to a clash late last summer, when an Amazon executive said in a marketing meeting for the series A League of Their Own that data showed audiences found queer stories off-putting and suggested downplaying those themes in materials promoting the show. Series co-creator Will Graham became greatly concerned about bias built into Amazon’s system for evaluating shows, which multiple sources say often ranked broad series featuring straight, white male leads above all others. One executive calls A League of Their Own “a proxy for how diverse and inclusive shows are treated.” 

Graham launched into an interrogation of the system, questioning multiple executives about it. Amazon took the issue seriously and dropped the system of ranking shows based on audience scores. Insiders cite this show as one that Sanders did passionately support, but for months after it dropped, there was no word on whether it would be renewed. Ultimately, Amazon agreed to a four-episode second and final season. Still, several Amazon veterans believe the system remains too dependent on those same test scores. “All this perpetuation of white guys with guns — it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy,” says one. And another: “Relying on data is soul crushing … There’s never, ‘I know the testing wasn’t that great, but I believe in this.'” Graham declined to comment.

One executive says it was different when Salke first took charge at Amazon. “She shot from the hip, she went with her gut, and she didn’t let data overrule her,” this person says. “But she hired a staff that was in over their heads in terms of being able to get those shows produced at a number. I think if we had [FX boss] John Landgraf or [HBO’s] Casey Bloys or somebody who had more credibility and direct interaction with the development of shows, it would be so much easier to spend less. But we kind of act like it doesn’t matter if we have deep conversations with talent. A guy like Donald Glover would think, ‘No way in hell I’m doing a deal with these guys unless they overpay me.’ I know we’re third or fourth on their priority list. Agents are direct about it: ‘You guys pay a premium for being Amazon.’ They have clients who would much rather work at other places.”

Salke responds: “If people say my gut’s been tamped down, there’s no evidence for that.”  

Even some producers who have successful television projects at Amazon say its executive structure remains confusing to the point of opacity. A recent reorganization — the latest of several — does not seem to have done much to clarify things. An executive at a production company that has done repeat business with Amazon says it’s hard to know “who you should go to if you want to bring [a project] to them.” Says a showrunner who has had success at the streamer: “I couldn’t honestly tell you who reports to whom. It keeps changing.” 

Some of the confusion around Amazon may arise from conflicting goals at the top. Mike Hopkins, Amazon’s senior vice president for Prime Video & Amazon Studios, is a seasoned business executive and a veteran of Sony and Hulu but does not come from the creative side. A top industry executive who dealt with him at Hulu calls him “a seemingly egoless, laid-back, efficient manager.” A former Amazon executive says Hopkins is a “very intelligent, very calm and collected leader, but all he seems to care about is the bottom line. He doesn’t understand a lot about production because he doesn’t come from that.” Hopkins declined to comment.

Salke is known as a charismatic leader who has “a great touch around talent,” says an agent. But one long-standing complaint is that she can be hard to reach and unresponsive to texts or emails. “I really like Jen,” says an executive whose company has done repeat business with Amazon. “When you get her, she’s really engaged. She’s obviously spread thin, but if you actually get her, you can get a pretty clear answer.” That issue might only be exacerbated as, in the past year, Salke has taken on responsibility for MGM’s film and television studios, as well as marketing oversight.

On the fundamental issue of money, Hopkins and Salke were destined to clash. “Her strategy is to get whatever seems hot. Mike’s vision was to cut costs on shows and get football,” says a former insider. In 2021, Amazon became the first streamer to make an exclusive deal with the NFL, signing an 11-year pact for exclusive rights to Thursday Night Football at $1 billion per season. Amazon’s sports chief, Jay Marine, told staff in a September note that the launch game produced “the biggest three hours for U.S. Prime sign ups ever in the history of Amazon.” But while the streamer had told advertisers it expected to average 12.5 million viewers per game, at the end of the season Amazon said it had 11.3 million viewers, while Nielsen calculated 9.6 million average viewers. Amazon has said it compensated advertisers for the shortfall but offered no specifics.  

In recent months, current and former Amazon executives say, Salke seemed to be in a political battle with Hopkins. “Mike is a lot about budgets and that’s not something she reacts well to,” says one. But a top executive at another entertainment company says his lack of creative experience hampers his ability to limit spending on shows and movies. “That’s why he says yes when Jen says we’ve got to pay Simon Kinberg $8 million for a project,” this person says. 

That’s a reference to the spy thriller Red Shirt, written by writer-producer Kinberg with Channing Tatum attached to star. The project, acquired in November based on a treatment and short video heavily featuring Tatum, had several bidders, but Amazon offered the richest overall package.

The film calls for Tatum to be paid $25 million, with a staggering $18 million for director David Leitch. Add in Kinberg’s $8 million for writing and producing services and the deal represents one of the highest, if not the highest, payment for an original pitch in Hollywood dealmaking history. Kinberg, Tatum and Leitch declined to comment.

And that’s only one of several pricey film bets that Amazon has made. Salke put in a preemptive bid for Air, the Nike movie with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Affleck says Salke was his point of contact during the making of the film and he found her to be “straightforward, and true to her word.” Salke “always had thoughtful ideas and notes,” he adds. “We took almost all of them.”  

But an executive at a competitor calls the deal for Air “crazy,” claiming, “She just bought it off a pitch, went in and bought it for $160 million.” (Industry sources say it cost far less to produce.) “Matt made more money on [Air] than any other movie but Bourne. She just took it off the table,” says the executive. (Affleck and Damon declined to comment on the deal.) Another source involved with the project says he’s certain some competitor would have matched the deal. While it’s uncertain the film, which has garnered critical acclaim, will gross enough at the box office to be profitable, the value of having it to lure subscribers to the streaming service may justify the expense. 

Recently, Salke has been perceived as pivoting toward film. Several Amazon sources believe there was a tug-of-war with Hopkins over who would have oversight of the MGM film studio. Initially, Hopkins intended to hire former Fox and Paramount executive Emma Watts and have her report to him. But then Watts — a seasoned but sometimes sharp-elbowed exec — was out of the picture, despite having gone through vetting. Amazon announced in November that Salke, not Hopkins, would have direct oversight of the film studio despite her very limited film experience. Amazon declined to comment on the switch.

Given Salke’s background in television, many in the film community assumed she would need to hire an executive with strong movie experience to oversee MGM films. But some Amazon insiders believe she wanted to give the job to Julie Rapaport, the executive in charge of original movies for the streamer. While Rapaport is well-liked, in the view of several outside movie execs, she lacks the experience to run MGM film. 

If Salke indeed wanted Rapaport in the job, there was one big snag. MGM’s crown jewel is the James Bond franchise, which is controlled by Barbara Broccoli. Sources say Broccoli made it clear that she needed an experienced movie executive at the helm of MGM’s film division. The sources also believe that Salke put her foot wrong with Broccoli by mentioning a possible Bond TV project, which Broccoli would not want. And following the acquisition of MGM’s distribution arm, they say, Broccoli was not impressed when weeks passed during which Amazon did not communicate with the longtime marketing and distribution executives who Broccoli sees as vital to handling the Bond films, leaving them in doubt as to whether they would keep their jobs. (A source says one of those executives, the late Erik Lomis, fought to move Creed III out of a crowded November to a March release date, giving Amazon a hit that has grossed $250 million.) Salke says, “We have deep respect for Barbara and Michael” — a reference to Michael G. Wilson, her Bond producing partner.  Broccoli did not respond to a request for comment.

Amazon went through a protracted who’s who of potential hires before settling on former Warner Bros. executive Courtenay Valenti. Sources say Salke was chilly to Valenti during the hiring process, which Salke denies. Valenti joins former longtime Warner Bros. executive Sue Kroll, who in October became head of marketing for Amazon Studios and MGM. Even Amazon critics say Salke made an excellent move in hiring Kroll, who brings a much-needed boost to promoting Amazon films and series. Now reunited, both Valenti and Kroll will report to Salke. 

Part of what irks some Amazon entertainment executives is that, as part of a supersized tech company, the studio must contend with an idiosyncratic culture that often doesn’t mesh with traditional Hollywood practices. (In a sense, Amazon the parent is as alien to Hollywood as previous outsiders who have come and gone: Coca-Cola, Matsushita, a wave of German investors.) Amazon culture manifests itself in many ways that go beyond the well-known everyone-flies-coach rule. The compensation system caps base cash pay at $350,000 for all employees (exclusive of signing bonuses) plus stock options, which for a high-level executive will make up the bulk of pay. The base pay cash ceiling was $160,000 until last year, when the cap was increased due to the declining stock price. Over the past 12 months, the stock has been down more than 35 percent. (In contrast, at Netflix, executives can decide what percentage of their compensation they will take in stock options.) 

“A lot of people there are not that incentivized to stick their necks out,” says an agent. “Everyone’s sort of marking time to get as much stock [to vest] as they can. That’s no way to run it. This is a hit-driven, risk-taking business.”

Another Amazon tradition: Only top executives have offices. Until this year, other high-level execs have worked in assigned cubicles. Since January, however, the vast majority have to contend with “agile seating,” meaning they work at unassigned cubbies in designated “neighborhoods,” and are provided with lockers for their belongings. “These things are coming from so high up [in the company],” says an Amazon Studios insider. “It just contributes to the sense of anonymity — that nobody knows where their own spaces and belongings are.” This arrangement seems to be in favor with some tech types; Jason Kilar was “adamant” about imposing a similar plan at HBO and HBO Max, according to a source, though equivalent top executives at Netflix do get offices.

Meanwhile, the broader company is now facing very public challenges: In January, Amazon announced the biggest workforce cuts in the company’s history, laying off more than 27,000 of its 1.6 million employees. So far, the studio has been spared, though a hiring freeze is in effect. 

Industry executives feel it’s imperative to keep as many buyers in the game as possible, and some worry that the NFL deal has shown Amazon a way to sign up subscribers in a way that is not as unpredictable as making scripted entertainment. Says one former insider, “In bringing Mike in, they wanted to keep Jen in check. Then you add sports and in 24 hours make more progress than in eight years of TV. The whole sports launch changed the prism of how they look at the ecosystem and what role film and TV and music plays into it.” 

So far, Amazon hasn’t hinted at any unhappiness with the return on its content spend, which was $7 billion on Amazon Originals, live sports and licensed third-party video content in 2022. That’s up 28 percent from the previous year, thanks in part to the cost of football and Lord of the Rings. (In comparison, Netflix spent about $18 billion.) According to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, Amazon’s U.S. Prime subscribers stalled last year at 168 million, essentially flat from 2021. (The company last publicly disclosed a Prime subscriber number in 2021, when it said it had “over 200 million” globally.) 

During a February earnings call, Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky sounded upbeat. “We regularly evaluate the return on the spend [on content] and continue to be encouraged by what we see, as video has proven to be a strong driver of Prime member engagement and new Prime member acquisition.” Speaking at a New York Times Dealbook summit in November, CEO Andy Jassy said he could see a possible future in which Amazon’s entertainment operations could work as a stand-alone business “with very attractive economics.” He added, “All of that content is a really important ingredient in why people choose to sign up to Prime.” But Amazon watchers might have noted that he mentioned Thursday Night Football in particular. The company will continue to invest in sports, he said, “a unique asset with an unrivaled ability to drive Prime sign-ups.”

Additional reporting by Lesley Goldberg.

Maybe this will clear things up. Maybe not. Jennifer Salke is married to Bert Salke, Head of Fox 21. His reps:

Agent: United Talent Agency, 9560 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 500, Beverly Hills, CA 90212.; Office: Brancato/Salke Productions, 5300 MelroseAve., Suite 229 East, Los Angeles, CA 90038.

Some or maybe all of what's going on at Amazon Prime, frankly looks like straight up money laundering, to several outfits in Hollywood, either willingly or unwillingly. United Talent Agency has so far tried screwing over talents like Johnny Depp and Benedict Cumberbatch. A number of actors left the agency and it's because they have a longstanding, close relationship with the Church. No fucking wonder I'm staring at Tom Cruise's face every time I go on the Amazon Prime or old Simon Pegged movies, out front and center for hot picks.

While I'm not a fan a big fan of this guy, Disparu (uses the word Woke in tye negative and seems to have a soft spot for Tom Cruise) he makes some very straightforward points about the craziness of paying Phoebe Waller-Bridge $20 million per year to do fuck all. And Bridge is only big in Britain. So, I'm not the only one who's wondered at the overhyping. It could only be from powerful outfits like COS or Lavender Mafia.

[franchisingmagazineusa]

Franchising Opportunities for Veterans in the Service Industry

Finding a career that offers stability and growth potential can be challenging for veterans transitioning back into civilian life. However, franchising presents an ideal solution, particularly within the service industry. With a range of new franchises in the USA emerging each year, veterans are uniquely positioned to leverage their skills and discipline in this thriving sector. This blog will explore why the service industry offers some of the best franchises to own for veterans and highlight the top franchising opportunities for veterans in 2024.

Why the Service Industry is Ideal for Veterans:

The service industry encompasses a broad range of businesses, including home maintenance, cleaning services, landscaping, and more. These businesses often rely on structure, leadership, and teamwork—qualities that veterans inherently possess due to their military training. This makes the service industry a natural fit for veterans seeking to become entrepreneurs.

Additionally, the service industry is characterized by strong demand and recurring revenue streams. Many services are essential, meaning there’s a consistent need for them, even during economic downturns. For veterans looking for the best franchises to own, the service industry offers both stability and the potential for significant growth.

New Franchise Opportunities in the USA:

Each year, new franchises emerge in the USA, offering fresh opportunities for veterans to invest in. These new franchises often offer innovative business models and cater to emerging market trends, making them attractive options for entrepreneurial veterans. The service industry, in particular, has seen a surge in new franchise opportunities as demand for various services continues to grow.

For veterans considering their options, it’s important to research these new franchises thoroughly. Look for franchises that offer strong training programs, operational support, and a clear path to profitability. Many franchisors also offer incentives or discounts for veterans, making it easier to get started with a new franchise in the USA.

Best Franchises to Own for Veterans:

When it comes to selecting the best franchises to own, veterans should consider franchises that align with their skills, interests, and long-term goals. The service industry offers a wide range of options, from hands-on businesses like home repair to more managerial roles in service coordination.

The best franchises to buy are those that offer comprehensive support systems, including training, marketing, and operational assistance. Veterans should seek out franchisors who understand the unique strengths that veterans bring to the table and who offer tailored support to help them succeed. Whether it’s a well-established brand or a new franchise in the USA, the key is to find a franchise that resonates with your personal and professional aspirations.

Franchising Opportunities for Veterans: Where to Start

For veterans interested in franchising opportunities, the first step is to explore the various options available in the service industry. Begin by researching franchises that specifically market to veterans, as these companies often provide additional resources and support to help you succeed.

Consider attending franchising expos or connecting with franchise consultants who specialize in helping veterans find the best franchises to buy. These resources can provide valuable insights into the franchising process and help you identify opportunities that are well-suited to your skills and financial goals.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, franchising offers veterans a unique opportunity to transition into entrepreneurship, particularly within the service industry. With a variety of new franchises in the USA and established brands offering the best franchises to own, veterans have a wealth of options to choose from. By leveraging their skills, discipline, and leadership abilities, veterans can find franchising opportunities that not only provide financial security but also allow them to continue serving their communities in meaningful ways.

Whether you’re looking for the best franchises to buy or exploring new franchise opportunities, the service industry presents a promising path for veterans eager to embark on a new chapter of their professional lives.

Source: https://franchisingmagazineusa.blogspot.com/2024/08/franchising-opportunities-for-veterans.html

[felassan]

The latest on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf and the next Mass Effect, from today's new BioWare Blog post [source].

Text version:

"As we look toward the future, BioWare is focused on being a leader in developing immersive, emotionally charged, single-player games, with teams primarily in Austin and Edmonton. This means a renewed focus on our two key franchises: Dragon Age™ and Mass Effect™. For Dragon Age, we continue to build, polish, and tune an exceptional experience we know our fans will love. We can’t wait to share more on this soon. For Mass Effect, we continue pre-production with a core team of veteran storytellers who are bringing the deep franchise history forward in a spectacular new way. I’m excited about the opportunities that lie ahead, and Keith wanted to share his own thoughts about the transition.  Stay well, Gary McKay General Manager, BioWare"

[yumeka36]

Important announcement

As some of you may have noticed, there has not been much activity on my blog lately. Part of it is due to there simply being a lack of new Frozen content to post about, and often times when there’s lack of new content, waning interest is inevitable. And unfortunately that’s what’s happened with me.

I joined Tumblr as a way to connect with Frozen fans back in 2014 when the franchise had just exploded into popularity. I didn’t make much original content until 2017 when I wanted to focus my blog not just on Frozen but on my interests in general. But as time went on, especially when Frozen 2 hype started in early 2019, my blog became the extremely Frozen-focused blog that it is today, with a non-Frozen post occurring only once in a while.

In less than two weeks, three years will have gone by without any significant canon content for Frozen, the longest gap in the franchise’s 9-year history. And with that fact, it seems that even a veteran enthusiast like me is feeling the passion dying out. But I know there’s nothing abnormal about this - for other fandoms I’ve been in throughout my life, loss of interest inevitably comes from lack of hype and content. Before Frozen, there were two franchises I had the same level of long-lasting, deep obsession with: one was Inuyasha (an anime/manga series) and the other was Haruhi Suzumiya (an anime/novel series). Like with Frozen, during the years I was deep into those, it was hard to imagine a time when I wasn’t super passionate about them. But of course, those times did eventually come - the Inuyasha manga finished in 2008, and my passion for it faded soon after. And sadly the author of the Haruhi Suzumiya series never got motivated to write new novels, leaving the series incomplete since 2011. But then there’s a franchise like Pokemon that I’ve never once wavered in my love for. And the reason? Because that franchise has never stopped producing new and significant content in its 25+ year history (guess that’s to be expected from the highest grossing media franchise of all time).

During times when franchises I once loved were running dry, it was a perfect opportunity for a new seed of passion to start growing. And that’s what’s happened with me and Frozen. Just as I’ve been pulling at straws to keep my passion alive, something much more enticing came along. Some of you may recall from my last post that I started watching an anime called Spy x Family and really liked it. Well, since then, I’ve been hardcore hyperfocused on that fandom for the past month...and it's been extremely enjoyable! (also thanks to fellow Frozen fan @tare-chan for helping me get initiated!) It’s such a fantastic change of pace to be part of a fandom that has consistent new canon content, a thriving community of fans, and merchandise tailored to adult collectors like me. With Frozen having no significant content for the past few years, I forgot what a wonderful experience that could be.

With all this said, you probably have questions, which I’ve hopefully answered below:

Does this mean you’re leaving the Frozen fandom?

Absolutely not. I still love Frozen, it’s just not my top fandom like it was before. As such, I don’t plan on buying any new Frozen merch or making any new posts about it, at least not until we get new major content, like another movie. But I plan to stay in the Frozen Discord servers I’m already in, continue following my favorite Frozen bloggers, and maybe occasionally partake in discussions online. But I won’t be the avid content creator and enthusiast that I was before. However, if there’s any new major content for the franchise, for example, if/when Frozen 3 comes out, I’ll definitely see it and probably write my thoughts on it.  But whether even a third movie could bring the same level of fervor that I had before, only time will tell.

Are you going to close or repurpose this blog and your other social media?

This blog will definitely remain open and I do plan to post on it occasionally. However it won’t be as Frozen-focused as it was before. I’m going to use this blog to post about my interests in general, whether it’s Frozen or other Disney movies, Pokemon and video games, anime, or whatever. So again, I may still post about Frozen once in a while, especially if we get new canon content, but probably not as much as before. All this applies to my Twitter as well if you follow me there (though my Twitter has always been more multi-fandom focused than my blog). So if you're still interested in seeing potential Frozen content from me, and don't mind seeing a non-Frozen post once in a while, I hope you'll continue to follow this blog 🙂

Are you going to make a new blog or other new social media accounts?

I decided to make a new blog specifically for Spy x Family, which you can find here if you’re interested (as of now I’m mostly posting photos of my newly growing merch collection and maybe my thoughts on the new manga chapters, but I plan to to do other kinds of posts later on as I get more involved in the fandom). But besides that, I’ll still be active on the same Twitter account and the same Frozen Discord servers (though probably not as much for the latter since I’ll be spending more time in Spy x Family servers). And as I said, I’ll still post on this blog when I feel like it.

I’m sure those of you who have been around fandoms for as long as I have understand that they don’t last forever, especially when there’s nothing to get hyped for. The fact that I stayed so loyal to Frozen for almost a decade when all we had were a couple movies and shorts, proves what a special franchise it was to me and I won’t ever forget it. But that’s the wonderful thing about fictional stories and characters...we can fall in and out of love with them with absolute ease - no need for mutual consent to love them, and no breaking hearts if we suddenly decide we’re not into them anymore. They’re immortal and so will be there for us for as long as we need them, and even if we go away from them for a while, we can just as easily go back to them. Maybe some years from now when Spy x Family concludes, I’ll move onto something else. Or maybe I’ll come back to Frozen when we get another movie...or I’ll get into some other hobby entirely. Who knows. But what I do know is that you should put the most time and effort into the things that make you the most happy, even if that’s different from what it was a year, a month, or even a week ago.

And with all this said, I have a little parting gift to my Frozen followers who have read to the end of this post - a few HD scans of the latest French book “Olaf’s Amazing Friend.” I had preordered it a while back and it will probably be my last Frozen 2 purchase.

Thank you for supporting my Frozen content over the years. See you all again in the near or distant future~!

[l-1-z-a]

The Sims 2 Designer Diary #1

Senior producer Tim LeTourneau begins this new series of designer diaries on the sequel to the best-selling PC game of all time.

By Gamespot Staff on January 6, 2004 at 2:55PM PST

The Sims--a seemingly simple strategy game in which you control the lives of little computerized people known as "sims"--is reportedly the best-selling computer game ever, and the game has been supplemented with a series of substantial expansion packs. Though the final expansion pack for the original game, Makin' Magic, is now in development, the series' creators at Maxis concede that the original game has had a good run and that it's time to work on a full-fledged sequel. The Sims 2 will improve on plenty of different aspects of the original game--for instance, it will include the intriguing ability for sims to grow, change, and develop over time. The developers at Maxis have graciously agreed to chronicle their progress in this series of designer diaries. First up is senior producer Tim LeTourneau, who discusses the overall planning and design of this highly anticipated sequel.

The Big Picture

By Tim LeTourneau Senior Producer

How do you create the sequel for the number one game of all time? Well, you start by understanding what it took to make it number one in the first place. Players love their sims, players love to build and decorate, and players love telling stories about what they've created in the game. That was where we began with The Sims 2.

First, we needed a little of the Wright stuff. Will Wright, that is. Will had some definite ideas about where we should be taking The Sims 2. We then put together a team of veteran designers, producers, engineers, and artists--people who came from the original Sims and expansion pack teams. We needed people with an in-depth knowledge of the Sims simulator and behavior systems. Those people needed to have an intimate knowledge and understanding of the history of the franchise--a real grasp of what has historically worked and what hasn't. Most importantly, they needed to have the ability to put together and interpret all of gameplay feedback from everyone around them. Everybody considers themselves an expert on human behavior and, naturally, projects their own sensibilities onto the lives of their sims.

After assembling this crack team, we felt it was important to tap into the different stories that people tell about their life experiences. We had to determine how to deliver them in the game, since this is the essence of what gives us a game with universal appeal. In The Sims 2, everyone can find some part of it that they can completely relate to and emotionally connect with.

Then we tackled the sims themselves. We knew we wanted them to be more dynamic--to move and act more believably. We wanted players to experience a greater emotional connection to them. We wanted to get closer, and we needed a new game engine to accomplish that. As those systems progressed, the power that 3D graphics provided to the world of The Sims became clear. We now had the opportunity to truly evolve The Sims to the next generation with state-of-the-art graphics, animation, and artificial intelligence. The Sims 2 engine was born.

Now that we had the ability to deliver on our vision, we needed to innovate on the gameplay. Players had been asking us to let the sims grow up for a long time. It was clear that now we had the opportunity to explore that space. The term "next generation" took on a whole new meaning when we started to think about sims' generations. It radically expanded the playspace of the game and the scope and depth of the storytelling. We knew it would let players experience all of life's ups and downs with their sim families.

So what does a sim's lifetime look like? We decided on six distinct age ranges that make up the classic periods of life: babies, toddlers, children, teenagers, adults, and seniors. Each stage is punctuated by "big life moments," rites of passage we all equate with growing up: a toddler's first steps, a teen's first kiss, getting married, and kicking the bucket. Players will have to navigate through each of these stages and face the strategic challenges that each age presents. In this dynamic playspace, the best opportunities come when different age groups interact: the moody teen who torments her younger sibling, the crotchety grandpa who complains incessantly to his children, or the baby who throws up when played with a little too exuberantly by the baby-sitter. What happens to these sims as they grow through each of those stages deeply affects how they develop and the way they behave. To keep track of that development, we have given players a measurement called "life score." A sim's "life score" directly reflects the kind of life the player has helped the sim lead. Players will be rewarded for exploring both the positive and negative sides of life.

Your sims will actually be able to pass their features on to their children.

Once we decided on generations as a theme, the rest of the pieces began falling into place. It became obvious that we needed smarter sims. They had to be more aware of and responsive to their surroundings, reacting when things happened in their world. They had to be able to better express their moods and feelings and form complex relationships. They had to have memory to distinguish between friends, family, and romantic interests. We wanted the sims in The Sims 2 to look and behave like their ancestors. We had to crack the Sims genome to let them pass traits from one generation to the next. When we got right down to it, we realized they just had to feel more alive and real so players could tell the story of their sims and their families across their lifetimes.

As we added all the simulator support we needed for generational play, we also set out to revolutionize sim creation. In The Sims 2, create-a-sim has been taken to a whole new level of power. Players can now completely customize the facial features of their sims, making a truly unique person with just a few clicks. In addition to cosmetic choices like hairstyle and makeup, they can make genetic choices like hair color, eye color, and skin tone. But it doesn't stop there. In The Sims 2, players can now actually sculpt the faces of their sims without having to be artists. The control is nearly limitless; every aspect of the face can be customized according to the players' vision of who they want that sim to be. And on top of all that, the physical traits the player selects are passed down to the offspring. The sims have DNA!

We didn't want to leave any aspect of the game untouched. We knew that we needed to enhance and expand the build and buy modes beyond the scope of the original game. This is where many of the hard-core fans have spent literally hundreds of hours designing, building, and customizing homes for their sims. One of the first things that The Sims 2 players will notice is that they can now build houses with multiple stories. We have added the ability to construct decks and foundations. Players can now design and personalize their homes with all-new wall treatments and lighting options and can customize furniture with a variety of colors and fabrics.

So how do you create the sequel to the number one game of all time? You do it by having a deep understanding of your customer and your product. What I have tried to give you here is a quick overview of where we are headed with The Sims 2. In the coming months, we look forward to sharing with you the intimate details of the development process of The Sims 2, and believe me, some of them are going to be really intimate. From conception to delivery, we will allow you to experience, firsthand, the crazy, unpredictable ride of a lifetime that is the development of The Sims 2.

[helenaharperthinker]

Resident Evil 6 10th Anniversary Special Week - Day 1

Who is Helena Harper? Meet Our Heroine from Resident Evil 6!

~ Biography ~

Helena Harper is one of the protagonists of Resident Evil 6. Along with her now partner and franchise veteran, Leon S. Kennedy, she must destroy the cruel Derek C. Simmons, the national security advisor, and prove her innocence in relation to the incident in Tall Oaks.

Little is known about her past, her only known family member was her sister, Deborah Harper, who was kidnapped and infected with C-Virus by Simmons, which unfortunately resulted in her death. Helena is an agent of the American government.

As an agent, she is described as impulsive and emotional, but with strong moral convictions and sympathy for others. She almost became a DSO agent, but had her transfer suspended and was sent to work in the United States Secret Service, because of her CIA’s infractions.

Her first infraction as a CIA agent was to use full force against a murderer who was threatening his victim’s family. The second was shooting her sister’s ex-boyfriend for being abusive with her.

Knowing Helena's potential as an agent and knowing she had a sister, Derek Simmons saw in her an opportunity to put his plans and those of the bioterrorist organization "The Family" into action.

Helena was assigned to guard the President during an event at Ivy University in Tall Oaks. In this event, the president would reveal the truth about the government's involvement with the Raccoon City incident.

So Simmons kidnapped her and her sister. He forced her to open a breach in the president’s security, promising to return her sister. This breach was all he needed to accomplish a part of his plans: to prevent the president from telling the whole truth.

On the night of the incident, Helena used a radio to communicate with other agents on campus and falsely reported that a suspicious group had invaded the campus with the intention of killing the president.

Some agents left their posts and went looking for the group of suspects, it was the perfect breach in the president's security.

Helena could not live with the weight of guilt for everything that could happen and still be complicit, even against her will, of a sociopath like Simmons. She tried her best to keep Simmons from getting what he wanted, even if it meant putting her own sister’s life at risk.

She tried to warn and ask for help from the other agents who were on the Ivy University campus, but because of her history at the ClA, no one listened to her. The result? A tragedy of gigantic proportions!

Simmons got what he wanted and ended up infecting not only the president but the entire city of Tall Oaks, which resulted in the deaths of over 70,000 people. Helena tried on her own to save the president, but it was too late.

When she arrived at his office, she found him the way Simmons wanted, infected by the C-Virus. The president turned into a zombie and tried to kill her, but was killed by his longtime friend, Leon S. Kennedy, who was also in the office.

Later, on a video call, Simmons confronts and blames them for the president's death, putting them at the top of the suspect list. Now, Leon and Helena team up to destroy Simmons and make him pay for all the harm he has caused and could cause, as well as proving their innocence.

~ Facts ~

1 - Her only known family member was her sister, Deborah Harper, who was only 3 years younger than Helena;

2 - She was born in 1989, meaning during the events of the game, she is 24 years old, which implies her birthday is between January 1st and June 28th;

3 - Unlike other characters in the franchise, nothing is known about her parents, only that they were already dead when she became an adult, or about her motivations to become what she is today: an American government agent;

4 - Because of her infractions, she received the nickname "The CIA’s Problem Child" from her USSS colleagues;

5 - Leon describes her as a "bossy" person (in chapter 5), but a good agent (in the prelude);

6 - The first person infected that Helena actually killed with her own hands was college girl Liz, after she tried to attack her partner, Leon;

7 - She has 2 unique weapons, the 9mm Picador Pistol and the 3-shot Hydra Shotgun;

8 - Helena has an exclusive achievement in Resident Evil 6, the achievement "Stuntman". In it, the player must eliminate 20 enemies with the Hydra Shotgun using the Quick Shot action;

9 - There is a memo left by Deborah for Helena in the underground laboratory of Tall Oaks Cathedral. In it, Deborah asks Helena for forgiveness for not being a “good sister” and hopes she finds someone she loves. Helena never had access to this memo;

10 - Helena has 2 extra costumes in Mercenaries mode. The first being a R.P.D. Cop Costume (available in blue and green colors). And the second, a variation of her costume from China, but with the retro graphics, in the style of 1998.

Unfortunately, it is only possible to play with these costumes in the main campaign on the Nintendo Switch version;

11 - Helena Harper owns 1 official Hot Toy Action Figure produced by Square Enix's Play Art, just like the other protagonists of Resident Evil 6;

12 - Helena has already met 3 of the 5 classic Resident Evil protagonists, in only 1 game. The only protagonists she hasn’t met so far are Claire Redfield and Jill Valentine.

[bc-johnson]

The Inconvenience of Drama

I guess I just don’t understand what story the Mandalorian is telling? 

Season 1 had the typical “Wolf and Cub” mixed with a traditional Western. Hardass man becomes slightly less hardass, learns to love, etc. 

Season 2 had a “what’s best for the parent isn’t always best for the child,” Din tries to make a better life for Grogu with his “people,” even if it hurts him.

Season 3 seems to be “Din sees some stuff, starfighters are cool.” 

Like, the season isn’t over so obviously the narrative arc is harder to map, but I feel like this show takes every possible opportunity to do the least interesting thing possible. When Grogu left, the most interesting season 3 would be to explore Din WITHOUT Grogu but with the lessons he’s learned in season 1 and season 2. Then they just brought the little dude back on a different terrible show that no one watched?

What they should have done was keep the drama of season 2′s ending, but do a Luke/Grogu/Jedi Academy show. That way Din’s decision still holds and season 2 actually mattered, but the audience still gets to see Grogu in a different show (which also becomes a hook for that show). So you can have your corporate desires and your story, too, but for some reason they did neither. 

So now Grogu is back, but there doesn’t really seem to be a story there. He’s just gonna be Din’s kid now. Din is sorta just content. They’ve chosen the least dramatic path possible. 

And now with the Darksaber. They seemed to be setting up an confrontation between Bo and Din, where two marginal friends and actual allies have this nearly literal Sword of Damacles hanging over their heads. They’re going to have to fight, both of them know it. 

That’s drama! Story is drama! Milk the drama! They want to be friends or allies (or more?!?!), but they literally can’t because her ambition conflicts with his honor. The audience gets to feel the tension knowing this won’t work, they will have to duel at some point, and they’ll have to both mean it. 

Then they just...side-stepped it? “She saved me guys, trust me, here’s the saber.” Like, are we going for convenience or drama? 

Is Mandalorian the story of the guy who is kinda friends with the person who unites his people? What are we doing here? 

Of course, the answer is “we’re making an endless loop of shows that introduce other shows that introduce other shows,” but its so transparent that it’s killing the enjoyment. I don’t want to watch the next thing if it’s just a commercial for the next thing. Every show should stand alone, or at the very least, every show should actually have a story. 

Has this ALWAYS been done? Yes, of course. But it used to be done with a little subtlety. Sure, Winter Soldier introduces Falcon, but it’s in service to Cap’s story: he’s finding veterans to connect to, he easily inspires people to join him, etc. Falcon doesn’t suddenly become the main character of the Winter Soldier. He doesn’t beat the Winter Soldier in the climax while Cap cheers on.

I’m for a Bo Katan show, I’d watch that in a heartbeat. But just, like, make that show. Don’t spend six episodes of another show sneaking in the first season of the Bo Katan show. 

What does Din want? Season 3 has yet to even hint that he wants anything. He’s literally a protagonist with no desires or apparent agency. I get that this is a franchise for selling toys, but, like, there used to at least be the bare bones of a story there. 

Boba Fett suffered from the same problem. I had no idea what he wanted, or WHY he wanted to do the things he was doing. 

Star Wars plays in archetypes, that was always the fun of it. Big cliches slamming together at high volume. But, also basic stuff like three act structure, protagonist wanting something, drama. We can do this. It’s not asking a lot.