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hopoo · 8 years ago

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RoR2 Q&A 12/2/17

Since we got a million asks, I’ll collapse all the answers periodically into one giant QA so it doesn’t ruin your tumblr feed. I tried to answer every question - if yours isnt there, someone else might’ve asked the same question. Expand below to read!

Q: Are you thinking about putting out a beta version to test or are you just waiting for the game to be fully released A: Not sure exactly how we want to do it – we HAVE to have some way of getting the game out to testers, especially for networking/matchmaking testing. It will most likely be some form of closed/limited beta, but we really haven’t though too much about it.

Q: Any ideas on what the system requirements could be? Will they be high or playable on most machines? Also will it work with integrated graphics? A: Most likely the game will be pretty light for GPU with our graphical style, but CPU intensive. What that actually translates to won’t be until the game is closer to launch, where we start optimizing.

Q: ROR1 most loved thing me and my friends liked to do is ruining the framerate with all the items that we had. we had lots of fun crashing the game for whoever hosted the game. might this still be able to happen? I'm looking forward to the release anyway and so are my friends especialy with peer to peer now we can connect better. A: Uhh hopefuly you won’t be able to crash the game, but the game will still scale infinitely like it did previously

Q: Could you make it so that when you use Unstable Watch and timestop, all colors in the game become inverted for the duration? And if you want to go all the way with a certain reference, have only Chef's cleavers stop in midair at the edge of a radius from an enemy, and when the timestop ends the cleavers hit at the same time. A: No memes

Q: Super excites for risk of rain 2. Im real glad i found it in a steam summer sale, bought then and after that bought it for my ps4. Are we going to see any new characters? (Bandit will always be fav so as long as hes good im happy) A: Yes, definitely new characters!

Q: can you make one of the new death messages be "HOST WHEN?" A: No memes!!!!

Q: While Vita's out of the question, what about the Switch, which basically seems to have slotted itself in the 'more powerful handheld device' niche? A: We’d obviously love to be on the switch, but that ultimately depends on A. can we optimize the game to run on the Switch, and B. do we have the technical know-how to actually get it running? Porting to consoles tends to be a much more dramatic change than people expect, even if the engine natively exports to it.

Q: Hi. I’ve been a fan of risk of rain for the past few years. I just want to ask: in risk of rain, some mechanics like heaven cracker can pierce a line of enemies and the huntress’ ability to hit and run. With the change from 2D to 3D environment, how will they work? There are many other abilities and mechanics that i also want to ask about, but these two were the first ones that i could remember immediately. A: We’re not going to bring back any mechanics that don’t fit just for the sake of continuity – however, the Heaven Cracker I can see being actually more fun in 3D since you have to actually align yourself with the enemies. Since everyone can shoot and run in the 3D version, Huntress’ niche is sorta gone, but we have some clever ideas to make that back

Q: In DevBlog #8 you explain some of the steam integration going into Risk of Rain 2 which will make a lot of people happy but will RoR2 also be available without steam for those who prefer? For example will I be able to buy it on GOG like I did RoR1, and play LAN games without steam? A: Right now we’re focusing on making it work via Steam P2P, but (I believe) that we haven’t done anything to explicity lock out connections via IP. You just won’t get the same Nat punchthrough benefits (I’ll have to ask Jeff, our network dude about it to make sure this is correct, but afaik I think that’s right)

Q: Would you guys happen to have an idea of when you think the game would be realeased? A: Nope! Hopefully not too long!

Q: Hello! I loved Risk of Rain 1 and it is great to play with friends. I have two questions (technically three, I'm cheating). 1. I am assuming you're going to release it on steam, so that said will there be steam multiplayer integration? Like... Invite via steam, games are created with the help of steam peer-to-peer. It was a pain to get 4 people playing on one server without port forwarding. 2. Will there be a better way to keep track of items? 3. Can you add a menu to see what items you have? A: Yes, steam invites and all that are the goal. I know we talked about holding TAB to expand the item menu so you could see more at once, but we haven’t actually done that yet. I know it was a bit silly for it to be uncropped and expanding off the screen.

Q: Is this still in development? A: No we’re just pretending

Q: Are you gonna have the same soundtrack from the first game? A different soundtrack? A mix of both? (Don't get rid of the Dried Lake or Sunken Tombs songs). A: That’ll ultimately be up to Chris, but I’m sure he’s in the same boat as us and doesn’t want to cover the same ground that we did previously.

Q: I was telling a friend how excited I was for this, and he expressed a concern I’d like to ask you guys about. He said that, being 3D, the game might end up either not as hectic as the first, or too hectic, what with the hoards coming from all around you. What’s your take on this? (I’m not actually too worried about it, but I still wanna hear your take on the matter.) A: Currently, we’re using SFX as a tool to present not only how close an enemy is, but what state they’re in and how many there are. Since I’ve also been playing the game for like a million hours I’ve also developed the ability to recognize which enemy by the frequency of their screenshake… but that won’t be relevant to most players. We’re really hoping to avoid radars or anything like that for awareness.

Q: Just wanted to say, RoR2 is looking to be coming along fantastically. I really love that you are constantly taking things in unexpected directions-- I never expected to see the game translated to 3D but you have done it and I can imagine many hundreds of hours spent playing. Will Chris Christodoulou be working on the music this game as well? A: Yes, he will be back!

Q: Have you considered calling the second Risk of Rain "Risk of Twain"? A: Not until now

Q: This is kind of a question and a half. How big will the RoR2 maps be and will all the RoR1 maps return in 3D with the additions of new maps or just overall new maps? A: Overall we’re not really looking at the previous maps for the inspiration for our new ones – we’re not making RoR 3D, but a sequel, so we don’t really want to recreate too much old stuff!

Q: Since RoR2 is moving to more dynamic network model, how will people with screwy NATs be affected? NAT Punchthrough is great and all, but if implemented incorrectly can lead to multiple users on the same NAT being unable to join servers outside of the NAT (See Rainbow Six Siege). Will users still be able to host dedicated servers like the old game? What does this mean for users buying the game through GOG/Humble Bundle? Really hope everything goes swimmingly because port forwarding sucks. A: This is the exact reason that we will have to have some form of limited beta, because this is something that we can’t recreate in office. I honestly don’t know enough to respond accurately on what would happen in that particular situation, but thanks for the heads up

Q: Relative to the first one, will Risk of Rain 2 be a sequel, prequel, completely unrelated, or even have story at all? A: Sequel!

Q: How were you going to implement artifacts this time around? Is it going to be based around areas that are randomly generated and you sometimes have access, or multiple spawn locations, etc. A: Dunno, we haven’t implemented really any form of map permutations yet. The artifacts also ended up taking a much more important role in the game than we initially expected – not sure if the old way of unlocking is strange if it’s to be a core feature.

Q: (Big fan) I just had some curious questions; How many characters do you intend there to be in RoR2?, How differently do you plan on changing the previous characters?, Any hints on the final boss? pls, What is the estimated price of the game? and will their be any chance of PvP? Cannot wait, super hyped and keep up the great work :D A: We’re aiming for 10 characters on launch. No spoilers or hints! Definitely not PvP in any official capacity since the networking structure wasn’t designed for a good PvP experience.

Q: I've got three questions : 1) Will it be called RoR2 or will you find / have you found something else ? 2) Why the hell is there one more 'o' in the tumblr URL than in the actual 'Hopoo' name ? 3) What's the average of the team's favorite meals ? thx xoxo <3 A: I think it’ll just be RoR2. The hopoo tumblr was taken on creation of this tumblr, so we had to make it hopooo instead ☹

Q: Will RoR2 reveal why the Contact Light was carrying a teleporter linked to a planet crammed with hostile lifeforms? A: I’d like to explore what the heck is up with the humans in this game, but I sorta wish I had a better avenue that’s not just item logs and monster logs.

Q: I'm going to ask the real questions, is Sniper a man or woman? This is important because reasons. A:

Q: Theres something that confuses me alot about risk of rain 2. It's the lore. If the characters have left the planet, why would they come back? A: Canonically, the returning characters were never on the Contact Light to begin with (and presumably there could totally be like, a bunch of engineers and commando suits.)

#riskofrain #gamedev

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xseedgames · 8 years ago

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Question Extravaganza Blog #2

Hi there! Remember, back in December, when we had an “End-of-the-year Question Extravaganza Blog”? And how there was going to be a second part? Well, FINALLY, here it is! Round two of our answers to the questions that you sent to us via Twitter, so long ago.

Who’s playing this time:

Tom – Localization Producer

Brittany – Localization Producer

Junpei – Assistant Product Manager/XSEED’s Garbage Disposal

Ryan – Localization Lead

Nick – Localization Editor

Alyssa – Product Associate

Liz – QA Tester

Danielle – QA Tester

WARNING: Spoiler alert, just in case! And maybe some language.

Question: which character from Senran Kagura New Wave would you most like to see become playable in a future game

Liz:

There are so many! Kasumi, Kumi, Fuga, and Bashou Kasumi - shy girl that can code her way into your heart? aw yuss. Kumi - ngl I like foxes. I'm also hella curious what her animations would look like... Fuga - dude it's fireworks coming from a shamisen who doesn't wanna SEE THAT. AND THOSE PLATFORMS. DAMN. Bashou - paintbrushes: creation, destruction, or the beauty that comes from their combination? tune in next time on quiet girls that can artfully kill you

Brittany:

Fuga. I've loved her design ever since I first saw it and I've actually begged Takaki-san in person to put her in one of the core games.

Alyssa:

Picking just one is hard, so these are the ones are the top of my list:

Meimei – She fights by throwing bombs shaped like steam buns. Just. Yes.

Ukyou – For some reason, I really like the idea of a machine gun shaped like a bass guitar. She’s also a cutie, I like her design.

Seimei – I like the fact that she rocks pajamas. I wish I could wear pajamas all the time…

Question: What is your most favorite game that you have localized And why?

Brittany:

Trails of Cold Steel II. I cried so much while working on it, haha. It was the game that made me feel like I was really growing up as a writer, and I was so proud of the effort I put into that during every step of the process. Everyone knows I love the series, but for now, that game has a particularly strong place in my heart because I feel like I grew as a person together with those in Class VII (is this too cheesy? lol).

Junpei:

Definitely the EDF series. I’ve been a big fan of the series since the first EDF came out in Japan, but also I learned a lot from the producer and the dev team. It was a very exciting to work on, and luckily, EDF2: Invaders from Planet Space was selected as a D.I.C.E Award nominee.

Also, Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity was a favorite, too. The game is very fun and pretty. I didn’t really know about the Touhou series at first, but this was a good title for Touhou beginners like me to learn what Touhou is. The dev team is very passionate and professional. I was always impressed by them while working on this.

Ryan:

I have a few personal favorites: Estival Versus because I love the character banter, Deep Crimson for the same reason, and Suikoden V because it was my first real localization project and I still have a soft spot for it.

Alyssa:

I have a soft spot for Ys: Memories of Celceta. It was published before I started working here, but was the first XSEED game that I played.

Even though we didn’t really localize it (just published it physically), I’m a big fan of Shantae: Half-Genie Hero. Working with WayForward was an absolute treat and I’m so glad that we have a chance to do something with them.

Tom:

I think anyone who knows me knows my answer to this, but in case you don't: RETURN TO POPOLOCROIS, BABY!! ;) The very first game script I ever translated was part of the script to PopoloCrois Story II on the PS1, which I translated in play-script format and uploaded to GameFAQs as a translation guide. After that, the very next thing I translated was all 51 episodes of the two existing PopoloCrois anime. I am a PopoloCrois super-fan, and when the opportunity came along to work on a PopoloCrois game, to say I was ecstatic would be an understatement. Getting to officially write English dialogue for Prince Pietro Pakapuka, Narcia the forest witch, the White Knight, and the GamiGami Devil was an absolutely amazing experience, and getting to sit in on voiceover sessions and help shape the way they sounded in English was the icing on the cake.

Corpse Party is a close second, though, because I was able to get much more graphic than I'm used to, and it was a bizarre amount of fun describing some of the most horrible acts of mutilation and torture imaginable. It was weird working on Corpse Party and Fishing Resort at the same time, as I had to keep stopping myself from inserting extremely graphic language into the Fishing Resort script.

And Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed gets an honorable mention, as the three weeks spent in voice-recording for that game may be the most fun I've had in my seven years at XSEED.

Question: Where do you face the most unexpected challenges during the localization process?

Nick:

The thing about unexpected challenges is that they're...well, unexpected. The things we run into the most frequently are things we know to be watchful for based on past experience (which is why we usually catch the major stuff). A good example of an "unexpected challenge" would be realizing partway in that we don't actually have all the text files for the game, even though the developer said they gave us everything. Working on games that are still in production also has the tendency to turn up a lot of unexpected issues, particularly when the developers change things and neglect to mention that they were changed. If you learn that a localization was being worked on while a game was still in development, know that it was probably a huge headache for the translators and editors compared to working on something that has been finished and more or less finalized.

Sometimes it's because there's an honest mix-up and they thought they'd given us everything. Other times there's a breakdown in communication along the way, as can occur when information has to pass through too many hands. So...ultimately, miscommunication is where we stand to face the most unexpected challenges. It varies from project to project, and we know to be mindful of it, but we can never fully predict when this sort of issue will pop up.

Question: Where do you try to draw the line between remaining loyal to the original and changing to fit the region you are localizing for?

Nick:

Every editor will give you a different answer for this, so I can only speak personally, but here's where I stand on this issue. When I localize a game, I absolutely want the intent of the original to come through. That's what people are coming to the work for - what they want to experience. However, sometimes, truly conveying the spirit of the original work necessitates departing from the exact language of the original.

If one facet of my job is about accurately conveying information and character relationships, another facet is to ensure people who buy our games are entertained and engaged. That happens best with a script that feels fairly natural in its English phrasing. A quick example is how, if you listen to people converse, most people make frequent use of contractions. They’re a natural linguistic shorthand for English, so it feels natural to make broad use of them in character dialogue. But I often see dialogue written without them (like, where it doesn’t strike me as an intentional editorial choice). Without contractions, at the most basic level, you'll get dialogue that sounds wooden and has less flow to it (Tom and I often compare it to the speaking style of Data, from Star Trek: TNG), but in some cases, using or not using contractions can subtly alter the way we perceive a line, especially if there's no voice-over to clue us in. "I cannot believe he said that about me" carries a bit more of a testy tone than "I can't believe he said that about me."

There are also cultural differences that, when translated over on a 1:1 basis, won't elicit the same response from an international audience, so some tweaking is necessary to make sure Western players of a game experience enjoyment similar to what Japanese players would've felt. This is admittedly a touchy issue, since a lot of this involves getting a good feel for the characters' personalities, and so is inevitably colored by an editor's own interpretations of them. In a blog I wrote before the first Trails of Cold Steel was released, I laid out some cases where I basically felt that the characterizations provided in some places by the original script were lacking, so Kris and I embarked on a mission to strengthen characterization not through any sweeping gestures, but just by bringing certain traits more clearly to the fore in scenes specific characters were in. It's something you might notice if you had the Japanese and English scripts side by side, but it never stood out to most players, and from anecdotal accounts I've read many places online, I think this initiative of ours was very successful. Certainly, I think it brought a lot to Rean's character in particular.

Ultimately, I want a localization to keep all the information the original script gave, but sometimes I re-frame how that information is conveyed because I value entertaining/engaging writing and want our games to feel, as much as possible, like the English scripts could just as well have been the original scripts.

“So, where do I draw the line? As someone who always wants to push for better writing, I generally won't make an edit - even if it would sound great - that would result in dropping factual information conveyed by the original. Not necessarily on a line-by-line basis, but definitely on a scene-by-scene basis. Ultimately, I want a localization to keep all the information the original script gave, but sometimes I re-frame how that information is conveyed because I value entertaining/engaging writing and want our games to feel, as much as possible, like the English scripts could just as well have been the original scripts.”

Brittany:

This question is too broad and no one should have one answer for it. It depends on the game itself, the context, the importance of the topic in question in the scope of the story, the emotional impact it's supposed to make. The most generic answer I can give is that we should always remain loyal to the spirit/intent of the original game, and if anything comes under question, we should consult the dev team and get their perspective on it.

I guess an example that's happened a few times throughout Trails is one where Japanese honorifics are dropped as people become closer. A big deal is made out of it, but that sort of thing doesn't exist in English. At the same time, there's no reason to force it in the English version because the name-dropping isn't necessarily the focus--it's the result of characters becoming closer. The intent is the bond, and as long as you write the scene so that English players understand these characters have become closer thanks to what's going on, then I believe we're still loyal to the Japanese while still properly localizing the scene.

Question: outside of trails in the sky sc what was the hardest game to work on you've released?

Brittany:

It's a toss-up between Unchained Blades and Rune Factory 4. RF4 was a joy to work on because I'm a big fan of the series, but it also contains so many complex algorithms that even the Japanese version of the game occasionally had random bugs that just couldn't be reproduced. Those were everywhere during QA, and then we also had had all that text that needed to be checked for context...

Unchained Blades is far shorter with less text, but it was plagued with bugs during QA to the point where I once ran to the bathroom to cry from losing my save data for the umpteenth time. We had no debug mode for that one, either, so anything I had to test, it had to be done by playing through like a normal player. Hopefully the effort was worth it. I don't think I've ever heard of players experiencing the issues on that game that I had!

Ryan:

Probably Fate/EXTELLA, which had a lengthy, lore-heavy script with a long history behind it, plus a writing style that was both abstractly poetic and strictly technical.

Danielle:

I would say the Story of Seasons series, mostly because of the sheer volume of text and variables to test.

Question: which sort of cultural references do you try to keep rather than rewriting for localization?

Tom:

Generally, all of them. It's always better to keep a reference, and just maybe insert a brief explanation, than to get rid of it. People who play our games know that they're playing Japanese games, so I figure, why try to disguise the Japaneseness of them? Better to celebrate it.

Ryan:

Depends on the medium and context. Fate, in general, is known in part for drawing lore from all over the world, so we did our best to keep its references to world history and literature intact. Akiba's Trip was chock full of Japanese-language anime references, some of which had only unofficial translations, so we did our best to cobble together appropriate translations from Japanese and English fan sites. SENRAN KAGURA drops references to well-known anime now and again, well-known enough that we can keep them intact, with an English take on their wordplay (such as when Katsuragi's play on "a great era of sexual harassment," referring to the "great era of piracy" from One Piece, became "a great invasion of privacy.") Occasionally, we'll run across Japanese proverbs that don't have direct translations, so we'll do our best to find English proverbs or wordplay that match the general sentiment of the original.

Question: What was the situation in a game that gave you trouble? Joke? A conversation? Interactions? Items? Names? Tell us the worse!

Tom:

Shiawase no Sachiko, in Corpse Party. To this day, I'm still not 100% satisfied with my translation there.

See, in the Japanese, there's supposed to be a distinction between 幸せのサチコ ("Shiawase no Sachiko"), which roughly translates to "Happy Sachiko," and 死合わせのサチコ (a different way of writing "Shiawase no Sachiko"), which roughly translates to "Sachiko Aligned with Death."

The English I came up with for this is "Sachiko Ever After" vs. "Sachiko in the Everafter." And even that vaguely acceptable solution took far, FAR too long to come up with.

Sometimes, Japanese linguistic references are just really tough to work with!

Ryan:

The first example that comes to mind is a certain "My Room" conversation from Fate/EXTELLA, where Nero and the Master have a back-and-forth conversation about different kinds of bathing. The original Japanese script had an entire conversation tree about misreadings of kanji, which had no direct translation. This is one of those rare times where we were tempted to, as we sometimes call it, "Go full Samurai Pizza Cats," after the old anime dub where the American dub team never received the original script and had to make up a whole new one, but we stuck with it, and eventually came up with some reasonably close wordplay in English.

Question: Do you have friends in other localization teams/companies? What could you learn from them? Do you reach out to them?

Brittany:

I'd love to hang out with some of the localization people I've interacted with via Twitter, because I'm actually pretty ignorant of what goes on in other companies. I'm pretty much XSEED only, but I'd love to learn the process in other places or just bond with others who do the same work that I do.

Tom:

Absolutely! Other companies are "competition" to an extent, but they're also colleagues, and we've met with people from numerous other nearby companies for lunch, karaoke, etc. many times since I've been working here at XSEED. I don't know that we really learn much from them, nor they from us, but we always "talk shop" when we meet up, discussing localization challenges we've faced, fun stuff we've done recently, etc. It's just good to sometimes talk with other people who fully understand what we do.

Ryan:

We're good friends with the Aksys team down the street, a lot of our staff have Atlus experience, and most of the original senior staff came from Square-Enix. For Fate/EXTELLA, the Aksys guys were kind enough to share their notes and script from Fate/EXTRA as references. One of the best bits of advice I can give people looking for work in the industry is "Make friends wherever you go," and that's as true once you're in as it is when you're getting started.

#xseed games #xseed blog #Q & A #long post

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canvaswolfdoll · 7 years ago

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CanvasWatches: New Game!

Oh no, it’s one of those Moe Blob shows. I’d hoped i was better than that.

Well, to be honest, I was just looking for easy viewing garbage while up late busy with not sleeping.[1] New Game! was on Funimation’s streaming service, and a few youtube reviewers have mentioned it with generic positivity. It’s… okay. Very much fills the ‘Cute girls doing stuff as if they’re real people, but in a softer world’ mold. In this case, Video Game design! Yay. Sarcastic Jazz hands.

A few years ago, I stumbled upon a Manga/4koma series called QuickStart!! which is about girls playing tabletop RPGs. I quite liked it. It’d be nice to see it get an anime of its own someday.

How to even describe New Game!...

Well, it’s about a girl named Aoba Suzukaze who, fresh out of high school, lands her dream job of doing art for the game studio that made her favorite video game, working directly under her personal idol, Ko Yagami.

Which, coming from a western perspective, seems insane. Who lands that sort of job right out of high school, with no college degree or industry experience? I mean, there’s the One Big Lie, then there’s unreasonable expectations. I’m a great writer,[2] and even I can’t find footing to do this for a living.

So Aoba arrives to work and meets the coworkers she shares cubicle space with: Hifumi the shy one; Hajime the energetic one; and Yun… last one. While the OP makes you think that these four will form a K-On! like dynamic, in truth the focus doesn’t drift from Aoba until her friend Nene takes a larger role.

While the trials and tribulations of working for a small Japanese Game studio are interesting, and Aoba’s struggles to get used to the life of a office worker is nice, I’d have liked character development for anyone besides Aoba (whose arc consists of achieving her goals) and Ko (who’s learning to be a mentor. Before leaving the country.)

Later, Aoba’s High School pal Nene gets hired on as a QA Tester for the summer, and the story shifts to Nene wandering around and being distracting. But it’s okay, when she’s actually working, she finds all the bugs!

Nene’s voice is also annoying.

The first season concludes with the cast releasing a game, which is well received. Yay!

The second season is when I suddenly realize that, somewhere along the line, the show became Kaleido Star, but with lower stakes and flatter characters. Which, if you’ve seen Kaleido Star,[3] is saying something.

Upon reaching the level of her blond idol, who is being forced into a new supporting role, our protagonist finds themselves in need of a rival that resents the protagonist’s ascent to glory and their relationship with the blond idol.

However, while Kaleido Star’s May barked her way into my heart by being just so bizarre and ridiculous, New Game! Instead brings in Momiji Mochizuki, who is… there. I guess.

Momiji’s quirk is she eats a bunch and resents Aoba for having success while being a year ahead in her career.

It’s not a well written conflict!

Don’t worry, though. Nene also gets a rival in the form Tsubame Narumi, who is introduced as being Momiji’s calmer and more amicable friend, but turns out be kind of petty and resentful of Nene getting a job through nepotism.

Which… okay, fair, Nene did kind of get hired on due to her connections, but by the same token, it’s made clear that Nene’s in more of a training role while Tsubame is given actual assignments.

Since Nene isn’t my favorite character, the conflict with the programming team is just unnotable.

Momiji’s unlikable from the get go, and Tsubame loses all her endearing traits upon being exposed to Nene. Momiji and Tsubame are so unprofessional, and we see so little of the actual projects being assigned in the second season, that I found myself rooting for them to get fired at the end, as a wake up call to both characters and to have actual consequences.

But it’s a Moe-blob show. Everyone needs to be friends by the end, no lessons get learned, and everyone’s going to be fine because the world of moe has kid gloves.

As I have awkwardly found myself commenting on more and more, New Game! of course had an amount of fan service. It was relatively tame, mostly around Ko’s tendency towards pantslessness and brief fantasy inserts. Nothing to deeply analyze beyond noting the fantasy inserts were mostly egregious and the fanservice wasn’t particularly exciting.

Also, it broke the ‘Establish the limit in the first episode’ rule I mentioned in my Dagashi Kashi review, though the particular break happened midway through the second season, so perhaps I need to consider a ruling for subsequent seasons. What amount of escalation is fair play for viewer retention, and does it break trust?

Food for future thought, if I can’t pull myself away from the topic.[4]

I watched New Game! during a particular period of my life. I had left a retail job, spent a couple months not working, then got a job for a call center contracted to service accounts for a credit card company,[5] and I decided to watch this anime after watching Sakura Quest,[6] so I’d watched two work-based animes while training for a job that, by all signs, would be monotonous, creatively-stifling, and utterly miserable.

And, during the nights while I was dreading going back the next day, I watched an anime based in an office where the cast were doing what they loved, had varied tasks, and a relaxed pace. Quite the escape from my call center job with a maximum 5-minute reprieve from idiots confused by the concept of interest and no paper allowed just in case I wanted to moonlight with a little identity theft.[7]

It’s a bad job. Avoid it.

So, New Game! helped stoked the flames of wanting a better job. One where I don’t have to directly deal with the public, have a consistent schedule, and get some variety. The show also made it clear that I have no viable method into such a job. I’m creatively minded, sure, but I don’t have the actual skills for professional art,[8] I lack the memory to learn programing, and I certainly lack the networking capabilities to find opportunities.

There was an undercurrent of resentment for these stupid girls and their easy lives. I know real life game development is far less cozy than what New Game! displays, but even a taste of that ideal would be better than where I am now.

Anyways, since finishing the series, I discovered it was easier to get a different job than request a day off,[9] so hopefully I can start an upward climb.

Maybe you can help? I do have a patreon, after all.

I also accept questions and comments, and produce other reviews, writings, and a webcomic, so check those out. Any positive reaction to things I feel passionate about would be peachy.

Kinda a downer ending for a review of such an upbeat anime. Oh well.

Kataal kataal.

[1] Really should try and find one of those graveyard shift jobs. I seem naturally predisposed to it… [2] Amazing even. Fight me. [3] Which is glorious garbage that I actually recommend. [4] I’m essentially a grumpy old man waiting to happen. Less Master Roshi and more harsh but fair paternal figure. [5] No, I won’t say which one. [6] Good show, but I didn’t really have anything to talk about in regards to it, hence no review. Still, highly recommend! [7] Had I stayed, I probably would’ve begun strategizing how to get away with such a caper just to fill the tedium. [8] I hate english academia far too much to get a degree, and Theater was a clear path to jobs in the local area. [9] This and other policies made quitting two weeks after finishing training so easy.

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