#and i was like. wow. i am not the target audience for these games

[meanderfall]

thinking of causing psychic damage to everyone who follows me by reblogging call of duty posts

[weirdmarioenemies]

SURPRISE! Did you think the day would come when we would cover Love Live on this blog? I didn't!

Yohane the Parhelion: Blaze in the Deepblue is the Metroidvania-style game based on the fantasy spin-off of Love Live Sunshine, but you probably don't care about that! Statistically speaking, our target audience is Bogleech readers who are deeply revolted by anime girls!

So why bring up? Why bring it up? The answer is 🐠 FUNNY FISH! It's Funny Fish Friday!

Since this game is set in an underwater temple, the enemies this game are all based on sea creatures, and that's cool! Again, statistically speaking, you probably think sea creatures are cool. I really liked seeing the variety of enemies when playing through this game, so I thought it'd be fun if I could share them with an audience of people who otherwise wouldn't care! None of the enemies really have names, as far as I'm aware of. But I'll do my Rubesty...?

Our first guy we encounter in the game is the sort of guy who emerges from the ground like the Zombies from Castlevania, and wow! A good first impression I think. It is sort of a squid mantle, if the mantle was also a cloak for a spooky sort of wizard! The way it doesn't really have a 'face' in the hood and the eye is below really makes it seem like a weird mimic creature. Cool!

They also get a tough lategame variant which looks like a mix between a flapjack and a vampire squid. You don't often see flapjacks be designed as scary!

---

Next is Barnacles! A whole clump of them, like a cake. They shoot Energy Balls at you. Is this what Barnacles can do if they combine their powers...? The top actually opens up, and it looks a lot like a sea urchin's mouth! So maybe it is some sort of naked urchin creature covered in barnacles? Game Theory!

There are also barnacles with Ice Powers. Like real life!

---

Let's give it up for Garden Eel!!!!

What a fine Garden Eel it is! Complete with the sort of grumpy face, and with the addition of two little arms that make it look like it's praying or maybe a bit shy. But it is mean! It also spits energy balls at you, then hides in the hole so you can't hit it. How very sneaky!

SO sneaky, in fact, that these eels have mastered the art of ninjutsu! The ninja eel shows up for a split second in one single room, before smoke bombing away. You'd have to use a time freeze power to get him, but I never got around to doing that. I don't have any beef with a ninja eel! I respect him and his training!

Did someone say CTENOPHORE? I hope you did, or my hearing has really gotten worse. This thing is a grade A ctenophore, only with a ring of Scary Teeth! A little scary to think of a ctenophore who could Bite you, but nonetheless this deserves a :ctenopog:!

---

Let's not forget Fish Vortex! Fish Vortex was the first guy to make me go 'wow, this game's enemies really are awesome!' So of course I had to put him at the top of the post! He is my selling point! I am selling all these enemies to you. For 4.99 a pop!

Anyway. This design is just so funny and cool at the same time. A swirling school of fish that leads into an endless dark abyss, and in the middle, a big eyeball. Also covered in fish. It shoots fish at you! Yay!

There is also a pink variant - it shoots fish that give you the Solitude status effect, which basically just makes Yohane too depressed to summon her friends. Meaning? They are Depression Fish! Maybe she just becomes so jealous of the unity and teamwork of these sardines. She's me like just for real! ^_^

---

isopot :)

---

This slug is an umbrella. That is ridiculous! Ridiculously EPIC! It does the opposite of shield you from rain, which is create rain, that kills you. But I would still want one as an umbrella.

---

When I first saw this thing, I thought it was some strange round Echimoderm I had never heard of. But upon further inspection (I actually asked Mod Chikako shh), it is obviously like a Brittle Star, with each arm folded round to form a wheel! How creative and fun! It even has a bunch of eyes like a starfish!

---

Last but not least- sushi! There are sushi guys and they are cute. They don't really do much and are typically found in their own rooms, so I'm not sure what the point of them is. But finding a funny walking sushi should be a reward in of itself, I guess! Look at their funny rice feet! Or the one with the roe eyes!

I happened to use fire magic on one of them and this happened. Oopsies...

Now I am sure you are saying, thank you for showing me all these funny enemies. But are there any cool bosses? Of course there are, me! What's a Metroidvania without cool bosses? So I shall show you my favorites without delay!

First is this freak (affectionate)! It is a sort of amalgamation of lots of different animals and I think it just looks plain cool! Two squid mantles combined into one, a bit of a sea angel shape, bug legs and of course a great big eyeball!

If it is not freaky enough for you, let it be known that the bug legs turn into big green skeleton hands, and it also keeps getting pinker, and it grows new eyes and then extra horns grow out of those eyes. If THAT is not freaky enough for you then I am sorry but I cannot do anything about that.

---

Now, how about a sampling of this Freaken Thang? It honestly doesn't seem that sea-creature themed, but it uses seashells so I guess it counts!

What is really neat is that this boss has two different forms, upside down and rightside up! When it is upside down it looks a bit like a Magolor type creature. And of course, I really like the flame thing in the middle as well, that really feels like a Kirby enemy or something! Like a wisp made of plasma!

---

Fans of Anomalocaris won't be disappointed by this one! It's a big Anomalocaris tank and boy is it cool! There's something for everyone here, whether you're an Anomalocaris purist or you've always wanted to see it turn into a sort of futuristic beast with a screen mouth that shoots lasers! It really is the future, zura...

---

After covering all these wacky creatures, I'm going to have to end it off with the final boss! What could the big bad, the ultimate boss of all these sea monsters even be, I wonder? Well, it's...

...a coelecanth. Just a big coelacanth! It is big and blue! And really, does it need to be anything else? It is such an honor to make the biggest ultimate boss a coelacanth. It is even pretty cute!! Think he's smiling! 😊

Uh oh! Is it still cute? I guess so. My first thought seeing this was of course the world-renowned tongue eating isopod, so I really hope it was an intentional reference! It probably just wants to shake hands. Still, a pretty simplistic design for our final boss, right?

Buu buu! Its true form actually looks like this! Actually, it's kind of doing too much. Like let's tone it down a little?

So!! We beat the mega ultra coelacanth, and now we can find out what his motivation is! And it is... that he is the memories of the people of the past or something. And they all didn't want to be forgotten, so they turned into fish monsters! But we forgive them!

It doesn't really matter. All the girlies gather around and sing him a song. Look how happy he is! I forgot I was talking about a Love Live game until now, actually. All's well that ends well, the end, et cetera! Hit it, Yohane! [imagine this is like the end of a kids movie where all the Love Live girls are having a dance party and there is a shot of the big coelacanth in jail and he's tapping his mouth fingers along to the beat]

[crustaceousfaggot]

You know... As much as I love pjõl and believe it's an excellent piece of fiction, I am entirely unsurprised that it was a massive flop when it was first published. Imagine you're an Estonian guy in 2012 and you go "wow, a fantasy mystery book written by an Estonian author! I gotta give this a read!" And then you pick it up and it's This Mess.

And you go hey wait a sec. What's Vaasa. What's Graad. What's the Pale, why does the narration act like I should know what this is. Why are they speaking Finnish suddenly. What's an Innocence, that seems important why hasn't it been mentioned until now. Wait there are ghosts now? Is this a normal thing in this world? If only this were some kind of interactive experience where I could ask questions and learn about the world alongside the protagonist.

I love the world of Elysium, but it is so massive in its scale and the chain of cause and effect that has led the world to be in the place it's in (both in DE and in pjõl). Disco Elysium is a game chock full of worldbuilding through dialogue, and it still leaves a lot of players confused about aspects of the history and political situation. And that's in a game where you play as a character who knows literally nothing and goes around asking people "hey what the fuck is the Antecentennial Revolution". Imagine your first exposure to Elysium being through this spiralling surreal novel that is so caught up in its own story that it kinda forgets that it has an audience.

Idk, I just think it's easy to forget that the initial target audience for pjõl was not Disco Elysium fans, but just... Regular Estonian readers.

[remy2fang]

A.K.I. as Yor Forger SF6 Mod.

I just realized my mod was featured on EventHubs a long while ago. They said some nice things about it. How many times have I been featured on that site now?

When I saw the trailer for the Spy x Family collab, I thought it would be neat to have A.K.I. dressed as Yor Forger. Tbh I wasn’t disappointed that it was only avatar gear. I am a modder after all and I can make what I want. The in-game assets made it convenient to do too. I thank Capcom for that haha. Plus, there are people who are happy dressing their own characters as Loid and Yor.

Of course, I have to include a version with AKI’s original hair style. She looks great in other hairdos, but her original umbrella hair is the best one—it’s the style that defines A.K.I. 💜💜

I know there are people out there that thought characters like Chun-Li (a mod already exists for her by FishBoy), Juri, or Cammy would fit better…but I like A.K.I. more lol. I’m contemplating on making another Yor Forger mod, but it’s not going to be a character that most people wished. I am a modder after all, and I can do what I want 😜😜. But I’m sure there are other modders out there that might be working on a Cammy or Juri version.

That being said, currently there are three SF6 characters that have Yor Forger mods.

1) A.K.I.

2) Chun-Li

3) F.A.N.G (!)

Yes, I did put FANG in Yor’s clothes (and also Loid’s) 💜🥰💜🥰. Wow, F.A.N.G before Juri and Cammy lol 😅😅. I am a modder after all, and…you know where I’m getting at haha. Though unsurprisingly EventHubs excluded that bit. As much as I enjoy some of the articles on that site, I have the feeling that they’re afraid to showcase such content. Like even if it’s not F.A.N.G and it’s on a more conventionally attractive male character instead, they would shy away from it. I can’t blame them. Even though the FGC is quite diverse, it’s still very hetero-cis-male dominated. It’s understandable that they’re afraid of offending their target audience, but I’m sure a number of EventHub readers are more open minded than what the site writers have expected. Or at least that’s what I believe.

Anyway, here’s the download link:

And a YouTube showcase:

Thanks for reading 💜💜

[meenawrites]

Spider Modern AU cause I can't help myself

I've seen so many people doing this and I love so much so I shall be participating as well. I'll also be doing other characters but this post is dedicated to Spider rn. I should really be working on my finals rn but here I am.

Spider is 100% a theater kid. Like no question about it. This kid can sing, he can dance, he can do gymnastics. He's the theatre troupe's pride and joy honestly, he's always pulling big stunts that wow the audience. This also ties into his love of storytelling in general so of course he's a theatre kid. Which ALSO means a lot of his playlist is musical songs cause.. ya know, obviously. I'd imagine Kiri actually secretly gave him access to her Spotify so he'd got access to premium (secret meaning everybody but Neytiri knows tbh). 

I think Spider actually does pretty well academically. He's a fast learner and his brain absorbs things like a sponge so once he understands a concept, it's all A's for him. It kind of pisses Kiri off how smart he is without trying sometimes, but she's also super proud of him for proving his haters (and her mom) wrong. 

This kid is the Anti-Bully of the school. He sees anyone bullying anyone and he's already aiming a punch at their face. Because of that, he's kind of seen as the protector of underclassmen and targets in general so he's pretty well liked generally, except for by the traditionally popular kids. Also not super popular with parents cause all that really sticks in their heads is violent Tarzan kid. He kind of stops with the physical violence once Kiri expresses her worry for him and how she doesn't want him to just blindly resort to violence all the time. But then he starts making comments to bullies that piss them off equally so there's no real winning for him here lol.

I think Spider likes working with his hands a lot so on top of acting in theatre, he also comes up with and constructs a lot of things for set and they always look incredible. 

Also, inspired by @be-the-glenn-to-my-maggie 's latest post, he joins the cheer team in solidarity with Lo'ak because he wants to get close to Tsireya. Refer to her post for more detail on that, I reblogged it if that helps. 

Despite being a year older than both Neteyam and Kiri, Spider and Neteyam actually share a lot of classes because Neteyam is a star student and skipped a grade. Kiri could probably also skip a grade if she wanted to, but her head's a little too in the clouds during classtime for any of her teachers to recommend it, even if she does get good grades. 

Spider still has his hair long, though I'm not sure if he would let it just endlessly keep growing or he would trim it here and there to his shoulders just to manage the curls a bit. I imagine his hair grows pretty fast so maybe once a year he chops it back to his shoulders and in like three months it's already almost to his elbows. He's gotten pretty good at braiding though, so when he can't be bothered to put effort into maintaining his curls, he just brushes his hair violently and braids it all in like dutch braids or other complicated hairstyles. The girls' soccer team probably starts recruiting him to braid their hair before games (based on my own experience lmao).

On a more serious note with his home situation... I think as a kid he was probably passed through multiple foster homes and all of them kind of said that he's too much for them. Then he ends up with the McCoskers and while they're not ideal they never say anything like that or try to get rid of him (yes they neglect him but seeing how he was treated before and they're not kicking him out, he's okay with them just giving him a place to stay). At least I'd imagine until maybe something big happens like he overworks himself or something and who notices other than the new family in town? The Tonowari family. And then they swoop in and are like 'mine now' and Spider's just like what? Unconditional love? A home where they notice I'm gone? Where I don't have to find my own food? What is this?

BUT IF TRUDY LIVED: so I imagine as a kid he'd still maybe be passed through the foster system a little, but Trudy is invested in his well-being, she's just still convinced there's some couple out there who'd be better for Spider overall until she sees all of them rejecting this perfect kid and she's like screw it and screw my own problems, I'll work through them for this kid but I'm taking him. And he's a happy boy thank you very much, loves his mama to death. 

I'll probably have stuff to add eventually but take this for now. 

[wretchedbirdthing]

yeah that was pretty unreasonably difficult, but i think that's the point. it's supposed to be like that. and i can appreciate it for that, but it's just too much for me. clownpiece and junko are just too hard (and a little unfair)

i still had a lot of fun but i just don't think i'm the target audience for it.

if you'll excuse me, i will now go sleep for three days.

1099 retries....

yeah,, you did,,,

please no more testing

surely clownpiece will be easier

"surely clownpiece will be easier"

i huyst dont get what al;l the fuss is about, she' not that hard

#i'm going to cry#that was onbkly the first nonspellcard..

i nee

to xe brxe t

okay that's even wrose, there's no timer anymore...

#actually going to cry

wasn't even that bad

surely clownpiece doesn’t have another survival spellcard

#i need to lie down

why doesn’t she give power

#how am I supposed to beat her at 2 power#am I softlocked

i didn't like that one

yeah fuck that one...

impossible spell card..

(at least now i won't be exterminated!!)

#wow this game is a lot easier when I use bombs#who would’ve known

that wasn't so bad!!

(it was worse)

junko timeeee (finally)

#junko is going to make me cry

holy shit it's junko

#god that stage was so good#the syncing up of the music with the spirits#so good..

WAIT SHE DIDNT SAY IT????

SHE ONLY SAYS IT FOR REIMU????

#/now/ I’m going to cry#‘Just what is this pent-up frustration I'm feeling?’#same sanae…#oh#no it’s just point device mode#damn…

[phdmama]

Getting to Know You Tag Game

My darling @romaine2424 tagged me in this, thank you pal!! xox

Three Ships: So many ships, so little time! But for me - Drarry (my OG, own my heart etc etc), Stucky (well really, ICaPD Stucky), and Sterek (aka a ship I adore and read a TON in but have never, you know, seen the source material)

First Ship: Larry - they'll always hold a big space in my heart (I do still read a bit and write there but I'm not as active in the fandom obvs), they're the first place where I started to get what fandom could be, what it could mean to me, and the first place I started writing!!

Last Song: right now I'm all Noah Kahan all the time. He just captures something so poignant for me about growing up in small town VT

I would leave if only I could find a reason I'm mean because I grew up in New England I got dreams, but I can't make myself believe them Spend the rest of my life with what could have been And I will die in the house that I grew up in I'm homesick

He's really brilliant

Last Movie: Barbie. The whole family + my son's boyfriend went to see it together and wow, I know I'm like the stereotypical target audience for this but it really hit me, especially The Speech™

Currently Reading: way, way, way too much hockey rpf. Also because I'm starting a new job on Monday (OH MY GOD I AM STARTING MONDAY), I'm reading stuff about Medicaid and evidence based treatment for substance abuse.

Currently Watching: I'm not a huge tv person these days? I've watched RWRB a few times. I've got a ton of different shows in flight, but nothing is really sticking right now.

Last Thing I Wrote: Wrong in all the Right Ways (Drarry, Explicit, ~3900 words) - written for the 2023 HD Wireless Fest, for Pink's Raise Your Glass. Just a fun little smutty romp haha

Currently Writing: Buddie - I'm not sure how to describe this fic other than multiverse meets Groundhog Day meets fate intervenes meets iOS updates break the world? I guess?

gonna tag a bunch of people here!

@ghostgeno @notthequiettype @ellelans @missanniewhimsy @bothquitecontent @shealynn88

[amaiguri]

Wanna see the business side of story-based games?

Me! I want to! 👋 Hi, I'm Amaiguri. I'm a full time gamedev and I've released two games before and correctly predicted how much money I would make each time! Wow!

I've been considering converting the webfic I write into a story game of some kind -- a visual novel or a RPGmaker game or maybe even a walking sim? But I didn't know what I wanted to make!

This story has been THE STORY of my early adult life here -- it is SO important to me. So, while I'm a huge advocate of making whatever you want, I wanted to ensure whatever I put my effort into would be VAGUELY marketable. (Because, lemme tell you, webnovels are not marketable XD)

Before I dive in too deeply, **BIG DISCLAIMER**:

I am not a business person. I am using big, wide guestimates to make non-essential business decisions with myself. BUT I want to share my learnings with you. So, take everything I say with a grain of salt and JOIN ME on this journey:

Earlier this month, I made a post about wanting to make a visual novel. Specifically, a kinetic visual novel where you don't make choices and you just read basically. SO I've now done research into how well they sold. I used THIS website to determine how much money each of these games made (VERY loosely):

Juniper's Knot: ~$4k USD

Higurashi (The Whole Series): ~$300k USD (Averaging like 400 reviews per game and $50 for the whole bundle)

House in Fata Morgana: ~$1 million USD

I picked these out mostly because these are the small handful of kinetic novels I have actually heard about. I'm not saying there aren't other, more successful ones I haven't heard about but I figure, if I'm supposed to be representative of my target audience, I'm as good of a sample as any for this wild estimation.

Besides, Higurashi has a whole anime -- it is definitely fair to use that as an upper end -- and Juniper's Knot -- a tiny game no one has heard of -- as the lower end. (I mean, $0 is the lower end, but... you know...)

This paints a pretty stark picture, honestly. Like, this is looking at 6 to 8 years of work for... maybe a couple thousand for me? Realistically? Maybe up to $300k if I'm super lucky and go viral? And I'm not saying that isn't LIFE CHANGING money but like in the MOST MIRACULOUS scenario here, I am compensated less than my current salary for my current magnum opus. But realistically, I'm looking at maybe $1-4k if I get lucky. I'm not a horror-writer and I'm not a romance writer -- I will not have THAT feral of a fanbase XD And on top of all of that, I don't even play that many kinetic visual novels. I'm barely in my own target demo here!

Now, compare that to the numbers I ran on RPGmaker games where you just do narrative and there is very minimal gameplay:

Rakuen: 4000+ Reviews, over $100k in profits estimated

To the Moon: $8 Million in profit

A Bird Story: Definitely sold worse than To the Moon, was cheaper to make and cheaper to buy -- estimated at $397k

Wadanohara and the Great Blue Sea: Dunno cuz it's free BUT its manga adaptation has 267 reviews on Amazon -- so the creator COULD have made bank on the actual game

See how much higher those are? Even when they're not as well known? And sure, the bottom is still $0 ultimately but the upper limit, with the most successful of these titles (and incidentally, the video game that convinced me to get into Game Design) is much much higher.

"BUT BELLE! Laura Shigihara did the music on a lot of those! You don't have Laura Shigihara!"

Ok BET! I'll hire her! The base industry rate for music per minute is $100/min. Let's suppose now she charge 10x that, cuz she's famous -- $1k/minute of music. I get her to compose a 3 minute song for $3k BUT she also brings over... say... 5% of her audience to check out my game.

That's admittedly, a high conversion rate so we'll just take 5% of Rakuen. Now, I'm imagining I'd charge like $25/copy of my game because it's gonna be like 300k words -- people pay $25 for a book of that length, so if I have art and programming also, I can do that. With just her 5% of Rakuen reviewers (21 reviewers of her 4.3k), that's like $7k USD. So, she'd probably just pay for herself and then some.

And to top all this off: I'm back in the target demo. I am ABSOLUTELY the kind of person who will play a solodev's RPGmaker game and forgive all jank and flaws and lack of gameplay if the story, art, and music are good.

That is, of course, making the assumption that I'll make good music and art 🥺🥺🥺

Now obviously, all this is WILD guestimates so like. You shouldn't make business decisions off this. I'm barely making "business" decisions -- I'm making hobby decisions. I have a full time job and I intend to keep it. BUT I think it's pretty clear where the potential money might be for me -- RPGmaker games.

Eris (Blinking): Thank you for reading!

[slugtranslation-hypmic]

Hello Slug! Translation question here. I am interested in doing translation work someday (but first I need to work on my Japanese). I wanted to know, how would you translate "tsundere" (or other dere types) ? Or do you think the concept of tsundere is familiar enough to English readers that you could leave it as is? I know you're big on localization, eg. leaving out honorifics, making equivalent jokes in English, etc. I thought about "playing hard to get", but I don't think that's accurate? Idk.

I understand why this question is being asked, but in my opinion, questions like "how would x word be translated?" fundamentally miss the point of how translation works. At its core, translation is a process of taking ideas conveyed in one form, tailored to one audience (in this case, an audience of Japanese speakers), and changing the form to tailor the idea delivery to a different audience (in this case, English speakers). Words are a part of this, but words are only one of multiple means to express ideas. A single word could be used in a myriad of contexts to convey many, many ideas. Maybe an author writes a character using the word tsundere to make them sound like a reclusive nerd. ("Michiko slapped me after I asked her out for the 99th time. Isn't it cute how tsundere she is?") Maybe it's intended to add levity to an otherwise serious scene or undermine the legitimacy of a character's outburst. ("You're such a jerk! How dare you vanish for two years? I thought you were dead, you selfish bastard!" "Wow, tsundere much?") Each of these scenes should probably be handled in different ways, so focusing on translating individual words in a vacuum is, imo, missing the forest for the trees.

The same message will also be communicated differently depending on its audience and purpose, which by no means should be a controversial statement. Turning down a friend's invitation to hang out vs declining an invitation to an academic conference would necessitate two radically different communication styles, even if the core idea ("I don't want to accept this invitation you've offered me") is exactly the same. Localization is the concept of changing communication styles to fit one specific locale, wherein translation plays a part in that. The difficulty is that locales and groups of people who speak a particular language are not always the same thing, particularly with especially common international languages like English, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Mandarin Chinese. The English-speaking sphere is such a vast group encompassing over 1 billion people that it's virtually impossible to assign anything but the broadest generalizations as rules or guidelines of the entire group's thought patterns, behaviors, and collective cultural consciousness. Without a small enough locale to work with, determining the target audience's exact needs and background knowledge is enormously tricky. In the past, I've focused mainly on a US-centric approach because you really do have to choose something, but I've learned more over the years how this thought pattern is frustrating for many and how it continues to further neoliberal globalist/imperialist thought in ways that I'm not fully comfortable with. So I am moving away from that in my own work, but determining as much information about the target audience is still enormously tricky and varies wildly from work to work. A niche fantasy isekai light novel might be comprised mainly of hardcore readers who will pick up on many tropes of Japanese fiction and will feel slighted if these tropes are not present. A cute animal manga in print will likely have a much broader market appeal and will attract many readers with little to no knowledge about Japanese customs, language, and literary tropes. A free-to-play mobile game based on a TV show that's popular in, say, Latin America will have many non-native English speakers playing it who may be puzzled by an excessive use of idioms and figurative language. In some target audiences, the word tsundere is very likely to be understood by most readers, some of whom might take offense if that word is not transcribed as is. In other target audiences, transcription may cause the core idea to fly over the majority of the readers' heads. It's not a bad thing or an inherent insult to understand that different audiences have different needs and different knowledge levels. A friend with a Phd in chemistry understands that I have not spent the past 5+ years in deep study of chemistry and adjusts his communication with me accordingly. Likewise, it's not wrong to know that most (even if they are not the most vocal!) audience members of fictional works tend not to have spent years studying Japanese language and media and adjust the communication accordingly as well.

But without any knowledge about the information to convey, the format it is being conveyed in, and who to convey it to, I can't make any sort of informed decision about how to translate something. "Playing hard to get" would work totally fine in some circumstances. So would "tsundere." So would "blowing hot and cold" or "a love-hate relationship" or half a hundred other things.

[davidgrandorder]

Tbh the main reasons I’ve stuck around as long as I have are on the faint hope that David might get an alt or at least SOMETHING worthwhile because of him being, you know, the father of Solomon??? And then the feeble hope of Moses being added. I’ve enjoyed newer characters like Caeneus and Douman and Oberon a lot, they’re some of my top favs, but the past three several months I’ve had very little drive to play fgo, and I’ve had to force myself to play this event for the sake of oberon’s costume.

I had been hoping summer might spark a bit more excitement in me, but outside of Suzuka and Oberon, the event really do anything to get me invested again, especially with Chloe and the discourse around Melusine.

I’m sorry for being such a downer, and I hope this doesn’t come across as me shaming anyone who wants to continue with fgo, this is purely my personal experiences rn. I just have always struggled with feeling like I’m not the target audience for fgo, and on top of just being done with feeding on scraps I’m like. Wow why am I making excuses for this garbage??

Like one of my offline friends was talking about a much gamer anime that he found inappropriate because of how it treated its teenage characters, and that just. Feels like a wake up call lol? Like wow normal people would look at this game and be disgusted by it! Have I really become so desensitized that I’m willing to roll my eyes and ignore racism and pedo pandering just because I like a handful of characters and occasionally enjoy the story? How much more desensitized am I going to become if I stick with it?

This game makes me feel gross and angry much more than something I supposedly enjoy should. And I think that this is gonna be the straw that breaks the camel’s back, even if they do manage to pull something off that excites me.

[nat20marketing]

Hello and welcome back to Nat 20 Marketing!

After resting well for a week, we are back with our humble campaign toward successful integrated marketing communications. For this week’s topic, I call it the 3 R's – Right Message, Right Time, and Right Place, which we will cover one at a time.

Let’s start with the Right message.

When we promote a good or service, often times we want to make sure our point is well received by our target market. Marketers try very hard to be better than their competitors, at least from the outside. There are many ways to present what a company sells, such as comparing their own product against competitors (often unnamed in commercials); demonstration of the product usage and effects; endorsement from celebrities and influencers, etc. But, in IMC, we don’t really just talk about a product. We want to communicate a concept – the value that the company tries to uphold and provide for their customers. The value in a company’s product usually reflects directly at the mission statement, at what the company believes and promises to deliver.

When we target any segment, we want to understand where these people are coming from. We want to know what they care about and what they are looking for. We are the solutions. We need to send ourselves to them, and let them consider us when they are making the purchase decision. As a consumer myself, I like to see brands that align with what I care for, from my core principles to my hobbies and interests. I like brands that are honest and direct with their sales techniques. I tend to look at brands that are relevant to what I do daily. So, a company that sells gaming chairs should send their message to gamers who play video games when they are sitting at a desk. Mobile gamers may not care as much as console gamers when it comes to the quality of their chairs, since mobile gamers play their games on the go. With the right audience, we need to draft a message that really catches their attention. We need to communicate this message in ways that allow the brand to stand out from the others and memorable enough to last for a while, sometimes even after the marketing campaign is over.

When you read through this blog, I have raised several marketing examples from the past few years. Those commercials and campaigns did not happen recently, but they have left me a deep impression that I am able to bring them up naturally in writing and casual conversations with my peers. This is what marketers should aim for when they compose the message and perhaps the slogan.

Slogans can be a good primary channel to convey an idea. They are often short and catchy, with words that are impactful and to the point. The slogan may not always need to be grammatical, so marketers can be creative with their choice of words. 

As free as creative writing can go, there are times when brands may be required to edit their slogans, symbols, or even logos to fit societal expectations. This may go into rebranding but I would consider it is a way to continue a product line without changing the core ingredients of what makes the product THAT product. A fairly recent and well-known case would be the Aunt Jemima brand name change to Pearl Milling Company, where the change was made due to the racist stereotypes present in the old brand name and logo.

On to choosing the RIGHT time…

A good marketing campaign should be timely and relevant. Marketers should always be on the watch-out for the latest trends and decide whether to join in on the bandwagon or not. Sometimes, marketers need to take the initiative to bring forth new ideas that really wow their target audience. There are so many big and small contributory nuances we must think about when designing a marketing campaign. There are seasons, politics, social issues, and the list goes on. Sensitive messages should be handled with care, and a critical part is choosing the appropriate time to communicate.

For example, during the pandemic, marketers would promote social distancing instead of social gatherings, since it would be inappropriate to encourage gatherings when there was a highly transmissible virus going around the world that was taking away countless of lives. Every year, marketers take the opportunity to promote their products according to festivals that happen around the world, celebrating different cultures, from Lunar New Year to Christmas; from Easter to the Moon Festival.

Lastly, it would be choosing the RIGHT place!

Different generations of people indulge in different types of media. Baby boomers may prefer traditional channels like newspapers, magazines, and television. Gen Z and Gen Alpha would choose the wide variety of social media instead. As marketers, they need to analyze and follow their target audience to where they spend their time. Additionally, some may even have to consider going to public venues such as the Super Bowl and cultural conventions.

Let's wrap up!

To summarize, choosing the right time and place to send the right message out is critical the the success of an IMC campaign. They go hand-in-hand with each other and as marketers who aim for that Nat 20 roll for the marketing check, we ought to put effort into each of these elements when planning and organizing.

We will meet again next week with another Nat 20 Marketing post! See you next time.

[semifinel]

February - 2023

Games

Disco Elysium- I’ve actually been slowly going through it for over a year (I would play for a few days and then take a break for a few months and then forget where I am and restart). However I finally finished it and I can very easily say it’s one of my favorite games ever. The writing, the style, the music- what’s not to fucking love.

I could talk about this game for hours and I have actually done that enough to convince friends to play it as well. But I probably can’t say anything that hasn’t been said before me.

Great game- I might be in love with Kim kitsuragi.

Rain world(?)- to be honest I haven’t played it (yet?) but I spend way too much time watching gameplay of it and videos about it, went into a deep dive in the wiki. This world absolutely fascinates me, the ecosystem is just wow- even though it seems like a very difficult game I might actually get it one day.

Decide to include it cause it’s my list and I make the rules, also it ate a chunk of my month.

Monster hunter rise- this is my second time trying to get this game and last time I (apparently) quit before even going on a mission. To be fair it was a combination of my own stupidity and the game’s absolute horrible tutorial that made me drop it so fast.

However given a second shot I’m already having more fun, flipping and riding and monster hunting.

I have no idea if anyone ever cared about a character in this game but the monsters are cool and I love them lots.

Why is there a tower defense section is beyond me- I never liked any kind of tower defense, but this is very much the wrong game for it.

Can’t wait to try a hunt with friends- I heard it’s awesome.

Start again: a prologue- a delightful lil rpg that made me feel a lot. I love time loops as a concept already and this was executed so well- I will cry about it.

Can’t wait for in stars and time!! I need more of this cast and world.

Lookouts- another game I’ve been making my way through oh so slowly, no reason here since it’s not really long. It’s a visual novel and I have trouble focusing on reading, that’s my main issue.

However I’m happy I played it- trans cowboys on opposing sides falling in love and find a way for them to have a life- I am the target audience. I love them.

Hue- sure was a puzzle game. And it was a nice one, pretty sure I got it for free and I mostly used it as something to play while I listen to podcasts. It’s cute and not very long and the puzzles were nice.

Shows

Mob psycho s2- still doing my rewatch, still love my sons.

Darry girls s3- finally got around to it, honestly liked it less then the other seasons however it was a nice end to the show as a whole and I’m glad they wrapped it up nicely.

Animation vs Minecraft- what if I told you the animation you used to watch on YouTube as a child kept going on while you looked away. That there is now a storyline spanning several hours which is very neat and dear to my heart.

How simple are your blorbos? Mine are literally just different colored stick man (they are my sons and I love them very much).

I want everyone to watch it, you can’t understand how hard it goes in the final episodes you don’t understand ahhhhha.

Podcasts

Something rotten- did I start this podcast just cause I wanted more Jacob Geller? Yes.

Am I happy I did that? Also yes.

I do not care even a little about the games they talk about but it’s still fascinating to hear them talk about them (along other kind of related topic)

Personally never heard of Blake Hester before but glad I know him now.

Can’t wait for next season where I might play along since I have one of the games in my library for some reason.

Etc?

The prince by Abigail throne (philosophy tube)- so like one of my favorite trans creators writes a play and uploads it in full- I had no doubt it was gonna be good.

Love the characters, love the themes, and the setting (of being stuck inside a play) is very fun.

But man do I not understand Shakespearean speak but that’s more of a me thing.

Felt a lil cliche/sappy at times but it was cute so I had no problem with it.

[cgogs]

HIIii thank u sm for the support on the game 😭😭 u and aetherknit r like my peak target audience I fr made this game for the original cgnf enjoyers and I am so glad to see that all the little detail I added hit home. ty for playing im so so glad u liked it omg. did yall stream it or smth cause if that one clip is from a full vod I 100% need to watch that fr

I LOVE YOUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!

YES there is a full VOD you should ask isaiah if he'd be cool with you seeing it though but i do have the google drive link ^_^

it was such a good fucking game you hit it out of the PARK everything was so good and in character and gutwrenching seriously. it had everything i wanted to see more of in good luck minutes man (the dialogue getting screwy, the eerie feeling) and the same gorgeous gorgeous art and attention to detail..... WOW!!!!! but im sure u saw my enthusing already. its deffo one of my favorite things to come out of this fandom... so creative.... YOU ARE SO TALENTEDDDD <3

[icharchivist]

“just boycott disney” “why were you expecting anything else from them just don’t watch those movies” FIRST OF ALL i don’t expect anything from Disney, i watched like two live actions remake and it was Maleficient, and then the Jungle Book AGAINST MY WILL, i am NOT the person who needs to read all of your “just don’t watch them”, been there done that. Second, actually, extend it to general movies, i barely watched most of their recent releases in recent years, and even less legally. 

THIRD OF ALL, HAVE YOU SEEN MY BLOG. The only thing i do is cry about an app that closed one year ago and unhinged comments about an obscure mobage game with too many stories in it and hellish gameplay. The only mainstream things i post about are video games related and everytime i do it’s to complain it’s mainstream.

I know those folks say it in general, but I’M the one reading those additions to my posts, I’M not the target audience for your comment, I ALREADY do more against Hollywood’s stupid shit than MOST OF YOU ONLINE, not out of superiority or boycott but fully because all i care about is A CLOSED APP BRING THAT APP BACK TO ME OR SO HELP ME.

I also expect the worst out of Live action remakes anytime, i’ve complained about the directions they all took for years, only out of nostalgia because I grew up with those original movies! and i’m concerned by those stupid decisions used for an easy cash because nowadays companies don’t trust doing anything without being backed with nostalgia and it’s ickies. Also because i studied cinema and it’s genuinely despair inducing to see how little movies try nowadays. I studied all of this and the people at Hollywoods are all CLOWNS. 

Just because i already think Hollywood sucks, that there’s nothing good that can come out of this company and of this trend, doesn’t mean i don’t get to feel revulsed, not just from reading about the remake, but about the Tiktokification of medias 😭it doesn’t mean just hearing the stupidest things don’t make me think “wow! that’s so stupid!” regardless of how expected it was! especially since we’re above expected levels of stupidity!

your self righteousness commenting on my post is falling in deaf ears, i’m already there!!!!! 

[frozentanukii]

So like, who is the target audience of commercials? I've never seen a commercial and thought "Wow, that's a great pitch, I want that product now" I think "This is a commercial I'm fading it into the background, and anything I hear is most likely false or exaggerated". The best a commercial can do is make me aware that the thing exists, and that has really only happened once, with the Hatsune Miku game PC port. I saw the commercial for it, thought "oh, that's cool", then didn't buy it for another year and a half. And in that time, I had been made aware of the game from multiple other non-ad sources.

So, in order for an ad to actually make me interested in something, it would have to be something that I already care about or have a vested interest in. But if that's the case, then I would *already know about the thing*, or would most likely have found out about the thing from some other source. Since I already care about it, I most likely am going to have some way of finding out about the thing, whether from a youtube video or a steam storefront page.

However, the worst a commercial can do is make me actively hate the product and avoid buying it because the ads piss me off to a ridiculous degree. Which has happened. Multiple times.

So who are commercials trying to target? Most people are going to tune them out, or have something similar to my view of commercials, at least that's what I assume. I've never met someone who either likes or even is indifferent to ads. Everyone hates them.

But even if someone didn't despise ads, it doesn't make any logical sense. Let's assume it's a phone company ad. If you have a phone, you're most likely fine with it. If you want to change providers, or are in the market for them, then *YOU'RE ALREADY LOOKING FOR A NEW ONE*. The ads aren't going to make you want to get a new one. And you're not going to automatically switch to a provider because you saw an ad. Any normal person is going to research all their options beforehand. So you would research it, and if it turns out to be better, then you *WOULD HAVE SWITCHED TO IT ANYWAY*. If it isn't better, then you're not going to switch to a worse provider because of a 15 second shill. "Oh, but you were alerted to the existence of i-" W R O N G. If a company is wealthy enough to afford a ton of ads, then it's already a prominent company. That you would have found out about with 10 seconds of research. That any person would do.

And if it's something even more meaningless, like bread or a soda or soap or something, then that doesn't make sense either. Who's going to buy a specific brand of bread because they saw it on TV, or scrolled past it online, or had to sit on a bench with a picture of the bread stuck on it? Even if you see someone drinking a coke in an ad, most of the food ads are so uncomfortable to watch that it's not going to have much effect on you.

So, genuinely, what's the point of ads? Who's buying stuff because they see an ad for it? It has to work on *someone*, since they wouldn't do it if it didn't work. So who is this person buying all of the shit they see in commercials? Is it just one rich guy named Jerry who has a condition where he has to buy anything he sees or he explodes? It doesn't make logical sense! Please, someone tell me why companies bother with something that doesn't work on anybody? Are they just so distorted that they think that the ads actually work? Is it a scam run by ad creation companies to trick CEOs into thinking they'll get more purchases? WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?

just. fuck.

[chaoscontrolr]

i think the way they wrote sonics personality in the movies is interesting. i like that they kept the main focus of his personality in that hes just a fun loving dude whos caring and knows when to be serious too, but his child-like demeanor surprised me tbh. i don't mind it much and i get that they needed to do something to show some character growth/development, so giving him that young appeal gave an easy base to easily show him grow a bit in maturity on. besides that i think it makes sense that they want a more 'adorable' than 'cool' sonic since honestly the way he looks next to all the real life humans makes him look like a cute plushie tbh and would probably be hard to take seriously if he had the same 'cool' persona as he does in the games/shows/comics, since his literal appearance in the cartoony-looking canon series doesn't make him stick out as the 3 foot fuzzy creature that he is, so he's able to well represent being a super cool guy there but probably not here. finally they probably overall also just want to sell the appeal of a cute and easy to love character too, since this movies target audience tries to rake in everyone and not just people who are young or are already familiar with the character, which is ok. overall i don't have any issue with it (realistically a typical teenager his age isn't incredibly mature to begin with anyway), it was just surprising to see such a more babyified version of sonic than what im used to seeing is all.

edit: i'm also realizing that of course they tried to make sonic as cool as they could for the games/comics because the target audience was mostly younger people, and it probably wasn't going to be as appealing to most of them to see an adorable baby boy fight evil robots right, but that isn't the case with the movie. to me at times i think they went a bit over the top with it but again i think to try and appeal to as many people (including adults and older generations) as they could they just made him into more of this cute little dude since an older person isn't gonna typically see a 14 year old hedgehog and think 'wow how cool' anyway they're thinking 'aw how cute'. finally, sonic was made a whooping 30 years ago so i think naturally with time his personality was going to have to adapt to keep up with the changing ideals of what the majority of people might want to see on screen now (perhaps it has shifted more from wanting to see baddies to wanting to see cuties?) and i guess that's understandable too. so overall ig the combination of it being a live-action movie, not animated, not a game, while also probably trying to appeal to every age group, and just being created in a new decade is why we have cute movie sonic. i hope this was coherent its 1 am i am sleepy XD