I finished the drama CD for Shiori's route of Tokimemo Drama Vol. 3 earlier and it was sweet, but lacking. So, I'm plunging back into the world of Feeling Sad About Shiori! Maybe I'll make this a thread about all the cool ways KojiPro translated a dating sim to an adventure game? pic.twitter.com/SWXLvUwMO1
— Tom James, The Daigo Umehara of Dating Sims (@iiotenki) September 2, 2020
Considering this year I don't have much in the way of game translation to discuss, publicly, I'd say this was a productive year for writing threads on largely neglected and forgotten Japanese games. So if you're looking to learn about some, here's what I wrote about in 2020!
So as I mentioned about a week ago, I've been digging into Fuuraiki, a late PS1 release I've been meaning to check out for years. It's an adventure game where you travel along Hokkaido on motorcycle taking photos of the scenery and writing travelogues and it's pretty rad. pic.twitter.com/uhajPmDrm9
— Tom James, The Daigo Umehara of Dating Sims (@iiotenki) January 27, 2020
It's neat as a historical curiosity and I'm glad I did it to have context for a Fuuraikai route which sees Yumi (the oneesan in purple) return, but I wouldn't call it at all essential. My main takeaways are I suck real bad at hana-awase and a stupendously dumb swan boat chase. pic.twitter.com/aRe1S4yF6o
— Tom James, The Daigo Umehara of Dating Sims (@iiotenki) October 27, 2020
Well.
— Tom James, The Daigo Umehara of Dating Sims (@iiotenki) April 25, 2020
Let's do this again, I guess. pic.twitter.com/pLoef5uHap
Well.
— Tom James, The Daigo Umehara of Dating Sims (@iiotenki) May 19, 2020
Time to go talk to some girls with the power of... *squints* "imaginary air hockey" in Reco Love, or whatever the hell is going on with this game's conversation system.
Let's see how this goes, I guess. pic.twitter.com/2JMJHhXuU4
So as I wrote in Japanese, I've been playing a Vita RPG called Yuusha Shisu, a remake of a flip phone game designed by Shoji Masuda (Tengai Makyo II, Oreshika, etc.) with a unique premise: you play a hero who's been revived after dying in a climactic fight with five days to live. pic.twitter.com/aAKPxUSteH
— Tom James, The Daigo Umehara of Dating Sims (@iiotenki) June 22, 2020
So regular followers know that I've been posting about this lesser known Japanese PS1 game by the name of "Next King." But despite my general gushing, I haven't really gone into what all it actually is, exactly. So, having finished it, I figured it's time for another Tom Thread. pic.twitter.com/T7mckgLgpQ
— Tom James, The Daigo Umehara of Dating Sims (@iiotenki) May 31, 2020
Gunparade March turns 20 in Japan today. A late gen PS1 RPG from Alfa System, arguably one of the most important Japanese RPG developers to have worked on the system, yet not have much of their work localized, GPM is a dense, dense game, but let's explore what makes it special. https://t.co/0oPhbDnsxy
— Tom James, The Daigo Umehara of Dating Sims (@iiotenki) September 28, 2020
Okay, folks. I'm getting antsy and don't wanna wait any longer. So let's make it official: the final arc of the LP thread, Haruka's two main routes, officially kicks off now! Time to rekindle my oldest flame of all in this game and give her story the translation she deserves. c: pic.twitter.com/WgG8x8WnSE
— Tom James, The Daigo Umehara of Dating Sims (@iiotenki) February 26, 2020
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My most Luddite opinion is that you must pick one
a) the ability to connect with arbitrary numbers of people simultaneously around the world
b) rich, multi-modal, interaction that mutually exposes vulnerability among participants
if you want a) and b) simultaneously you get the basis for a science fiction horror scenario and that's a Bad Thing unless you're a Gendo Ikari type
"individuals might experience episodic segments of the lives of other willing participants (locally or remote) to, hopefully, encourage and inspire improved understanding and tolerance among all members of the human family" uh nope sorry
this goes to my periodic complaint about global villages vs. global cities. cities are anonymous places full of wary people that, after certain conditions are met, can become lifelong friends....
villages are places ruled by grandmas who, whatever the ethnicity or nationality, have intelligence networks that rival the KGB
a) the ability to connect with arbitrary numbers of people simultaneously around the world
b) rich, multi-modal, interaction that mutually exposes vulnerability among participants
if you want a) and b) simultaneously you get the basis for a science fiction horror scenario and that's a Bad Thing unless you're a Gendo Ikari type
"individuals might experience episodic segments of the lives of other willing participants (locally or remote) to, hopefully, encourage and inspire improved understanding and tolerance among all members of the human family" uh nope sorry
this goes to my periodic complaint about global villages vs. global cities. cities are anonymous places full of wary people that, after certain conditions are met, can become lifelong friends....
I mean, A enabled me to have B with a bunch of people I couldn't have met in the beforetimes, but this was a time on the internet when moving up the ladder of intimacy included "telling each other your legal names"
— K. Chen (@tznkai) January 6, 2021
villages are places ruled by grandmas who, whatever the ethnicity or nationality, have intelligence networks that rival the KGB
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1/ Some initial thoughts on personal moats:
Like company moats, your personal moat should be a competitive advantage that is not only durable—it should also compound over time.
Characteristics of a personal moat below:
2/ Like a company moat, you want to build career capital while you sleep.
As Andrew Chen noted:
3/ You don’t want to build a competitive advantage that is fleeting or that will get commoditized
Things that might get commoditized over time (some longer than
4/ Before the arrival of recorded music, what used to be scarce was the actual music itself — required an in-person artist.
After recorded music, the music itself became abundant and what became scarce was curation, distribution, and self space.
5/ Similarly, in careers, what used to be (more) scarce were things like ideas, money, and exclusive relationships.
In the internet economy, what has become scarce are things like specific knowledge, rare & valuable skills, and great reputations.
Like company moats, your personal moat should be a competitive advantage that is not only durable—it should also compound over time.
Characteristics of a personal moat below:
I'm increasingly interested in the idea of "personal moats" in the context of careers.
— Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg) November 22, 2018
Moats should be:
- Hard to learn and hard to do (but perhaps easier for you)
- Skills that are rare and valuable
- Legible
- Compounding over time
- Unique to your own talents & interests https://t.co/bB3k1YcH5b
2/ Like a company moat, you want to build career capital while you sleep.
As Andrew Chen noted:
People talk about \u201cpassive income\u201d a lot but not about \u201cpassive social capital\u201d or \u201cpassive networking\u201d or \u201cpassive knowledge gaining\u201d but that\u2019s what you can architect if you have a thing and it grows over time without intensive constant effort to sustain it
— Andrew Chen (@andrewchen) November 22, 2018
3/ You don’t want to build a competitive advantage that is fleeting or that will get commoditized
Things that might get commoditized over time (some longer than
Things that look like moats but likely aren\u2019t or may fade:
— Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg) November 22, 2018
- Proprietary networks
- Being something other than one of the best at any tournament style-game
- Many "awards"
- Twitter followers or general reach without "respect"
- Anything that depends on information asymmetry https://t.co/abjxesVIh9
4/ Before the arrival of recorded music, what used to be scarce was the actual music itself — required an in-person artist.
After recorded music, the music itself became abundant and what became scarce was curation, distribution, and self space.
5/ Similarly, in careers, what used to be (more) scarce were things like ideas, money, and exclusive relationships.
In the internet economy, what has become scarce are things like specific knowledge, rare & valuable skills, and great reputations.
THREAD PART 1.
On Sunday 21st June, 14 year old Noah Donohoe left his home to meet his friends at Cave Hill Belfast to study for school. #RememberMyNoah💙
He was on his black Apollo mountain bike, fully dressed, wearing a helmet and carrying a backpack containing his laptop and 2 books with his name on them. He also had his mobile phone with him.
On the 27th of June. Noah's naked body was sadly discovered 950m inside a storm drain, between access points. This storm drain was accessible through an area completely unfamiliar to him, behind houses at Northwood Road. https://t.co/bpz3Rmc0wq
"Noah's body was found by specially trained police officers between two drain access points within a section of the tunnel running under the Translink access road," said Mr McCrisken."
Noah's bike was also found near a house, behind a car, in the same area. It had been there for more than 24 hours before a member of public who lived in the street said she read reports of a missing child and checked the bike and phoned the police.
On Sunday 21st June, 14 year old Noah Donohoe left his home to meet his friends at Cave Hill Belfast to study for school. #RememberMyNoah💙
He was on his black Apollo mountain bike, fully dressed, wearing a helmet and carrying a backpack containing his laptop and 2 books with his name on them. He also had his mobile phone with him.
On the 27th of June. Noah's naked body was sadly discovered 950m inside a storm drain, between access points. This storm drain was accessible through an area completely unfamiliar to him, behind houses at Northwood Road. https://t.co/bpz3Rmc0wq
"Noah's body was found by specially trained police officers between two drain access points within a section of the tunnel running under the Translink access road," said Mr McCrisken."
Noah's bike was also found near a house, behind a car, in the same area. It had been there for more than 24 hours before a member of public who lived in the street said she read reports of a missing child and checked the bike and phoned the police.