I just liked the idea that in videogames, if you worked hard, you could have something to show for it.
Experience, gold, or loot. Here, you grind at a job for hours a day for a month, and you end up with just enough to do it again next month
That is an absolute fair point. The grind in games actually leads to something. Where as in real life you often barley survive despite grinding every day.
This is 100% my theory as to why Harvest Moon / Stardew Valley games are so popular. People don’t mind doing the same stuff when it means you can live a life of basic means, contribute to a community, actually be rewarded for your efforts, and have autonomy and control over your life.
That’s why it always annoys me when gamers think that “realistic economies” (in games outside of the 4X/political sim genres) are a great idea. They don’t understand that only way that the player character can meaningfully progress in a game economy is if it’s built specifically to allow them to do that. Bolting on an imitation of supply and demand to shops doesn’t actually make the game more realistic and it usually doesn’t add anything interesting to the game.
Then you get to “player-driven economies” in MMOs, which require constant developer intervention to avoid devolving to the point where most people don’t have any economic power. You’d think that gamers would learn something about capitalism from that, but no such luck.
Bolting on an imitation of supply and demand to shops doesn’t actually make the game more realistic and it usually doesn’t add anything interesting to the game.
I have had quite a bit of enjoyment with trading sims where you essentially function as importer/exporter, travelling from country to country with goods to trade and trying to maximise profit. This is the primary method of wealth building in games like Mount and Blade or Starsector and it’s definitely enjoyable where it’s implemented properly. In particular in Starsector where drugs play a role in supply and demand based on other factors.
Maybe it’s not for everyone but there’s definitely a crowd that genuinely enjoys this loop of travel from location to location trying to buy the right goods while coming up with the right routes and avoiding trouble or bandits or pirates along the way.
Yeah, Patrician III rocks because of it’s Mercantilist simulation of the economy.
Fair enough. I was thinking about the feature where Minecraft villagers up their prices if you make the same trade a bunch of times. It just seems like a hassle given that the need to restock already works to limit how often you can make a certain trade.
Yeah that’s a garbage feature. The way it works best is having different economic nodes in which a village/town/city produces specific goods based on the buildings it has. These are produced at a speed based on the input goods they can receive from elsewhere as well as local population, with various needs and such. Lots of goods? Low prices. High need for goods? Higher prices. Distribute these all over the lands/space and add many different NPCs travelling between all the nodes doing trade, now you have an economic system based on supply+demand. The player then tries to purchase low and sell high as they travel from place to place while being limited by their carry capacity + being slowed down the larger their party becomes.
Works well. Feels rewarding. This kind of thing can fit in well in a lot of open world games, not just these sandbox M&B style games, but they don’t make the effort.
“realistic economies” LMAO. Yeah, incorporate a system that shits the bed every 5-7 years and actively prevents mobility.
Isshin! I Got Hit by a Train And Now I’m Vladimir Lenin in 1917!
spoiler
It’s actually surprisingly good for something I found like 5 years ago (at least to my memory - the author is a Maoist), but they never finished it ;/
isekai used to be good once upon a time
that time coincided with the protagonist usually being a girl
i wonder why that is
Isekai is popular because people love watching slop called like Transported to Another World Where The Age of Consent Doesn’t Exist
Transported to Another World Where The Age of Consent Doesn’t Exist
And I Own Slaves And Try To Have Sex With Every Woman Possible But I’m Really Really Awkward About It
I think it’s also part knowing a better world is possible while struggling to see the middle portion to get there. It’ll be nice to be reincarnated into a world where you’re better off financially and you can get a job you want to do and that job would grant you a better standard of living.
And then you throw away a lot of the bullshit we accumulate in a society so blatantly driven by capitalism.
Some people are frustrated and want to start over on a more even playing field. And some of those people also believe that even playing field would let them have a waifu.
Don’t get me wrong, I think a lot of the isekai stuff out there is shallow slop, but I also think the popularity of escapist fantasy is resonant to material conditions.
I’m not dissing escapism in general, just the popularity of this particularly unimaginative and often problematic genre
Oh I see. Yeah, that’s a pretty clear distinction. That part of the genre has dehumanizing wish-fulfillment vibes that reminds me a lot of romanticizing colonialism.
reminds me a lot of romanticizing colonialism.
I think that’s a really sharp observation. There’s probably a good essay to be written about that.
:truck-kun:
That time I got hit by a truck and the company paid a settlement so I didn’t have to work.
While escaping to a magical land full of whimsical adventure sounds fun. Im not sure if the actual occupation of adventurer isnt kind of terrible not even talking about the danger you put yourself into.
Then again …running a tavern in a fantasy world sounds like it could be fun.
I don’t know if isekai has always been this way, but usually the protags aren’t ever in much danger because they’re also super OP in the new fantasy world they occupy. I would think that’s the other thing that appeals to people.
Thats true most Isekai protags are brokenly OP. I just think that if I would be transported to a magical realm my first thought would be - fuck how am I gonna make a living or survive. Since most of these worlds are some form of feudalism.
But yeah Isekai mostly just means wish fulfilment for the main character.
that’s why these stories always default to ‘adventurer’, because the only actual work available to an unbound stranger in a feudal economy is unaccountable violence-dispenser, slave, or criminal.
someone shows up without family ties, guild ties, merchant ties, political ties… they’re automatically the lowest rung of society and will have to rely on charity until they could raise their station & acquire those ties through wealth or political clout—and the best way to get both of those in lieu of having anyone to ‘put in a good word for you’ is violence.
Also, isekai has been irreparably corrupted by the gamer mind virus. Back in the 80s and 90s, most isekai was shojo and had mecha sometimes. In fact, SUNRISE mandated it to Tomino when he was creating the first one - Aura Battler Dunbine.
The bots are out in full force with anti capitalist propaganda in the anime feed. Nice.
The bots are out in full force with anti capitalist propaganda in the anime feed. Nice.
chatGPT wrote this
Lmao shut up loser, you’re on our turf.
Except for Berserk wherein the world is brutal and no one is happy except for mad god Griffith.
Eh, Griffith is suffering pretty bad from a terminal case of bottomless ambition. He has everything he ever wanted and yet he’s still miserable and desperate for more.
Stabbing everyone who he ever held even the tiniest amount of camaraderie with in the back isn’t great for one’s mental health, surprisingly.
Is this new berserk lore? I don’t remember him giving a fuck but its been ages
It’s more implied than explicit. He gets his kingdom but wants to extend it to the whole world. Guts’ refusal to submit continuously gets under his skin even if it’s just a mild annoyance. He doesn’t seem to enjoy his minions as much as he did the Band.
It doesn’t undermine him as a villain because he’s constantly doing more stuff, but it does sort of build a sense of a person drinking ever more seawater to try and cure their thirst.
