\u201cSo,\u201d with the usual finger to his glasses, Dapi assumed it was clear that this was the time for serious talk. \u201cwhat do you think we should do with this beta?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWell,\u201d replied Charles, with a gleam in his eye, \u201cfriendzoning is the most typical outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Charles had prepared for the case that this meticulously crafted wordplay just seemed like some clumsy gaijin nonsense. Just before Dapi could inhale through his nose, he continued:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe need to reach out to alphas in the social sphere, in the other gaming communities. We need to make friends but keep them at a distance, not too close so they start messaging us every day asking for free games, as it has been in the past, just create some friendly links so we can get more eyes on the product before the general press reviews.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now to Dapi, this part made sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSounds good,\u201d he inquired, \u201cbut we will only have ten access codes to give out. What about our community guys? Are you saying we shouldn\u2019t give it to them?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWell, the bottom line is the hardcore fans are going to buy the game anyway, and their followers already know everything about the game, right? They\u2019ve probably seen leaks and discu-\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat leaks?\u201d interjected a suddenly sweating Dapi<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are no leaks\u201d there was a slight tremble in his voice as Charles remembered the last game launch and how he had nearly lost his job. He struggled onward: \u201cI just mean, usually, these fans are going to dig through the game and find out everything very quickly if we give them early access. This game series is not new to them, we are not really exposing it to new potential customers. That is why I\u2019m proposing completely new media sources.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWon\u2019t they react badly though? Could this have an impact on our community relations?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe could invite some of them to a private video showing or to the private press stream. Either way they won\u2019t stay mad for long, they\u2019ve been fans for years, I don\u2019t think they will turn their backs on us now, I think they will understand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They looked over the list of potential streamers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first one was a young woman who acted like a cat while playing various games. This seemed fairly wholesome and they had a look at her channel. As they watched her on stream, fully clothed (to Dapi\u2019s disappointment) with her rather cute black cat ears, she chatted to her followers, making catisms such as \u201chow you like me mieow\u201d, \u201cthis is nya~t very good\u201d and \u201ccan\u2019t get no catisfaction\u201d as she played a game destroying cities as a very familiar gargantuan reptile. Dapi didn\u2019t have time to think about copyright issues, that wasn\u2019t his job, but these gaijins sure were carefree about these things. He glanced over to notice that Charles had turned red. Dapi found this amusing but had to ask the cause. \u201cSh-she, er, just announced she is opening a Skinchat channel.\u201d Dapi could only guess from the word Skin <\/em>that it would be liked <\/em>but perhaps not appropriate material for good girls and boys. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They moved onto the next, a bespectacled bearded man with puffy cheeks and long hair, who used a collection of lightsabres in the background to illuminate the room. He was quite pleasant and relaxing to listen to, and had a million followers, as his character on screen sat in a toilet and shot people in the head as they visited the bathroom, over and over again. The people in chat were commenting how nobody would win the game as the treasure was in the bathroom, much to their glee. As it struck Charles that infinite ammunition was a ridiculous game design choice, Dapi frowned and asked to move on. This streamer had been making casual racist comments as he shot Japanese players, and the chat had been echoing the sentiment. Gaijin scum<\/em>, Dapi thought to himself, they\u2019re all the same, such a headache.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The next streamer was a young man with a high forehead of pink hair, who randomly screamed some sort of catchphrase as he switched between various games as soon as he felt bored, which could take anything from five seconds to five minutes. He was very very annoying but his chat was overflowing with reactions and comments and bots advertising thinly veiled adult content. \u201cHow is this supposed to work?\u201d asked Dapi, utterly confused. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t actually quit the game, you see\u201d said Charles as he pointed to the screen for no real reason at all, \u201dhe will go back to it, and I don\u2019t think he is really random, he is paying attention to the chat, if the activity slows down, he switches game.\u201d Dapi looked at Charles: \u201cAre you confident this sort of chat can stay interested in a fighting game?\u201d Charles seemed confident, as he was used to presenting bullshit that he didn\u2019t really believe in but had no alternative: \u201cI believe he\u2019ll feature our game for us, in return for getting the beta, it will be ok, and it will be new content, so how can anyone get bored, right?\u201d Dapi shivered. Still, he had to concede that the number of viewers was a great guarantee of reach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Putting ads in magazines and getting coverage in the media was expensive and becoming increasingly pointless. Putting the game on the front cover didn\u2019t guarantee anything these days, people simply could skip everything. He remembered gathering round a magazine at school and talking to his classmates excitedly about the new games. What were the kids doing now? They just posted images in chat rooms, even as they sat next to each other. He guessed it was the same for people and families. Gaming magazines were almost dead now. It was really sad, but at the same time, at least that meant he didn\u2019t have to sit at another annoying lunch with that annoying journalist who was clearly disinterested and only perked up when he mentioned waifu-big-tiddy role playing games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They continued through the selection of streamers: this one was a young man, who seemed to be making references to all the current memes and getting very excited over video game news. He seemed nice, even as he heard something about a new character, jumped up, threw everything off his desk and ran out into the street, into the darkness of the middle of the night and sat there, barking at the moon. It was almost obviously orchestrated but the chat was going absolutely bonkers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dapi felt more and more concerned. These streamers either spent their timing complaining or hating things, were too loyal to their game or just absolutely mad. GAFY needed someone truly professional, someone who could sell out, just for a bit, at an affordable price. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I could soooooo be a streamer, I should have started already,<\/em> Alice thought to herself while some guy from another class whom she had vaguely seen around but never really talked to confess his feelings and asked if she would like to go out together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She blinked, as the reality sunk in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What is this shit? Was this a joke? This kind of stuff only happens in anime, right?<\/em> She looked over her shoulder and checked the scenery for smirking faces staring through their camphones as they prepared for the revelry on their channels. It didn’t seem that anyone was around and moreover, nobody used bicycles and it was all going to rust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Are you streaming this? She asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He looked up momentarily from the ground<\/p>\n\n\n\n Should we? I can get-<\/p>\n\n\n\n No, I don’t think you want to do that<\/p>\n\n\n\n The hope in his face fizzled away as he heard her tone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So… there’s no chance then<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do we… even know each other? <\/p>\n\n\n\n She was getting angry, she honestly couldn\u2019t believe it, this had to be a joke, when did anyone actually ever succeed to get a date this way, and no he wasn\u2019t asking for a date, he was asking to be her boyfriend. Like what the fucking fuck?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I know you, I’ve seen you at school, I think that you are beautiful and smart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ummm stalker much? <\/p>\n\n\n\n He was startled by this. This wasn\u2019t going as planned. She was supposed to be impressed, appreciative, understanding\u2026 he was offering to be her knight, he would protect her from-<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHello?\u201d She was about to rip into him but the hurt was quite clear on his face. Oh dear, boys are so fragile. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Listen guy, I don\u2019t know who put you up to this, but this just doesn\u2019t work (the thought of accepting a marriage proposal from a hot rich guy definitely did not flitter through her mind). I don\u2019t even know you… sorry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOk fine,\u201d he said, holding back the tears, \u201cI get it, I\u2019m an idiot, a fool, you\u2026 you don’t have to be a bitch about it!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She was about to laugh when she heard some cackling behind the corner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou are streaming this, aren’t you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cSo,\u201d with the usual finger to his glasses, Dapi assumed it was clear that this was the time for serious talk. \u201cwhat do you think we should do with this beta?\u201d \u201cWell,\u201d replied Charles, with a gleam in his eye, \u201cfriendzoning is the most typical outcome.\u201d Charles had prepared for the case that this meticulously… Continue reading 002.1 The Beta<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-glassinthesnow","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orochinagi.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orochinagi.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orochinagi.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orochinagi.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orochinagi.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/orochinagi.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19,"href":"https:\/\/orochinagi.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions\/19"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orochinagi.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orochinagi.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orochinagi.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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