Lukewarm mess with crippling brainrot

A/N: Inspired by the song of the same name (in case the offical topic is still regionblocked, here's a video with lyrics). Essentially just a silly little bit about the unit's shenanigans right before recording the song <3

Happy 1 year anniversary to All The Feels! this was supposed to be posted soon after the release, but here we are-

cw: mentions of Solomon's cooking, Simeon being a devious cinnamonroll hehehe

word count: 1.1k

Thirteen from Obey Me! Happy Birthday Special Story has been released! 💚🎉🎂

Satan from Obey Me! Happy Birthday Special Story has been released! 💚🎉🎂

Raphael from Obey Me! Happy Birthday Special Story has been released! 🧡🎉🎂

For anyone who couldn't watch the Obey Me! Overture Concert and Bonus Segment, here's the link to a google drive file of the recordings :)

The recordings were provided by @/mammonsbaby on instagram and I asked if it was okay to share it on tumblr as well :)

(convo under the cut)

Some graphics from the new game's Kickstarter page.

Solmare just announced that a new Obey Me! app is currently in development.

They LITERALLY say this IN THE ANNOUNCEMENT.

In my own personal opinion - I think their wording is too vague for my liking. Yes, this is presumably early into development? (they literally said the app will release this year so unclear on that) and they will have a crowdfunding campaign later down the line - But considering they already have two apps for the franchise and basically abandoned both and both games included most of the side characters from the start in one capacity or another (Yes, NB reused A LOT of OMs assets), it personally rubs me the wrong way.

And - I might be entirely wrong about this - I wouldn't be surprised at all if dating the supporting cast is part of the stretch goals. To incite supporting the campaign. But only time will tell.

The announcement states "We will also be looking to add additional characters in future updates".

Okay. Cool. I'd like to raise two concerns -

That's generally pretty vague. Why? Damage control because part of the fandom will no doubt be upset only the brothers showed up in the initial video? "Looking to add" is not "are going to add"/"will be adding", it's a potential maybe. An option, not necessarily a guarantee. And considering both of my suggested phrases would provide both more clarity and are shorter, that was a deliberate choice by their PR team.

"Add additional characters". Hm. Interesting word choice to go for. They could have said "the remaining cast" and add an "potentially more characters" to that as well. The fact that they, once again, choose to be vague opens the door for the possibility that characters like Thirteen, Mephistopheles and Raphael won't be added at all. And this wording is most likely a deliberate PR move to keep both sides calm. And what does Solmare gain from procrastinating that reveal? Well. Continued support. They know full well that people will jump the ship if it turns out that some established characters won't be added. That lack of clarity and detail means that people are free to make mountains out of molehills and will support the campaign in the hopes of getting their faves in the game. Whether or not Solmare is gonna actually add them is up to them - At this point, we have nothing but a vague promise at best. Doesn't matter, they got the monetary support by beating around the bush.

Solmare is a company. Companies aren't people, so treating them like such is never a good idea.

I have seen too many companies in similar areas of the entertainment industry - namely vtuber companies - exploit their staff and fans because they fail to realize that their product that they put onto the market is their vtubers. And treating those people as nothing more than numbers is them shooting themselves in the foot, because the fans will see that and retaliate.

And whether you use vtubers or dating games to build up parasocial relationships and attachment with a fanbase, treating either too obviously like a convenient tool for profit is gonna end your business at the end of the day. You expect people to hand you money to support something that you yourself treat as expendable? Hm, something doesn't add up here.

Once again, this all just my opinion. I have simply been burned too often to not look at all of this with a healthy dose of scepticism and cynicism.

It's almost midnight for me right now and I'm literally in bed, so this isn't going to be a super long or detailed response, sorry. I might come back to this tomorrow when I'm not already half asleep.

To cut to the chase, I just want to ask - who do you think they're talking about then, if not the reat of the OM cast? Who do you think they mean when they say "adding more characters in the future" if they don't mean TriWorlds and/or the undateables?

Which do you honestly think is more likely? That the characters they add in future updates are the established, beloved characters we've known for 5+ years and already have significant store importance? Or that the characters they add will be some completely new OCs made just for this new game, while the established cast gets erased?

There's just literally no one else they could possibly be talking about when they say that they will be adding more characters after the brothers. There are no other characters in the franchise. We've already had relationships with TriWorlds/the Undateables for multiple years. There's just simply no other possibility.

As for their wording, this is almost certainly due to long-held industry standards. In the business of game development, especially in a public-facing sector like social media, there is an unwritten but nearly universal rule that you should never say anything definitive until it actually gets released. This is more true for mobage studios and indie devs (and not so much for huge AAA studios like say, Nintendo) but the point remains the same.

Even if the OM Team already has TriWorlds on the books, even if they already have everything planned out for how and when they're going to be added, even if everything is already set in stone on their emd of things, it's still not something that they are likely to announce definitively until it actually happens. This can be for all sorts of reasons, the biggest of which is because a studio never wants to "promise" something that they can't deliver. If there's unexpected difficulties or obstacles in the production progress that leads to things being delayed, you end up with an outraged fanbase because the content you already announced has to suddenly be postponed. Just look at, well, literally any delayed game release ever.

If your voice actor has to suddenly drop out or falls ill and they can't perform for a period of time, or if your dev team gets hit with unexpected workload increases, or any other possible reason for why things could get delayed or pushed back, YOU become the asshole and your studio gets a bad reputation because you didn't deliver on what was promised.

So, what most game devs will do is make an announcement that's as close to a clear-cut confirmation as possible, while still leaving just the SLIGHTEST amount of wiggle room in their wording so that they will be covered if anything goes wrong that disrupts the release schedule.

This is why you'll see game trailers have small fine print on the bottom of the screen, stating things like "game footage not final" just in case anything changes before the game is released.

So, for the most part, yes. We can take the announcement to mean that TriWorlds will be added to the game after the brothers. At the absolute most, the OM Team worded things the way they did just in case anything causes delays or schedule changes. Promising something concrete and then not being able to deliver is never good.

As for the other points you bring up...I think there's a huge schism between the perspective of a fan/player, and the perspective of the game devs and people on the actual staff.

Thank you for clarifying! :) I had seen all three announcements on instagram after posting about the initial one with the video and linking to the twitter post - Hence my comment about the missing side cast relating only to the initial video announcement because I hadn't seen anything else at the time.

On the topic of the phrasing of the offical statement - The choice of words bothers me because it doesn't clearly state whether Triworlds and the Undateables might be added down the line or only Triworlds or Triworlds (and the Undateables) and additional established characters (like Michael or Maddi for example; which yes isn't as realistic but I digress). Additional characters is more so an umbrella term than anything else and that simply isn't precise enough for my brain. It can refer to all three categories mentioned above, but doesn't necessarily need to include all in this context - Which at the end of the day doesn't clarify anything for me.

Also, the main cast of the brothers, Triworlds and Undateables certainly aren't the only characters in Obey Me - Obviously the ones the fandom has become the most attached to, but Obey Me sports a whole host of characters besides those - Maddi, Michael, Candy, Helene, the Demon King, Queen Rose, Artemisia and Uriel, Gardonus, Lucifugus and Zaramela to name a few. The Obey Me! Wiki has two entire sections entirely dedicated to Minor Characters and Trivial Characters - A lot of them being mentioned more than once and with a lot of potential exciting worldbuilding and interesting plot opportunities :) Some characters like Michael or Candy have even become surprisingly popular with the fans and hence could make an interesting and potential addition to a new game - But that's for Solmare to decide. If anything, they're certainly not out of established side characters to give bigger roles to - They did the same with the Undateables, who said they wouldn't do it again? Especially considering Michael was certainly a more established character than Raphael, yet they still added him into the game.

Industry standards are one thing - But whether they account for the fact that the lack of detail can in some cases cause completely avoidable, but warranted backlash (as can giving too much information) and that the aspired middleground is a fine line a lot of companies can't seem to get a grip on is another.

Also, I think being vague for the sake of not making potentially unkeepable promise depends entirely on the context - Especially when crowdfunding is involved.

Depending on how delays on game releases are handled, a rioting fanbase is certainly much less of an issue. I think MOB has released every chapter of Poppy Playtime besides the last one late - And at least on my end I don't really see how this hurt the franchise all that much as whole. If anything, the entire NFT situation was leagues more damaging than any late releases.

The only people being vocally upset about hiccups during game development that are outside of the company's control are ones that aren't worth anyone's time anyways - IF said company manages to clearly and adequately explain the situation to the general public in ways that will reach at least the majority of the fanbase. If they don't manage to do that - Then they dug that hole they're sitting in themselves and have no one else to blame, in my opinion.

While I am no doubt biased as a player, I try my best to approach the issue from an angle focusing on media theory, common sense and a healthy amount of scepticism. Most of us, myself inlcuded have no idea what is going on behind the scenes - But what can be analyzed and criticized is what is being put out into the world. And taking into a account that making a dating game means you're targeting a specific demographic with its quirks and pitfalls that isn't exactly uncharted territory and many examples of do's and don't's of other companies can be looked at and learnt from, the fact that over the years I have seen and talked to so many people whose love for this franchise turned into distrust and general fatigue to Solmare's shenanigans (inlcuding my best friend who got me into the game in the first place), all of whom name similar reasons for distancing themselves from the franchise --- Well, I can't help but feel like that's an issue on Solmare's end that they don't manage to fix.

If you don't agree with my opinions, feel free to use the block button. It's here for a reason, after all :)

I for my part do not wish to engage in prolonging this conversation any further. I've said what I wanted to say and will now move on to other things.

Have a nice day :)

(source)

Yeah, sounds like they're trying to integrate some of the features players in other games like LADS are familiar with.