Learn from my mistakes. I got a job, but it took me a year, 1100+ applications, and failing 11 final interviews. Here is what you don't do while job searching.
Sure, there are plenty of posts from people who applied to a job and got an offer 30 seconds later. Good for them. But if you're on this sub, you're probably running into more difficulty. I did. Job hunting these days is inherently pretty hard, but there are plenty of things I did wrong during my job hunt that could have saved me time and trouble. I'm a 35 year old in product marketing in the bay area, so this advice may or may not apply to you. Most of this advice is not new, you may have seen it elsewhere. Well, HEED MY WORDS! You should take that advice. Here are my don'ts of job hunting: e: Here's the real #1 piece of advice because someone brought it up in the comments: Don't Not Have A Network. The main reason I had such a hard time was I moved to a new city where I didn't have a professional relationship with ANYONE. I think if you're applying without a friend on the inside, it reduces your odds by 80-90%, based on random factoids we've all seen that say 80% of jobs are never posted publicly. I went to networking events and coffee meetups and blah blah blah, but COVID put a stop to that before I could make much progress. The biggest piece of advice (by far) is just to have a friend who can get you a job. But if you're reading this, you would have done that already if you could have. Don't try to get by without doing the standard "best practice" stuff. I spent a while thinking I could get away without making a customized resume for different jobs. I also thought I would probably have the right keywords naturally, and that I didn't have to worry about that either. WRONG. I wasted many weeks submitting poorly optimized resumes and getting few interviews. What you should do is have at least one version of your resume customized for each job title you're applying to. That means if you're applying for Sr. Widget Fiddler and Director of Widget Fiddling, you need 2 versions. Keyword optimize each resume version by copy-pasting 50+ job descriptions for that job's title into a tool like Voyant Tools, which will spit out all the most common words and phrases. Find the most frequent ones that seem important and relevant, and work them into your resume, even if it seems weird to refer to yourself as a "team player" or "entrepreneurial". Don't be bad at interviewing, not even a little bit bad. Being a good interviewee is a skill. Most of us aren't born with that skill, and most of us are rusty when it comes time to look for a job. I knew I wasn't great at interviewing, but I really didn't want to go through awkward practice interviews with friends, so I told myself people would understand why I was all nervous, and realize I was still super talented and experienced despite my 'rough edges'. WRONG. I blew it on a lot of interviews before admitting that I had to practice, a lot. I did a bunch of practice interviews, got feedback, and I even talked to an interview coach. The latter was expensive, but I think the dose of outside perspective really helped. YMMV. I practiced enough that I started getting to final rounds instead of washing out in the first couple rounds. It made a huge difference. Practice. Don't wing it during the interview. For 'behavioral' questions (i.e. "tell me about a time when..." questions) everyone says you need to have multiple answers memorized for every major category of question. Ugh! So much work. Greatest weakness. Success story. Failure story. Conflict story. Collaboration story. YAWN. I thought I could come up with good answers on the spot. It's "supposed to be a conversation", right? WRONG. I blew it on a couple interviews before realizing I was coming across as both unprepared AND inexperienced. Sit down and work out your bullet points for every answer, BEFORE you land an interview. Pain in the butt? Yes. But not as big a pain as getting an interview, blowing it, then ending up doing the work anyway. Don't apply to old job listings. If it's still up, they're still hiring, right? WRONG. I have found that job listings are good for about as long as fresh bread. You mostly want to apply the day they're posted, 2-3 days is OK, 5 days is pushing it, beyond that, it's literal trash. I started out applying to anything relevant that was less than a month old, and my app-to-interview yield was around 1%. Started applying to new listings exclusively, and my yield went to more like 3%. YMMV. Don't apply to listings that aren't on the employer's own site. It's become disturbingly common for 3rd-party sites to steal and re-post job listings they have nothing to do with. You click on a link on LinkedIn or Indeed, and you end up on Neuvoo or some random BS. Don't submit any of your info on those sites. Very often the jobs are expired already, but these 3rd-party scammers are still re-posting them to steal your info. Even if they're not expired, there's no reason to think they actually send your application to the employer. If you land somewhere unexpected, go to the employer's actual careers section on their site and find the listing yourself. Otherwise you're just giving your info to someone to sell, and the employer probably never sees it. Please report these listings as you go. Don't be too picky with job titles. Unless your resume precisely "fits the profile" employers are looking for, you're going to have to apply a lot. I had to apply a lot. At first, I was exclusively applying to one title, because although I didn't "fit the profile" I didn't want to compromise. I ended up getting a really solid job with a different title, after I loosened my criteria JUST a tad. Have a serious talk with yourself about how many months you're willing to apply before broadening your search, and don't talk yourself out of good jobs because they have the "wrong" title. Don't be too loose with companies you apply to. At a couple points in the process, I ended up with interviews at companies that I seriously didn't want to work for. I was playing the numbers game and I would apply to anything with the right title, even if I hadn't heard of the company. I figured if I got an interview, I would worry about the company later. Difficulty: If you are on unemployment, this can lead to a sticky situation - if you turn down an offer, you legally can't collect unemployment anymore in many places. It's also pretty hard to justify to yourself turning down ANY interview if you actually need the money. Have a loose idea of who the company is before applying, to avoid those awkward moments. Don't stop applying until the ink is dry on your offer letter. My advice is to apply to every suitable listing as soon as it's posted, which could be as many as 10-30 per day depending on your field and geography. If things are going well, you'll also have interviews going on during any given week, which also put heavy demands on your mental energy and prep time. It is tempting to stop applying for jobs if you are doing multiple interviews and they seem to be going well. You need the time, and one of them has to work out, right? WRONG. It happened to me multiple times - I'd get further along in an interview process, I'd be focusing on prep, and I'd let my application routine slip. Bad idea. If your application pipeline runs dry, it can be another 2-6 weeks before the interviews start flowing again. ABA - always be applying. Don't get your hopes up. (maybe the most important tip.) Your mental resilience to rejection and your self-regard are finite resources. They are resources you need to conserve to maintain your overall mental health and good job-hunting habits. Job hunting can burn through these resources like Joe Exotic through a bag of meth. Don't be like me and get emotionally invested in any given job before you get an offer. Don't start picking out all the stuff you're going to buy with the new salary. Don't start thinking of what doors are going to open up for you with this step in your career. Don't mentally pick out outfits for your new commute. Just don't. I consider myself a mentally tough person, so I should be able to handle the repeated rejection, right? WRONG. If you allow yourself to start caring about a job before you GET the job, you WILL be crushed to bits. Maybe not the first time, but after the 5th, or the 10th, it becomes hard to take. To some of the newer job hunters I've seen on this sub: Caring about a job from the day you APPLY? Sheer lunacy. You shouldn't even remember where you applied by the time you go to bed that day. Keep in mind: It's a numbers game. It's not personal. You WILL get the right job eventually, if you keep going. You have to maintain faith in yourself, but hold no hope for any particular job. In emotional terms, treat it less like a poker game, (where any hand can be a big deal) more like a slot machine (where you care zero until you finally win). No matter how tough you think you are, take care to maintain your mental state, especially during COVID where so many aspects of life are also wearing down our mental health. Don't be afraid to be a try-hard. The role I finally got was based largely on a "take home project" used to demonstrate my working style. It was paid, also really long, the minimum suggested time was 10 hours. Usually I put 70% effort into trial projects, because I don't want to bust my ass for a throwaway, and I don't want to look desperate. My thinking is "Well, we're all professionals, so as long as I mention a few of the right things, they'll know we're on the same level, right?" WRONG. On this one, I decided to go HAM on the project. All or nothing. I ended up putting over 20 hours into it, (the max time they suggested was 20) and came up with a total overkill amount of material, it was probably 20 pages worth, if not more. To give some idea, I spent like 4 hours just doing addressable market sizing, which everyone including me acknowledges is fairly pointless. Part of the project was also to see how we communicate about our work - they put me on their company slack, so I logged onto it pretty much every day to update them on my progress. It was firmly in try-hard weirdo territory. But it worked! So I guess my lesson from this is, if you're going to bother with these projects, be the one who turns in the blue ribbon material. NB: Be aware of "free work" scams where they try to get you to do the actual job without hiring you for the job. If it's pertinent to the actual job and it's more than an hour or two of work, it should be paid. Unpaid trial projects that don't relate to the actual business are OK, but you'll have to decide for yourself how much time you're willing to put in for free. Don't assume ***anything*** until it's final. In 3 instances, I got much further than I expected in a hiring process, and in one I was blindsided by a rejection where I thought I was a shoo-in. #1, they interviewed me for the role (up to the final round) even though the job called for an actual engineer and I have zero engineering experience. In #2, I blew an interview and got rejected. I knew exactly how I blew it, I got the yips and did poorly. So I sent an email reply explaining what I SHOULD have said, and that I really believed in the company's mission, and that I realize I was a poor interviewee, but I was working on it - they actually gave me another shot and I made it to the final round. In the last unexpected twist story, they actually scheduled a final interview, then CANCELLED IT. I have been rejected for about a million jobs, but I've never been cancelled on. They said that instead of an interview, they would just review my trial project. I couldn't imagine cancelling an interview with someone you intend to hire, so I assumed this 'review' was just a consolation prize and the job was going to someone else. On the day the cancelled interview was meant to take place, they offered me the job. Huh???? Later that day I rode to heck on a flying pig and bought a snowcone there. But I also got a job. On the other side of things, I was told directly I was the top candidate for a role, the only one who was really qualified, but because of COVID they were putting the role on hold. OK cool, I figured I was a shoo-in once they actually hired for it. Well, they re-listed the job about 45 days later. They didn't reach out to me. I messaged them. They told me I wasn't even going to get a phone screen for it. WTF? They lied to my face for no reason whatsoever? Yep. They did. The lesson: Do not assume anything! ANYTHING!
Old Austin Tales: Forgotten Video Arcades of The 1970s & 80s
In the late 1980s and early 1990s when I was a young teen growing up in far North Austin, it was a popular custom for many boys in the neighborhood to assemble at the local Stop-N-Go after school on a regular basis for some Grand Champion level tournaments in Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat. The collective insistence of our mothers and fathers to get out of the house, get some exercise, and refrain from playing NES or Sega on the television only led us to seek out more video games at the convenience store down the road. Much allowance and lunch money was spent as well as hours that should have been devoted to homework among the 8 or 9 regular boys in attendance, often challenging each other to 'Best of 5' matches. I myself played Dhalsim and SubZero, and not very well, so I rarely ever made it to the 5th match. The store workers frequently kicked us out for the day only to have us return when they weren't working the counter anymore if not the next day. There is something about that which has been lost in the present day. While people can today download the latest games on Steam or PSN or in the app store on your smartphone, you can't just find arcade games in stores and restaurants like you used to be able to. And so the fun of a spontaneous 8 or 10 person multiplayer video game tournament has been confined to places like bars, pool halls, Pinballz or Dave&Busters. But in truth it was that ubiquity of arcade video games, how you could find them in any old 7-11 or Laundromat, which is what killed the original arcades of the early 1980s before the Great Crash of 1983 when home video game consoles started to catch up to what you saw in the arcade. I was born in the mid 1970s so I missed out on Pong. I was kindergarten age when the Golden Age of Arcade Games took place in the early 1980s. There used to be a place called Skateworld on Anderson Mill Road that was primarily for roller skating but had a respectable arcade in its own right. It was there that I honed my skills on the original Tron, Pac Man, Galaga, Pole Position, Defender, and so many others. In the 1980s I remember visiting all the same mall arcades as others in my age group. There was Aladdin's Castle in Barton Creek Mall, The Gold Mine in Highland, and another Gold Mine in Northcross which was eventually renamed Tilt. Westgate Mall also had an arcade but being a north austin kid I never went there until later in the mid 1990s. There were also places like Malibu Grand Prix and Showbiz Pizza and Chuck-E-Cheeze, all of which had fairly large arcades for kids which were the secondary attraction. If you're of a certain age you will remember Einsteins and LeFun on the Drag. They were there for a few decades going back way before the Slacker era. Lesser known is that the UT Student Union basement used to have an arcade that was comparable to either or both of those places. Back in the pre-9/11 days it was much easier to sneak in if you even vaguely looked like you could be a UT student. But there was another place I was too young to have experienced called Smitty's up further north on 183 at Lake Creek in the early 1980s. I never got to go there but I always heard about it from older kids at the time. It was supposed to have been two stories of wall to wall games with a small snack bar. I guess at the time it served a mostly older teen crowd from Westwood High School and for that reason younger kids my age weren't having birthday parties there. It wasn't around very long, just a few years during the Golden Age of Arcades. It is with almost-forgotten early arcades like that in mind that I wanted to share with y'all some examples of places from The Golden Age of the Video Arcade in Austin using some old Statesman articles I've found. Maybe someone of a certain age on here will remember them. I was curious what they were like, having missed out by being slightly too young to have experienced most of them first hand. I also wanted to see the original reaction to them in the press. I had a feeling there was some pushback from school/parent/civic groups on these facilities showing up in neighborhood strip malls or next to schools, and I was right to suspect. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First let's list off some places of interest. Be sure to speak up if you remember going to any of these, even if it was just for some other kid's birthday party. Unfortunately some of the only mentions about a place are reports of a crime being committed there, such as our first few examples. Forgotten Arcade #1 Fun House/Play Time Arcade - 2820 Guadalupe June 15, 1975
ARCADE ENTHUSIASM A gang fight involving 20 30 people erupted early Saturday morning in front of an arcade on Guadalupe Street. The owner of the Fun House Arcade at 282J Guadalupe told police pool cues, lug wrenches, fists and a shotgun were displayed during the flurry. Police are unsure what started the fisticuffs, but one witness at the scene said it pitted Chicanos against Anglos. During the fight the owner of the arcade said a green car stopped at the side of the arcade and witnesses reported the barrel of a shotgun sticking out. The crowd wisely scattered and only a 23-year-old man was left lying on the ground. He told police he doesn't know what happened.
ARCADE ROBBED A former employee of Play Time Arcade, 2820 Guadalupe, was charged Tuesday in connection with the Tuesday afternoon robbery of his former business. Police have issued a warrant for the arrest of Ronnie Magee, 22, of 1009 Aggie Lane, Apt. 306. Arcade attendant Sam Garner said he had played pool with the suspect an hour before the robbery. He told police the man had been fired from the business two weeks earlier. Police said a man walked in the arcade about 2:45 p m. with a blue steel pistol and took $180. Magee is charged with first degree aggravated robbery. Bond was set on the charge at $15,000.
First it was called Fun House and then renamed Play Time a year later. I'm not sure what kind of arcade games beyond Pong and maybe Asteroids they could have had at this place. The peak of the Pinball craze was supposed to be around 1979, so they might have had a few pinball machines as well. A quick search of youtube will show you a few examples of 1976 video games like Death Race. The location is next to Ken's Donuts where PokeBowl is today where the old Baskin Robbins location was for many years. Forgotten Arcade #2 Green Goth - 1121 Springdale Road May 15, 1984
A 23-year-old man pleaded guilty Monday to a January 1983 murder in East Austin and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Jim Crowell Jr. of Austin admitted shooting 17-year-old Anthony Rodriguez in the chest with a shotgun after the two argued outside the Green Goth, a games arcade at 1121 Springdale Road, on Jan. 23, 1983. Crowell had argued with Rodriguez and a friend of Rodriguez at the arcade, police said. Crowell then went to his house, got a shotgun and returned to the arcade, witnesses said. When the two friends left the arcade, Rodriguez was shot Several weeks ago Crowell had reached a plea bargain with prosecutors for an eight-year prison term, but District Judge Bob Perkins would not accept the sentence, saying it was shorter than sentences in similar cases. After further plea bargaining, Crowell accepted the 15-year prison sentence.
I can't find anything else on Green Goth except reports about this incident with a murder there. There is at least one other report from 1983 around the time of Crowell's arrest that also refer to it as an arcade but reports the manager said the argument started over a game of pool. It's possible this place might have been more known for pool. Forgotten Arcades #3 & #4 Games, Etc. - 1302 S. First St Muther's Arcade - 2532 Guadalupe St August 23, 1983
Losing the magic touch - Video Arcades have trouble winning the money game It was going to be so easy for Lawrence Villegas, a video game junkie who thought he could make a fast buck by opening up an arcade where kids could plunk down an endless supply of quarters to play Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Asteroids. Villegas got together with a few friends, purchased about 30 video games and opened Games, Etc. at 1302 S. First St in 1980. .,--.... For a while, things, went great Kids waited in line to spend their money to drive race cars, slay dragons and save the universe. AT THE BEGINNING of 1982, however, the bottom fell out, and Villegas' revenues fell from $400 a week to $25. Today, Games, Etc. is vacant Villegas, 30, who is now working for his parents at Tony's Tortilla Factory, hasn't decided what he'll do with the building. "I was hooked on Asteroids, and I opened the business to get other people hooked, too," Villegas said. "But people started getting bored, and it wasn't worth keeping the place open. In the end, I sold some machines for so little it made me sick." VILLEGAS ISNT the only video game operator to experience hard times, video game manufacturers and distributors 'It used to be fairly common to get $300 a week from a machine. Now we rarely get more than $100 . Pac-Man's a lost cause. Six months ago, you could resell a Pac-Man machine for $1,600. Now, you're lucky to get $950 if you can find a buyer." Ronnie Roark says. In the past year, business has dropped 25 percent to 65 percent throughout the country, they say. Most predict business will get even worse before the market stabilizes. Video game manufacturers and operators say there are several reasons for the sharp and rapid decline: Many video games can now be played at home on television, so there's no reason to go to an arcade. The novelty of video games has worn off. It has been more than a decade since the first ones hit the market The decline can be traced directly to oversaturation or the market arcade owners say. The number of games in Austin has quadrupled since 1981, and it's not uncommon to see them in coin-operated laundries, convenience stores and restaurants. WITH SO MANY games to choose from, local operators say, Austinites be came bored. Arcades still take in thousands of dollars each week, but managers and owners say most of the money is going to a select group of newer games, while dozens of others sit idle. "After awhile, they all seem the same," said Dan Moyed, 22, as he relaxed at Muther's Arcade at 2532 Guadalupe St "You get to know what the game is going to do before it does. You can play without even thinking about it" Arcade owners say that that, in a nutshell, is why the market is stagnating. IN THE PAST 18 months, Ronnie Roark, owner of the Back Room at 2015 E. Riverside Drive, said his video business has dropped 65 to 75 percent Roark, . who supplied about 160 video games to several Austin bars and arcades, said the instant success of the games is what led to their demise. "The technology is not keeping up with people's demand for change," said Roark, who bought his first video game in 1972. "The average game is popular for two or three months. We're sending back games that are less than five months old." Roark said the market began dropping in March 1982 and has been declining steadily ever since. "The drop started before University of Texas students left for the summer in 1982," Roark said. "We expected a 25 percent drop in business, and we got that, and more. It's never really picked up since then. - "It used to be fairly common to get $300 a week from a machine. Now we rarely get more than $100. 1 was shocked when I looked over my books and saw how much things had dropped." TO COMBAT THE slump, Roark said, he and some arcade owners last year cut the price of playing. Even that didn't help, he said. Old favorites, such as Pac-Man, which once took in hundreds of dollars each week, he said, now make less than $3 each. "Pac-Man's a lost cause," he said. "Six months ago, you could resell a Pac-Man machine for $1,600. Now, you're lucky to get $950 if you can find a buyer." Hardest hit by the slump are the owners of the machines, who pay $3,500 to $5,000 for new products and split the proceeds with the businesses that house them. SALEM JOSEPH, owner of Austin Amusement and Vending Co., said his business is off 40 percent in the past year. Worse yet, some of his customers began returning their machines, and he's having a hard time putting them back in service. "Two years ago, a machine would generate enough money to pay for itself in six months,' said Joseph, who supplies about 250 games to arcades. "Now that same machine takes 18 months to pay for itself." As a result, Joseph said, he'll buy fewer than 15 new machines this year, down from the 30 to 50 he used to buy. And about 50 machines are sitting idle in his warehouse. "I get calls every day from people who want to sell me their machines," Joseph said. "But I can't buy them. The manufacturers won't buy them from me." ARCADE OWNERS and game manufacturers hope the advent of laser disc video games will buoy the market Don Osborne, vice president of marketing for Atari, one of the largest manufacturers of video games, said he expects laser disc games to bring a 25 percent increase in revenues next year. The new games are programmed to give players choices that may affect the outcome of the game, Os borne said. "Like the record and movie industries, the video game industry is dependent on products that stimulate the imagination," Osborne said "One of the reasons we're in a valley is that we weren't coming up with those kinds of products." THE FIRST of the laser dis games, Dragonslayer and Star Wan hit the market about two months ago. Noel Kerns, assistant manager of The Gold Mine Arcade in Northcross Mall, says the new games are responsible for a $l,000-a-week increase in revenues. Still, Kerns said, the Gold Mine' total sales are down 20 percent iron last summer. However, he remain optimistic about the future of the video game industry. "Where else can you come out of the rain and drive a Formula One race car or save the universe?" hi asked. Others aren't so optimistic. Roark predicted the slump will force half of all operators out of business and will last two more years. "Right now, we've got a great sup ply and almost no demand," Roark said. "That's going to have to change before things get- significantly better."
Well there is a lot to take from that long article, among other things, that the author confused "Dragonslayer" with "Dragon's Lair". I lol'd. Anyone who has been to Emo's East, formerly known as The Back Room, knows they have arcade games and pool, but it's mostly closed when there isn't a show. That shouldn't count as an arcade, even though the former owner Ronnie Roark was apparently one of the top suppliers of cabinet games to the area during the Golden Era. Any pool hall probably had a few arcade games at the time, too, but that's not the same as being an arcade. We also learn from the same article of two forgotten arcades: Muthers at 2522 Guadalupe where today there is a Mediterranean food restaurant, and another called Games, Etc. at 1302 S.First that today is the site of an El Mercado restaurant. But the article is mostly about showing us how bad the effects were from the crash at the end of the Golden Era. It was very hard for the early arcades to survive with increasing competition from home game consoles and personal computers, and the proliferation of the games into stores and restaurants. Forgotten Arcades #5 #6 & #7 Computer Madness - 2414 S. Lamar Blvd. Electronic Encounters - 1701 W Ben White Blvd (Southwood Mall) The Outer Limits Amusements Center - 1409 W. Oltorf March 4, 1982
'Quartermania' stalks South Austin School officials, parents worried about effects of video games A fear Is haunting the video game business. "We call it 'quartermania.' That's fear of running out of quarters," said Steve Stackable, co-owner of Computer Madness, a video game and foosball arcade at 2414 S. Lamar Blvd. The "quartermania" fear extends to South Austin households and schools, as well. There it's a fear of students running out of lunch money and classes to play the games. Local school officials and Austin police are monitoring the craze. They're concerned that computer hotspots could become undesirable "hangouts" for students, or that truancy could increase because students (high-school age and younger) will skip school to defend their galaxies against The Tempest. So far police fears have not been substantiated. Department spokesmen say that although more than half the burglaries in the city are committed by juveniles during the daytime, they know of no connection between the break-ins and kids trying to feed their video habit But school and parental worries about misspent time and money continue. The public outcry in September 1980 against proposals to put electronic game arcades near two South Austin schools helped persuade city officials to reject the applications. One proposed location was near Barton Hills Elementary School. The other was South Ridge Plaza at William Cannon Drive and South First Street across from Bedlchek Junior High School. Bedichek principal B.G. Henry said he spoke against the arcade because "of the potential attraction it had for our kids. I personally feel kids are so drawn to these things, that It might encourage them to leave the school building and play hookey. Those things have so much compulsion, kids are drawn to them like a magnet Kids can get addicted to them and throw away money, maybe their lunch money. I'm not against the video games. They may be beneficial with eye-hand coordination or even with mathematics, but when you mix the video games during school hours and near school buildings, you might be asking for problems you don't need." A contingent from nearby Pleasant Hill Elementary School joined Bedichek in the fight back in 1980, although principal Kay Beyer said she received her first formal call about the games last Week from a mother complaining that her child was spending lunch money on them. Beyer added that no truancy problems have been related to video game-playing at a nearby 7-11 store. Allen Poehl, amusement game coordinator for Austin's 7-11 stores, said company policy rules out any game-playing by school-age youth during school hours. Fulmore Junior High principal Bill Armentrout said he is working closely with operators of a nearby 7-1 1 store to make sure their policy is enforced. The convenience store itself, and not necessarily the video games, is a drawing card for older students and drop-outs, Armentrout said. Porter Junior High principal Marjorie Ball said that while video games aren't a big cause of truancy, "the money (spent on the games) is a big factor." Ball said she has made arrangements with nearby businesses to call the school it students are playing the games during school hours. "My concern is that kids are basically unsupervised, especially at the 24-hour grocery stores. That's a late hour for kids to be out. I would like to see them (games) unplugged at 10 p.m.," adds Joslin Elementary principal Wayne Rider. Several proprietors of video game hot-spots say they sympathize with the concerns of parents and school officials. No one under 18 is admitted without a parent to Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre at 4211 S. Lamar. That rule, says night manager David Dunagan, "keeps it from being a high school hangout. This is a family place." Jerry Zollar, owner of J.J. Subs in West Wood Shopping Center on Bee Cave Road, rewards the A's on the report cards of Eanes school district students with free video games. "It's kind of a community thing we do in a different way. I've heard from both teachers and parents . . . they thought this was a good idea," said Zollar. Electronic Encounters in Southwood Mall last year was renovated into a brightly lit arcade. "We're trying to get away from the dark, barroom-type place. We want this to be a place for family entertainment We won't let kids stay here during school hours without a written note from their parents, and we're pretty strict about that," said manager Kelly Roberts. Joyce Houston, who manages The Outer Limits amusements center at 1409 W. Oltorf St. along with her husband, said, "I wouldn't let my children go into some of the arcades I've visited. I'm a concerned parent, too. We wanted a place where the whole family could come and enjoy themselves."
Well you can see which way the tone of all these articles is going. There were some crimes committed at some arcades but all of them tended to have a negative reputation for various reasons. Parents and teachers were very skeptical of the arcades being in the neighborhoods to the point of petitioning the City Government to restrict them. Three arcades are mentioned besides Chuck-E-Cheese. Electronic Encounters in Southwood Mall, The Outer Limits amusements center at 1409 W. Oltorf, and Computer Madness, a "video game and foosball arcade" at 2414 S. Lamar Blvd. Forgotten Arcade #8 Smitty's Galaxy of Games - Lake Creek Parkway February 25, 1982
Arcades fighting negative image Video games have swept across America, and Williamson and Travis counties have not been immune. In a two-part series, Neighbor examines the effects the coin-operated machines have had on suburban and small-town life. Cities have outlawed them, religious leaders have denounced them and distraught mothers have lost countless children to their voracious appetites. And still they march on, stronger and more numerous than before. A new disease? Maybe. A wave of invading aliens from outer space? On occasion. A new type of addiction? Certainly. The culprit? Video games. Although the electronic game explosion has been mushrooming throughout the nation's urban areas for the past few years, its rippling effects have just recently been felt in the suburban fringes of North Austin and Williamson County. In the past year, at least seven arcades armed with dozens of neon quarter-snatchers have sprung up to lure teens with thundering noises and thousands of flashing seek-and-destroy commands. Critics say arcades are dens of iniquity where children fall prey to the evils of gambling. But arcade owners say something entirely different. "Everybody fights them (arcades), they think they are a haven for drug addicts. It's just not true," said Larry Grant of Austin, who opened Eagle's Nest Fun and Games on North Austin Avenue in Georgetown last September. "These kids are great" Grant said the gameroom "gives teenagers a place to come. Some only play the games and some only talk. In Georgetown, if you're from the high school, this is it." He said he's had very few disturbances, and asks "undesirables" to leave. "We've had a couple of rowdies. That's why I don't have any pool tables they tend to attract that type of crowd," Grant said. Providing a place for teens to congregate was also the reason behind Ron and Carol Smith's decision to open Smitty's Galaxy of Games on Lake Creek Parkway at the entrance to Anderson Mill. "We have three teenage sons, and as soon as the oldest could drive, it became immediately apparent that there was no place to go around here," said Ron, an IBM employee who lives in Spicewood at Balcones. "This prompted us to want to open something." The business, which opened in August, has been a huge success with both parents and youngsters. "Hundreds of parents have come to check out our establishment before allowing their children to come, and what they see is a clean, safe environment managed by adults and parents," Ron said. "We've developed an outstanding rapport with the community." Video arcades "have a reputation that we have to fight," said Carol. Kathy McCoy of Georgetown, who last October opened Krazy Korner on Willis Street in Leander, agrees. "We've got a real good group of kids," she said. "There's no violence, no nothing. Parents can always find their kids at Krazy Korner." While all the arcade owners contacted reported that business is healthy, if not necessarily lucrative, it's not as easy for video entrepreneurs to turn a profit as one might imagine. A sizeable investment is required. Ron Smith paid between $2,800 and $5,000 for each of the 30 electronic diversions at his gameroom. Grant said his average video game grosses about $50 a week, and his "absolute worst" game, Armor Attack, only $20 a week. The top machines (Defender and Pac-Man) can suck in an easy $125 a week. That's a lot of quarters, 500 to be exact but the Eagle's Nest and Krazy Korner pass half of them on to Neelley Vending Company of Austin which rents them their machines. "At 25 cents a shot, it takes an awful lot of people to pay the bills," said Tom Hatfield, district manager for Neelley. He added that an owner's personality and the arcade's location can make or break the venture. The game parlor must be run "by an understanding person, someone with patience," Hatfield said. "They cannot be too demanding on the kids, yet they can't let them run all over them." And they must be located in a spot "with lots of foot traffic," such as a shopping center or near a good restaurant, he said. "And being close to a school really helps." "Video games are going to be here permanently, but we're going to see some operations not going because of the competition," which includes machines in virtually every convenience store and supermarket, Hatfield said.
This article talks about three arcades. One in Georgetown called Eagles Nest, another in Leander called Krazy Korner, and a third called Smitty's Galaxy of Games on Lake Creek Parkway "on the fringes of North Austin". This is the one I remember the older kids talking about when I was a little kid. There was once a movie theater across the street from the Westwood High School football stadium and behind that was Smitty's. Today I think the building was bulldozed long ago and the space is part of the expanded onramp to 183 today. Eventually another unrelated arcade was built next to the theater that became Alamo Lakeline. It was another site of some unrecorded epic Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat tournaments in the 90s. But the article written before the end of the Golden Era tell us much about the pushback I was talking about earlier. Early arcades were seen as "dirty" places in some circles, and the owners of the arcades in Williamson County had to stress how "clean" their establishments were. This other article from a couple of weeks later tells of how area school officials weren't worried about video games and tells us more arcades in Round Rock and Cedar Park. Apparently the end of the golden age lasted a bit longer than usual in this area. At some point in the next few years the bubble burst, and places like Smitty's were gone by the late 80s. But the distributors quoted earlier were right that arcade games weren't going completely away. In the mid 1980s LeFun opened up next in the Scientology building at 2200 Guadalupe on the drag. Down a few doors past what used be a coffee shop and a CVS was Einsteins Arcade. Both of those survived into the 21st century. I remember the last time I was at Einsteins I got my ass beat in Tekken by a kid half my age. heheh That's all for today. There were no Bonus Pics in the UT archive of arcades (other than the classical architectural definition). I wanted to pass on some Bonus newspaper articles (remember to click and zoom in with the buttons on the right to read) about Austin arcades anyway but first a small story. I mentioned earlier the secret of the UT Student Union. I have no idea what it looks like now but in the 90s there was a sizable arcade in with the bowling alley in the basement. Back in 1994 when I used to sneak in, they featured this bizarre early attempt at virtual reality games. I found an old Michael Barnes Statesman article about it dated February 11, 1994. Some highlights:
Hundreds of students and curiosity-seekers lined up at the University of Texas Union to play three to five minutes of Dactyl Nightmare, Flying Aces or V-Tol, three-dimensional games from Kramer Entertainment. Nasty weather delayed the unloading of four huge trunks containing the machines, which resemble low pulpits. Still, players waited intently for a chance to shoot down a fighter jet, operate a tilt-wing Harrier or tangle with a pterodactyl. Today, tickets will go on sale in the Texas Union lobby at 11:30 a.m. for playing slots between noon and 6 p.m. Players, fitted with full helmets, throttles and power packs, stood on shiny gray and yellow platforms surrounded by a circular guard rail. Seen behind the helmet's goggles were computer simulated landscapes, not unlike the most sophisticated video games, with controls and enemies viewed in deep space. "You're on a platform waiting to fight a human figure," said Jeff Vaughn, 19, of Dactyl Nightmare. "A pterodactyl swoops down and tries to pick you up. You have to fight it off. You are in the space and can see your own body and all around you. But if you try to walk, you have to use that joy stick to get around." "I let the pterodactyl carry me away so I could look down and scan the board," said Tom Bowen of the same game. "That was the way I found out where the other player was." "Yeah, it's cool just to stand there and not do anything," Vaughn said. The mostly young, mostly male crowd included the usual gaming fanatics, looking haggard and tense behind glasses and beards. A smattering of women and children also pressed forward in a line that snaked past the lobby and into the Union's retail shops. "I don't know why more women don't play. Maybe because the games are so violent," said Jennifer Webb, 24, a psychology major whose poor eyesight kept her from becoming a fighter pilot in real life. "If the Air Force won't take me, virtual reality will." "They use stereo optics moving at something like 60 frames a second," said computer science major Alex Aquila, 19. "The images are still pretty blocky. But once you play it, you'll want to play it again and again." With such demand for virtual reality, some gamesters wondered why an Austin video arcade has not invested in at least one machine.
The gameplay looked like this. Bonus Article #1 - "Video fans play for own reasons" (Malibu Grand Prix) - March 11, 1982 Bonus Article #2 - "Pac-Man Cartridge Piques Interest" - April 13, 1982 Bonus Article #3 - "Video Games Fail Consumer" - January 29, 1984 Bonus Article #4 - "Nintendoholics/Modems Unite" - January 25, 1989 Bonus Article #5 and pt 2 "Two girls missing for a night found at arcade" (truly dedicated young gamers) - August 7, 2003
With GameHive’s latest Dev Update asking for the community’s thoughts, I thought I would share my perspective as somebody who has been managing top raiding clans since raids were released. I am, after all, an important member of the community. Ultimately my issue with what has happened to this game is that it has gone from a casual, idle tapping incremental game to a time-sink that feels like a job to keep up with. So, here are some suggestions (mostly regarding raids) that I think would make the game more fun and feel less like work. Section A: Raid QOL Improvements Please People at cap have nothing to do at cap, so we raid. The raids have desperately needed some quality-of-life improvements, but somehow a lot of the raiding systems remain unchanged since the introduction of 3.0. Here are some things that I think should be addressed and would create a better raiding environment.
Help us raid efficiently by building a method in which to prevent "wasted" damage. 3rd party tools are an absolute requirement here, and they shouldn't be. Why on earth is it possible for 2 people to submit hits that both kill a titan just because when they started the attack it wasn't dead yet? The responsibility of preventing this wasted damage should lie on the game dev's shoulders, not the clan leadership or some discord bot.
Why is there still no easy way to see exactly how much HP/Armor a titan part has remaining? The 'toggle health bars' button should display the total HP/Armor remaining for that part NUMERICALLY within the health bars.
Tracking our members' missed hits should be easier. GH recently added the “max” number of raid attacks on the clan roster, but it’s not helpful. When implementing it, they just multiplied the number of attacks per cycle by the number of cycles currently in the raid and put that number next to everybody's name. If a member missed 2 hits in the first cycle, their attacks should read 2/6 when the 2nd cycle begins, not 2/8. Now I have to have a separate discord channel to write down missed hits every cycle. More "work" they've put onto clan leadership.
Create a new clan tab showing all the attacks/decks submitted to the raid in real time. There are already plenty of buttons within the clan tab, what's one more? I don't care for my clanmates' privacy when it comes to submitting raid attacks. This is a clan raid, if you're submitting an attack that I deem stupid or irresponsible, I want to know about it. If somebody doesn't like it, they can find a clan that doesn't care as much.
Clan chat needs to update more frequently. Restarting the game or sending a message yourself to refresh the chat is a dumb work-around.
Section B: Selfishness Tops Charts Being selfish in clan raids is promoted by punishing people who do the clan’s dirty work, like hitting the debuffed parts of a titan. There are a couple things I’d like to see changed to negate the instinct to be selfish, which ultimately results in raids “stalling” at certain stages.
Raid debuffs: If the titan's armor is debuffed, the people who hit the armor are punished, and the people who selfishly wait for others to take the penalty are rewarded. In this case, the easiest solution is probably to just increase the amount of armor the titan has by a similar amount it's being penalized by. That way everybody's damage numbers remain unchanged and only the titan's ratios are adjusted. This prevents the raid stalling out when all that remains are debuffed titan parts.
Clean-up/transitions: We have to have somebody sacrifice their damage nearly every cycle for the sake of cleaning titans up (clearing the small remainders of HP left on various titan parts that aren't big enough to focus an entire attack on). We currently have 29 total raid cards, and most of them don't fit into the current meta. One of these cards could assist in the "clean up" process so raids don't stall out while waiting for somebody sacrifice their damage. Maybe this card could buff damage for each part you kill during the attack. I wouldn't want this card to be tuned in such a way that people are fighting over who gets to clean up, rather just punish people less for doing it.
Section C: The Thief of Time Every major update of this game seems to put more demands on my time.
Raids: Insanity Void has again changed the way top clans raid to maximize their output. With every overpowered deck created, we lose flexibility at which times we can make our attacks. EVERY raid cycle from now on is looking out for when VM and IV are at their optimal states and sending out the alerts to my clanmates (more clan management handled by a 3rd party tool! Yay!). Gone is the dream of having 12-hour windows to perform all my raid attacks. I need to baby this app if I want to utilize my cards efficiently.
Events: Capping daily prestiges at 99 and then forcing the entire community to compete against each other for top 10th percentile is a far cry from what events originally were. It's obnoxious to feel obligated to put 15-20 prestiges a day into this game on top of the other demands if we want to keep our badge. I'm not even sure how to un-fuck this since badges give you permanent damage now.
Abyssal Tournaments: Another 24-hour window where if you want to win, say goodbye to your free time. Lower the length of these so they aren't just a battle of attrition. People who still compete in regular tournaments now have 3 DAYS of tournaments every week out of 7. It's too much. Also, remove the ability the spend diamonds on these tournaments. It breeds toxicity.
Solo raids: I'm not sure who this ended up being targeted towards. High-end players march through these and it's just a weekly chore to get dust that offers no challenge. Low-end players can't make it to the end, which just happens to be where all the rewards are. The leaderboard is representative of who has spent the most money on dust, and actively punishes you for looking at the various bonuses/decks of each portal. If you want a leaderboard that isn't a joke, then don't start the timer until you begin your attacks and normalize all the raid levels and card levels for everybody.
Section D: Buying and Spending Dust
The dust shop: This can just go away now, right? I'm not understanding the point of time-gating buying our cards when dust is prohibitively expensive. If somebody is going to buy their way to max level cards, why not let them? There are already players who have level 50 cards at this point. Getting people with FOMO to spend their dust is shitty and there are already a million reasons to open the app, checking the dust shop every 6 hours doesn’t matter when they check their raid ten times a day. If getting rid of the dust shop entirely is out of the question, the number of dust shop slots is already tied to the players raid level. Why not increase it to 9 then 12 slots as people increase their raid level?
Buying dust: Capped players have nothing to spend their diamonds on besides dust. And for 2 weeks 3-4 times a year, you give people like me DOUBLE the value of their diamonds during dust promotions. This means I'm saving my diamonds for 3-4 months at a time. Earning currency and waiting 4 months to spend it feels shitty. Make 3000 dust the default value in a titan chest and let the promotions be used for other things like crafting shards.
TL;DR: Running a competitive clan, playing tournaments, and participating in events is insanely time-consuming. GameHive should change some of the current systems to make less demands on our time, or at the very least give us some small quality-of-life changes to make things just a little easier on us.
A Comprehensive Guide to Breach Protocol Datamining (Code Sequence Mini-Game): Cyberpunk 2077
BREACH PROTOCOL: DATAMINES For anyone curious as to how BREACH PROTOCOL DATAMINES work on the technical end, this is a comprehensive guide put together through personal research and community feedback. Hope it helps! CHECK THIS OUT:u/govizlora made an app that can solve Breach Protocol Datamines by taking a picture of the puzzle with your phone! Haven't tried it out yet but check it out: https://www.reddit.com/cyberpunkgame/comments/kneej7/i_made_a_web_app_to_solve_the_breach_protocol/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 "WHY SHOULD I PLAY THIS MINIGAME?" You may ask yourself: "Why am I playing this stupid mini-game?" After spending more time than I care to admit completing these datamining scenarios, even I ask myself this question at times. If you find no value in what I list here as "good reasons," I wouldn't stress giving these scenarios that much effort or attention: -Steady Cash -Quickhack Components -Legendary Quickhacks Code Sequence Mini-Game -DATAMINES: There are specific Breach Protocols referred to as Datamines. These "Breach Protocol Datamines" contain a code oriented mini-game that upon completion net you cash, XP and Quickhack Components. (There is also a perk that increase the chance of an actual Quickhack being dropped.) You initiate this specific type of protocol by jacking into an "Access Point." !! WARNING !!: If you are in a hostile area and you jack into an Access Point, enemies will be put on "alert" mode if you fail to complete the mini-game in that first try. Not that you can't take care of business while enemies are patrolling, but it might be annoying for you stealthy types when they leaved their fixed positions. Wall Module Access Point -ACCESS POINTS: These are devices you can jack into to initiate a Breach Protocol Datamine mini-game. You need to have a certain level in the "Intelligence" attribute to jack in to these Access Points, which varies upon location and difficulty rating of the area. So far, I have found Access Points in small mounted wall modules, certain vending machines, computer monitors, antenna consoles, a generator and a forklift. They have a red symbol that represents them, but it can be hard to pick it out sometimes from all the other hack-able objects they tend to be close to. If you snag the perk EXTENDED NETWORK INTERFACE this helps with finding Access Points. ( Credit: u/JoblessJim ) Datamine Access Point Symbol -JOB "THE GIFT": There is a job you can do early on called "The Gift." It seems as if this job was designed to introduce you to Datamine Breaching, as well as incentivizing the use of the Ping quickhack. However, it doesn't do too much in the way of a detailed tutorial. Side Job: \"The Gift\" -DAEMONS: In the Datamine scenario, there are three available daemons: DATAMINE_V1, DATAMINE_V2 and DATAMINE_V3. These daemons merit rewards when fulfilled. While you can extract one or two daemons for a successful breach, it is ideal you extract all three. How to do so will be detailed below! A successful daemon & a failed daemon -XP: Achieving a single daemon while failing the other two merits the same experience. At character level 2, this was 81XP for me. To clarify, if you only achieve datamine_v1 but fail the other two, you would get the same XP as only achieving datamine_v3 while failing the other two. You multiply the XP per daemon achieved, so if you win two slots then that 81 XP becomes 162 XP and so on. The amount of XP goes up with your character level and may be higher for higher level Access Points. -CASH: Each individual daemon has a specific cash (eurodollars) reward that combines respectively but would appear to hit a cap if all three daemons are achieved. Certain locations have higher difficulty Access Points which grant you more cash upon completion. Your cash reward can also be affected the ADVANCED DATAMINE perk, which when upgraded twice allots 100% more cash from successful breaches! The game has no rental properties or passive income so there are limited ways to getting rich. At max level when completing one of these datamines and achieving all three daemons, I would make anywhere between 3 to 4.8k depending on the location of the Access Point. Almost every mission, side-job and gig has one, if not a few Access Points. Often I would leave an area with three Access Points and make an extra 5-10k eddies from datamining alone. It's a lot easier to do if you get 18-20 Intelligence and take certain perks like HEADSTART and COMPRESSION. I wasn't a net-runner and my intelligence got to 15 before hitting character level 50, and I still banked ( if not frustratingly ) off of these scenarios. ( Secret Note: Now, we probably all know about how you can glitch your way to millions, but if you don't like exploits (or fear the exploit will be patched) this is a legitimate way to make money. Plus, if you invested in Intelligence you likely can make quickhacks. Legendary quickhacks sell for 700 eddies a pop, and if you net triples for your datamine scenarios you will have PLENTY of quickhack components. ) -QUICKHACK COMPONENTS: These are the materials you use to make your own Quickhacks. While achieving higher version daemons opens you up to winning higher quality Quickhack Components, the amount of components earned seems completely random with each success. (Note: From what I can tell, you CANNOT gain item/upgrade components for crafting weapons from these datamines; only Quickhack Components used for crafting Quickhacks.) You can grab a perk called DATAMINE MASTERMIND which increases the amount of Quickhack Components acquired by Access Point by 100% if you invest two points! The perk DATAMINE VIRTUOSO increases chances of acquiring an actual quickhack (not the components) by 100% after investing two points. It seems to more consistently drop full quickhacks when you are a higher character level. As someone who couldn't make my own quickhacks, this was the only way I got legendary versions to use for myself, if not pawn them. Quickhack Components -EVEN THE ODDS: If you fail, you can try again. If you succeed with any one of the three available daemons, the breach ends and you are stuck with the results. You can also forcefully end the breach and whatever daemons are green while doing so will reward you and end the scenario. ( Caution: Every time you cancel out of a breach, it takes away from how much time you have to complete the sequence when it starts and can put enemies on alert while in hostile territory. Not a big deal if you learn to plan your sequences. ) Seems like saving before a breach, then aiming for all three daemons in one attempt is the most lucrative approach; especially if utilizing the perks ADVANCED DATAMINE & DATAMINE MASTERMIND. Datamine Mastermind & Advanced Datamine Perks -BUFFERS: Buffers are the squares that your selected characters end up in, located under "SEQUENCE REQUIRED TO UPLOAD." The more you have, the more opportunity to net triples you get; that being said, upgrading yourself to get more buffer space is CRUCIAL. You start with four, but if you progress the BREACH PROTOCOL skill to 19/20 you get a fifth buffer square added to your breaches. This makes achieving triples a lot easier. There is also better hardware you can buy that helps with this. Breach Protocol Buffer -BETTER HARDWARE: You can buy mods that will help with your datamine breaches. Some do things like adding 100% more time to your Breach ( Credit: u/InfectedSanta ). To get consistent triples for example, you NEED to upgrade your cyberdeck chip. I purchased one from Vic in ACT II that gave me SEVEN Buffer spaces. It makes all the difference. Here it is below: Cyberdeck Upgrade -STRING SEQUENCE: For the best results, you want to achieve what I call "string sequences." You do this by picking one daemon to finish first and making sure the last character of that sequence is identical to the first character of another sequence. When done correctly, you save buffer space by not having to redo each individual sequence and all of it's characters; saving buffer space because the two characters will share it. If you are lucky, you may have daemons with several matching characters, which means you can save on even more buffer space when finishing them. ( If you hover over a character with your cursor, it will show where that character is on the Code Matrix to the left. Credit: u/pedanticProgramer ) Example of a String Sequence -IDENTIFY A WINNER: Work from RIGHT to LEFT! What you want to do is study the available sequences first, identifying where you can snag any strings and how many buffers it should take to finish all three daemon's sequences. Once done with the right side of the game, study the CODE MATRIX on the left to see if you can traverse the path of characters you mapped out. Right here you can decide whether or not the sequence and code matrix you're given is a winner. If it isn't, just exit the mini-game and jack back in! -HELPFUL PERKS: There are several perks within the Breach Protocol tree that should significantly improve your breaches:
ALMOST IN!: [ Level 5 in BREACH PROTOCOL skill required ] "Increases the breach time for Breach Protocol by 20%." This can be upgraded twice.
TRANSMIGRATION [ Level 16 in BREACH PROTOCOL skill required ] "Increases the breach time of Breach Protocol by 50%" This can stack with more points given. It's more helpful for people at higher levels who exit and enter the mini-game for better odds, as you lose breach time whenever you disconnect without finishing.
HEAD START: [ Level 18 in BREACH PROTOCOL skill required ] "Automatically uploads the first daemon in the list at the start of Breach Protocol." This means that you start your breaches with daemon DATAMINE_V1 already green, meaning you can focus v2 and v3. This is helpful for intelligence characters whose income relies on data-mining.
COMPRESSION: [ Level 20 in BREACH PROTOCOL skill required ] "Reduces the lengths of the sequence to upload daemons by 1. Cannot be reduced below 2." This means that under where it says "SEQUENCE REQUIRED TO UPLOAD" each available daemon should have one less character to worry about. Super helpful for people who bank off data-mining.
Compression Perk ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ HOW TO AVOID FAILING A DAEMON: Credit: khorrshr
"To successfully upload a daemon you have to feed its sequence flawlessly in that particular order taking no sidesteps/breaks/mistakes
If you take sidestep (like start/continue another sequence or make a mistake) - it executes a check\. If it passes - if there is still a theoretical possibility to do that daemon (like daemon length is not longer than remaining buffer and if they are of equal length checks that you have starting symbol in your currently active string) - that daemon is reset but remains available and you have to do it again from the very 1st symbol (daemon moves to the right, some whitespaces appear before it) 2a. Exceptional case: if your "mistake" contained same symbol as 1st symbol of that daemon - same rules as in (2) apply but you start over from 2nd symbol of the daemon.*
If your sidestep leaves no possibility to finish (check\ fails) - daemon fails completely and goes red.*
It doesn't matter if you started the daemon, if it has reset before, how far you got with it (unless you finished it green) - works every time.
Not sure if that check looks into possibilities in the matrix further than current turn. I have an impression that it doesn't. I think I had outcomes when at last turn daemon was still available with just 1 symbol to go but active string didn't contain it.
TLDR: Finish one daemon and only then continue with another. No fancy multitasking. The only choice we have in that regard - is their order and matrix moves ofc." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Credit: mjc_08 "Yes, I came to the same conclusion - you can't work on all daemons simultaneously - they have to be completed in order or they are reset. I bought a chip with 7 buffers (street cred 11, 25000) but its still not always possible. Edit: by not completing simultaneously I mean that you cant input a code from one daemon, then switch to a different one, then go back to the other daemon. You have to complete a whole sequence before moving on, taking advantage of any overlap." Credit: u/slamdotswf "Another thing to remember is that you can pick the same input over and over until you find the next one in the sequence. For example, if it's 1C 55 BD, you can type in 1C 55 55 55 BD and still get it. Helps if I screw up or didn't think it all the way through." My Own Experience: After building on what my fellow commenters gave as a breakdown to the game, I have found a consistent approach to winning all three daemons. Here is an example sequence to work with: Example Sequence: The Sequence This is a pretty easy sequence to net a triple with IF you have more than four buffers. Let's check for a string sequence... We got strings! Looks pretty promising right? Let's check the Code Matrix on the "left." Can't start with 55! Let's try a different sequence! How about... Will this sequence work? Congratulations! Remember; if the first sequence you recognize can't be pathed out through the Code Matrix, look for more options! If you can't find a path, exit the breach and jack in again for a new code matrix and set of sequences! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SUCCESSFUL OUTCOMES: To get an idea of what exactly you are getting depending on which daemon is extracted, here are some examples of my own successful results while breaching at level 2; before I got the ADVANCED DATAMINE perk. My examples below come from breaching a wall unit Access Point in a shop (Urban Commando?) in Little China, Watson district. It's where one of the earlier "Assault in Progress" side tasks is; the one with three Tyger Claws gang members you have to dispatch. It's roughly NW (10 o'clock) from Dex's limo during the early main quest "The Ride." INDIVIDUAL: Achieving datamine_v1 daemon alone: XP: 81 $103 x0 Legendary Quickhack Component x1 Epic Quickhack Component x2 Rare Quickhack Component x2 Uncommon Quickhack Component Achieving datamine_v2 daemon alone: XP: 81 $206 x1 Legendary Quickhack Component x2 Epic Quickhack Component x2 Rare Quickhack Component x5 Uncommon Quickhack Component Achieving datamine_v3 daemon alone: XP: 81 $309 x2 Legendary Quickhack Component x2 Epic Quickhack Component x5 Rare Quickhack Component x4 Uncommon Quickhack Component DOUBLE: Achieving datamine_v1 & datamine_v2: XP: 162 $309 x0 Legendary Quickhack Component x2 Epic Quickhack Component x4 Rare Quickhack Component x9 Uncommon Quickhack Component Achieving datamine_v1 & datamine_v3: XP: 162 $412 x2 Legendary Quickhack Component x4 Epic Quickhack Component x7 Rare Quickhack Component x11 Uncommon Quickhack Component Achieving datamine_v1 & datamine_v3: (2nd Attempt) XP: 162 $412 x1 Legendary Quickhack Component x3 Epic Quickhack Component x5 Rare Quickhack Component x16 Uncommon Quickhack Component TRIPLE: Achieving datamine_v1, datamine_v2 & datamine_v3: (ALL THREE) XP: 243 $515 x2 Legendary Quickhack Component x2 Epic Quickhack Component x6 Rare Quickhack Component x7 Uncommon Quickhack Component DATA ENCRYPTION SHARD: There are shards you'll come across now and then that say they are encrypted. The shard's contents look like a mess of jumbled code and when encrypting them you will have to play the breach protocol datamine mini-game. It's typically tougher, sometimes having five daemons available with upwards of four characters each to fulfill! "GHOST" TRIPLES: Not sure what else to label this phenomenon. When you achieve a triple daemon success, typically you will see all three daemons highlight green and the CODE MATRIX area on the left will go green; it's a very obvious "confirmation of success" that you have to manually exit out of. There are times when I clearly see I am going to win the third and final daemon, but when I make my selection the breach ends without the "confirmation of success" and I snap out of it to see my rewards applied back in the real world. I do believe credit is being given, but it may catch you off guard when it first happens. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ FINAL THOUGHTS: After a few days of testing and you guys sharing your results, I have come to understand this mini-game rather thoroughly! Thank you to everyone who participated in figuring it out with me; it was kind of fun. Stay safe, CHOOMS!
26 Capital Corp (ADERU) is a new at-NAV SPAC with world-leading online gambling expertise - worth a bet
EDIT - one week after i posted this, Britain's most successful hedge fund manager Michael Platt has taken a 6.5% stake tl;dr At-NAV new SPAC with world-leading expertise in online gambling. Worth a bet on potential to be next DKNG on the hype train
+++++++ Hi all - have had a lot of great tips from this sub. Hopefully this pays some of you back. I have been watching and researching this since 23 December when it first filed S1, awaiting the units to be listed - they are available today trading as ADERU Positions - 500 units @ 10.42 to start. Will be monitoring and building position below $15, especially if attention starts to build ahead of units and warrants splitting and shares coming available to Robinhood. (My other SPAC positions are OPEN, IPO-E-F, PSTH, FUSE, PIPP, ACTC, CCIV and DMYD, 100 to 1000 shares each mostly around NAV and numerous warrants and options around these.) As ever, this is not investment advice and do your own research +++++++
26 Capital Acquisition Corp or ADER is a 240m SPAC with usual terms - 10$ units, 1/2 warrants. Seeking a merger in "gaming and gaming technology, branded consumer, lodging and entertainment, and Internet commerce sectors". I think this is highly worth a play on the online gambling hype if you can get in at near NAV, based entirely on the management which is unbeatable in its knowledge of the gambling industry
CEO Jason Ader has held director level positions at Las Vegas Sands Corp. ($42bn one of biggest casino groups in world), IGT (£3.72bn multinational gambling firm specialised in software and slot machines) and Playtech (£1.4bn multinational gambling software firm) Before starting his own fund in 2013 he was regularly ranked Wall Street's top analyst on the gambling and leisure sector His fund, Spring Owl Capital, is a small activist fund focused on gambling and leisure. They are probably most famous for ousting the CEO of Viacom in 2016 and a crusade against Yahoo CEO Marissa Meyer in 2015. Ader knows the gambling - and online gambling - industry inside out. He drove bWin to a £1.1bn takeover by gambling giant GVC (now Entain) in 2016, and has been driving similar change and demands for improvement at board level at Playtech The fund mostly manages money for a select group of wealthy families, which could be a positive sign for the SPAC (although I don't know how much skin in the SPAC the fund has, if any) Here is a video of Ader from November talking about how he's excited about SPACs. He talks about how he has been advising certain States about legalising sports betting and how to maximise value and liquidity by linking up with European companies in the space (Playtech e.g.??). Ader is extremely bullish on US legalising online casino and more sports betting options, accelerated by need for revenue because of pandemic
Rafi Ashkenazi One of the most highly respected names in the online gambling world, including COO and CEO positions at major online gambling firms such as Playtech and Stars Group (a world leader in online poker and casino). At Stars he led the $4.7bn takeover of Sky Betting to create the world's largest publicly listed online betting firm in 2018. Most recently he led the £10bn merger between Flutter (biggest gambling company in world by revenue, market cap £26bn), and Stars Group (Ader also involved). Also has connections into the booming Israel tech space which is interesting
Joseph Kaminkow Special Advisor to the Chief Product Officer at Aristocrat, a leading gambling software provider and games publisher, previously Vice President of Game Design at Zynga Inc. This guy is a former video game / pinball designer who is credited with revolutionising the slots industry after moving into gambling software from video games in 1999. Regarded as a "legend" and "hall of famer" in this niche. At Zynga he designed so-called 'social casino games' which don't involve real-money gambling but are otherwise basically gambling apps (revenue from microtransactions etc). 130 patents on gambling/gaming design inventions
Greg Lyss This is a very interesting but extremely low profile person. He was Bill Ackman a.k.a SPACman's right hand man at Gotham Capital. Ackman respected him so much that when Ackman set up a personal hedge fund to invest the Ackman family's money, he put Lyss in charge of it. To repeat - Bill Ackman thinks this guy is such a good investor and trustworthy that he put him in charge of investing his family's money. Don't know anything more about him, but I like this association with Ackman, which suggests to me some integrity around management of this SPAC, especially as the gambling world can be very murky. The other member of the team is the CFO of SpringOwl with 20+ years' hedge fund experience and not notable (although clearly competent)
Thesis / potential targets Based on the above experience and many public comments by Ader over the past year, I would be very surprised if ADER is not looking to merge with an online gambling technology provider / existing online betting website / social casino app / possibly a supporting technology provider They are activist inventors, and specifically say in the IPO prospectus that they could look for businesses that can benefit from turnaround or are not being run well. I speculate that their deep knowledge of the European / global online gambling industry means they have a target in mind that they think would benefit from their expertise and US liberalisation of gambling legislation.
1) Ader believes the listing of UK-listed gambling companies in US is immediately big in terms of market cap because of the premium on online gambling stocks in US. He has pitched DraftKings to takeover Playtech and called on Playtech to spin off non-core business. This makes me wonder if he would spin off some element of Playtech to list in US to cash in on gambling hype. This might be Finalto.com / TradeTech which is an online financial platform owned by Playtech. Playtech has been trying to sell this for 200 - 240m since August so it fits. This company provides liquidity and trading to brokerages and runs markets.com a trading site. I wouldn't be that excited although apparently the business has been booming during COVID and there could be a decent pop just on fintech hype.
2) This could be a 'picks and shovel' type data/B2B betting software play a la DMYD, or something like e.g. Israel based CRM software Optimove which works with some of biggest online gambling cos and has links to Ashkenazi. This would be interesting but probably not a huge pop
3) Possibly - given Ader's links to Sands - an online gambling tie-up with one of the big Vegas casinos who are desperate to get into the online betting space (see MGM's attempt to buy Entain for $8bn last week). Interestingly, Sands' owner Sheldon Adelson, previously a major opponent of online betting, has just died. Ader predicted a few months ago that Sands would be moving in this direction.
“There’s no stopping online gaming,” Ader said [before Adelson's death]. “(Las Vegas Sands’) initiatives to stop online gaming, at this stage, are largely historic. There hasn’t been a lot of spending recently to do that, especially post-pandemic.” “I think the company will see the value created by DraftKings and FanDuel and Penn (National) Gaming and others. They’re not foolish,” Ader added. source
4) Ader is very confident that Macau will legalise online gambling in next year or two. Sands is big in Macau, the biggest gambling market in the world. A SaaS-type product positioned to capitalise on Asian gambling would be MASSIVE - at present however, China's attitude to gambling and local regulations mean this is unlikely
5) I also wonder if they might try to take legitimate one of the offshore bookmakers with big customer databases and brand recognition but which have been grey-area/illegal under US gaming legislation. For example, Five Dimes recently announced a settlement with the FBI to attempt to transition into newly legalised US markets. This might have the most hype potential
Potential upside This is entirely a play on management experience and the meme factor / hype around online gambling in the US. I think if they pick a good target - which given their experience and connections seems likely - and get the right publicity and attention from retail investors looking for the next DKNG this could easily 3x and maybe 5-6x if on DKNG-type hype levels. There is currently little spotlight on this and it is a good time to get in at NAV
Potential Downside
Ader has been vocal that he thinks US online betting is overvalued and in a bubble - why is he starting his own SPAC in the space then? Does he just want to cash in while the hype is at all-time high or does he have a legitimate business goal?
If he just wants to dump a part of Playtech which he does not like onto retail investors, this is a bad deal.
Other targets could be e.g. hotel industry or other leisure sector which would be zero sexiness to retail. Given Ashkenazi and Kaminkow's background this seems unlikely though
Usual SPAC caveats apply about potential difficulty finding a target, locking up your money for unspecified period of time, and the fact I may have completely misread the potential and my above thesis might be totally wrong
Hey everyone. I've incorporated the feedback from Pixonic (August 2020, October 2020, December 2020, and January 2021). My goal is to try to get Pixonic to respond directly to this thread periodically (3-4 times a year). This will be linked to the weekly suggestions thread by the auto-moderator. Be sure to use the "Pixonic Suggestion" flair so I can easily sort through all the suggestions! Ideas & Feature Requests This thread is a place where you can discuss your ideas for the game or request features you would like to see in coming versions of the game. This sub appreciates any contributions you can make to existing ideas, but we suggest you do not post your idea before reviewing previous Pixonic ideas / suggestions threads. It is highly likely another Commander already submitted the same idea! Please be aware that posting a ruled out idea may result in your thread being removed altogether and posting an idea already suggested might result in your thread being closed with a reference back to this thread. A few tips to submitting an idea or suggestion: Title: Choose a good title - be very specific. Instead of naming your thread "suggestion", "idea", try something like "Hawks are Over Powered." This will help other users find and contribute to your thread, and drive more discussion around the topic. Point: Use clear, concise points or explanations, concept art or screenshots where applicable. General, unspecific, high-level ideas are great, but the Pixonic team can't do much without the proper information! "I think Hawks are way too powerful in the game because of their high firepower. Players running multiple Hawks make the game frustrating and boring for me." Suggestion: Give constructive and helpful suggestions that are realistic. Why will the idea work? "Decrease the Hawks firepower so it only impacts Titans and does not cut through bots' defenses. This will allow other bots to effectively counter Hawks and bring better balane to the game." For all, keep in mind Pixonic is a business. I realize many of us have little experience in owning a gaming company, but try to consider how Pixonic would make a profit or be successful in the business model when giving a suggestion. Pixonic wants players spending money AND playing a lot--so how does your suggestion support that? Threads will be removed if it includes profanity and / or insults. Comments like "make everything for free" or "XXX (i.e. Matchmaking, the game, targeting, etc.) sucks--solution: make the game better, or un-nerf everything" will just be deleted. This also isn't the place to report bugs or to rant. Given the nature of the game the developers and producers cannot always say what is coming in the next version or what is being worked on. Also, please don't expect a response to every thread or idea. The best ideas will be discussed frequently by the Community and will surface to the top in that manner (or through up/down votes). Do not spam your thread or ideas just because no one is responding!
Frequently Requested Ideas Below are ideas submitted by users for Pixonic to consider. It does not imply they are being worked on. Please do a search before starting new feature requests, especially if they are listed below. These ideas and suggestions are either acknowledged and are being worked on, or have been ruled out by the dev team for the time being. Posting these ideas may result in your thread being removed without notice. Frequently Requested:
Battle Modes
Titan skirmish (Status: in Dec 2020 Max, WR Producer stated: " We agree that it would be a lot of fun. We'll try to introduce Titan Skirmishes next year, but it won't be a priority – there's so much to do.")
Additions to custom matches (Status: in Dec 2020 Max, WR Producer stated: "The general idea of Custom Matches is not to provide an additional game mode, but to give you a playground where you can test your builds to understand if they are suitable for real combat. In Max's opinion, current functionality of Custom Matches fits just well in this concept." Detailed comments in original post)
Beacon hold time should be considered for HP (Status: in Dec 2020 Max, WR Producer stated: " We already have some ideas on how to expand the honor reward list (e.g. rewarding players for applying Suppression or Lock-down effects). The idea with beacon hold time sounds like a nice addition to our plans. ")
Pause booster timer while waiting for match (Status: in August 2020 the Pixonic producer stated they agreed with this concept and were looking into it; in Dec 2020 Max, the WR Producer stated: "We had plans for a complete rework of Boosters. Unfortunately, we had to cut those plans off to release Drones and prepare for Remastered. We believe we'll have time to work on Boosters in 2021.")
Faster reload times (Status: in Dec 2020 Max, WR Producer stated: "Thing is, there is a technical tie between reload animation and reload time. It's one of those legacy mechanics that've been haunting the game for years already. Until we refactor the entire block, it's impossible for us to change the reload speed on most of the weapons. But in general idea is good, though we see it as a Passive Module rather than a Booster.")
Allow friends in-game or via other platforms (i.e. Discord) (Status: in Dec 2020, Max WR Producer stated: " We call it "Platform Merge iteration 2" and it's on the list for 2021."; in January 2021 Max WR Producer stated: "For technical reasons, we don't want to add integrations with other platforms as far as the friends system is concerned. In fact, we'd also like to get rid if the existing integration and make all friends features completely native to the game. There will be a rework of the friends system this year. Stay tuned!"; In Jan 2021 Pix stated ability to invite friends direclty is coming soon)
Pixonic sponsored WR Tournament (Status: Oct 2020 Pix CM said it was coming; in Dec 2020 Max WR Producer stated: "We have a couple of competitive features prepared for the next year. We'll tell you more in our New Year videos."; In Jan 2021 Pix stated tournaments will be introduced into each season)
Cross-Platform (Status: In Dec 2020, Max WR Producer stated: "This is basically a cross-platform account, like PixAccount. The idea has been around for a couple of years already. It should be implemented on the scale of the whole company, not only War Robots project, of course. But yes, it's something we definitely want to have in the future.")
Incorporate lore into rewards or abilities, etc. (Status: In Jan 2021, Max WR Producer stated: "It's a great idea and it might work! *Promises to talk to the game design department about it*")
Upgrade / build multiple bots or weapons at a time (possibly benefit of having multiple hangars)
Limit number of sambe bots you cna use in active hangar
Allow us to see other players' drone hangars (Status: In Jan 2021, Max WR Producer stated: " Yes, one day. We have some improvement plans for Drones, including UI. Hopefully, our UI team will find a way to show more info on drones in hangar.")
List maps in Alphabetical order in pull down menu (Status: In Jan 2021, Max WR Producer stated: "With only 13 maps in the game, it isn't difficult to find what you are looking for. However, if it can be done fast, we will try to squeeze it into the production plan.")
Add additional league (Status: In Jan 2021, Max WR producer stated: "We are considering this idea right now, but rather a new league between Masters and Champions."; In Jan 2021 Pix stated a rework to Legendary leagues is coming soon)
Performance / Technical Features
Targeting system rework / improvement (Status: Targeting seems to be part of the base code and allows other features in the game to operate, such as stealth, meaning there are multiple dependencies. Pixonic did minor tweaks to targeting to address shooting Ao Mings in the air from the ground and vice versa, but according to Pixonic CM in Oct 2020 a major rework will not be considered until after Pixonic migrates to new servers in 2021; In Jan 2021 Pix stated improvement to targeting system will be worked with expected release in Aug 2021).
Lag (Status: According to Pixonic the 6.4 update should address lag along with server overhaul)
Choose type of crate progression (Status: In jan 2021, Max WR Producer stated: "The league chests need a rework, that's for sure. We have some plans for an overhaul or even an alternative feature in 2021.")
Reload button (Status: Been requested numerous times over the years. Pixonic had a reload button in a test server in ~2016 but removed it without explanation and has not indicated it will be implemented at all in the future).
Donating (or trading) any resources to (with) other players or accounts (Status: a type of resource donation system used to be in the game but it was abused by players who created multiple accounts and clan-hopped to exploit it. It does not look like any trading system will be implemented in the future).
Stats (Status: In Dec 2020 Max, WR Producer stated: "We agree that there are players who love in-depth statistics. However, War Robots is a "midcore" game and we predict that the feature will not be popular enough among our players.")
Allow training hangars to test out bots before buying them (Status: In Jan 2021, Max WR Producer stated: "It's a nice idea in general and we had it on the roadmap for 2021. However, after the final evaluation, the feature's business value/effort proportion proved to be too unfavorable to include it into the plan. You can still test out some of the new content using Hangar X.")
Allow factions to add boosts / skills / features to bots and hangars (Status: in Jan 2021, Max WR Producer stated: "It's a very interesting concept, yet as War Robots meta is not built around the lore, it will lead to power players choosing factions that suit the current meta, while the lore factor will be neglected. So the faction power bonus is unlikely to appear in the game. However, we will work on including more lore-based features in War Robots and our other games.")
New MM formula (Status: In Jan 2021, Max WR Producer stated: "First of all, big thanks to the author of the original post. You did a great job with the calculations and data! *applause*. The concept of the Hangar Power matchmaking is great. It provides those sought after equal matches in most of the cases... on one condition — all players play fair. Right at the point when someone decides to abuse the system, it all falls apart. We struggled with it really bad before we introduced Leagues. (Yes, tankers are also a problem, but we can at least spot them and suspend or ban their accounts.). Your idea with the high-tier robots contributing more to the HPS is a good one. And still, it doesn't provide a guaranteed solution to the problem. Between Tier 1 (Destrier) and Tier 4 (Ao Jun) there is also Tier 2 and Tier 3. That's where it gets painfully difficult to balance the system so that high-level players aren't able to disintegrate mid-levels with just one bot. We had some attempts at a similar algorithm with the Design and Analytics teams in 2019. During several months of tests we couldn't come up with a solid version, that we ourselves wouldn't be able to abuse as players.")
Synchronize platform releases (Status: In Jan 2021, Max WR Producer stated: "It's not possible due to our internal releasing procedures.")
Money Diary: I am 25 years old, make $125,000 a year, live in NYC, and work as a Management Consultant
This is a follow-up to a diary that I posted a little under a year ago. Since then, I’ve started a new job and moved into a new apartment! I began this position fairly recently (back in October) and I am still in the process of figuring out my new budget and how much I would like to save on a monthly basis. Link to old diary here! Section One: Assets and Debt Retirement Balance: I have ~$17,000 in a 401k from my previous job. I had to rollover money from my old plan to my new one this week, so I’m glad I got that done with! I’m not eligible to contribute to my new job’s plan until 90 days in, which will be in January. After that, I think I will likely contribute 8-10% per paycheck, still deciding! Equity: Haha, I wish. Unfortunately, no :( it is a goal of mine to buy in the next few years though! Savings account balance: ~$11,880 in my account as of today - I typically don’t keep much in my savings account, about 3-4 months worth of rent + expenses as an emergency fund. Once the number goes above $10,000 or so, I’ll move money to my investment accounts (this happens every 3-4 months; although this time, I waited a bit longer because I didn’t want to put too much in around election time). I’ll probably transfer a few thousand into my investment accounts at the end of this year. Checking account balance: ~$3,290 in my account as of today - I only keep my paychecks in here and typically don’t withdraw any money unless I need cash, which is rare. At the end of each month, I’ll transfer any money I have leftover to savings so I can start each month with a clean slate. Credit card debt: None, I consistently use 1-2 credit cards and everything is always paid off in full at the end of every month. Since I was a teenager, my mom has taught me never to spend more than I can afford and always pay off the statement balance of my credit cards. Student loan debt: None, and I’m so thankful. Not going to college was not an option in my family and my parents were very determined to put me through college successfully without any debt at the end. I helped out by getting multiple scholarships that covered about 40% of all my expenses but it was still a lot of money. My parents had to work very hard throughout their lives to do this, after coming to America with nothing, but I’m so happy that they did. Section Two: Income Income Progression: I’ve held multiple jobs throughout my life and I’ve always been extremely work-oriented, I get pretty bored and restless when I’m not busy so I made sure to use any extra time I had in high school productively! 2010-2013: I worked as a tutor for little kids a few days after school, taught them math/reading and helped my boss with random admin work. Also had a brief stint at a music store for a few months during the summefall of my junior year just to get some extra money. 2013-2017: Had multiple jobs throughout college, all were pretty chill and paid minimum wage. I had work-study positions in my school’s psychology department planning events and was an office assistant in various dorms on campus helping with packages, mail, administrative work, etc. 2017-2020: I was very lucky to receive a job offer in spring of my senior year as a software consultant. I loved this position and my salary rose ~$11,000 through the 3.5 years I was there, from $64,000-$75,000. I received a 10% performance raise in April 2020, but never actually received it as all salary changes were postponed until Jan 2021 due to COVID-19. 2020-present: Switched jobs last month (Oct 2020) and made the jump to management consulting. I won’t say too much about my job since it’s a small company but I appreciate the change in industry and that I’m gaining more project management skills that can be used in the future. They offered me $125,000 as a starting salary and, after three days of debating whether it was too risky to jump ship during a pandemic, I decided to take it. I have heard that our bonuses are $10,000-$20,000 per year but, since I’m not 100% sure on the amount, I’m not including it. I typically put all of my bonus money into investment/savings accounts and don’t touch it. Main Job Monthly Take Home: $6580.00 after taxes, health insurance, etc. Once I’m eligible for 401k contributions in Jan, this amount will go down significantly. Side Gig Monthly Take Home: No consistent side gig; I sell clothes on Poshmark here and there, but only when I need to. Section Three: Expenses Rent: $1,500.00 a month for my room in an apartment with three other girls; my room is the smallest and hopefully, I can move into a bigger room in the place once my lease is up! Retirement Contribution: $500 a month to my Roth IRA, I always contribute the max of $6000 every year, I currently have about $23,000 in here as of now Savings Contribution: Stated above, move all money leftover at the end of the month to savings. Investment Contribution: Stated above, all extra money (that isn’t meant for my emergency fund) to my investment accounts. I don’t really see a point in keeping a ton of money in my savings account. I currently have about ~$55,000 in my investment and Roth IRA accounts combined. Debt Payments: Currently none. Donations: No monthly set donations, although I do send money to different organizations frequently when I see causes that I would like to support. ConEd: $17-$25 per month, I Venmo my roommate for this and she pays for us Wifi/Cable: $45 per month; again, I Venmo my roommate for this and she pays the actual bill Cellphone: I’m still on my parents’ plan but my company reimburses us about $35 every month, which covers my share of the charges. Subscriptions: Netflix: $0 - my parents cover this, they pay for some services and my sister and I pay for others. It all evens out in the end! Hulu: $12.39 - my parents and sister all have access to this Spotify: $0 - my sister pays for our family plan HBOMax: I pay for this, my roommates and I all share a login - the cost is covered in our cable bill FabFitFun: $200 per year, this is definitely my guilty pleasure - I definitely don’t need it, but it’s so fun to get this box every few months Gym Membership: None at the moment, since I’m pretty iffy about working out with so many other people around mid-pandemic and it doesn’t look like the situation in NYC is going to improve anytime soon. Thinking about getting an Equinox membership though since there’s one pretty close to me - NYC people without a corporate discount to Equinox, is it worth it? Section 4: Money Attitudes Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If so, how did you pay for it?: Yes, I think there was always the expectation that I would attend college, my parents both immigrated to the U.S. in their early 20s and told me that they would support me in any kind of career I chose, but that I had to go to college prior to doing so. My mom and dad made sure I was very involved in the process and we used to talk about all my college expenses together as a family. They also had to pay for my sister’s education too so I understand that it was a huge burden but they never complained about it. My parents are also very supportive of me getting my MBA, but I don’t think they would have the means to financially back me for this, since they’re getting close to retirement age and need to build as large of a financial cushion as possible. Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have around money? Did your parents educate you on finances?: My parents have become more and more transparent about money as my sister and I have grown older. Both my parents are very frugal and taught me important lessons about debt and financial risk when I was growing up. My mom, since she handles most of the finances, was very truthful about how much we had and what we could/couldn’t afford. What was your first job and why did you get it?: I got my first real job when I was 15, working as a tutor. I didn’t need the money because my parents supported me with anything I needed, but it was helpful to have some savings when I got to college. My parents didn’t pressure me to get one but I figured that it would also look good on college applications. Did you worry about money growing up?: My parents didn’t really let me worry about money growing up, but I’ve always been more of a saver, rather than a spender. My parents have definitely told me that we couldn’t afford things at times, but if anything really needed to be bought, they found a way. They are now very truthful, since they’re getting older, about what their financial situation is and how much money they have set aside for retirement. Do you worry about money now?: Constantly, I don’t know if there will ever be a point at which I won’t worry; you always need money for something. I do think that my parents have prepared me to be practical about money instead of wasting it on silly things. At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?: I would say that I became financially responsible for myself once I graduated college, since I started paying my own rent and expenses at that point (minus my cellphone bill). I have a comfortable safety net of savings at the moment, but if I ever really found myself in a bind and couldn’t afford to get by, I would likely turn to my sister for help. Section Five: Money Diary! Friday 11/13: 8:00 am - Wake up! It’s finally Friday and I’m so thankful. This week has felt incredibly long for some reason. I have a bit of a later start to my meetings today so I want to get in a workout before. Brush my teeth, change into some work out clothes, and get going on a Sydney Cummings arm/upper body workout video. 8:45 am - Done! I recently discovered her videos from an Instagram influencer I follow; I can actually keep up with them without dying on the floor in pain! 10:00 am - Calls begin and basically do not stop the entire morning. I get a few administrative tasks done here and there but ultimately am not super productive. 1:30 pm - Towards the end of my last call of the day (finally!), I make a quick egg scramble with veggies, lots of hot sauce and some avocado and toast on the side. Pair that with some OJ and get back to work! 4:30 pm - My sister and I text throughout the afternoon about things we want to do while she’s in NYC during Christmastime! I’m so excited to see her; look up times for The Greens in Chelsea but of course, they’re all sold out. Bookmark it on my computer to keep checking for the next few weeks. 6:15 pm - Log off for the week after sending in my timesheet, it’s the weekend!!! I hang out with my roommate before she goes to work and she convinces me to order Thai food for dinner (mainly because I’ve been bringing it up every day). Order Pad Kee Mao from UpThai (best Thai food on the UES) and watch The Parent Trap to distract myself while I wait, classic. - $19.16 7:45 pm - Spend the rest of the night flipping between random movies on TV and talking to Verizon since our Wi-Fi randomly shuts off. I finally fix it and am exhausted by the end of the night. 12:30 am - Fall asleep while watching an episode of The Crown - can’t believe I haven’t watched this show until now, love Queen E! Daily Total: $19.16 Saturday 11/14: 8:30 am - Wake up and stay in bed for a bit scrolling through texts/TikTok/Instagram. Try not to do this on weekdays but it’s inevitable on weekends. 9:45 am - Make coffee, put clean dishes away, and chill on the couch. Eat a Kind bar and some Cheerios while watching a bit more of The Crown. 12:30 pm - I’ve spent too much time on the couch at this point, oops. Put my workout clothes on and head to the East Side Running Path, it’s such a nice day for a run! 1:45 pm - 4.5 miles done! I head home and pick up some veggies from the fruit stand on my way: tomatoes, green pepper, mini cucumbers, and an avocado. The stuff here is so much cheaper than grocery stores. - $8.00 2:00 pm - Heat up some of the leftover Thai food from last night and spend the afternoon hanging out on the couch with my roommate. 5:30 pm - Going out to dinner with a few friends tonight so I take a shower and put on some makeup. I honestly forget how to put on makeup sometimes because I do it so rarely, anyone else? 7:00 pm - Head down to Little Italy on the subway (using money already on my MetroCard) and meet my friends, S and K, at Aunt Jake’s! This place has the most AMAZING pasta. I get the rigatoni with spicy arrabiatta sauce and we split a bottle of red wine between the three of us. Sit outside in the cold and eat with my huge coat on but it’s better than being inside the restaurant with way too many people. Plus, the wine helps a lot. - $46.30 9:45 pm - We part ways and I subway back up to the UES, the Q makes it so quick. Spend the rest of the night on the couch watching Schitt’s Creek with my roommate. Daily Total: $54.30 Sunday 11/15: 9:00 am - Wake up and the scrolling happens again, albeit for a shorter time than yesterday. It’s the little wins! I quickly go to the grocery store across the street to grab milk because I can’t have my coffee black, no matter how hard I try. - $2.39 10:30 am - Spend the rest of the morning talking to my mom and then my best friend, L. L and I have been fighting a bit lately so it feels good to get things cleared up. It feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders once we’re done! 12:30 pm - Heat up the pasta from last night (with some sautéed veggies added in) and watch a few episodes of The Big Bang Theory. I’m the queen of leftovers. 3:30 pm - Scour the internet for a place to buy paper towels and finally end up scoring some at Staples. Looks like COVID Round #2 is coming in hot. Wear your masks, please! - $21.55 5:00 pm - Between freaking out over COVID infection rates and episodes of Schitt’s Creek on in the background, I raid my fridge and realize I’m out of a few things. Wish I had known this before I went to the grocery store this morning, damn. This doesn’t really help in limiting my exposure.... 5:45 pm - Run to Staples to pick up my order of paper towels and then head to the grocery store to get romaine, waffles, onions, and olives. Also see some apple cinnamon donuts while I’m in line and can’t resist.... - $16.40 7:00 pm - Veggie sandwich and tomato soup for dinner while watching The Crown. Clean up the kitchen after I eat and FaceTime my parents for a bit. Spend a majority of the call trying to convince them to get a new laundry machine since theirs keeps breaking. Maybe my sister and I will surprise them for Christmas... 10:00 pm - Walk around my apartment to get my steps in for the day and take a quick shower. Watch a bit more of The Crown while ordering a gift for my old boss. She’s the best and I felt so much guilt leaving my last job mainly because I loved working with her. Ship her a gift basket full of wine (obviously), cheese, cookies, crackers, almonds, and other good stuff. Write her a quick thank you note (110 characters is not enough) and send it off! - $91.00 12:30 am - I call my brother-in-law to wish him a happy birthday and fall asleep immediately after; work is going to be rough tomorrow. Daily Total: $131.34 Monday 11/16: 8:15 am - Snooze multiple times and finally manage to get out of bed. I have a heated mattress pad inside my bed so it’s especially hard to get up on mornings when it’s 35 degrees outside. I stretch, brush my teeth, and change into work clothes (lol leggings and a tank) before dialing into my first call of the day. 10:45 am - Quick break time! I heat up my coffee while I make a waffle with peanut butter and maple syrup on top. Banana on the side. Back to Excel! 12:20 pm - Morning calls are almost at an end so I head to the kitchen to make lunch. Put some quinoa to cook on the stove (ever since I learned how to correctly make quinoa, I’ve become obsessed and put it in everything) and quickly assemble a harvest bowl a la Sweetgreen. Add in spinach, apples, quinoa, sweet potato, broccoli and carrots. Topped with a pesto vinaigrette, it’s probably a weird combination, but I like it and it fills me up. 3:30 pm - I recently started a new job about a month ago and am finally getting around to rolling over my 401k into my new plan. I requested a check from the old company last week and spend some time going through the rollover process. It’s relatively easy, thankfully, and all I need to do now is get HR to sign a form! 4:45 pm - Tortilla chip snack break because I always get hungry around this time. 6:15 pm - Work is finally over and I’m about to start a workout when my roommate complains that she hasn’t done one in a while. I convince her to do a Sydney Cummings boxing workout with me and we’re both dripping with sweat by the end. Our downstairs neighbors probably hate us though since there was a lot of jumping, whoops! 7:20 pm - Heat up the last portion of TJ’s Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup and eat while watching an episode of The Crown. I wonder how much of this stuff is true and Google random things about Prince Philip while I watch. 10:45 pm - After talking with my mom and sister for almost an hour, I run the dishwasher and finally take a shower. It feels so good to get into bed! 12:00 am - Scroll through random TikTok videos and send a few funny ones to my sister. Pass out while watching old episodes of The Big Bang Theory. Daily Total: $0.00 Tuesday 11/17: 8:20 am - I wake up too late and scramble around quickly to get ready before my 8:30 call begins. Manage to brush my teeth and make coffee, still in PJs though. Luckily, it’s a conference call with our team in Spain so I don’t have to turn my video on and can sip my coffee while listening. 9:10 am - I have some time before my next call at 9:30 so I change into leggings and a tank, throw a sweatshirt on, and fix my bed. I hate late start days but the time I get to spend under my covers almost seems worth it every time. 10:30 am - Same breakfast as yesterday: waffle with peanut butter and maple syrup with a banana on the side. Can you tell I’m a creature of habit? 12:30 pm - I’m STARVING. I quickly make a small plate of nachos because I have calls until 2:00 and can’t eat until after. 2:00 pm - Yes, calls are over! I swear, half of these could be summed up into an email. Make a harvest bowl like yesterday with broccoli, apples, sweet potato, etc. Make a quick honey mustard vinaigrette with my almost empty mustard bottle - I love hacks like these! 4:15 pm - My paycheck dates have changed so I call to ask Chase if they can modify my credit card statement closing date to be right before I get my first paycheck so I can start each month fresh after rent gets paid. Also get the rollover form back from HR and upload my check to my new 401k! 6:00 pm - Go downstairs to the CVS on my block to get a quick flu shot. I’m in and out within 15 minutes, thankfully! 6:45 pm - Hang out with my roommate before she goes to work and spend the rest of the night watching The Bachelorette and talking to my parents. My sister and I are trying to visit our cousin in California for NYE and we’re not sure if it’s going to be okay getting on an airplane in a month. I tell my mom to book the tickets now, since they’re relatively cheap, and we can always cancel and get our miles back since refund policies are lenient at the moment. Walk around my apartment while talking on the phone to get some steps in. At some point, I make a sandwich with broccoli cheddar soup from TJ’s on the side. 10:30 pm - I spend some time just laying on my couch, my back and shoulders completely kill from boxing yesterday. 11:20 pm - Shower, hot cocoa, a few episodes of The Big Bang Theory, bed. Daily Total: $0.00 Wednesday 11/18: 7:30 am - Wake up earlier than I want ta so I can get in line early at CityMD to get a COVID test. Quickly brush my teeth and slip on leggings and sneakers and run across the street. The line is already around the block to the next street...great. 8:30 am - Contemplate leaving as I dial into a Zoom meeting, decide wait it out some more. 9:00 am - Okay...pretty sure I have pneumonia by now. IT’S FREEZING and we’ve only moved by half a block. I did not prepare enough for this. Complain/vent to my mom a little on the phone and decide to cut my losses before I freeze to death. Run back home, immediately change into comfy sweats, and spend over an hour trying to get warm again while in meetings. 12:30 pm - Text with my sister while I’m in a meeting about the testing situation in NYC. She wants me to get tested before I go home for Thanksgiving so we don’t have to worry about our grandparents. I search around for other testing sites in the city while I’m in calls. 1:30 pm - I throw together a bunch of vegetables with some spinach and brown rice I had in the fridge and make a quick salad. Use up the last of the honey mustard vinaigrette as dressing. 4:00 pm - Research face masks while I’m on my last call of the day. I like the ones from Rothy’s (recommended by another money diary) but I hold off on buying them for now until I can decide on a color I like. 6:15 pm - Finish up work after sending out a few emails and turn on a Sydney Cummings workout. My butt and legs are on fire after I finish...I take longer than I should to get up off my yoga mat. 7:15 pm - Heat up the rest of the broccoli cheddar soup from TJ’s - it’s actually much better than I thought it would be! 9:00 pm - Head down to CVS quickly because I have a coupon for a free item and my mom would be disappointed in me if I let it go to waste. I can’t really think of anything I need so I grab a muscle relaxant cream to give to my grandma, she has arthritis so I think it would be helpful. 10:00 pm - I get an email that a dresser I’ve been looking at is back in stock. We remodeled my room at my parent’s house last year and it’s basically empty at the moment, so I think it could be a nice addition to the space. I call my mom to ask if she likes it - luckily the color matches perfectly with the rest of the furniture so I go ahead and make the purchase. Open up a Wayfair credit card to get $40 off; I get approved quicker than I thought! - $383.84 11:15 pm - I take a shower, try on the items I got in my latest Stitch Fix box, and get into bed. Exchange random funny TikToks with my sister and fall asleep while watching an episode of The Crown. Daily Total: $383.84 Thursday 11/19: 7:30 am - I have a call at 8:30 so I wake up early to check if the urgent care near me has time slots. It already says that no walk-in appointments are available for the next hour so I make a note to check throughout the day. Lay in bed and am in and out of sleep for the next half hour. 8:30 am - I get on my first call of the morning after cleaning up my room and brushing my teeth. I listen to our project lead talk about doing business with Asian countries while making my coffee. 10:30 am - Still on calls, ugh. Take a quick break from the Excel file I’ve been working on in the background to make a multigrain waffle with peanut butter and some maple syrup on top. No banana to add on the side today, unfortunately. 11:45 am - I’ve been talking to a guy I met on Bumble for a few weeks now and we were supposed to meet tonight for the first time. I text him to postpone since we’re both seeing our families in the next few days and it would be too risky to meet tonight for the first time. Luckily, he’s really nice about it and totally understands. This pandemic has definitely pushed back my potential wedding by 2 years, ha. 1:30 pm - I finally have a break from meetings to make lunch! I quickly heat up some parmesan arugula ravioli from TJ’s with a salad on the side to use up all of the random produce I have left. Get back to my desk and work while I eat. 4:30 pm - I read a funny article about the little owl that was found in the Rockefeller Center tree and I text my old coworker about it. They call him Rockefeller and he’s so cute! My coworker says he gives her Baby Yoda vibes. I agree. 6:45 pm - Finally finish up work, it’s almost Friday! I check the urgent care site again and it still says that no appointments are available for the next hour. My roommate and I complain about how it shouldn’t be this difficult to get tested in the city. I walk down to the center anyway and the receptionist tells me that she might be able to fit me in if I come back tomorrow around lunchtime. Semi-success! 7:30 pm - I eat a few soft/hard tacos for dinner while talking to my roommate and watching an episode of The Crown - I just want to get to the Princess Diana-era already! 10:00 pm - I spend the rest of the night cleaning up the kitchen, running the dishwasher, showering, etc. I decide on one item to keep from my Stitch Fix box and check out the app. I think I might cancel my subscription, especially since we’re probably not going anywhere for the next few months. - $59.00 11:30 pm - Get in bed, pull up old episodes of Friends on my iPad, and fall asleep at some point. Daily Total: $59.00 WEEKLY TOTALS Food + Drink: $92.25 Fun / Entertainment: $0.00 Home + Health: $21.55 Clothes + Beauty: $59.00 Transport: $0.00 Other: $474.84 GRAND TOTAL: $647.64 REFLECTIONS: Aside from the furniture purchase and gift for my boss, I would say that this is a standard week. I honestly don’t think I spend too much but sometimes my credit card bill is way higher than I thought it would be. I thought it would be fun to do a follow-up, especially with my job/apartment change! Still trying to figure out how to live with this salary since it’s a big change for me, has anyone struggled with this? Would love some advice, I realize that it’s a great problem to have but I still feel uncomfortable since I don’t really know how much is right to spend/save.
Offseason Blueprint: The Detroit Pistons are an NBA basketball team. Hopefully, they can remind fans of that in the next few years.
The playoffs continue to rage on, but there are 26 teams sitting at home with nothing to do but twiddle their thumbs, watch the Conference Finals, and wait for next season to start. For their sake, we wanted to look ahead with the next edition of the OFFSEASON BLUEPRINT series. In each, we'll preview some big decisions and make some recommendations for plans of attack along the way. Today, we're looking at the Detroit Pistons. step one: weave a new narrative Some teams are good, some teams are bad -- but almost all of them have a general direction. Are you a young team on the rise? Or a veteran team trying to squeeze out as many wins as possible? Right now, the Detroit Pistons are in a wonky grey area. They're missing an identity. When they tried to make the playoffs, they were fairly mediocre (records of 37-45, 39-43, 41-41). When injuries hit this past season, they plummeted down to 20-46. While that generally suggests a young and rebuilding team, the roster doesn't reflect that yet. Their marquee players are Blake Griffin (age 31) and Derrick Rose (age 31.) They also have a veteran coach in Dwane Casey who's more accustomed to competing than rebuilding. All in all, they feel like a confused, forgotten franchise. Fortunately, there's a new sheriff in town. The team hired a new GM in Troy Weaver, who had been Sam Presti's right-hand man in Oklahoma City. Weaver's been on the verge of a GM job for several years now, and his hire represents something of a coup for this embattled organization. Going forward, the franchise needs to hold the keys over to Weaver and allow him free reign to do whatever he wants. Back in OKC, he had experience with a variety of makeups: with a rebuilding team, with a contending team, with a rebuilding-wait-whoops-we're-accidentally-pretty-darn-good team. It's up to him to look at this roster and this payroll and determine the best path forward from here. step two: hold a garage sale for your old homeowner's property Presumably, Troy Weaver will treat this project as more of a teardown than a remodel. Mainstay center Andre Drummond is already out of the door, and the other veterans may join him on the bus out of Detroit. Unfortunately, that may be easier said than done. It makes a lot of sense to trade star PF Blake Griffin to a veteran team, but his injuries and his contract ($37M + $39M player option) would make that difficult from a logistical perspective. There's a chance that a desperate team may be willing to roll the dice on Griffin. Throughout his career, he's been one of the more misunderstood players in the league. People want to treat him as an athlete-dunker only, but he's actually a skilled ballhandler and passer. In his last healthy season in 2018-19, he averaged 24.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 5.4 assists, and even showcased an improved three-point shot (36.2% on 7.0 attempts per game.) If healthy, he'd be a major difference maker to a team like Portland. Still, teams aren't going to give up major assets for Blake Griffin until he proves that he is healthy. From Detroit's perspective, it makes more sense to wait to trade him. They need him to come back, put up some good stats, and then float him in offers. Right now, you'd be trading Griffin for 20 cents on the dollar. In contrast, Derrick Rose's stock may be at a high. He put up good raw numbers this year (18.1 points, 5.6 assists), and he's on a reasonable $7.5M expiring contract. He'd be a positive addition to a playoff team, best served as a Sixth Man scorer. The Pistons and their fans like Rose (and he likes playing here), but it'd be irresponsible for them to not consider trade options. If they get any decent offers, they have to pull the trigger. If the offers are weak -- R2 picks or so -- then the team can keep him around as a veteran leader and placeholder starter. step three: don't let your breakout break out As bad as the Pistons were, they had a few bright spots. Derrick Rose played better than expected. Luke Kennard looks on track to be a rising starter. And, most surprising of all, rando Christian Wood broke out as a legitimate NBA player. As a starter, Wood averaged 21.9 points and 9.4 rebounds per game. Wood is a springy, energetic player who also has an improving range (40% from three as a starter.) You can read a longer deep dive about Christian Wood here, but to sum it up. A) His production looks legitimate, as he's been putting up numbers in virtually every stop as a pro. But B) His breakout may be poorly timed for the Pistons, because he's slated for free agency and about to get more expensive. He's a 24 year old whose best days should be ahead of him. Based purely on his stats and scouting profile, you could talk yourself into a contract closing in on $15M a year for Wood. However, players with his "pedigree" (undrafted, limited sample size) rarely get that type of contract right away. To me, paying him somewhere in the range of 3 years, $36M would be a fair deal on both sides. There's too much uncertainty to justify much more of a commitment. Of course, the Pistons should know better than any of us whether to trust Wood. Prior to this year, he had a mixed reputation in terms of his basketball IQ and work habits. If Coach Casey can sign off on Wood's character, then the team can feel more comfortable with him as a building block. If there are still red flags, perhaps it's better not to get too attached. The Pistons have more cap room than most teams this offseason, so the money shouldn't be a major deterrent to this decision. It should be entirely about Wood as a person and a player. If you believe that he's the real deal, then you keep him around. step four: find your next field general Christian Wood is a solid young player -- Luke Kennard is a solid young player -- but these aren't franchise players. They're secondary scorers and members of a supporting cast. To truly advance to the promised land, the Detroit Pistons are going to need to find transcendent talent, somehow and some way. Unfortunately, the NBA Draft Lottery didn't help. The Pistons slipped down from the # 5 slot to the # 7 pick, making it unlikely that they'll land a future star. On the bright side, the "supply and demand" may be on their side. This draft class happens to be heavy with point guards. There's LaMelo Ball (the # 1 prospect on ESPN), Killian Hayes (the # 1 prospect on The Ringer), and Tyrese Haliburton (one of the safer picks in the class.) If any of them slip down to # 7, the Pistons should strongly consider them. It usually takes a point guard a year or two to find their footing, but they can sit behind Derrick Rose for a year and then get unleashed in 2021. From a personality standpoint, Rose isn't going to mentor and educate like Aristotle, but he's capable of soaking up 25 minutes and allowing the next PG some time to develop. If those top guards are not available (and they are unlikely to be), the Pistons may have to take some chances. One name I'm intrigued by is R.J. Hampton. On face value, that'd be a "reach." Like LaMelo Ball, Hampton was a top high school prospect who went off to play in the Australian league. Unlike Ball, his NBA stock suffered as a result. While Ball put up numbers (17-8-7), Hampton put up weak stats -- 8.8 points, 2.4 assists on 41-30-68 shooting splits. As a result, Ball is now locked into top 3 pick status, and Hampton is seeing his name ranked around the 10-20 range in mock drafts. However, I'd defend Hampton to some degree. We have to consider the context here. LaMelo Ball joined a struggling team called Illawarra. With Ball, the team went 3-9 (and finished 5-23.) When you're playing on a bad team like that, you can be the "star" and jack up as many shots as you want. In contrast, Hampton joined the New Zealand Breakers, a better team that relegated him to 20.6 minutes a night and a more limited role. His raw stats may not do him justice. No doubt, Hampton has a long way to go, especially as a shooter. At the same time, he's a big lead guard (6'4" with a 6'7" wingspan) who flashes a lot of explosive scoring ability when he's getting downhill to the hoop. He's also a smart kid and allegedly a good worker. There's some legitimate "star" potential here, even if it's a narrow bull's eye. Hampton doesn't have the same athleticism as Russell Westbrook (hardly anyone does) but maybe there's a parallel here. After all, Weaver and OKC selected Westbrook after he'd been a little under the radar after playing off the ball at UCLA. To be clear, I'm not urging Detroit to take R.J. Hampton at # 7. I'm not endorsing him as a future star like Westbrook. I don't know enough to do that; I don't sit around and splice up tape of New Zealand basketball. Still, the point is, the Pistons should be looking at upside players in that vein, knowing that they're going to need to hit a home run in the future. step five: keep one hand on the detonator The Detroit Pistons only have $68M committed on the books for next season, which means they could be players in free agency even if they re-sign Christian Wood. If the team decided to go "all in" in a desperate attempt to compete, then you could maybe talk yourself into retaining Blake Griffin, handing out a big contract for Fred VanVleet, and shooting for the playoffs. That may work. But to what end...? The 7th seed? The 8th seed? Is that the end goal here? More realistically, the team should (as discussed) try to get Blake Griffin back and fully healthy in order to showcase him for a trade. After that, they'd then dive into a full rebuild. Presuming that's going to be the ultimate destination, then the Pistons may as well get a jump on that with free agency. With their remaining cap space, they can take on a toxic asset that comes attached with future picks, or take some fliers on young and promising players. Among my favorite gamblers of this offseason may include PG Kris Dunn (CHI), SG Denzel Valentine (CHI), SF Josh Jackson (MEM), and C Harry Giles (SAC.) None of them should draw huge money offers, making them reasonable purchases and lottery tickets. If the Pistons end up blowing it up, then they should play their younger players over the course of the season. That should mean a lot of Sekou Doumbouya (entering Year 2) and even some Thon Maker (entering Year 42). If that means you only win 25-30 games, that's all right. It'll only help your odds for next year's lottery. I've mentioned this before with some potential tankers (CLE, CHA, etc), but next year's draft could be quite strong. The group is headlined by point forward Cade Cunningham (heading to Oklahoma State) and scoring swingman Jalen Green (heading to the G-League), but there are about 4-5 other players who have the potential to join the # 1 pick conversation in time. The Detroit Pistons aren't likely to be bad enough to get a top 3 pick on their own, but the flattened lottery odds make it possible for the 7th or 8th worst team to leapfrog into that territory. Of course, before Weaver and the Pistons officially press the detonator and go into full-blown rebuild/tank mode, they need to have a heart to heart with Coach Casey. He's 63 years old already, and entering the third year of a five-year deal. Is he going to embrace the rebuild? Is he going to be the scapegoat if they rack up losses? They need to get on the same page, out of fairness to Casey and out of fairness to this franchise. A reasonable solution would be to promise Casey that, if he does tank like a good soldier, he'll still be retained for next season. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither will chrome. previous offseason blueprints ATL, CHA, CHI, CLE, DAL, IND, GS, LAC, MIL, MIN, NYK, POR, SA, SAC, UTA
What do you think the future holds for Square-Enix on Switch?
With the recent (ish) announcement of a physical edition of Final Fantasy IX coming to the Nintendo Switch, I thought it might be interesting to have a discussion about potential future Square-Enix projects that might yet appear on the system. The ‘pick up and play’ nature of the Switch makes it very compatible with JRPGs, and Square-Enix already has a pretty sizable collection of its games on Switch. It seems likely that there are more to come, but what and when is an open question. I’m going to start this off by listing a number of potential projects, and my sense of how likely or unlikely they are to materialize. Curious to read all of your lists as well. I’ll say up front that some of the games I’ll be talking about I know like the back of my hand, and others I know only by reputation. Hopefully, we can all fill in each other’s knowledge gaps. Thanks for stopping by! :) Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars: This is the game I always have my fingers crossed for whenever Nintendo announces new additions to the NES/SNES Online apps, but unfortunately, we haven’t seen it yet. I still think it more likely than not that Seven Stars will eventually be available this way—it was included with the SNES Classic system, after all—but the longer it’s absent, the more I wonder if there’s some sort of legal/financial dispute standing in its way. (This was Square and Nintendo’s last major collaboration before their bitter mid-90s split). Would Seven Stars instead be released as a standalone download for purchase on the Eshop? Given how beloved this game is by its fanbase, (myself included) I tend to think it would turn a profit. I suppose it could be given a slight visual touch-up and add things like higher difficulty settings, bonus dungeons, a boss rush, additional superbosses, access to all minigames from the main menu, etc. A similar approach to how Final Fantasies I-VI have been re-released since the GBA era. There was a rumor I read fairly recently that a direct sequel to this game was under consideration, as a collaboration between Square-Enix and Nintendo. I am extremely skeptical of this, however, since Seven Stars has a nicely contained little story, with few if any loose threads to be tied up, save for perhaps exploring how Mallow adjusts to his newfound role as Prince of Nimbus Land. Certainly wouldn’t object to a sequel, though, as Seven Stars still contains my favorite overall incarnation of the Mario world. Chrono TriggeCross: A ’Chrono Collection,’ which would include Trigger, Cross, and perhaps even Radical Dreamers as a bonus, seems logical, if not necessarily inevitable. This series may never have reached the commercial heights of Final Fantasy, but Chrono Trigger is among those very rare games where it’s hard to find even a word of negative criticism, a reputation I think still draws people in. (That was the effect it had on a young me in the early 2000s; I missed it the first time around on SNES, but as soon as I heard about Final Fantasy Chronicles for PlayStation, which included both Final Fantasy IV and Chrono Trigger, it was an instant pre-order). Chrono Trigger has since shown up on the Nintendo DS and mobile devices. Chrono Cross, on the other hand, is more divisive, with passionate admirers and detractors. This might explain why Square-Enix has yet to bring it to mobile devices, despite the availability of Trigger on these platforms. The fact that an enhanced version of Final Fantasy IX is available on mobile devices suggests that technical considerations are not the reason for Chrono Cross’s absence. (And of course, none of this would be a barrier of entry with the much more powerful Switch). All this leads me to speculate that Square-Enix is holding off on releasing Trigger or Cross for modern platforms at this point because they are planning a ’Chrono Collection’ at some point down the line. I can’t help but picture a very attractive physical edition, perhaps featuring a black and gold case with the familiar clock design, and a companion booklet containing artwork and development history for the series. (Trigger’s development history is particularly interesting). The visual novel Radical Dreamers, which could be described as something of a rough draft for a key early episode in the story of Cross, is non-essential, but would still be a nice little bonus—a window into the creative process. Including the excellent soundtracks for both Chrono games (ala Super Mario 3D All-Stars) would be an even bigger draw. Of course, this is all just speculation on my part. Outside of Chrono Trigger being made available on Steam and mobile devices in recent years, this series has not shown signs of life in quite some time. Secret of Evermore and Final Fantasy Mystic Quest: Grouping these two together because they are both lesser-regarded Square SNES titles that might still be interesting additions to the SNES Online app. The likes of Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy IV, and Final Fantasy VI are unlikely to pop up there, both because they have a proven ability to sell individually, on multiple platforms over the years, and because the initial SNES releases of these games are no longer the optimal versions available. (Especially true in the case of Final Fantasy IV). The popular Secret of Mana is also unlikely, given that Square-Enix has already released a remake, as part of an ongoing project of remaking the Mana series games for modern platforms. So why these two? Well, with little if any demand for either to get the modern treatment, bringing them to SNES Online isn’t likely to step on the toes of any future remake/re-release projects. While neither are great games, both are semi-interesting ‘relics.’ Evermore a Secret of Mana clone with a different aesthetic; Mystic Quest designed as a beginner-level RPG for audiences outside of Japan. Not the sort of games many would go out of their way to find and play, but if made available on the SNES Online app, I suspect that many would happily give them a spin. Little if anything to gain, but nothing to lose either. For the record, I don’t see either as a likely inclusion to SNES Online, which has slowed down considerably in terms of adding new games to its roster. But aside from possibly Seven Stars, these are the only SNES-era Square games I can picture them giving Switch owners more or less for free. Final Fantasy Tactics/War of the Lions: Quite possibly my favorite video game of all time, I’m both disappointed and a bit surprised that it has yet to appear on Switch. Tactics debuted on the original PlayStation; the enhanced War of the Lions version, featuring an updated translation, beautifully animated and voice-acted cutscenes, and a respectable amount of bonus content, made its first appearance on PSP, and was later adapted for mobile devices. The mobile versions operated with touch controls, and the Switch in handheld mode has touchscreen support built in. Theoretically, at least, War of the Lions would translate well onto Switch, but perhaps there are more potential technical complications than I realize. Alternately, Square-Enix might have made the calculation that those who love Tactics already have it on iOS/Android, and would be less likely to ‘double-dip’ and buy a Switch version. I really hope this isn’t the case, though, since I’d love to have it on Switch. This is another game where I think Square-Enix could make some extra money by releasing a physical version that includes artwork, maps, the soundtrack, etc. A full visual remake, with the production values of the gameplay graphics matching that of the cutscenes, would be even better, but I don’t think that’s very likely. The Final Fantasy VII ‘Expanded Universe:’ The original Final Fantasy VII is available on Switch, but what is probably the most famous and popular entry in the series has branched out in multiple directions since its debut in 1997. Most recently, of course, was the Final Fantasy VII Remake for PS4. Whether a downgraded version of that game could possibly be adapted for Switch, I honestly don’t know, but even if it technically could, I wouldn’t particularly like its chances. Reason being that Final Fantasy VII Remake is, from a narrative standpoint, incomplete, since it doesn’t cover the range of the original’s story. (Not even close). In theory, this necessitates at least one more entry, and probably two or more. With the ‘original’ being a late PS4 title, that means that its follow-up(s) will likely debut on PS5, which the Switch will be much further behind from a technical standpoint. Would Square-Enix want only one part of a two- or three-part story workable on Switch? If they thought it would sell well enough, perhaps. But I think it’s more likely that if anything from the FF7 Remake series ever makes it onto a Nintendo system, the Switch’s hypothetical successor is more likely to see it than the current model. Remake is not the only video game expansion of the FF7 universe, of course. If any of the others are to make it to Switch, I think Crisis Core is much more likely than either Before Crisis or Dirge of Cerberus. Wouldn’t rule out the possibility of any of them, but Crisis Core was originally designed for a handheld: the PSP. Zack Fair’s story was and remains compelling to fans, despite anyone who played through Final Fantasy VII knowing full well how it ends. The popularity of Vincent Valentine was not enough to save Dirge of Cerberus from some pretty harsh criticism. Working against all of these? Well, Remake throws the continuity of the original and its spinoffs into question. It’s possible that Square-Enix might be planning to scrub the existing canon clean as part of this ongoing project. Vagrant Story: I’ll admit, this is pure wishful thinking on my part; I’m under no illusions that this is even remotely likely. Still, it’s behind only Tactics/War of the Lions on my own Square-Enix Switch wishlist. (Switchlist?) What’s not to like about a dark Renaissance detective story? (The block stacking/rearrangement puzzles required to progress through dungeons can be a bit tedious, but nothing awful). Star Ocean Games: With First Departure—a enhanced PSP remake of the first Star Ocean game—already on Switch, I think it’s a virtual certainty that Second Evolution—the PSP counterpart to Second Story—will eventually make the leap over as well. (Frankly, I’m surprised it hasn’t already). The Switch prospects of post-Second Story/Evolution games are iffier, but with the second installment often regarded as the highlight of the entire series, it is a very strong candidate to pop up on the Eshop. Kingdom Hearts Games: The first games on this list I know only by reputation. My understanding is that they have done very well in terms of both sales and critical reception, and even that feels like an understatement. The recent announcement of a Kingdom Hearts rhythm-based spinoff for Switch seemed to spark disappointment in these parts that nothing from the main series was coming. This suggests that there is a potential market for mainline Kingdom Hearts on Switch; I’d certainly be willing to give them a shot. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Games: I can’t help but wonder if the original Final Fantasy Tactics Advance was hurt at all by Fire Emblem making its debut appearance outside of Japan around the same time, to positive press and public reception. The success of Fire Emblem on GBA likely overshadowed Tactics Advance a bit. Still, there are other reasons why this game tends to be held in lower overall regard than the original Final Fantasy Tactics. While the first has the air of a Shakespearean epic, the central conceit of Advance is that a group of kids, presumably from the ‘real world,’ get sucked into a fantasy world, and the main story goal is their trying to somehow get back home. Some saw this as a major step backwards from the original, while others praised the writers for thinking outside the box. Also controversial was the ‘Judge’ system, where every battle would start with the announcement that certain abilities could not be used. Some saw this as a fun challenge that kept players on their toes; others found it irritating and contrived. I know less about the DS sequel, Grimoire of the Rift. If we ever see anything from the Final Fantasy Tactics sub-series on Switch, War of the Lions seems far more likely than any of the Advance titles. If a hypothetical War of the Lions Switch version was to sell well enough, however, perhaps Square-Enix would release one or both of the Advance games in the hopes of piggy-backing off its success. Final Fantasy XIII Games: Doable? Probably. Worth it for Square-Enix financially, given the mixed reputation of these games? Tougher call. Final Fantasy XV: Another recent Final Fantasy I know quite little about. I know that the downgraded ’Pocket Edition, which I first became aware of via the iOS App Store, is also available on the Switch Eshop. This perhaps suggests that Final Fantasy XV in its original form would be difficult to adapt to Switch. Difficult, however, does not necessarily mean impossible, so I would be surprised, but not shocked, if Final Fantasy XV was eventually brought to Switch. Threads of Fate & Brave Fencer Musashi: Grouping these two because they are both mid/late PS1-era games that have virtually no chance of re-emerging on Switch. Still, both are cute, family-friendly action RPGs that would be right at home on the system. Xenogears: Another PS1-era longshot...noticing a pattern here? Legal difficulties aside, I could see Xenogears potentially doing well on the Nintendo Eshop, riding the coattails of the popular Xenoblade games. (Which I definitely need to get around to trying one of these days; my understanding is that although there are no direct narrative links between them, Xenogears, and the Xenosaga games, they are considered to be ‘spiritually’ connected). I last played Xenogears myself about two or three years back, and my experience then left me with the sense that the game might be a bit more ‘digestible’ on a handheld-hybrid like the Switch than its home console origins. Engaging, thought-provoking story; complex, well-written characters; a wonderful soundtrack. No one can take these things away from Xenogears. That being said, Xenogears often employs long (winded) cutscenes and dialogue sections to tell its excellent story, has a pretty high rate of random encounters throughout its large-scale dungeons and overworld areas, and requires frequent micromanagement and shopping to upgrade ‘Gears’ (combat robots) so the player remains competitive in battle. In other words, an average Xenogears play session can leave the player with the sense that they have accomplished relatively little compared to the amount of time they just invested in it. Because of that, I often found myself feeling ‘burned out’ by the game, engaging though it was. While a Switch version of the game could not be expected to totally resolve those issues, it could alleviate them, both by its ‘pick up and play’ nature and by increasing opportunities to save progress outside of the designated save points and world map of the original. (As was the standard of the time). Ideally, one would be able to save during a lengthy cutscene, so they would be able to take a break from the story without being forced to later watch (and process) the entire thing from the beginning. Dissidia Games: Admittedly, I don’t know much about these games other than the very basics: they are a fighting game spinoff of the Final Fantasy series. On paper, though...doesn’t that sound like something that would sell like hotcakes on Switch? Dissidia may not be at the top of my personal wishlist, but outside of Kingdom Hearts, it is perhaps the most puzzling Square-Enix exclusion. Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings: A definite longshot, but there are two factors that could theoretically, at least, work in its favor: a) its ties to Final Fantasy XII, which is on Switch via The Zodiac Age; and b) the fact that, unlike XII itself, Revenant Wings was originally released on a Nintendo platform: the DS. Working against it? Radio silence. I admittedly have never played this one myself, but the fact that so few people seem to talk about it suggests that it didn’t make much of an impact one way or the other. It would have been a cool bonus—as an unlockable or DLC—to include with Zodiac Age, but no such luck, and Revenant Wings seems to be more or less forgotten. I quite like XII, though, so if Revenant Wings did come to Switch, I’d be inclined to give it a shot. Front Mission Series: A not especially famous, but long-running, somewhat prolific Square-Enix series, with entries spanning from the SNES to the PS4. File this one under surprised but not shocked if something from the Front Mission series eventually lands on Switch. Parasite Eve Games: The last PS1-era longshots, I promise! (And the second-to-last entry overall...Hallelujah!) Right down there with Threads of Fate and Brave Fencer Musashi in the ‘never gonna happen’ column. I totally missed out on the original and its sequel during their initial run, which I kind of regret now, since many of their basic elements—a more gritty/realistic tone; a female detective as the protagonist—sound really cool on paper. The sort of thing I glanced over as a child/adolescent, but would be right up my alley these days. Final Fantasy I-VI: If you’re still here, thank you very much! This will be the last section of my list today...but also the longest. I decided to group the first six mainline Final Fantasies together here not because I think each is of equal importance—far from it—but more to highlight the curious fact that, despite the fairly widespread availability of these games on multiple platforms over the course of many years, the earliest Final Fantasy game up and running on the Nintendo Switch at the time of this writing is VII. So, what gives? Thinking back to the Tactics/War of the Lions section, this could be a matter of Square-Enix calculating that, with the first six Final Fantasies already available on mobile devices, there would be little incentive for Switch-owning fans to ‘double-dip.’ I’m not sure if that theory holds up as well here, however, since we are talking about six individual games of varying importance, as opposed to one. Final Fantasies I & II have often been bundled together, in the case of both Final Fantasy Origins for the PS1 and Dawn of Souls for the GBA. If we ever do see a Switch re-release of these games, my guess is that we would get another two-pack, if for no other reason than a bundle is probably the best means of selling the ambitious yet deeply flawed Final Fantasy II. My first experience with both games was via Dawn of Souls, but one thing I didn’t realize until some time later was that, at least in the case of Final Fantasy I, the adaptation was quite different from the original experience. The Dawn of Souls version had a traditional MP system for spells—each spell used x-amount of MP, which could be recovered via certain items and by resting at town inns and tents/cottages on the world map. The original release, on the other hand, featured limited spell charges, which could apparently only be recovered by resting in towns, forcing the player to be much more strategic/conservative with magic use. Thinking back to the high encounter rate and maze-like dungeons, my first thought was: ’My God, that sounds like an absolute nightmare!’ For others, though, it could be a fun challenge, so it might be nice for future re-releases of Final Fantasy I to include both magic systems. I’m not sure to what extent, if any, Square-Enix might be influenced by Nintendo’s recent decision to re-release the first NES/Famicom Fire Emblem game on Switch, with no apparent changes aside from it being available in languages other than the original Japanese, but I suppose this could theoretically compel them to release the first three NES/Famicom Final Fantasy games with the original NES/Famicom graphics, at least as an optional setting. (Hopefully not completely replacing the ‘prettied up’ versions). That being said, I wouldn’t want any downgraded graphics settings to strip a future Final Fantasy I re-release of the fun superboss cameos, including but not limited to the dragon Shinryu and the eccentric swordsman Gilgamesh. A quick aside about Final Fantasy II, since we’re here. There are very few games I’ve ever wanted to like more, and I think it deserves credit for thinking outside the box with its leveling system, and for having a story more on the human folly/political intrigue side than the straight ‘good versus evil’ side. Unfortunately, though, it falls a bit flat in both areas. The game does have its bright spots, including a pretty strong supporting cast—Princess Hilda and Minwu the OG White Mage are standouts—and one of my favorite music tracks in the series: the Wild Rose Rebellion theme. Onward to Final Fantasy III, which is probably best known for its more complex/sophisticated take on the ‘Job System’ introduced in Final Fantasy I, and for how long it took (sixteen years!) for the game to first release outside of Japan. The last of the NES/Famicom Final Fantasies, my understanding is that, after the largely failed experiment that was II, the next game in the series was intended as a return to form—going back to the concepts of the original and expanding on them. A similar approach, one could argue, to both Super Mario Bros. 3 and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. With the SNES/Super Famicom set to release within the same timeframe, however, and Square’s plans to bring the ambitious Final Fantasy IV to that new platform, it was ultimately decided that releasing III outside of Japan would be unwise. Fast-forward to 2006, and the Nintendo DS would see a full remake of Final Fantasy III, complete with both 3D graphics and an expanded story—where the four playable characters were nameless avatars in the original, the remake gave them established names and backstories. (This version was also later adapted for mobile devices). The sheer novelty of this ‘lost’ Final Fantasy game finally showing its face outside of Japan, and of a Nintendo system finally being able to boast having a 3D Final Fantasy of its own, led to the game getting some decent attention early on, but long-term, it doesn’t seem to have made much of an impact. Perhaps in large part because it’s difficult to think of anything Final Fantasy III did that Final Fantasy V didn’t do as good or better. And on that note, I’m going to skip ahead briefly to Final Fantasy V. (IV will get its time, don’t worry). Like the odd-numbered Final Fantasies before it, V is remembered more for its gameplay—an even more sophisticated Job System than that of III—than its story or characters. This is the most common criticism of the game, and while I think there’s something to it, it should also be noted that Final Fantasy V had the misfortune of being sandwiched between the epic, story-driven IV and VI, so it had some stiff competition in that area. There’s still a pretty good story to be had here; a likable, if not super-memorable cast; and a handful of interesting plot points and twists. One interesting aspect of Final Fantasy V is that, in terms of gameplay, it is almost a mirror image of IV. Where IV is very linear and allows virtually no opportunities to customize characters, or even choose which party members to go with at any given time, V encourages frequent mixing and matching of classes and secondary skills to adapt to the current situation. One might go in expecting, consciously or unconsciously, the obvious male lead to function best in a Knight/Swordsman class, and the obvious female lead to be most effective as a mage. In truth, however, anyone can be anything. All characters have access to the same Job classes, but their visual design in each class varies to reflect their personality. Take the Monk/Martial Artist class, for instance—where both male characters go shirtless when assigned to this job, the more ‘girly’ of the two female characters dons a bright red athletic dress, while her more ‘tomboyish’ counterpart instead chooses a plain white robe/karate uniform. Given the relative obscurity of Final Fantasy V, it’s difficult to picture Square-Enix investing many resources into a future remake project, but it would be cool to see a modern take on all these character designs. As for why I skipped right from III to V? Well, despite the fact that these two games, as far as I know, have never been bundled together, I think they would make pretty logical ‘running mates’ in the future, given that both are centered around a version of the Job system. (Maybe they could call it ’Final Fantasy Labor Collection’). Now let’s tackle what is arguably the heaviest hitter of this group: Final Fantasy IV. Of the pre-VIIFinal Fantasy games, IV is probably the one that has gotten the most love from Square-Enix, which one could argue is a mixed blessing. While the original release is almost universally well-regarded, its direct, seventeen years after-the-fact sequel, The After Years, is often considered among the weakest titles to fly under the Final Fantasy banner. It has its good points, and I think there would a pretty engaging story here if they had just trimmed the proverbial fat and made >!Kain Highwind the undisputed main character.After Years is kneecapped by its original format of downloadable ‘episodes’ that were released gradually, and these chapters are by no means created equal. (Some are interesting, but others are a miserable slog). Final Fantasy IV would eventually appear on both the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS, but the competing handhelds were not to receive the exact same product. The DS version featured the 3D visual style of Final Fantasy III DS, while the PSP’s Complete Collection employed a more traditional 2D art style with redrawn sprites and locations. Complete Collection, unlike FFF 4 DS, also contained both After Years and the aptly-titled mid-quel Interlude. If Final Fantasy IV ever does make its way over to Switch, Complete Collection seems like the better overall value, but my guess is that the DS/mobile device 3D version is a bit more likely. It might be worth noting that, despite After Years debuting with a 2D style, it was re-released for mobile devices with a 3D ‘makeover’ back in 2013. This move also suggests that Square-Enix would sell the original IV and its sequel separately on the Eshop if they ever do bring them to Switch. And now, the biggie: Final Fantasy VI. The most recent mainline entry to debut on a Nintendo system, and simultaneously one of the most beloved by fans and most neglected by its parent company. To this day, the definitive version of Final Fantasy VI is the enhanced GBA port, from all the way back in 2006. (Advance takes that crown in my book solely because, unlike other re-releases that contained the same bonus content, it included a run button from the beginning, in place of always needing to have one party member’s Relic slot taken up by the ‘Sprint Shoes’ if you wanted to get anywhere fast). The sad reality of Final Fantasy VI is that, more than probably any other entry in this series, it is hindered by its graphical limitations. Not because it uses a 2D sprite-based presentation, to be sure—both Chrono Trigger and the first two Suikoden games managed to convey a large-scale world with a similar art style—but I think the best illustration of this shortcoming is to compare the the city of Vector in VI to Midgar in the original Final Fantasy VII. Neither locale would win any beauty contests these days, but even the rather primitive 3D visuals in VII were enough to convey that this was a massive, massive city. The Imperial capital, on the other hand? Not so much. Save for some slightly larger, plain-looking buildings, a lack of flowers and trees, and what looked to be pieces of industrial equipment in an area just beyond the line of apartments and stores, there wasn’t a whole lot to distinguish it visually from the average town a player visited. Beyond the basic set pieces, though, there are a multitude of scenes in Final Fantasy VI that absolutely demand a greater visual spectacle than what the SNES/Famicom could achieve at the time. Especially the whole Floating Continent sequence of events. (Can you imagine?) As I admitted earlier, I don’t know much about the Dissidia games, but one thing I have seen of them are the amazing 3D models of VI’s Kefka and Terra. To have all those elaborate character designs given a modern (ish) touch, whether they used 3D models or 2D sprites, would be a thing of beauty. Do I think a modern remake of Final Fantasy VI being developed for the Switch is likely? Sadly...no. But I can’t ignore how poetic such a thing would be. Considering that the first the world saw of the eventual Final Fantasy VII project was an N64 tech demo showing 3D models of Terra, Locke, and Shadow in battle, this would really bring things full-circle. Again, if you made it this far...frankly, I’m surprised I made it this far! Five thousand-plus words, more than a month of fiddling with this ‘script,’ and I’m sure there’s still plenty I missed and got wrong. Still, it feels good to finally wrap this up, and if nothing else, I hope it will be a semi-enjoyable read. Curious to hear your thoughts, and many thanks!
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