Alternate Route 2

So I was thinking.

Why are games so fun?

...and why stories are so hard to get into, in comparison?

When I think about it, the answer is simple enough. You don't get to do anything in a story. You just simply read and read and just follow along whatever the Author's whims may be.

No matter how you voice your thoughts, it's all the Author's choice, for which direction the story's going to go.

You might think, the story's actually going based on the audience's wishes, but in the end—the final say always go for the Author.

Even if it was a published title in Shoun*n J*mp.

It's the Author's decision to follow the majority of the readers. Or it might just be the pressure of the Editorial department or so...but in the end, it's all up to the Author.

That's how Bers*rk could go on at Miu*a-sensei's pace for so long. You could go riding a boat for nearly a decade, from what I've remembered.

The best part? On how a party member commented that their boat ride was shorter than expected!

...and yeah, a lot of people love Bers*rk, including me. Although its story wouldn't be ending anytime soon. I sometimes thought whether the Author would die first and whoever's left behind in the team would just make their own conclusion. The similar thing with Dor*emon and Cr*yon Sh*nchan. Both were my favorite stories to read when I was young.

Even now, I still want Dor*emon to visit me and lend me his overpowered items. Even with just one item, it's enough. I'm able to learn from my mistakes, unlike N*bita who kept on getting screwed over.

Back then, my way of thinking wasn't that much different from others. I was even all excited during every Sunday morning where the episode of Dr*gon B*ll was airing, even if the fights were drawn over many episodes. There's also N*ruto, Bl*ach and On* Pi*ce, the holy trinity.

My interest in them fades away with time.

As I grew up, I had terrible shit happening to me over the time...and when a tragedy struck, that's when I began to lose faith in God. I don't feel like saying anything 'bout it.

I lost something important I could never get back.

In return, I gained something new.

The desire to question everything I once knew. It gave me new hope and dream, instead of just living for the wish others put upon me.

My journey wasn't smooth sailing in the least. As for the details, I doubt any of you would care.

It's just, as I grew older, the less shit I can tolerate. It went as far as the stories go.

I began to see everything in a more critical manner, even if I myself wasn't even an Author at all. My demands for a story become more and more specific.

I don't like when the main character was a pathetic pussy who got pushed around by everyone. He doesn't deserve to be the main character if he didn't have his own goal and unable to make his own decisions.

I don't like if he's weak and he doesn't even have any desire to improve himself and become stronger in his own way. I wouldn't want to project myself into that kind of main character.

I love strong main characters. I don't care if they never lose. The only way they lost, was when their story stopped being awesome.

Even if they're weak, I love it when they are smart and could use their weakness as strength to defeat those with higher power levels. Although, if they're forever weak and pathetic, I had my own qualms. I want them to get awesome at some point.

On the contrary, hard-working characters—I found them boring. It's just the same repeating the same line of work until you get it—what's so interesting about that? Plus, I couldn't even relate to how they could spend hundreds of hours continuously training. Do you think it'd actually make me feel sympathetic?

When smart characters really got to think about stuff that would work for them and how someone lazy like me could even learn from them.

I, for example, wouldn't want to be the one who works hundreds of hours continuously.

As for the world and etc. I don't give a damn. I just want the main character I could root on. To me, they're the most important part of the story. To me, a good story can be carried by the main character alone.

Still, for me, the main reason I couldn't get into a lot of stories. It's hard for me to get interested in anything. I particularly couldn't care about their tragic backstories. When I couldn't even relate to the characters at all, I don't see any point in reading.

Plus, when they made the description of their world and stuff, they're even more boring than your average History class.

Why should I care about the world? Why don't you write it in the way that makes me care about it?

A lot of the stories were just painful to read instead of making me comfortable. It just, they're simply explaining the words—pretty plain and boring, they're unable to make the words itself ignite the special feeling which transcends the reality itself. At most part, I'm not sure what the paragraph they wrote meant.

...and when I found the story I like and the point it was getting good; it got replaced by shitty harem romance. Worst of all, it's not even Yuri.

At some nice gender-bender Yuri story, the main character ends up going for a guy. I felt like murdering the Author and sending them death threats. Seriously, fuck you, Author. Fuck you.

But I don't make my opinions vocal because I know, writing stories aren't easy.

There's a lot of labor involved and it didn't take long to make me quit.

I don't care if no one reads my work.

The main reason why I stopped—it's simply too much work. I couldn't care about the details of the world, the characters, and whatnot.

I just want to pretend it's a game where anything goes and the only one that matter is the main character himself. It's my avatar in the story world—everything else could just come and go in a whim.

The same goes with life itself.

People may come and go. The only one that will always be there, is myself.

Different than life, not everything goes. That's why life sucks. But seeing it in a different light, that means a lot of things are predictable. Like, you wouldn't see a giant nipple falling out of the sky every day.

While it may not seem like enough reason to quit—I just got bored and don't want any extra work—that's all.

Speaking of which.

I would rephrase my words earlier.

I think games are equally shit, especially if they're a pay to win gacha game.

I failed a class due to playing games, but I don't regret it at all.

...but when I started my first gacha game, it's one of the worst decisions I ever did in my life. I end up spending a few bucks and too much time, where those bucks I could spend to upgrade my PC and buy better games.

For the time, those pointless grinding could be replaced by playing a single player game—when I was feeling mighty damn pissed off—just whip out the Cheat software and go.

Consequently, quitting the game, was one of the best decision in my life.

You know the game is shit when it kept teasing you to spend $10k just for the hope of pulling anime titties.

...and that's not the worst of it!

Deep down, you know—even if it was priced one million dollars, people were still going to spend on them!

I don't need anime titties to make me alive. I could just imagine myself as a yuri girl with big tits and romance a cute loli waifu. Like, seriously.

I'm not even interested in the characters, despite their art design.

The game at that point was really punishing to small-time spenders. It used to be good and even free to play members had a chance of dominating high-level PvP if they had a peculiar setup. Things people deem as meta build, or things specifically made to counter the meta.

The resource allocation was extremely slow. It took me a whole year just to build my team. Most of my progression came from a PvE mode, in which you would clear missions based upon a certain condition.

The moment they revamped it, so the conditions were extremely annoying and grindy—it was a fucking asspull.

They really want to force people to spend and punish those who couldn't--what damn greedy bastards. Fine, you want me out, then I said my thanks. I no longer have to play your shitty game again.

...

Apparently, that wasn't the last of it.

I played another mobile game. It was more F2P friendly.

...but, it was damn grindy as fuck.

It took too much of my time just to keep up, so I stopped.

Actually, I just ragequitted when I failed the unique weapon upgrade so many times in a row. You used the same weapon to up their stars and making them more powerful.

...and the drop rate from gacha was only 1%.

Even when you could get the hero itself for free, they're mostly reliant on their weapons.

...and how upgrading them would be slow af if you don't rely on luck.

But then, I realize I was so damn lucky.

After streams of shitty results, I end up quitting the game.

I had my share of luck and shit days, but the luckiest I felt was—when it made me stop playing.

Anyway.

Those games make me hate my life.

By the time of this writing, you probably were familiar with the games I mentioned, since they're still going strong on the G*ggle Play Store. If you want to hate your life, you can try those as well.

...or you might be playing them already.

A year after I stopped, there's another gacha game, but it's a rhythm game.

Even though I was sometimes salty from my shit luck, I was okay.

Your own skill matters more than the cards you get.

After all, the game doesn't force me to be competitive. Like, if my team suck it'd be rekt so bad and couldn't have a good time.

Nah, in there you couldn't even chat, only spam emotes which were generally all cheery and happy. No verbal abuses.

It doesn't force me to grind and auto farm all day to keep up. It doesn't limit how many times I can practice a song to get better.

I can just play at my own pace, whether I want to try hard or chill—it's all up to me.

The story's pretty good as well, and there's also Yuri!

...and I think, that's what makes it a good game.

I don't know what might happen next in my mundane life. Maybe one day, I'd get transported to another world with RPG mechanics? I just hope, I wouldn't be run over by a truck—that'd be cliche af.

Well, I guess it's time to stop writing for now.

I still have a lot of anime, manga, web novels, and games I can't wait to finally drop.