Today’s deck is the Tarot of Loka.
Supposedly it should be a deck to be able to play tarocchi (the card game tarot decks originally existed for). Sadly this is a pirate copy with no booklet to teach that. I did find it curious that the faces of the cards have reversible designs but not the backs.
Today’s reading is advising that when the nonsense with my bank is finally done, the wealth of choices will be open to me. I should be mindful to keep the financial responsabilities in check when that happens.
Woke up kinda late. I had go pick up my prescription, however, so I went out early to walk my way there. I took the chance to do some DQ Walk grinding, specifically roaming around looking for fragments to upgrade some accesories.
As I’m walking around, thinking randomly about assorted stuff, I had this one concern in the back of my head about how the current game project I wanna start work on might come off as “childish” and perhaps “not adult enough”. Then I remembered a bunch of the topics I wanna tackle and I calmed down.
It’s not really like it’s “safer” than VA-11 Hall-A deliberately, it’s more just that with the idea and how things have flowed, I’ve just not felt the need to make it spicier, really.
This whole mental process, then made me realize something interesting.
It’s not a unique or original stance to talk about how “mature” media can often come off as more tryhard and insincere in its maturity that some kid-oriented media, and the thought process from earlier made me realize why that might be the case.
Kids media often has to be “toned down” which is a very different thing from something being removed altogether. Perhaps a theme wouldn’t pass by whatever ratings board you have to deal with so you seek an alternative, keep the core principle but adjust the delivery and so forth. Meanwhile, it’s not uncommon for “adult” media to have a core message to deliver and then… dunno, add sex and a couple of slurs to bump up the rating.
Another way to look at it is that you can make a PG version of a lot of eroge (indeed FSN might be the most successful such case) but adding sex scenes to something that started clean might be clumsier (See: Little Busters EX).
To be honest, the concern is only there because I don’t write for kids. Now to be fair there’s enough people that have told they played Valhalla in high school and… could be worse, but that’s not something I’m comfortable hearing. ANYWAY, the main concern is that if something comes off as meant for kids there are a lot of expectations tied to it that I refuse to even think about. I’m nobody’s nanny and I won’t be tied down by that expectation, but I also don’t wanna add stuff gratuitously just to send the message of “I write for adults”.
Really makes me think of this random idea I had ages ago of the “rent-lowering sex scene”. Of making something that opens with a very explicit sex scene but then the rest of the plot can be as clean as it wants or as nasty as it wants. You’ve set a tone, you’re Free, have fun.
Honestly, writing as if there was a completely unnecessary sex scene at the start so this is now a godless land where nothing is a sin is not a bad idea on the whole.
I made it in time to the appointment by the end but I’ll go to the pharmacy tomorrow.