Let's All Go Get Ice Cream! Every Day A New Adventure In Neverness To Everness

Here's the question that keeps coming back to me over and over while I'm playing Neverness To Everness: who is this game for? It's a question I often find myself asking, when I read about new games in development or try them out in testing, but for most games, what I'm really thinking is "I can't imagine enough people wanting to play this to make it worth the time and money it took to build it". For NTE I'm thinking something very different.

Neverness To Everness hasn't had any difficulty finding an audience or making money. A staggering 30 million people pre-registered and at launch the Free To Play title generated $14m in revenue on its first day. By any measure, it's a hit.

But who are all those people? Why are they playing? As Toyah would say, it's a mystery.

Well, it's a mystery to me, anyway. The more I play, the more I can't help notice the disparities between what I thought the game was going to be and what it is.

Based on the vibrant, exciting promotional videos and the intriguing lore on the website, I imagined a fast-paced, action-packed cyberpunk experience, where I'd be part of a cool, confident, highly-skilled team of agents, employed by a quasi-governmental organization and tasked with keeping the world safe from bizarre incursions from another reality. I expected a lot of fighting, some car chases and a tense, complex plot.

What I got was an open-ended offer from a woman in an office to settle down in a new city, find a job, make some friends and spend most of my time hanging out with them. Maybe she'd call me if she needed me. Maybe not.

The big crisis I thought I'd be dealing with actually happened forty years ago and it turned out to be not that much of a problem anyway. Anyone under thirty almost certainly likes things better the way they are. No-one's talking about fixing any of it or pushing the incursion back. It's all about managing it safely and integrating the incoming oddities and anomalies into society. If I do get ever to work for these people, I'll basically be some kind of bureaucrat, making sure everyone follows the regulations to the letter and being sure to follow them myself.

Everything about the set up is a little bit vague and hand-wavy anyway, entirely intentionally as far as I can tell. There are government agencies like BAC handling the ongoing situation but there are also private organizations, contractors, corporations and individuals, all working together as part of something called The Circle. 

Where the player character fits into all of this is surprisingly difficult to determine and even harder to rationalize in context of the aforementioned pre-publicity even if, at the start of the game, it all feels like it's going to plan. The game begins with my character, Flora, escaping from some facility or other in a flurry of explosive action. In a rush of set piece fights and dramatic cut scenes she somehow finds herself inducted into one of those cryptic quasi-governmental departments just like I imagined and then...

...next thing I know, she's working in an antique shop owned by a drunk and run by children. How did that happen?

It's an antique shop that somehow also operates as an independent contractor in the handling of "Anomalies" so adventure seems like it could still happen but it's very low-level work for the most part. Instead of being sent to handle major incidents, we wait for clients to turn up and ask for help in sorting out their little problems. Things like a missing child or something stealing from the bins outside a shop. 

It's probably just as well it's nothing big. Most of our operatives are still too young to drive. When Flora goes on a commission it's usually with the instruction to keep an eye on them and make sure they don't get into trouble. The boss can't do it herself; she's too busy drinking.

Flora's official role isn't "babysitter". It's Appraiser, which means she can judge whether anomalies are present, "Anomalies" being the catch-all for extra-dimensional entities. It's not exactly the kind of front-line, car-chasing, gun-slinging, bounty-hunting career I was expecting. More of a support role. It's one step away from administration, let's be honest.

Flora does have a contact in the aforementioned government agency, where there are supposedly some plans to use her talents for something bigger, when she's had a chance to acclimate to her new situation but Mint, who I guess is Flora's handler, is hardly the sophisticated spy you might expect. She's an office worker who keeps fluffing her promotion opportunities because she gets flustered at the very thought of taking an exam.

So far, so peculiar. But it's just the backgrounding being laid down, surely? A solid base for the wild adventure to come. Hmm. I suppose it might be but if so that wild adventure is taking a long time coming. 

Which isn't to say there's nothing happening. That's the really strange part. There's so much happening I can't keep up with it all! It's just that very little of it is what you'd call "adventure". And there's hardly any fighting.

Almost every storyline I've been involved with so far, big or small, has focused heavily on either the social or the commercial. Taygedo and his date. The camera shop losing business. Professional rivalry between Eidon and Sterry. Finding a lost dog. Petty vandalism. Even when we finally get to hear about Daffodil's mysterious upbringing with the ominous "Mother" and her sinister "family", something that looks tlike it might be the actual main story thread, it's far more like a warped family saga than any kind of epic adventure.

Yesterday afternoon, I finished what did feel a lot like like an epic story arc, only it was all about starting a band, learning to play and performing in front of a big crowd for the fist time. Flora, Nanally, Haniel and Akane played Night of Moondog as The Whoots!!!! (Four exclamation marks mandatory.) 

This, for anyone who doesn't know, is the culmination of a long "Spinoff" quest-line, which starts when Haniel invites the Appraiser to go see a band at a cellar club. It's a fine example of the disconnect I was talking about at the start of the post. If this really is some kind of fantasy-adventure game, designed around fighting monsters and saving the world, how come I'm playing the drums in a band started by a couple of teenage girls and we're all acting like coming top in a battle of the bands is the most important thing in the world? And it's the most exciting thing that's happened in the whole game, too!

It's no isolated incident, either. I've done plenty of quests now and they're almost always like this: detailed, complex, layered, nuanced, almost wholly conversational and concerned with anything but fighting monsters or saving the world. Some do have a few fights sprinkled in like seasoning. Some even have a couple of set-piece boss battles. But some don't have any combat at all and a few don't even have any real conflict.

Questing is only one aspect of the game, of course. Arguably, it's not even the central feature. There are many ways to pass the time. You can run a business, play games, go fishing, collect and return lost items, deliver packages... and of course you can explore the huge, sprawling city and its hinterland. 

As you do, you'll meet many of its citizens, all going about their business. Some are happy to talk to you. Some have little problems they'll tell you about. They'd appreciate your help but don't expect much in the way of adventure. You might be making sure the cakes get baked or learning how to take better photographs.

The developers send out regular questionnaires, asking how players are finding the game and gathering information on what they think about it. No doubt they also have extensive metrics, telling them exactly how players are spending their time. Apparently those sources are telling them "players are spending more time exploring the urban world than engaging in combat." That's leading publishers Perfect World to consider "introducing paid city-themed content that includes character skins, clothing, houses, and cars".

The developers are reportedly also planning on "improving gameplay to enhance its appeal and increase player retention." which I guess might have something to do with putting some actual adventure into the game. I can't help wondering if that's in response to customer demand or in an attempt to redirect attention to what was probably intended to be the core of the game, which was surely the fighting since improving your team's combat ability would seem to be the main motivation to spend money.

And here's where I start to have trouble with the whole concept. Maybe this is old thinking but I still tend to envisage a largely male, mostly young audience for games like this.

It's not just the presence and apparent importance of combat in the game that suggests it. Or the illegal street racing and bank-robbing for that matter. There's also that aspect of the anime-flavored, open world gacha genre we tend to dance rather tentatively and uncomfortably around, here in the West: sexualization of the characters. Particularly, although not only, the female characters. It's ever-present in many of the games and it's something that has, in the past, needed to be toned down for a Western audience. 

In most of the gacha games I've played, it's an aspect that's played a fairly low-key role but it's undeniably present to some degree. In NTE, for example, it's noticeable that a disproportionate number of the key characters are female and the dress code in Hethereau is certainly what you might call.. relaxed. 

It's never been remotely unusual for video games, even in the straight-laced West, to use sexuality to grab and hold the attention of what was, for the longest time, deemed to be primarily, if not exclusively, a young, male audience but in more recent times the general audience for video games has expanded to include a much broader range of genders and ages and whole subgenres have grown up around the concept of socializing with imaginary friends or romantic partners. Interactions between players and NPCs are more numerous and varied than they were even a few years ago.

On that basis, it shouldn't surprise anyone that Hethereau is full of attractive, outgoing, friendly NPCs or even that some of the gameplay involves socializing with them rather than fighting monsters. What does surprise me is the nature of some, possibly most, of those interactions.

Yesterday, for example, I helped Mint cram for her exams then later I bumped into Lacrimosa in the street and she invited me over to her house, where we both ended up drinking tomato juice and reading manga with someone she met on Bagel. This was before my stint playing drums behind Nannally, Haniel and Akane. It was all quite odd but at least it made a change from all the child-minding, babysitting and teen drama that often seems to take up the majority of Flora's evenings. 

And it's not like these are isolated incidents. At times, living this kind of heightened version of a normal life seems like it's the main thrust of the game.

It works for me although some of that may be novelty value. I can't remember ever having spent this amount of time doing things so apparently unrelated to the main plot and utterly devoid of physical violence in any other supposedly adventure-oriented game. 

It's all so gosh-darned nice, too. Playing Flora, there's an engagingly innocent, endearing feel to it all. She's like an older sister figure or even a favorite aunt. She keeps an eye out for the kids, makes sure they're safe and having a good time and in doing so, she has a good time herself. She doesn't even mind chatting to Edward on Bagel although god knows he not the most stimulating of conversationalists. And when she does get a minute to herself, she's glad to spend some downtime with her friends, almost all of whom just happen to be women or girls.

I wonder if it mightn't feel a little different, if I was playing as the male version of the Appraiser? A lot of these activities are arguably stereotypically female scenarios. Would a male player character slip into the role as smoothly?

Actually, he probably would, assuming his dialog was the same. The Appraiser always comes across as sober-minded, sensible, responsible and selfless. Unlike many of her friends and colleagues, Flora also dresses demurely by local standards and always behaves impeccably. She's long-suffering, patient, ever-willing to help out, even when the crazy plans she gets drawn into are sure to go wrong. She's the calm voice of reason amid a frenzy of sugared-up hysteria and drunken self-indulgence. 

She's usually the adult in the room, even when there are clearly older people there. I imagine it would be the same with a male Appraiser. I don't think gender comes into it much, if at all. 

Is this what the modern player of a magitech adventure game wants now? To be the designated driver in every situation? The calm voice of reason? The Sensible One?

Maybe it is. Maybe everyone playing NTE really does want to live a vicarious, innocent, work- and family-oriented life, doing their job to the best of their ability, minding the kids who inexplicably work there too, before skipping off down the street with their friend, holding hands, heading off to eat ice-cream, see a movie or just hang out at each other's places after work, where they'll talk mostly about food they like and shows they watch on TV before heading home for a good night's sleep. 

If so, I guess there's hope for the world after all. I mean, it's got to be better than becoming a murder-hobo, hasn't it? 

Maybe it's close to what the target audience already does in real life. Maybe what they enjoy is seeing those lives, interests and concerns reflected in these characters. If so, that would be welcome news from a gaming perspective, if also slightly worrying from a real-life one, given the general level of scattiness, disregard for personal and public safety and the plethora of all-round performative, hyperactive behavior on display. 

Until and unless Hotta or PWG decide to release some hard numbers on the demographics, the way cinemas routinely report on who's going to see which movie, it's all just speculation. For all the critical analysis, I'm no wiser as to who the game is supposed to be for, let alone who's actually playing it. 

Although I do feel pretty safe in saying it wasn't made for pensioners like me. I am definitely not the target audience. I probably should stick to my lane and play Stars Reach or Pantheon with the rest of the geezers. 

Now, doesn't that sound like fun?