post #11: Gacha games and YuGiOh!: word play

     Motivating this is that, in looking for something to get me through the day while trying to adjust to the shocks of moving (my body has been in revolt; rest is not stomachable enough on its own), I've downloaded and started to play pokemon tcg pocket. I have many thoughts about it -- it's both more and less predatory marketed than duel links. While the simulation engine is sleek, the gameplay is only a chore (the sheared down size is an immense hindrance for pokemon, compared to yugioh). Etc etc. However, I will save the majority of those (some positive thoughts too) for another time. One day I might review more games...

[^^ image of the yugioh card 'rite of aramesir' ^^]

     Well, so, anyways, the point in mentioning this is that the game has gacha elements. As with all other gacha or gacha-like games I've played, I just stuck with what I was dealt, even though it has been semi sucky. I've never engaged in account rerolling, but I very much understand why people would (imo it's basically the same vibe as people who do coupon clipping for grocery shopping ). It's interesting in the sense that the systems of the gameplay (i.e., being a gacha)-- their very predatory marketing tactics (see folding ideas video on fortnite) are what produce this niche for of min maxing behavior and the culture which forms from it. An affect of capital, that is to say. Other motivating factors are the same general ways I think about language "corruption" etc., [retroactively see etymology nerd video on pidgin arabic-hindi dialect].

     Without further ado: there's a yugioh archetype based on isekai / gacha / rpg. Unlike most other archetypes in yugioh, this archetype doesn't have outwardly recognizable nomenclature for that would identify which cards qualify as this archetype (compare to, for example, pretty much all of the cards which have intended synergies with "blue-eyes white dragon" reflect their relation with names like "blue-eyes [xyz]" or "[xyz] with eyes of blue" etc. -- for more, see : https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Blue-Eyes). Rarher than share a common name, the isekai archetype is linked by that they all have effects that generate or interact with an "adventure" token (which represents the player character / person being isekaied). The isekai archetype cards are named as how they would be called within the context of their gacha / rpg / isekai world (e.g., "water enchantress of the temple").

[^^ drawing of the yugioh card 'rite of aramesir' ^^]

     This is all well and good. What I'm interested in here is that one of the main combo starters for the archetype, "Rite of Aramesir," has a name which is a pun on a japanese word, but the pun only works in English. That is, the pun plays on the english string of characters "aramesir." When reversed in english, the text becomes "risemara" -- (リセマラ) -- which is a japanese word for to describe the process of, when beginning a new gacha or rpg, resetting your account over and over again until you get a good start (the japanese term is a shortened play on "reset marathon"). In japanese, the card is also called "Aramesir 「blah blah blah」" (アラメシア「の儀」). However, because japanese characters work different from the roman alphabet, the reversed text would read "Asimera" (アシメラア), not "risemara" (リセマラ). To my knowledge the reversed japanese text is gibberish. While there may be a way of getting risemara from the original Japanese text (tbh i don't know much about japanese word play), I'm nonetheless fascinated that the pun on the japanese slang term only gets to be a pun when transcribed into english (whereupon it could only be made sense of as a pun if someone was already familiar with the term being referenced). I don't know what to do with this, but i find it curious.

     The yugioh wiki says that "The characters 「菈玛至崇颂」 (Lā mǎ zhì chóng sòng) in this card's Simplified Chinese are also an anagram of "reset marathon" (重置马拉松, Chóngzhì mǎlāsōng), written with homophonous characters." Which is interesting in it's own right. Word play, word play, word play... it so fun, it so intesting. Little guys on the page, prickling your brain