Words by David C. Obenour
For all of the connection and convenience that modern living promises, a lot of times it can be an exhausting and isolating slog. Finding balance in your love life, with friends and family, pursuing hobbies, money, and career – it’s a lot to keep up on, especially as the demands of each keep mounting up. Negative energy, pessimism, goblin mode, whether productive or not, sometimes you just need to shutdown for awhile.
In My Life Be Like, players are born into their unique mix of zodiac quirks and preferences as everyone does their best in the shadow of those simply born into “old money.” Sometimes it’s great. Sometimes it’s not so great. Life be like that.
Off Shelf: My Life be Like is such a creative idea for a game. Do you remember some of your first thoughts for how you could see this theme turning into a game? Your inspirations?
Chih-Fan Chen: The concept of life games has been popular worldwide for nearly a century since Monopoly. So when creating this game we wanted to differentiate it from other life-themed games. This is why we chose to incorporate elements of “negative energy” and “pessimism.” The inspiration came from the current situation of young people in East Asia, including Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and China. Similar to Oxford’s word of the year “Goblin mode,” which reveals an attitude of “lying flat, don’t expect anything from me,” many young people in East Asia are embracing a “lying flat” philosophy due to long working hours and wages that fail to keep up with the rising cost of living.
OS: A subject as wide-reaching as life, I have to imagine there were elements you wanted to include but that didn’t end up working? Aspects of life you wanted to address that just didn’t end up fitting into neat game play?
CC: Of course, there were elements we had to leave out. However, designing a game is about subtraction; we tried to include only the most important elements within a timeframe that players would find acceptable. The current version is one that both our team and the editors are satisfied with.
OS: If you were to add an expansion, what would you want to add to My Life Be Like? What else could be a fun element to turn into play?
CC: This question actually ties in with the previous one, where we mentioned some elements we ultimately had to leave out to keep the game duration manageable.
First, we might try having each character start with different disadvantages or limitations in certain abilities.
Second, during development, we also considered incorporating some topics, such as LGBT inclusivity or satisfaction with one’s sex life.
Third, perhaps we could include different values from the East and West, allowing players to better understand each other through the game.
Also, we have noticed that astrology isn’t as popular in the West as it is in East Asia, so we might consider using the 16 personality types (MBTI) instead.
OS: Can you talk about burn out, over extension and pessimism? How you saw them as important and why you wanted to incorporate them into a game about modern living? How you liked how they became a part of play?
CC: We believe that different countries have different cultures, so I can only speak from the East Asian perspective that I am more familiar with.
Nowadays, due to rising costs, intense competition, and social class immobility, terms like “lying flat” and “pessimism” are becoming more common in Taiwan. In Japan, there is the “herbivore generation” or “Buddhist generation,” and in South Korea, there is the term “Hell Joseon.”
These reflect the current situations young people are facing. However, our slogan is “Life may seem hopeless, but there is still a glimmer of light ahead,” suggesting that with a little effort, there are still ways to gain advantages in certain areas of life, such as love, family, and knowledge, which are represented in the game.
I certainly like how these elements became part of the game. Perhaps it resonated well because during crowdfunding in Taiwan we raised over $60,000!
OS: Personally, do you find yourself leaning toward one of the six goals – including the wild element of money? Do you ever find that informing your in-game play?
CC: l feel like I want them all, but if I had to choose, it might be family. However, I understand that life cannot be perfect so we want players to realize that while pursuing victory in the game there is the option to chase different types of goals or focus on one specific goal. Both strategies can lead to victory because after all, real life is like that. We gain some, we lose some.
OS: I was kind of surprised at how well My Life Be Like translated – from its very real and casual conversational tone to the experiences and emotions of the card’s flavor text. Were most of these straight translations between languages or did you have any cultural adjustments as well?
CC: We did put in some effort to adjust the text according to different cultural contexts. It wasn’t just a direct translation. Instead, we worked with native speakers from different cultures who understood the game and made appropriate adjustments to reflect the spirit of the game.
OS: Creating a game that worked in all of these cultures, do you feel you may have a broader appreciation for the humanity that we all share?
CC: We believe that games are inherently tied to human nature and the process of developing this game has indeed given us a deeper understanding of the commonalities among people. We also hope that this game allows players to find something within it that resonates with them.
OS: The NPC of Old Money is such a dark and hilarious reality. Being born into privilege means you are always able to effortlessly score the highest point value available in every round. Can you talk about your inspiration behind that? How you worked to gamify that aspect of life?
CC: The concept of the privileged second generation is a global phenomenon and the relative sense of deprivation is a common language. We encounter such individuals in the media and online, which contributes to the current mindset of comparison and even youth depression. Presenting this character as an NPC was intended to be a bit of satire. However, since players still have the chance to surpass the privileged, it also serves to motivate players. The American Dream is all about that, isn’t it?
OS: Do you put belief into the zodialogical differences expressed in the game? If so, can you talk about it? If not, can you talk about the cultural significance they can occupy whether we personally believe in them or not?
CC: This is a very interesting question. We are from Taiwan, where many people believe that zodiac signs correspond to specific personality traits. While this can be seen as a stereotype, those who believe in it interpret it as a form of statistical data. In neighboring Japan, they prefer predicting personality based on blood types. These perspectives are quite influential in East Asian cultures and affect people’s self-perception and social interactions.
In contrast, Western countries seem to be more familiar with the MBTI personality analysis. MBTI categorizes personalities into sixteen types and is used for personal development and team building. This method is more valued in Western cultures and is considered more scientific.
The differences between Eastern and Western cultures are quite fascinating. However, As a team from Taiwan, we chose to incorporate the approach that is most familiar to Taiwanese players in our game
OS: Mainasu did a wonderful job on the illustrations – conveying so much emotion with such minimal character design and few surrounding additional elements. Can you talk about what you liked about their work for the game? What are some of your favorite illustrations?
CC: Mainasu’s work is truly outstanding. We found the collaboration enjoyable because we asked the illustrator to play test the game before starting the illustrations. Besides Mainasu’s illustrations, we also particularly like those from “Raid on Taihoku” by Nuomi and “12 rivers” by Dofinn.
OS: Mizo has the mission of using games to convey in-depth topics such as history, humanities, and science popularization. What else are you working on or looking forward to possibly explored through gaming as insightful as this?
CC: In addition to social issues, we also hope to use games to introduce people to our home, Taiwan. Our next project will be a fictional strategy game set against the backdrop of Taiwan, featuring rich human conflicts.