Marjo starts to feel like she may not even have scratched the surface, but she decides to have one of her cis characters re-check against the list of careers. Or at least the ones available in the early game, and the primary skills for each of these professions.

OMG, there are so many professions to choose from… but I have the feeling I need to know more about which ones would best serve my purposes before I pick one for my cis characters, she sighs upon realizing that every job in the game has only two main skills required to level, at least in the early game. There’s so much for me to experience…

Gordon: Don’t forget about uploading the clip about trans ghosts’ sleep disorders to YouTube!

However, she has yet to get a feel for the grind of leveling up skills and professions, nor for the crafting system, and she already has a lot going on in the first… 10 minutes of gameplay in haunting mode or so.

And she’s dangerously short on cash in-game after building the home and equipping it with all the equipment she deems is necessary just to fulfill the ghosts’ basic needs. Even when she’s busy making her cis characters work odd jobs as a freelance writer or IT consultant, the jobs they were contracted for seem to take forever.

A few real-world minutes later, it starts to rain outside her in-game home. And it seems like the pickpocket is given the opportunity to work from home on the second in-game day, but the department store clerk isn’t.

“Oh! It seems like not all jobs allow working from home, and maybe not all levels in a career either! But I now have a better idea of what could draw people to play this game!”

“What do you mean, honey?” Marjo’s dad asks her at point-blank.

“Namely that you can have careers, lifestyles and relationships you want! But by far the relationship part is the fastest”

Speaking of which, with the poor cis couple being a little tired of toiling at their freelance gigs, to the point of refusing to do any further work on theirs, she feels like they are ready to have sex. The first step is to choose whether to have it with or without protection.

“What makes it so important to have the option to have protection in place?” Marjo is a little confused to what purpose that would have in-game. “Are the devs doing sex ed, too?”

I’m sure there’s a gameplay reason for the option to have protected sex to be there, Gordon then requests something of Marjo in her chat. Even as she hesitates as to whether her ghosts should have protected sex.

Gordon: Try protected this time around, and unprotected later

But she realizes soon enough that even protected sex gives her several options of how to go around doing it. Especially with the space around her cis characters fading to black after the choice is made. Which feels a little awkward to her when she feels like she’s given a freedom of choice whose results feel a little limited because of it happening under a black shroud.

She feels like even protected sex dissolves some of her ghosts’ stress, but get dirtier as a result. Not the best way to get stress relief in the RCG world, but she can have them work on their odd jobs again.

Which, coincidentally, end more or less when the trans characters return from work. And both earn promotions; however, because the trans male’s new position starts at night, she knows that a promotion isn’t coming tonight.

That ought to help, but I am still broke-ass for now, Marjo sighs, while she has her trans couple have unprotected sex, albeit in the shower. And man the difference is clear between protected and unprotected, as far as the impact on their relationship and their needs are concerned.

“I think that what this game’s ghosts get out of sex doesn’t really change depending on whether they’re trans or not, but protection definitely does. I start to like this game...”

She also realizes that her trans female now has the option to work from home as a seamstress. However, since the in-game promotion letter sent to her mentioned that part of the bonus came under the form of a sewing machine, she looks into the household inventory for it.

And installs it in her home, which is when she finally gets a grip on what it takes to craft cloth outfits in the game when she clicks on the outfit crafting menu. A pattern and meters of fabric, with cloth type determining the quality of the outfit, along with the workmanship.

“I might be wondering what it takes to craft one’s own fabrics…” a clueless Marjorine combs the help pages of the game while she has her seamstress practice sewing.

Meanwhile, in Montreal, Adèle, upon receipt of the bug reports submitted by the players in beta testing, is as puzzled as Marjorine by the sleeping troubles endured by trans ghosts. Which, outside of being the spokesperson for RCG’s manufacturer, makes her take part in the game’s quality assurance. She has a discussion with a few of her QA coworkers after a summary of the bug report lands in her system.

“It seems like one of our beta testers found a bug giving sleep disorders to trans ghosts. Cishet/pan couples have one advantage: they can make babies without needing to resort to IVF! We can’t let trans ghosts have a disadvantage in one of their vital needs, we must first fix that bug if we want trans characters to be playable at launch!” Adèle explains to her coworkers.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

“Are you sure that player hasn’t chosen a trait for these ghosts that make them more vulnerable to sleep disorders?” one of her coworkers asks her.

“No; none of the traits chosen by the player are risk factors for the sort of mental illnesses leading to sleep disorders, nor did they finish their workdays with stress!” Adèle retorts upon double-checking the report log.

“Do we even want trans characters to be playable?” another coworker asks.

“Yes, despite trans being caught in the crossfire of the culture wars. Gamers might look to the game as a safe space to experiment with different sexual identities on top of different orientations!”

“Adèle, I might be wondering what buffs, if any, to give homo or trans characters to make up for their inability to have babies!” the first coworker points out.

“The game assumes trans to have surgeries, and you cannot create trans characters as a child or younger for this reason! The sex change surgery costs a substantial amount, and comes with a warning screen before you pay the fee, because it’s irreversible!”

Damn it, this entire non-binary fiasco might cause this game’s undoing! I’m not even sure what buffs to give trans that could make up for the loss of fertility, but the buff must be as permanent as the consequences of the surgery, Adèle struggles to think of what buffs should be given.

“Tabarnak! Whatever the buff is for trans, it should be gender-agnostic, so that even non-binary trans characters will get it!” Adèle points out, matter-of-factly, to her fellow developers.

“Damn! I believe we might need some help sorting out the lending system! It seems like we have a bug report for the seizure to kick in before giving the option to either go bankrupt or file for consumer proposal!” another dev reads the log of the bug report.

“Was the loan a mortgage or some other kind of secured loan? Bankruptcy and consumer proposals only kick in when taking out unsecured debt!”

“I’m afraid so”

“In which case it’s a feature, not a bug!”

The whole loan and insolvency mechanic wouldn’t have been possible without Karine’s input, Adèle starts wondering if the player who filed the bug report for the insolvency system malfunction has any clue of how debt and insolvency worked.

Back in Kinder, just before the stream ends, Marjo has finally figured out how to make cloth, which requires fibers. Whose choice, in turn, determines what material the cloth will be, and what quality, too.

“Damn it, I don’t have enough cash to buy gardening plots, much less a weaving machine!” Marjo whines, before she calculates how much of a loan she needs to buy that equipment. “I can barely buy seeds, cotton or food!”

Gordon: Here’s your chance to test the game’s moneylending mechanic!

Loans. Before Marjo can confirm the terms of her in-game loan, the game’s banks ask what collateral, if any, is put for it, as well as the purpose of the loan.

And she makes forecasts for the income earned by selling these artisanal outfits, feeling that she will need multiple garden plots’ worth of cotton to make them.

What she realizes is that her current income is one thing, but the real kicker is the income forecast from the sale of outfits. Which is just a factor to her.

“Oh boy, they give me interest rates, but the rates are assumed fixed. Obviously, I can take out bigger loans if my ghosts make more by the sale of outfits! But it seems like one bank specializes in mortgages, another one in commercial lending and one in personal lending! There are five core parameters: income, principal, collateral, interest rate and term length! I really, really hope my characters will make enough to pay back the loan, but I can’t take it for granted!” Marjo rambles as she plays around with the loan screen.

She also realizes that, even in the game, unsecured loans have lower borrowing limits, as well as higher interest rates, regardless of the bank. I really hope I can stay on top of my loan payments, and not experience the insolvency system, she sighs, before turning her attention to making three clips about specific aspects of the game for YouTube.

One for the sleep disorders endured by trans characters, another one for having protected vs unprotected sex, and finally the game’s lending system. I don’t think it’s a good idea to make a sewing guide just yet, as I don’t know how to make sewing patterns just yet, but I could always start my own website for all things RCG. Yet I feel like this clip about trans ghosts getting sleep disorders will be the one going viral, she thinks about how to manage her channel.

And, obviously, post to the game’s subreddit about the sleep disorders endured by trans, and the video about it before herself going to sleep. Before long, the thread explodes in comments, and, as with the character creation video, it becomes a theater in these flame wars.

She also starts the RCG wiki so that RCG players can post the available info about the game. As soon as the wiki goes live, she sends out the link to it on the game’s subreddit as well as to Gordon and her own family, and starts contributing to it.

Speaking of Gordon, he feels a little underwhelmed by the early game. It’s supposed to be an MMO; I experienced nothing of the multiplayer gameplay aspects and all I did was solo! Gordon reflects on his experience of playing RCG as a beta player. Is the multiplayer aspect of the game going to be mostly economic? Or you could host parties, or enter relationships, with player-controlled ghosts? Tomorrow, I ought to test the partying aspect of the game with Marjo and others, if any. And maybe even have one of my ghosts hit on one of hers! This game is clearly designed for alt-o-holics!

But he bursts into laughter as he watches the video detailing the sleep troubles endured by the game’s trans characters, as well as other videos posted by other beta testers of other bugs of the game.

“I feel like it’s before a game launches that you can experiment with it. For games like these, provided its player base is large enough, guides will be released on day one for the core content, and sometimes for even the game’s minutiae, and the game will essentially be a solved problem within a few days of it launching! There is no telling how religiously the players will worship game guides, though…” Gordon is overheard by his roommate.

“Gordon, what is this game about?” his roommate asks him, overhearing his ramblings.

“It seems to be about life simulation!”

“I really hope that you don’t spend all night playing that game in the future!” his roommate warns him.

I really, really hope Marjorine will actually make some money out of crafting clothes! From what I can make out, she will need to farm cotton to do so! And, hopefully, by tomorrow, we will have a better idea of how long the harvest cycle is for cotton! Gordon can’t help but think of Marjorine’s in-game experience. But stay focused for tomorrow. Hopefully our boss will finally schedule the meeting about staff turnover! There’s a reason why Marjorine is part of this: while she might be the A/R screamo, she’s symptomatic of staff turnover.

It's clear that both players seem to think of where they’re headed in-game next, since they both feel like they only scratched the game’s surface.