This article is translated from: https://mimidoshima.wordpress.com/2019/03/02/medetee/
It may be hard for us to imagine that someone would be willing to create something for free, let alone create a game. While in the past, game developers could make a game for just a few meals, nowadays, even games with budgets reaching hundreds of millions are not surprising to us. However, for those struggling to make a living in such a harsh economic environment, this is the reality.
Everything nowadays is career-oriented; only the price tags on items can give them value. If you create just for fun, you clearly have not experienced a proper job. You haven't seen what people in studios are actually doing. Your hobbies will never compare to those of professionals.
To some extent, this idea is correct. Professionalism comes with discipline and expertise, which is often absent in amateur works. Messing around in Unity to create some fun assets is one thing; making a game in Unity before a deadline is another. I don't think anyone would argue that making games isn't a serious business.
However, please try not to view game development as a job. For instance, imagine you are someone who enjoys tinkering with game development software. We can easily imagine hypothetical scenarios: What if you just want to make a game for yourself and your friends? What if being an amateur doesn't affect the quality of the game itself? What if your sense of achievement doesn't come from the profits the game generates, but from the responses of people in the comments? What if you just want to finish a game without worrying about copyright issues?
And what if most of the games you make are created using a very old software called RPGMaker2000?
This is the world of VIPRPG, a subculture community filled with many subcultures, where these hypotheticals exist in reality.
To explain what VIPRPG is, we need to go back to early internet culture and talk about 2ch (now 5ch). Contrary to popular belief, 2ch is not a uniform whole but a website composed of many "message boards," each with its own culture and rules. For example, the famous "Densha Otoko" originated from a thread in the "Single Male Board." 2ch also has message boards like the movie board or news board, one of which is the "News Flash (VIP) Board." The purpose of this board was to bring the random content (クソスレ，shitposting) and internet trolls from the original news board here, allowing serious news discussions to continue (note: this function was quickly abolished). The users on this VIP board call themselves VIPPERs because they see themselves as VIPs and enjoy posting high-quality random content.
However, what sets the VIP board apart is how willing they are to focus on this random content. One of the most famous instances occurred after the birth of Hatsune Miku. When the announcement for the second Vocaloid, Kagamine Rin, came out, everyone was curious about what the third Vocaloid would be like. Around March 2008, a thread asked: What would a knockoff version of Vocaloid look like? VIPPERs began brainstorming, imagining this Vocaloid as a 31-year-old tsundere idol with drill-like twin tails and blood-red eyes. Her favorite things included baguettes and Norway, she was good at extending DVD rental periods but not at singing. She also liked to wear military uniforms and could "hold any microphone." After everyone was satisfied, they started creating "official" illustrations for this fake Vocaloid, one of the earliest character designs, "Sen," provided her voice to the UTAU voice bank (note: the author likely made a mistake here; it was another person in the thread who provided the voice).
Thus, on April Fool's Day 2008, the next Vocaloid, Hatsune Teto, was born. The illustrations and the fake Crypton website (named crvipton) fooled many, and everyone enjoyed the prank. A few days later, someone made a video documenting this legendary event. The song about her as a fake DIVA became popular, and EXIT TUNES' "Triple Baka" also recognized Hatsune Teto's fame.
Through stable and high-quality creations, Teto became a semi-official figure in the eyes of fans, Vocaloid creators, and founders. Even today, some people consider her a real Vocaloid, and she has appeared in Project DIVA.
So we cannot overlook the "VIP quality" that has been invested in these actually quite good random contents. Many anonymous creators are willing to elevate the quality of these random creations and do not see random content as inherently bad. Random content can also be cool, constructive, and worth spending time on. On YouTube, we certainly have cultures similar to VIP subculture: Silvagunner is famous for his various "high-quality game music soundtracks" mixed with inside jokes and stories, and he occasionally creates good tracks with background mixes of Gangnam Style or Snow Halation.
This trend of creating high-quality random content is also a significant driving force behind the birth of VIPRPG.
So far, we have only discussed the "VIP" part of VIPRPG. What about the "RPG" part? Of course, here, RPG refers to the role-playing genre we are familiar with—like your Final Fantasy or Persona. However, this abbreviation also has an additional meaning; it represents a special software: RPGMaker.
Although simple and easy-to-learn game development software has been around for a while (like Zelda Classic and its archive purezc, or Gamemaker), the RPGMaker series is undoubtedly the most influential software for creating 2D role-playing games. As of the time of writing this article, the latest software is the 2015 MV. However, the most famous versions (and the ones that grew up with the author) are the 2000 and 2003 versions. This software is well-known in both the West and Japan, inspiring children who would later become game developers. Toby Fox, the now-famous creator of Undertale and its sequel Deltarune, used to play RPGMaker 2000 with his brother. SmokingWOLF (the creator of Kaito and WOLF RPG Editor) also mentioned in his independent game development book that his experience making games in RPGMaker95 led him to create more interesting games.
Many well-known and polished indie games were also made using RPGMaker 2000 or 2003. Some games are released for free, known as furige (フリーゲ). In the English community, we have games like Embric of Wulfhammer’s Castle or Oneshot. In Japan, there are countless games, most of which are unheard of outside Japan: Yume Nikki, ib, and Tobira no Densetsu, among others.
The simplicity and learnability of RPGMaker, along with its ability to create anything the creator desires through code, have made it a popular choice among developers. For players, installation is also straightforward. Moreover, releasing games is easy because the game sizes are small—this is a very important point, although it is not as crucial now since most cities have high download speeds.
However, because making games with RPGMaker is very easy, people have also started uploading various unfinished or unoptimized games online. Many RPGMaker 2000 or 2003 games simply use the default assets from the software, which, while not always bad, has led many to consider this a characteristic of poor works.
In 2000, people began to feel that the default protagonist in the software, Alex, was like a parasite. However, his ubiquitous nature (he is the icon that starts the game program) gradually evolved into a meme.
And this meme inspired the most powerful meme...
When VIP and RPG come together, it’s like heaven meeting hell. VIPRPG was born from threads discussing RPGMaker in the VIP board, where they created high-quality creations and posted them in the threads. Since these games were made for the regulars of the threads rather than for external distribution, they contain many complex inside jokes that only those deeply involved in the community can understand.
Among them, the もしも series is perhaps the greatest creation of VIPRPG. もしも means "what if," and it was influenced by various RPGMaker 2000 memes. This series became a collaborative project, with countless anonymous creators starting to make the best, silliest, and most unforgettable games.
And it all began with one game: もしも勇者が最強だったら (What if the hero was the strongest?).
You play as Alex, who is sent by the king to defeat the demon king because the demon king ate the king's favorite chips. Alex is only wearing cloth armor and holding a longsword, but he has some other trump cards.
When he encounters his first obstacle—a dragon that greets him with "Hey, kid"—he simply knocks the dragon off the screen:
Next, countless stone golems and giant golems block his path, but Alex can defeat them with a single blow. The same happens with harpies, blue dragons, and demons; they are no match for the hero.
However, now, Alex faces the strongest members of the demon king's army: a ninja who knows 999 ninjutsu, a warrior who can easily cut through boulders, and a dark elf sorceress who can rival five hundred dragons!
Unfortunately, they are all defeated by Alex in an instant.
Alex's final opponent is, of course, the demon king himself, the one who stole the chips. The demon king unleashes powerful effects and charges at Alex. Alex remains unscathed. This is the climax of the game.
The demon king is also defeated by Alex in an instant, and Alex feels that his work for the day is done and returns to the king. The king can now enjoy his chips.
Then everyone lives happily ever after.
This classic game became a source of inspiration for many future VIPRPG creators. It used classic JRPG tropes but made them incredibly silly and humorous. Perhaps the best way to describe this game is to say it is a simple parody of a hero fighting a dragon. However, just like Hatsune Teto, VIPPERs gradually became interested in creating more such games.
So they began to wonder: What if other default characters became the strongest? What if Lilia, the default female character, became the strongest? Or what if the cool-bearded pirate Gomez found a way to rival Alex? These hypotheticals gradually became reality based on VIPPERs' evaluations, leading to a series of games. Moreover, the interactions between the games produced more settings and stories.
The best way to explain the evolution of the もしも series is to compare it to something like the Marvel or DC comic universes. Both have many characters that can be freely interpreted by creators or strictly adhere to the established settings. Many works connect with long-running comics, so they must follow the remaining plot. Some works may also place many characters from a series into a context unrelated to the series itself; Chris Claremont's X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills is an example.
The もしも games are similar, but without content regulation, and they do not care about the integrity of the settings. Creators can freely choose the aspects they like in the settings and create without offending anyone. Moreover, since these games are usually aimed at those who already know the stories and understand they are random content, they do not mind using copyrighted materials (Chrono Trigger is a popular choice) or music (Aerosmith's "I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing" is basically considered the theme song of VIPRPG). Some well-known RPGMaker tracks have also become signature songs for some original characters. If creators feel they do not want to follow the trends everyone else is chasing, they can freely add their own settings. This is their own creation—personal random creations and contributions to the VIPRPG world. Players also understand this because they are no different from the creators: they see themselves as contributors to this vast meme.
Indeed, this freedom, combined with the close connections between games, makes this small community of VIPPERs very unique. They are a subculture born within a subculture (some "main" VIPPERs dislike them), and they fully embrace their small circle. They just want to create content they enjoy without making any compromises.
What if someone wants to make a JRPG with almost no combat, basically just a walking simulator? From a publisher's perspective, this might seem unwise. Most players may be unwilling to read long passages of text. However, this is the game that person wants to make, and such a game can only be realized in the VIPRPG environment. For creators and players who want to freely explore their desires, VIPRPG is an environment that allows their dreams to come true. As long as players and creators share similar desires and tastes, some niche concepts will surely be realized.
This is why VIPRPG has succeeded. It was born from a series of high-quality junk content, and this subculture within a subculture can provide and customize various exhilarating experiences, finding something beyond the mainstream and even the conventional in subculture.
This small circle also has some great works. Helen of Incredibly City is a niche masterpiece for those independent JRPGs on Steam, and it has sparked interest in VIPRPG among many foreign netizens, including myself.
However, just like your mentor often loves to ask about your papers, there is always a question lingering: So what? Even if you can create an RPGMaker game that simulates IIDX or STG, what does it matter? You can't make it big, and you have no money, so why bother?
Perhaps the best answer to this question is "who cares?" Subcultures do not care about that question; they just want to find meaning in the most useless things.
From the perspective of categorizing and generalizing things, mainstream culture is very domineering. What we call excellent or exquisite is determined by those who lead this concept. This mindset certainly does not always align with those who do not belong to the elite, but it will inevitably appear in books and television.
We know there are those with leftist opinions; however, no one can voice them. After all, we are taught to ignore those "what ifs" around us; for us, this is the only way to respond to the "so what?" question.
But what if some people who do not want to conform to this value system found an unusual way to express themselves? What if there were a community of marginalized people, embracing those who want to seek unconventional narrative means and principles and histories not found in textbooks? What would that be like?
This is the subculture that I admire. Perhaps I romanticize it too much, but I truly believe that the fact that some cobblers like me can create a game using RPGMaker that might only satisfy one or two people is very powerful. They are also a very important part of what we consider history and culture.
Various subcultures and circles are born from various "what ifs." In my personal view, this is what makes them independent and powerful.