It’s slightly confusing, but the third day of the game is on the fourth day of the week.
I’m sure this won’t come back to bite me in the ass later, no sir.
Yesterday I teased the fact that this is the day where Alma shows up, and like yesterday I’m gonna point you to an article we wrote explaining her character extensively in the past and instead focus on Donovan.
Still here? Good.
You see, there’s this school of thought in media criticism of “I find something unpleasant therefore it is bad and its existence is an objective flaw”, ignoring that maybe making someone uncomfortable or providing an unpleasant experience IS the whole intent.
And no, I’m not talking about “horror games with faulty controls that add to the effect”, I’m talking about sections of a story that are as pivotal as salt is in the process of making sweets.
People might point out and say “well yeah, that’s the whole point of Day 9, isn’t it?” but again, no. That’s a more macro element of the story, I’m talking something more granular than that.
So picture this: You have a story that needs to explain things in medias res because hey, everyone lives in that world and it would be kinda jarring to have whole ass explanations about the lore of the world in infodump form. You want to set the stage for the world without a long protracted intro, you wanna jump into the action ASAP.
Alright then, what if the first character is a big head (HAH!) of some mass media company? It gives you a scoop on the going ons of the city, maybe have them be very vocal about the sleazy business side of things, it IS a Cyberpunk setting after all.
More importantly, however, you’re playing as a jaded woman in her late 20s in a service job. Sure, the plot is all about learning she’s not as alone as she thought, but it’s important we set the stage for that too, that we get the player into the mindset of the jaded 27 year old they’re playing as, and they’re not gonna get that getting a honky dory first shift, will they?
So we already had the idea of the Mass Media person, what if we made them an unholy matrimony of Mr. McMahon and J. Jonah Jameson?
Thus Donovan was born.
Of course, Donovan is just half of the mission of setting the mood for the player.
I’m a very experimental writer, by which I mean that a lot of my writing is motivated by small experiments of the “I wonder if I can achieve x” variety. And considering VA-11 Hall-A was the first time I had a chance to craft something longform, one of the mental exercises I had in mind was something to the effect of “can I write two asshole dudes that are assholes for completely different reasons?”.
In case you haven’t caught onto it, the second one is Ingram on the first day.
And so, the flow and setup is established: Jill starts the day clearly kinda grumpy, her first client is an intense douchebag, her second client is an antagonistic sort of douchebag, she (and the player) grow weary, go take a break, and when she goes back oh god finally a nicer client… she’s a cop (sorta, kinda), but she’s an improvement over the other two.
The player gets a great first impression of Sei, gets into the shoes of a jaded service worker, and learns the ropes about the world by the time Sei shows up and the implication of what she works for is crystal clear. Especially after Ingram.
Not only that, but it also feeds into a background gag of sorts.
After the first day the player is mortified that the second day opens with Donovan too.
Then the third day (this one) opens with Alma and OH HELL NO IS DONOVAN GONNA SHOW UP EVERY DAY?.
Fourth day… he’s not here, but I don’t trust he won’t show up again…
Fifth day… Okay, the plot seems to have moved on from him.
Second week, he’s nowhere to be seen.
Well, maybe the game will end without him showing up aga- SON OF A BITCH THERE HE IS AGAIN ONE LAST TIME GOOD RIDDANCE.
So when I see people being annoyed that Donovan is the first impression of the game, or how rough the first half of the first day is, that’s… that’s the whole point, that’s the joke. It’s not “a misguided flaw” it’s a deliberate feature.
Admittedly, now that the game has a name for itself, these comments have become less frequent (though I’ve also learned to mute petty criticisms on social media as a reflex for my own sanity so they MIGHT be there and I don’t see them), But I remember so many people talking about dropping the game at the beginning because of it, or people seeing characters they weren’t comfortable with as “objective issues” even if the whole point WAS to not be comfortable with those characters.
Huh, I guess the Dorothynquisition did come indirectly, and nobody expected it, fitting.
As pointed out at the start, if you’re playing along today’s reserved for the third day.
Tomorrow: Another “Feature, not flaw” character is gonna break into the bar.
when i encountered donovan in my first playthrough i thought “damn, this guy doesn’t rub me the right way” but while going through the dialogue i was really captivated by the conversation, is like that teacher who despite acting a certain way you still listen because its interesting.
also i loved the part where while alma leaves and he enters, alma punches him in the gut by putting his hand where he shouldn’t
Well, contrary to popular belief, I did like Donovan a little bit. At least I wasn’t annoyed by him and he’s frequent visits, even encouraged me to use the hotkeys and memorizing how to make a big beer. Anyway, on to the next day!!!
personally to me donovan wasn’t annoying at all(in fact i kinda like him), he has kinda a “loud/gutsy” like personality, but you can treat his way of live his life as a way to protect his own sanity, he works in media, he gets all kind of presure all around him, and on top of that he has to make sure what whatever is put on the news can draw clics(so he probably has to read them a bit before he approve them or not), and all that stuff can kinda… chip away at his own sanity, so to avoid he going crazy, he probably has to prove he exists and what he matters more than others, kinda like being insane but being sane at the same time kinda?
I’m willing to put up with a shocking amount for the sake of more Alma dialogue..
My question of the other day is answered today XD. Ive found Donovan to be easier to deal with this time around, I wonder why.
My question of the other day is answered today XD. Ive found Donovan to be easier to deal with this time around, I wonder why. This daily thing is fun btw.
I always liked Donovan a good bit, even outside of that one joke about his history learning Chinese that still makes me laugh every playthrough.
I suppose it’s another aspect of dismissing unpleasant things, but there is kind of a stigma around humanizing terrible people sometimes, and I don’t mean in terms of villains with understandable motives or redemption arcs, but more in the sense that you don’t see a whole lot of unapologetic assholes being written with as much genuine humanity as sympathetic characters without needing any particular redeeming quality.
It’s kind of everywhere, like how when he talks about learning Chinese he says “someone like [him]” could learn it as opposed to someone like Jill with a scholarship he seems respectful of, everything about his job, a business that often appears to consumers as little more than a machine pumping out essays from some kind of bottomless magical plane, when the reality is that it’s a small wonder they can even make it what it is; or just the implication that he must be at least stressed enough in his day to day life to come to a backstreet hellhole of a bar and rant about investors, but I think my favorite display of that from Donovan is on Day 1, when he reflects on the way Jill calls him. He seems so happy, and you don’t see why before he makes a good case about alternatives not being as good; turns out it’s because he’s a bloody arsehat in the end, but even if the reason only makes him a bigger douchebag, the way he wants to be seen not as a job title or a mere part of a family line always strikes me as very human, a common ground he can have with most people.
I feel a lot of players might be more receptive to Dorothy as far as the theme of people who might shock being cast in a human light goes, and not to say that’s not for good reason, but I feel Donovan is a great introduction to (what in my eyes is) the game’s overall spirit, or at least part of it. A guy that, despite every other factor, you might still need to sit down and listen to to really appreciate for who he is.
And I like his smile too.
Wait… Peoples complained about Ingram and Donovan? What the f*** ? XD
There is really peoples not understanding that a story can’t revolve only on positive characters?
I can’t really remember my first reaction to both Donovan and Ingram. But nowadays i quite like them, Donovan is fun in his own way and I can’t help but feel a certain pity and fondness for Ingram.
It’s like since it’s a fictional setting and I don’t have to actually deal with them, i can not just ignore them being mean, but ENJOY it. It’s one of my favorite things in fiction (◔‿◔).
It’s funny, because Donovan was actually gave me a strong first impression when I first played the game. By the second day it was clear that effort went into making Donavan seem human, even though he’s not someone you’re supposed to like. He wasn’t just a strawman there to represent whatever opinions the author didn’t like, and that made me excited to see all the characters that came after.
Also, love that meme at the top of the post XD
You wanna know how much damage Donavan has done to my brain?
5 years later, the only drink I have memorized is the freaking beer