#Custom Audiences

[caitalysmith]

Trademark crowd focusing on is the top jewel of Facebook Ads. No other individual in our safe of advertisement focusing on weapons comes unexpectedly near the trademark assemblage as far as essential promotion lead power.

[reformedmercymain]

ow2 PvE NEEDS to majorly knock it out of the park to bring back a large casual audience to overwatch. Many casual players that have stuck around seem to hate the existence of role queue and are potentially unaware that there’s a gamemode called “quickplay classic” and that there is a classic form of comp too which is surprising to me. But still. I have a shit ton of hope for them doing well because this glimpse into PvP direction for ow2 is just SO good that I think the game can thrive if they get enough time on the PvE aspects.

[enderspawn]

Can we

Can we see a screenie of the anon

discourse warning, for those who care bc it spawned from that but

the very phrase “not the communications major weighing in 🙄🙄” is so funny. the annoyance at someone weighing in on a topic they presumably have expertise in. the heavy tiktok comment section vibes from it. there’s no stronger opening line.

[randomnameless]

I saw a thread that argued that you can't have translation without localization and that the latter is always going to be tied to/dependent of the culture of its target audience. What are your thoughts on that especially in relation to FE? I think with this context, 3H/3Hopes(or Nopes) was always going to be different/lolcalized to cater to the Western audience (specifically America and its zeitgiest).

Partly horseshit.

Of course a translation has bias from the person/state doing the translation, and this bias should be taken into account whenever you want to use the translation.

But think about an academic paper, it is not translated, thus localised for scientist Y from country W, it has to be accessible and understandable by every scientist who understands the language you're using.

The target audience is "scientists" but it doesn't mean the paper is modified to cater to a certain audience.

In a way, yeah, finding "equivalent" words is a form of localisation, since you won't find the perfect match, but if a perfect match exists (idk, like contract and the French contrat) I don't think it'd be localisation?

Some other notions/concepts are impossible to translate with a word from the language of the "targeted audience". A "baguette tradition" is a specific type of baguette, and can't be translated as bagel, or the mundane "bread".

So then what? If someone writes "baguette tradition", that person isn't translating, but if they define it later in a bubble or in a footnote, it is still part of a localisation process : to bring something unknown to a targeted audience.

In a way, yes, a translator and ultimately a localiser will always have their own biases, so each translation/localisation has to take it into account.

That being said...

I can understand the “difference” because of the translator/localiser’s bias, but not the “pandering to a specific audience”.

Like, I partly grew up in the 4Kids era, and here in France, we had old anime being, uh, brought to a french audience since, iirc, the 80s. French children (people?) at that time wouldn’t be able to watch a show meant for children if the character had unfrench sounding name like, uh, Ryo Saeba. So it was turned in Nicky Larson.

Joey Wheeler being the “lolcalised” form of Jonouchi Katsuya, because, I suppose, back then, some people really really think US/Western children wouldn’t watch a “cartoon” with un-occidental sounding names.

Usopp (wordplay on Uso meaning lie) became the french Pipo (pipeau means a shitty lie), okay it works as a kind of translation but, uh... no? Just no? Don’t translate names ffs?

I remember the Shaman King anime from 4Kids keeping the “un-occidental” names, and the ceiling was broken, iirc, with the anime versions of Naruto and Bleach. Of course we still had early dubs with “Fire Style” instead of “Katon”, but by the mid 2000s, the barn was open and lo, children (at least here in France, that’s what I can talk about) could listen and read japanese words without a “perfect” translation.

Where am I going?

Well, we went from a ban on anything sounding too “foreign” for a certain audience to accept those names/words for this same audience, because, well, I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure it must have come with a general need and desire to bring the audience something new -

The works weren’t catered to an audience, instead, the audience was brought in that work, in that work’s world and “foreign” culture (i am ashamed but i had my first ramen after watching/reading too much Naruto)

Bleach’s Zanpakuto became common, while the translated “Soul Cutter” (iirc that’s the one?) was never used. Rukia’s deference to her older brother and superiors wasn’t toned down because here in France we never had (afair?) so much formality between siblings, and yet, the localised Bleach materials, let it be anime or manga, kept it.

More mundane, but the senpai/kouhai thingie? 

Doesn’t exist here, and yet some works depicted it in it’s complicated mess, without needing to tuned it down to “cater to an audience” who’s not familiar with the concept.

----

Now, back to Fodlan...

Suggesting, in 2019, that a certain audience cannot “deal” with a story where a religious organisation is not evil incarnate and someone who starts a conflict based on the “the ends justify the means” might not be completely full of crap is, imho, downright insulting.

We had a lot of people, when FE16 was released, who argued about IS’s POV and if the “unification boner” was a thinly veiled nod to a certain country’s rising (?) nationalism...

But what about the lolcalisation? Is it only playing with preexisting biases or, idk, their whitewashing of an imperialist who fights against “irrationality” and a  religion to push her own values on countries she invades is supposed to be a nod at... something ?

For sure, this is a bad faith reading -

And yet, is it really complicated to have a story where a religious organisation that calls itself a church but is actually led by were-dragons who escaped a genocide and just try to help people around - is not the reason why the World is bad?

Take a certain movie that will not be aired in certain parts of the world because two women are holding hands - cultural norms, no matter what you think of them, commended the, idk, publishers not to release say movie in those countries.

What kind of similar thing exists in the “West” regarding... a religious organisation led by a dragon, and an emperor in red who wants to force their “ideals” by invading other countries? Imperialism good so let’s make it better? Religion BaD so lets highlight how it sucks?

And does it justify altering a game and the meaning of its quotes?

---

Tl; Dr : Translation and localisation always comes with a bias from the translator/localiser, because they are human beings who were raised in a certain culture and even if they try to be as neutral as possible, they cannot offer a work that is 100% true and matches the original.

That being said, we’re in 2022 now - and while FE14′s dub was an artifact (”Suzukaze? No, our audience is too stupid, let’s shorten it to Kaze instead! Tsubaki? No, Subaki sounds better!”) - I still believe a work shouldn’t be translated/localised to “cater” to an audience, people managed to understand Zanpakuto and Katon, I am pretty sure an audience can also understand that a fictional church led by a dragon is not the Catholic Church, or that religion isn’t an inherently “BaD” concept.

It’s merely my opinion as a consumer and part of the audience of the localised works - but I think I am open-minded enough and ready to engage with a fictional world and its fictional organisations, without needing to fall back on some preexisting biases or concepts I am familiar with. Of course that’s not to say things can look similar to real life issues (i said similar, forget your degrees) and we can’t reflect on that, but it’s always supposed to be a reflection, and not what the audience is engaging with or seeing first.

When you go to a Korean Restaurant, you don’t order mac’n’cheese or a jambon-beurre. Even if that’s what you usually eat. If you end up ordering something that looks and tastes like mac’n’cheese? Then good for you, but it’s not mac’n’cheese. You can’t expect a Koren Restaurant to serve you a jambon-beurre.

If you go there and they only serve you mac’n’cheese or jambon-beurre, what is even the point of going in this restaurant? Why are other customers served somethign else but I still have to eat the same thing I’m used to at home?

alas who am i to talk about those things, i have no degree

[sanstropfremir]

Speaking of big money polish- what are your thoughts on exo?

i thought on this question for a while because it's very open ended and honestly i wasn't sure what direction to come at it, because aside from the typical gripes about sm styling fuckups, i like exo a lot. i haven't followed them that closely in the past because they are so omnipresent that i didn't need to, but i like most of their discography and their power concept is silly and cute and they undoubtedly defined what kpop looked like in the mid 2010s.

but! you mentioned in that followup ask about how you still enjoy exo even though blackpink and bts make you uncomfortable, and i think there's a couple reasons for that. firstly is well. exo's music is better. secondly, exo doesn't have that same level of 'big money polish' as bts or blackpink. sm, for lack of any better way to phrase it, doesn't actually care about if their mvs look expensive. they are expensive, obviously, because mvs of this caliber always are, but sm whittles down as cheaply as they can go without totally compromising the quality of the mvs, because they care about profits, not about showing off their wealth. they're a big company that has literally shaped the industry, they don't have anything to prove, but for a company like hybe? their mvs look expensive specifically for the purpose of braggadocio.

here's an example from approximately the same time frame (2016):

blackpink's boombayah mv has at least three custom large studio sets and at least one physical location, all of which have been fairly rigourously set decced and rigged with lights. the video also has some pretty dramatic colour grading and editing.

bts' fire mv has between two and five extensively decorated location shots (i'm fairly certain all the interior shots are done in the same warehouse). there's a large amount of pyrotechnics including both a flaming car AND a flaming stunt performer. the 'exterior' shots are all filmed on a massive custom studio set. there's a significant use of boom crane shots to show just exactly how big the set is.

exo's monster mv has one custom medium sized studio set, some half-sets in a white box, and one location (the airport hanger + tarmac) that has no set dec.

post-2015 sm ironed out a formula for exo mvs that consequently has stuck around for most their group mvs now. they shoot primarly on the same standard lenses, the shots are generally structured the same, the locations are usually outdoors or in a mostly empty studio with very little surrounding decoration, they use a lot of 'texture' shots (small scale shots of specific objects/actions/environments), and they tend towards very simple and naturalistic colour grading/editing. even for some of the more 'experimental' ones like kokobop or even recently, shinee's atlantis, there's still a lot of visual blank space in sm mvs. and sm mvs tend to feel more 'authentic' because of immersion; the locations used feel very realistic because they are real spaces with very little is done to alter them, so although there's a level of surrealism to kpop in general, it's more understandable and easy for our eyes to see a more relatable and familiar location. there's more opportunity for the viewer to focus on the idols themselves rather than be overwhelmed with trying to parse where and what the surroundings are, which is what can happen with mvs filmed on a lot of big custom studio sets. call me baby is just a bunch of guys dancing in a garage, and you know what that is? greased lightning.

that's not to say that all mvs that go more for a more holistic design approach are doomed to look 'unrealistic' or fake. sm has produced some very good ones: married to the music, view, lucky one, power, love me right, most of red velvet's mvs, countless/good evening/i want you, heartbreak, bad love, thank u, maniac, peaches, taeyeon's new mv for can't control myself. but what makes a lot of these mvs more successful than most bts or blackpink mvs is that there's still a kernel of realism and consistency in the design. the thing that will happen with a constructed 'realistic' set is that it will often fall directly into the uncanny valley depending on how it's used, and that doesn't help anything if you aren't on purpose trying to create an actually surrealistic mv. bts mvs are particularly prone to this because in addition to building a lot of their sets, they shoot with a small focal point, really high depth of field, and tend to use low contrast colour grading, which makes the videos look like well posed instagram photos; very constructed and composed, but ultimately flat. versus with sm, where they rarely build a 'realistic' fake set without intending for it to be surrealistic in the first place. see: maniac, countless, bad love, lucky one, can't control myself. if they need to use a real place, they just use a real place. see: heartbreak, married to the music, view, love me right. they're not building whole exteriors of movie theatres and full diner studio sets for a single mv, like hybe did for boy with luv. also a lot of these sm mvs have specific concepts and/or storylines that are directly tied to the design and the design execution. if a comeback doesn't have as developed of a concept, it usually gets the standard treatment, but if there's a strong creative drive (either from the artist or from the creative team they've brought in) there's more cohesion.

i'm sorry this became only tangentally about exo, but i hope this maybe answers some of your questions about why exo doesn't feel the same as the other non-sm groups of its scale.

[ai-azura]

The Role of Analytics and Metrics in Measuring the Success of Influencer Marketing Campaigns

The Role of Analytics and Metrics in Measuring the Success of Influencer Marketing Campaigns

Analytics and metrics play a crucial role in measuring the success of influencer marketing campaigns. With the rise of social media and the proliferation of influencers, it has become increasingly important for businesses to track the effectiveness of their influencer marketing efforts. There are several key metrics that businesses should consider when evaluating the success of an influencer…

[guiltygearxrd2]

EPIC GAMES PULLED THE PLUG ON THEIR SERVERS BC PEOPLE GOT THE DIRECTORS CUT OF DEATH STRANDING INSTEAD OF THE INTIAL RELEASE DJSKDSJDLKSAJDKLASJDASLKDJLSAKJDLKAJDK

[dreamsurvivormultiplayer]

i have a lot of thoughts about not only the inherent creativity in and encouraged by Minecraft, but also how significantly it fosters that in ways a lot of other games don’t. Like, yes, there are roleplaying games or games where you can build up your environment, but there aren’t many where you get both, and there are even fewer where you feel so compelled to tell a story even in the most casual of let’s plays.

Like, it’s really no mystery why Minecraft let’s plays in particular, especially in multiplayer, are so popular, because with each let’s play you’re almost guaranteed some purposeful or accidental narrative with how the game just perfectly lends itself to telling stories. Even in the rare instances of let’s plays or servers that don’t accidentally stumble into narratives, there’s always some kind of unique history to explore.

[sad-trash-hobo]

One of my coworkers was watching tiktoks on her lunch break and she got one on her for you page that was from a girl who works for the same retail company we work for. And the girl in the video took the video in her stores breakroom, in uniform. Apparently the video was annoying and the girl was obnoxious to my coworker, cause my coworker came back from her lunch break and MADE A REPORT WITH HR AND GOT THE GIRLS NAME FROM THE TIKTOK AND HAD ALL HER VIDEOS TAKEN DOWN. I asked her why she did that and she said she was in a bad mood and the girl was kinda annoying. The next day she told me the videos were gone and she said she wondered if the girl got in trouble with the company and I. I said yeah. She's probably been fired. Cause you were in a bad mood and decided to make her have a horrible week when you couldve just kept scrolling or blocked her. And my coworker. She said, "no stop, don't say that, you're gonna make me feel bad." It was just a harmless tiktok. Retail workers talking shit about their jobs are the funniest tiktoks. So if you work at any retail store and do a tiktok, rule one is saying in the video that you do not represent the company or any of its views and that the company has nothing to do with the video, cause if my coworker sees it then good fucking luck I guess

[cynosuredesigns]

Branding is the process of creating a unique brand identity for a service/product, business, or any individual in the minds of the target audience and potential customers through marketing. In the simplest sense, the brand represents a logo, colour, visual style, mission, and tone.

[tortoisesshells]

Tagged by: @shoshiwrites

Slow burn or love at first sight // fake dating or secret dating // enemies to lovers or best friends to lovers // oh no there is only one bed or long-distance correspondence // hurt-comfort or amnesia // fantasy au or modern au // mutual pining or domestic bliss // smut or fluff // canon-compliant or fix-it // reincarnation or character death // one shot or multi chapter // kid fic or roadtrip fic // arranged marriage or accidental marriage // high school romance or middle aged romance // time travel or isolated together // neighbours or roommates // sci-fi au or magic au // body swap or gender bend (neither, but currently fascinated at the idea of a good body-swap) // angst or crack // apocalyptic or mundane

Tagging: @montmartre-parapluie, @sagiow, @jomiddlemarch, @broadwaybaggins, @fericita-s, @r-osehips

[suchamiracle-does-exist]

Paul Körner within the audience applauding Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld for the lecture in Gesetze der Liebe: “Tragödie eines Homosexuellen” (1927, dir. Magnus Hirschfeld. Film scenes taken from Anders als die Andern, 1919, dir. Richard Oswald)

[senxitive]

I love that a pretty woman is Q's downfall 9/10 times. He's such a softie he just can't be rude to a pretty woman! And I love that!

[cleverclove]

Funny how Disney claims to cater to China when they veto LGBT+ representation, yet clearly didn’t try at all to learn about Chinese culture for the live-action Mulan 🤨

[the-deadlock-south]

honestly, for me the whole stream (maybe except for the junker queen cinematic) ranged from disappointing to plain bad. the money grabbing sucks, and they want to add a new character every few seasons? how about fleshing out the world more and providing some more character world and actual plot so the overwatch story isn't so patchy with missing chunks of story and information players asked for for years? sad.

i'll be frank i didn't watch the stream, though i am getting news from occasionally checking twit so i have seen some stuff

even then i agree: OW has a lot of untapped lore for preexisting characters, never mind new ones. i know OW is an FPS foremost and there its story is more-or-less secondary, but it wouldn't hurt to divert some love to that department- especially if they're going to actually start working on a campaign/story mode. it's just a shame to see the potential these characters, their backgrounds, and environment have go untapped while totally-new content is being injected into something not fully explored yet.