LLSIF - μ’s到底還餘下多少時間？

在十月十五日的更新之後，μ’s的主線劇情似乎是完結了(雖然那句See you next time沒有完全抹殺追加新劇情的可能)。其實從Final Live公佈開始，μ’s逐漸淡出，由Aqours接手已經是整個Love Live!企畫的大方向，SIF自然也不例外，只是時間問題而已。

要討論μ’s在SIF還餘下多少時間有兩個前設：第一，是μ’s的主線劇情真的完結了；第二，是μ’s已經不會再為SIF配音，預先錄製的片段全部推出之後，μ’s就不會追加新的支線(卡片)劇情。雖然無法證實μ’s的合約在四月初結束(工作合同的內容正常情況下都不會公開)，但為了方便討論，以下暫且假設μ’s最後為SIF配音的時間是今年三月。

Aqours準備好接手了嗎？

既然是世代交接，那就不得不考慮Aqours是否準備好接棒的問題。目前SIF的四種活動，μ’s負責Medley Festival和 Challenge Festival，而集物活動和Score Match則由Aqours包辦。

要接手Challenge Festival，Aqours需要每種屬性的歌曲最少三首和四套以上的SR服裝。目前Aqours在遊戲中實裝的歌曲(包括特別樂曲)，Smile屬性有七首，Pure屬性有八首，Cool屬性則有六首，即使不同難度的曲目要稍有不同，歌曲的數量也是足夠的。至於服裝方面，剛推出的萬聖節系列剛好是第四套，數量是夠了，但四套服裝中有三套(泳裝、浴衣、萬聖節)的季節性十分強，假如在其他季節的活動中出現，不免有點奇怪。不管季節問題的話，Aqours現在要接手Challenge Festival也是可以的。

Medley Festival就不同了，這類型的活動每次都要用上三種屬性各八首歌曲，即使不考慮屬性，Aqours的歌曲數量都不足夠，以現在每月增加一首新曲的速度，最快也得等三個月才行。雖然三個月後Aqours就有足夠的曲目搞Medley Festival，但同類活動每兩個月就得跑一次，第二次用的歌單和第一次幾乎完全一樣也說不過去，等每種屬性再增加一兩首歌作緩衝比較好。因為μ’s最後幾首歌都實裝之後，Aqours的歌曲加入遊戲的速度可能加快，這大概需要半年至九個月，到時Sunshine動畫第二期(別跟我講沒有)也差不多要播出，正是Aqours全面接手的最好時機。

μ’s的存貨可以用多久？

跟主線劇情每一章都要讓九人全員出場，對白又多的情況不同，九位聲優每人預先錄好一段卡片覺醒劇情，最多加上一兩句技能發動音效，以現在推出μ’s新卡的速度，就可以撐上兩個月。不計正在推出的誕生石系列，只需要再多四套卡片就能用上九個月，要預先錄製這份量的台詞，應該不難做到。

至於活動卡的劇情方面，一輪九人份的劇本更可以用上四個半月。現在進行的Challenge Festival 5是第九輪活動的第四個，下一次的活動不太可能只出一張新卡，而不管誰比其他角色多一張活動卡都會造成玩家不滿，所以幾乎肯定會有第十輪的μ’s活動。根據上文的估計，五個月後Aqours接手Medley Festival的時機仍未成熟，說不定還有一至兩輪μ’s活動。

和μ’s相關的遊戲內容還有Master難度樂曲，一個月才推出兩首新譜面，要把現有的曲目出完差不多要兩年，與其擔心歌曲存量不夠，還不如擔心營運商先因為經營不善倒閉。(笑)在活動停止之後，μ’s的卡組還能在Master譜面拼分數，老玩家幾年來組的強力隊伍不至於無用武之地。

階段性退場

文首筆者用μ’s淡出形容Love Live!企畫世代交替的方式，在SIF中也可以看到一些跡象。在4.0版本更新的時候，遊戲圖示由穂乃果改成千歌，也不再追加μ’s的節日語音，都屬於μ’s分階段退場計畫的一部分，主線劇情結束不過是μ’s淡出過程的另一步。相信之後μ’s也不會一次過全面退出，可能會先停止推出非活動卡，再讓Aqours接手Challenge Festival，最後才退出Medley Festival，在大約九個月內完成在SIF的歷史任務。

他朝君體也相同？

最後，已經有人思考Love Live!推出第三世代的時候，Aqours會如何退場的問題，到時SIF如果還沒結束營運，都已然是有七、八年歷史的老遊戲了，推出沒有歷史包袱的新遊戲可能更輕鬆。況且那時候人們用的手機會變成怎樣，手遊會否成為明日黃花，都不是任何人可以預料的事，還是別想太多比較好。

PS:
附上我在遊戲中的ID，如果你要認定玩了SIF快三年，最新的活動還會衝二檔的玩家會是某廚，我也沒辦法。

反正好友名單中有幾位超過一年沒上線的，讓專版版友加好友也不錯。

Now An An is a sad panda

Jia Jia, one of the four pandas living in Hong Kong, was euthanized on 16^th Oct at the old age of 38. Jia Jia and An An were the first pair of pandas to come to Hong Kong 17 years ago. Although two younger pandas, Ying Ying and Le Le, were sent to the city in 2007, they couldn’t match the popularity of An An and Jia Jia back in 1999. It might be because of a lack of novelty, or perhaps it was the deterioration of relationship between Hong Kong and Beijing making such friendly gesture less effective. When we mourn for the demise of the adorable panda, we are also lamenting the loss of a care-free life in which politics didn’t play an important part. An An is a sad panda, but he is hardly the only one in the city.

http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/2028549/hong-kong-panda-jia-jia-put-sleep-ocean-park 

My experience learning German with Duolingo - A taste of gamification

I first found out the idea of gamification through this video:

I didn’t think much about it at the time, but after starting learning German with Duolingo I realized gamification of language learning is what that website does.

Forgive my level 2 French, learning two languages at the same time is just too much.

The learning materials are arranged into “skills”, which are further divided into several lessons. When completed, the skill icons turn gold and it feels good to look at a page full of gold icons, just like getting achievements in games. One difference is that in games, achievements are usually permanent, you kill that tough boss once and it will be recorded on your profile forever. Not so with Duolingo, it takes into account that memories decay, if you don’t reinforce them, you forget what you’ve learned. If you want to keep those icons shiny, you have to do exercises to strengthen the skills from time to time.

Shiny!

There is an experience and level system, which makes as little sense as most RPG level systems. By video game logic, you can become the greatest swordsman in the world by repeatingly killing goblins, chickens and rats. Of course it makes no sense in the real world. Similarly, you can cheat the system by repeating basic lessons for xp and level up, learning absolutely nothing in the process. Sure, this sort of cheating fools no one but yourself, but it still shows the designers didn’t think it through.

The most important feature in my opinion is the daily goal tracker. It motivates me to keep returning to reach my daily goal, even though there are times that I don’t feel like taking lessons. Soon it became a habit to just return everyday, strengthen one or two skills and taking a new lesson without thinking much about it. At just 20 minutes a day, I managed to devote 40 hours, into learning German within 4 months. Such is the power of habits. Es ist langsam, aber ich lerne täglich.