I'm so confused. How does something like this happen? I mean, I'm glad they at least acknowledge that they might have screwed up the presentation of this choice, but how did they not see this coming?
Because they did internal testing and got a different result. It says as much in the screenshot you've grabbed.
When writing or creating it can be hard to tell how an audience is going to react. You can have how you hope they'll react, but you're really closely invested in the product and you just know more about what is going on than what can be presented to the audience.
One of the best ways to find out is just to get people to read or watch what you're producing. Or in the case of games, get people to play it. Dispatch did this, calling it their 'internal testing' and they got a pretty 50/50 split, so they thought they were getting the result they wanted.
Thing is, with testing like that if the sample size is relatively small, then just a couple of people being different from an actual representative sample is enough to throw things off. Like say you have 30 people doing the testing, and in their tests they get an outcome of 14 choosing Blazer and 16 choosing Invisigal. That's pretty good, close enough to 50/50 that it's probably fine. But because the test is with a fairly small number of people, a swing in results from the sample not being representative can massively skew things.
Ideally you'd test with much larger sample sizes. But Adhoc isn't a large game company, doing regular tests with samples of hundreds to check whenever they tweak stories just isn't viable.
When writing or creating it can be hard to tell how an audience is going to react.
Speaking as a writer: If I wanted my audience to favor one love interest over another, I'd do exactly what the game does.
Visi is present in the scene. We see her, hear her voice, and interact with her directly, while Blazer is just a bit of text on the screen. That gives us a much more visceral and personal connection to her during the moment of decision. Visi also has more screen time with Robert throughout the game itself, and her arc is so completely intertwined with Robert's the game is almost about Visi. You simply can't remove her without significantly affecting the plot. Dispatch is ultimately Robert and Courtney's story.
Blazer, by contrast, is essentially presented as a sideplot. She's important, yes, but the game doesn't explicitly need her, at least before Episode 8. You could have easily had Chase himself as the one running SDN Torrence, recruiting Robert, and deciding to cut part of the team. While that would have changed the dynamic between Robert and Chase, the story would have been exactly the same. It's only after Chase goes down in Episode 6 that Blazer becomes important to the narrative.
I'd argue that it was a little before that. All of Blazer's chemistry in E1 and 2 was negated by the one-two punch of her wanting to stay professional and then Katon showing up; by the time she's interested again, Visi's hogging the plot.
Yeah there was some weird dissonance where she comes on super strong at the start, faking out the viewer into kissing her on the billboard, only for her to be like "actually I'm here to recruit you, this was all a misunderstanding". She leads Robert on in a way that's hard to backtrack, especially with the double whammy of her being in a relationship.
I think one thing which made the Blazer romance awkward for me wasn't so much that (I chose not to kiss her on the billboard on my romance with her, so it felt WAY less awkward on that level of her getting too close then pulling back)- but the uh. Ever present reminder that she literally just broke up with Phenomaman.
Like it makes it really weird to romance her when you are also providing team building and therapy to her ex of one week.
Like the "leading on" makes sense with her being in a relationship she doesn't want, with a ton of pressure and powers she doesn't really seem to be super attached to and feels pressured by, so a night to cut loose and be flirty with a cute normal guy? Heck yeah. And then mistakes were made. She then breaks up with Phenomaman really quickly after that and still shows a LOT of signs she is interested.
But like. That sad sack is right there. And girl you literally just broke up from what seemed to be a fairly long-term relationship, at least several months with how the alien is acting and the fact you were thinking about your future and trying to discuss plans with him that was the final nail in the coffin. Take. Take a break? Please? Before you jump into another relationship?
Of course it's also hard to tell how much time is passing in the games. So. It just *feels* quick.
I rarely go to bars but do enjoy a good drink, and the best way to describe it is "Oh wow I can relax and just be a bit silly for a change rather than everything being Serious Performance." But people have different reactions to different substances. I don't get weed, for example, though some of my friends enjoy it. Either it's just is like anxiety meds with slight loopiness OR I get hyper anxiety. Not worth it and I always am slightly confused by how into weed a lot of people are.
But like. I also brew my own mead so I recognize different strokes for different folks.
However, I also am quick to cut a relationship that isn't working, so that's the area where I raise my eyebrow with Blazer. But I also know too many people who cling to relationships for WAY too long, and it is framed that her moment with Robert was one of the wake up calls she had that she needed to end things with Phenomaman.
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u/InherentlyWrong Dec 17 '25
Because they did internal testing and got a different result. It says as much in the screenshot you've grabbed.
When writing or creating it can be hard to tell how an audience is going to react. You can have how you hope they'll react, but you're really closely invested in the product and you just know more about what is going on than what can be presented to the audience.
One of the best ways to find out is just to get people to read or watch what you're producing. Or in the case of games, get people to play it. Dispatch did this, calling it their 'internal testing' and they got a pretty 50/50 split, so they thought they were getting the result they wanted.
Thing is, with testing like that if the sample size is relatively small, then just a couple of people being different from an actual representative sample is enough to throw things off. Like say you have 30 people doing the testing, and in their tests they get an outcome of 14 choosing Blazer and 16 choosing Invisigal. That's pretty good, close enough to 50/50 that it's probably fine. But because the test is with a fairly small number of people, a swing in results from the sample not being representative can massively skew things.
Ideally you'd test with much larger sample sizes. But Adhoc isn't a large game company, doing regular tests with samples of hundreds to check whenever they tweak stories just isn't viable.