Modern fandom is a turbulent space. Of course, drama always existed (MsScribe, anyone?). But modern fandom is difficult for a myriad of reasons: the influx of “normies” who got into fandom during quarantine; intolerant minors sticking their noses into spaces they don’t belong in; less dedicated public circles; and worsening critical thinking and reading comprehension. However, fandom, when you find a niche of fellow-minded people, remains a sanctuary for those who just want to indulge in a ship or media they love. Sensei! I Like You So Much! presents an accurate depiction of modern fandom, both good and bad, while celebrating the creativity and passion that people in these communities put into it. While the current build is still rough, I recommend it for anyone in a fandom space for its surprisingly sweet story and hilarious realism.
In Sensei! I Like You So Much!, you play as a closeted fanfic writer who keeps everything you write for your favorite ship on a hard drive. One day, while at university, you lose said hard drive, only for your classmate Cordelia to return it to you. Cordelia unfortunately read what was inside, but she’s a huge fan of your work and encourages you to upload your fics online. Over time, as you gain more experience, you get more followers and fame as well. You also meet more fandom friends through your mutual love of this ship. The main story culminates with you and your friends having a booth together at Comic-Con, but you need to produce enough zines and merchandise to have stuff to even sell.
At the beginning of the game, you can create your pairing in a character creator, as well as give them some basic personality traits. I used a ship I actually enjoy in real life, but you can make up whatever you want. You only have three time slots per day, and you can go to different locations throughout the city to gain story inspiration, work for money, and recover stats like Willpower and Creativity. When writing and uploading fics at home, you can use the inspiration you collected for the story, with different choices making for different endings. Writing a story requires stamina, so even if you decide to spend all day at home writing fics, you might not be able to write more than one depending on how you budget your stamina.
Aside from writing fics, you can do basically everything you can think of as a fandom creator (outside of drawing). You can also make your own itabag or decorate your desk to have lots of merchandise of your favorite couple. Certain commissions require you to perform these tasks, and how many goods you have at your desk can passively affect the quality of your writing. Mood; I’ve sometimes just stared at the merchandise around my apartment when I’m struggling through writer’s block. Fanzines and freebies are important, because you need to stock your booth with them. The more genres you write in, the more fanzines you can make and sell, so I recommend branching out to as many genres as you can.
There’s also an affinity system in the story. You can improve your friendship with the four girls you befriend throughout your fandom career—RippleBoat, EtherealSnow, VelvetYummy, and WraithLantern—using dialogue options. You can also gift them freebie fan merch you make, or items you purchase through the in-game equivalent of eBay. Of course, you can also gift them fics. For some reason, you won’t gain any followers this way, even though you’re clearly posting these fics to a public forum since random people can comment on them. But that’s probably for gameplay reasons, forcing you to decide between raising affinity and gaining followers.
Both the art style and the story are really cute. I didn’t expect this when I first saw the trailer for this game, so I was surprised at how much I enjoyed these aspects. Cordelia (RippleBoat) was the one I really focused on trying to befriend, and I neglected everyone else in hopes that there’s a secret romantic route. I believe it’s possible to hit max affinity with everyone in a single run. You will need to plan your time better than I did. The protagonist’s grandma is also the coolest character I’ve ever seen, and she lives in a retirement home where everyone talks about ships and writes fanfiction. It’s segregated, too, of course, so you won’t need to hang out with rival shippers forever. That retirement home sounds like a fantasy that someone on Tumblr might’ve made a text post about in 2013, so that was funny.
It’s clear that the team that worked on the game are real-life fans, whether fic authors or avid readers. The ship tropes and AUs are ones that anyone in fandom might stumble upon while browsing AO3 or similar sites. The only exceptions might be wuxia or xianxia AUs. With the rise of Chinese soft power, more people are entering fandoms for Chinese works where they might come across these genres on AO3, though. The thing that made this familiarity a little awkward, though, is that to commemorate the upcoming Yingdu Arc in Link Click (I wrote this prior to its first episode), I made my protagonist’s ship Lu Guang/Cheng Xiaoshi.
Now, you might wonder what the problem is. Well, as I mentioned before, I legitimately enjoy this ship in real life. So when the fake fanfiction started showing up in-game, I was both mortified and amused. I’ve literally read, wrote, or considered writing a good number of the tropes and ideas that appear in the game. At least some of the tropes were for other ships. I still felt seen here. As a note, if you have hang-ups or landmines about a ship you want to use, you should use the safety features at the beginning. One of the stock fics threw in a surprise break-up, and that’s a personal ick for Lu Guang/Cheng Xiaoshi. I actually screeched out loud, “They break up?!” when I read it.
Like how the game accurately depicts the average fangirl experience (as both a writer and a reader), it also understands some issues that crop up in fandom. VelvetYummy discusses purity culture and antis, and how the policing of fanworks—works that fans create out of love and not profit—can lead to the decline of a community. Her realization of how her zealous policing and purging under the name of “protecting” those who might have certain triggers inadvertently hurt creators and the fandom she loves is very similar to comments I’ve seen from antis who matured from their behavior.
I’ve been lucky in that I’ve only received direct harassment a handful of times. But I’ve seen friends leave ships or fandoms they still enjoyed due to heartless comments from antis whose only contribution to a fanbase is spreading negativity. I’m really hoping if they pick up this game, they’ll learn something about how their behavior does nothing but drive talent away, leaving a community barren of any creativity.
While the protagonist you play as is a fanfic writer, all the girls you hang out with occupy different roles in the fan space. WraithLantern is an artist and EtherealSnow is another writer, though one the protagonist considers way better than her. I’ve honestly reacted exactly like the protagonist (in private) when a writer I thought leagues above me complimented my work and wanted to be my friend, and so I could painfully relate to the protagonist’s admiration of EtherealSnow. RippleBoat is a reader, while VelvetYummy organizes events. RippleBoat doesn’t “offer” anything for other fans. But as a writer, I really appreciate people like her, who leave comments or recommend people’s works to others. Comments, retweets, and the like are all so much more encouraging than you might think.
In recent years, a lot of fanworks have been reduced to “content.” Fandom is supposed to be a community, with fanart and fanfiction a way for people who show their love of a ship or work. The ties between fans aren’t supposed to be a transactional give-and-take. I know people who don’t write ideas or ships if they think they won’t get comments, and that’s fair. They don’t owe anyone their time and work, and this is something I feel like some people forgot or don’t realize. Obviously, even in the past, people have pestered writers for updates. But I’ve seen some disgusting comments attacking writers for abandoning a story, and then bragging about how they can just plug a half-finished fic into ChatGPT to get a continuation or conclusion.
Frankly, this is a repulsive sentiment. I’ve seen people lock down their accounts and archives, or remove stuff from the Internet, to avoid this kind of scraping. Outside of commissions, fanworks are passion projects we make in our spare time. So when people attack creators or act like they’re replaceable, they’re only creating a negative space that’ll become devoid of creativity or fun in the long run. I think this goes back to what I said in the beginning, about the shifting climate of fandom. Newbies and children who don’t make an effort to learn basic fandom etiquette might be a minority in online spaces, but they’re a very vocal and very toxic one that drain a lot of enjoyment from a hobby that should never be that serious at all.
The way Sensei! I Like You So Much! depicts the symbiotic relationship between writer and reader is something that, again, I hope people who pick this up can realize. Fan creators aren’t mere content farms or machines. And even if you can’t “contribute” fanworks to a fandom, a reader’s very existence and support is more than enough to build and maintain a community. Positivity is always better than negativity if you want a thriving fandom, and that’s the ultimate moral of this game.
As mentioned in the beginning, this game is still in early access. So there are some bugs and issues that may make it hard to play. For one thing, the character creator has a bug where a character’s sleeves are attached to their inner shirt. So it’s impossible to make them wear a hoodie, for example; it’ll always look like they’re wearing a vest instead. There are also some issues with the translation reading awkwardly. My protagonist writes for a yaoi ship, but on occasion, it’ll pull out “she/her” pronouns despite the fic not being a genderswap. Some lines are still in the original Chinese, too. Near the end of my run, activities didn’t deplete anything anymore, meaning I didn’t have to worry about keeping up my Creativity or Willpower. The game is still playable, though, and I’m sure these issues will be fixed in the future.
Sensei! I Like You So Much is a fangirl simulator that simulates the real-world experience of being a fangirl so well that I had to stop playing at certain points to bury my face into my hands. It was hard to describe the emotion I felt—a mix of embarrassment, shame, and joy. Since the game breaks down fandom terminology and norms in a way that’s easy to understand, it’s approachable for those who aren’t that deep in fandom as well. It only took me around 8 hours to complete, so it’s something you can consider picking up if you’re bored one weekend. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a half-finished Google Doc to get back to.
Sensei! I Like You So Much is in early access via Steam on Windows PC.
Published: Dec 30, 2024 03:00 pm