Do you read manga in magazines or trade paperbacks? I had a go at listing the advantages of each

Original Japanese article: https://www.kujoyugo.com/entry/2017/06/14/225331

Used with permission from the writer, https://www.kujoyugo.com

Hello, I’m Kujo.

I have loved manga since I was a kid, and I have read a lot of different series in my time.

My family home is like a little manga café, with over 2,000 trade paperback volumes (and over 200 light novels). Ah, shame it doesn't come with a drinks machine.

So, when you read manga, do you read it in manga magazines or trade paperbacks?

From elementary school to middle school I only read Weekly Shonen Jump, but in my third year of middle school I went over to the paperback side.

Then once I entered the world of work, I started buying Weekly Shonen Jump again, and even started buying Weekly Young Jump and Jump Square as well. And then quite recently, I gave up on magazines and turned to the paperback side again.

I have read various different magazines and trade paperbacks in my time, so I had a go at listing the advantages of each type!

 

Advantages of magazines

 

The best thing about magazines is that they are cheap, so you can read a lot!

It probably depends on the magazine, but I think they generally have about 20 titles printed in each. At the price of around ¥1,000 per month even for weekly magazines, the more titles you read, the more cost-effective it is.

And since new series are being released all the time, another big plus is that you constantly get the chance to encounter new titles. You don’t know how good something is until you try reading it, so it’s good to be able to do a trial read without spending your money just on new titles.

Also, I'm happy that I can always read the latest storylines. The fact that there is no danger of spoilers from people around you and that you can keep up with your favourite series is a major plus.

 

Advantages of trade paperbacks

 

Unlike magazines, trade paperbacks are not designed to be thrown away, so it’s easy to reread series.

Well, you can hoard magazines too, but digging out a whole pile of magazines when you feel like rereading one particular series just isn’t realistic, is it? 😅

If you buy too many trade paperbacks, they take up a lot of space and you end up with a manga café—like my room—but in this day and age we have digital books! Recently, I’ve been buying my manga volumes on Kindle, so I don’t have to worry about them taking up space, and I can immediately read them and treasure them.

There are also things that get corrected and revised after their magazine print run, and some series come with great bonus pages. For enjoying a single series, trade paperbacks are superior to magazines!

If there are only a few series you want to read out of a magazine, it is more economical to buy trade paperbacks. For up to five series, I think it works out cheaper to buy them as trade paperbacks.

 

Summary

 

Advantages of magazines:

-Cheaper than trade paperbacks, so you can read a lot of different series

-You can read new releases at essentially zero cost

-You can constantly keep up with the latest storylines

Advantages of trade paperbacks:

-It’s easy to reread series

-Depending on the series, they can have corrections, revisions and bonus pages

-If you’re only reading a few series, it’s more economical than buying magazines

As to which one is better, it probably comes down to personal preference! I feel like you should decide based on whether you want to read a lot of manga, or you're happy with just a few series!

The reason I decided to switch from magazines to comics recently was—as I said in a previous article—because I ended up regretting the time I spent reading a lot of series. What I’m saying is, the very fact that you can read a lot of manga has its bad points too.

......However. I actually decided to keep buying magazines for the time being, but only Weekly Shonen Jump.

And that’s because Hunter x Hunter is getting serialized again!

When Hunter x Hunter goes on hiatus, the trade paperback version of the previous part takes a really long time to come out, so I want to keep up with it properly. (I’m just assuming it will go on hiatus again. Sorry, Yoshihiro-sensei.)

Hmm, I’m not going to read anything except the series I decide to buy as trade paperbacks, though. But there are a few interesting new series coming out at the moment~. Dr. Stone looks particularly good. I'm excited for it! I hope it doesn’t get cancelled.

English translation by Eleanor Summers

What is the point of trophy and achievement systems in games?

Original Japanese article: https://www.kujoyugo.com/entry/2017/08/31/190300
Used with permission from the writer, https://www.kujoyugo.com


Hello, I'm Kujo.

Since the PS3, games consoles have started to come with a trophy feature built in.

This feature is a way of evaluating your progress in video games, and a system where you can receive trophies for accomplishing certain things in each game.

The name varies from maker to maker—they might be called trophies, achievements, etc.—but, well, their role is the same.

I was a game addict up until the PS2, then I drifted away from the gaming world for a while, and then recently made a return. Then, when I started playing PS3 games, I became aware of this trophy system.

At first, I only saw it as an extra feature for finding out your level of progress, but if you look at people's opinions online, that's not exactly the case, is it?


Reasons for collecting trophies

I think collecting trophies is all about personal satisfaction.

Trophies have difficulty levels. In order of most to least difficult to earn, the four types are platinum, gold, silver and bronze.

It is common for platinum and gold trophies to be so difficult that you cannot earn them without almost completing the game or some skillful gameplay.

I have absolutely no interest in the trophy system, so when I had a look at my PS3 stats, I had zero platinums and two golds. I have only completed six games, though.

I think it makes for a good objective for people who want to play through games, and it doesn't bother me, so I think the existence of a trophy or achievement system is a perfectly good thing in itself.

However, there are apparently people here and there whose goal is to collect trophies, which I really don't understand.


Do you play games based on whether the trophies are easy to collect?

While looking up video game reviews online, I saw comments like this:

"It's not all that fun, but the trophies are easy to collect—would recommend!"

"It's too hard to get all the trophies. 1 star."

I don't get it!

I thought trophies and achievements were basically just bonus features, but there are people who include trophies in their judgement of a game......

Rather than playing through a game because it's fun and just earning trophies as a result, I guess they want to play games where the trophies are easy to earn, because they want to get all the trophies.

Hmm, different people have fun in different ways, so it's not a big deal, but I can't deny the feeling that those people have their priorities mixed up.


Maybe it's about showing them off to friends?

I'm sure trophies and stats must be visible to friends.

Do people want to collect everything so they can brag to their friends, "I've unlocked a ton of trophies"? If that is the case, getting everything in a game where the trophies are easy to collect doesn't exactly seem like much to boast about.

I have zero friends, so that sort of showing off is unnecessary. Oof, what a relief! I'm glad I have no friends, so I don't have to worry about trophies!


In conclusion

Is there any other point to earning trophies?

I think it's better to play how you want and have fun, without desperately trying to collect everything. It makes sense to be happy about earning something that was difficult to accomplish, but obsessing over completion seems bad for your mental health.

One more thing: if unlocked trophies are visible to friends, does that mean that hard-core gamers who actually played things like Idolmaster and Dream Club will be exposed? And it's even more of a fail if they have all the trophies......


English translation by Eleanor Summers