Serial Experiments Lain wiki - User contributions [en]

Serial Experiments Lain (game)

2014-03-17T22:07:33Z

Sioraf as Na Cillini: /* Summary */ Last version of the page was direct copy and paste from elsewhere, Thought Experiments Lain is overly focused on the scientific aspects of Lain at the expense of all else anyway.

Released on November 26, 1998 for the PlayStation, the [[Serial Experiments Lain]] game consists mostly of pieces of information collected in a random order that allow the player to piece together [[Lain]]'s story.

There is guidebook for this game titled [[Serial Experiments Lain Official Guide]].

==Summary==

The game doesn't have a plot as such, rather it is a collection of events.

==Characters==
[[Iwakura Lain]]
An apparently ordinary girl with a highly introverted nature and low self-esteem. At age 11, she begins to see and hear hallucinations, most prominently a double of herself. As a result, she sees a therapist at Tachibana General Laboratories. Lain also proves to be adept at psychology and computer science. Most of all, she is unbearably lonely.

[[Yonera Touko]]
Recently graduated from an American university, Touko serves as Lain's counselor. She is a new employee, and Lain is her very first client, establishing quite a good relationship with her.

[[Makino Shin'ichirou]]
An ordinary office worker who encounters Lain online. Impressed with her abilities, he provides news, data and computer parts for her.

[[Tomo]]
A boy in Lain's elementary school class that Lain has a crush on.

[[Kyoko]]
A girl in Lain's elementary school class that Lain is somewhat friendly with, who treats Lain like a younger sister.

[[Mayu]]
A friend of Kyoko's.

[[Kaori]]
A girl in Lain's elementary school class that tries to be friendly with everyone.

[[Father]]
Lain's father. He and Lain are very close and he treats Lain very kindly, often buying her presents. He is a businessman that occasionally needs to travel.

[[Mother]]
Lain's mother. She and Lain are on slightly less good terms, and she is a bit harder on Lain than her father. She still treats Lain very well and looks after her when she needs help. She is a housewife.

[[Misato]]
Lain's (imaginary) friend in her middle school class. Getting along extremely well, Lain and her do all sorts of things together, at least in Lain's memory. Misato is an ideal girl, able to play the violin beautifully, paint exquisitely, and is also very beautiful and elegant.

[[Harumi]]
Touko's longtime friend. She rather abruptly gets married.

[[Kanako]]
Touko's longtime friend. She's a hardworking woman trying to become a publisher.

[[Takeshi]]
Touko's boyfriend, met while studying abroad. He works at Tachibana General Laboratories alongside Touko. Their relationship is very platonic.

[[Yoshida]]
Touko's other lover. He works at an exercise equipment manufacturing company that visits Tachibana General Laboratories from time to time. He is popular with women.

[[Professor Takashima]]
Touko's boss. A well-meaning man that often dumps chores on Touko, impeding her research. Touko hates him.

[[Mr. Rabbit]]
A friend that Lain made online. He teaches her how to hack.

[[Shock Spammer]]
A malevolent user online that sends encrypted shock images to Lain's inbox.

[[Progenetis]]
Lain's father. After the disappearance of Father, Lain begins to make artificial replacements of her friends and family, starting with Father.

[[Bike-chan]]
A stuffed toy that allegedly has been Lain since her birth. Lain seems to view it as a friend.

[[The Other Self]]
A hallucination of another Lain that appears nude. She is the reason that Lain starts seeing Touko.

[[CLN-1]]
An unnamed woman that shoots her boyfriend in public.

==File System==
The game's interface is designed to be somewhat similar to a database, apparently called the "life instinct function" or "lif", which appears to be located on a server at [[Tachibana General Laboratories]]. The name of the database could hint that it is serving the purpose of keeping lain alive somehow. The database is divided into two Sites: Site A and Site B. Site B is locked when the player begins the game, and can only be unlocked by finding updates hidden in the files. Each file in the site contains an invisible version number. The version of the player's in-game media player must be greater than or equal to that number in order to play the file. The media player can be updated by finding various upgrades hidden in the files.

Located within the database are several different filetypes:
*'''Lda''', standing for lain's_DIARY in game, is a collection of 237 diary entries written by Lain over the course of roughly three years. The diary was given to Lain by Touko early into the counseling sessions as a place to confide her often negative and personal feelings. Interestingly, there is an image included in the game of Touko giving Lain a physical book, but the diaries themselves have evidence to show that the diaries are electronic. It is possible that Lain writes the diaries and then records herself reading them.

*'''Tda''', or TOUKO'S_DIARY, is a collection of 92 diary entries written by Yonera Touko over the course of roughly two years.

*'''Cou''', or COUNSELING_REC. is a collection of 53 recordings of counseling sessions between Lain and Touko. While the earlier sessions had Touko acting as a counselor to Lain, in the final recordings the roles are reversed after Touko becomes unstable. Lain acts as a counselor using her wide knowledge of psychology from independent study.

*'''Dia''', or DIAGNOSIS_CLN## is a collection of 48 diagnoses by either Touko or Lain regarding their patient's behavior and actions to be taken as a result. Touko's recordings bear the designation CLN_01 (referring to Lain) and Lain's bear the designation CLN_00 (referring to Touko). The final recording is done by both.

*'''TaK''' is a series of 181 recordings of a single sentence each by either Lain or Touko, seemingly addressing the player. These sentences are often random questions. Unlike other filetypes, which are mostly presented in chronological order by level number, these files are presented in two apparently parallel chronologies, one consisting of the recordings by Lain (TaK001-TaK121) and the other by Touko (TaK122-181). There is no label for this filetype, but the Serial Experiments Lain Official Guide calls them "Talk" files.

*'''Ekm''' is a series of 6 recordings of conversations between Lain and Kyoko. The label for this filetype is "DATA of CLN01", but the Serial Experiments Lain Offical Guide calls these files "Extra Kyoko's Memory". These files only exist on Site A.

*'''Ere''', or RESEARCH_"Ky" and RESEARCH_"Ka" is a series of 10 interviews between Touko and some of Lain's classmates regarding Lain. The Serial Experiments Official Guide calls these files "Extra Research". These files only exist on Site B.

*'''Eda''' or RESEARCH_"Ma" is a series of 4 counseling sessions between Makino and possibly Professor Takashima, and 1 news report. The fifth file has the designation NEWS_SHOW. The Serial Experiments Lain Official Guide calls these files "Extra Data". These files only exist on Site B.

*'''Sskn''' or SaiSei-kun is a collection of freeware upgrade apps for the game's movie playing tool. Each successive update unlocks more content. There are seven upgrades available. The designation for these files is "mT up-date App."

*'''P2-''' or POLY-TAN PARTS are pieces of a virtual bear model named Poly-tan. Collecting all parts unlocks some files, according to the Serial Experiments Lain Official Guide. There are 6 in all, all of which are located on Site A.

*'''GaTE''' is a series of network applications that are needed to proceed from Site A to Site B. There are 4 in all.

*'''Dc1''', or DATA of CLN## is a series of 57 animated video files, mostly of Lain. While the numbers do go up to 058, Dc1029 is missing. Unlike the other filetypes, these files are presented in mostly random order, Site A containing the first 28 and Site B containing the latter 29. Each video file has its own name. Interestingly, the name "drive" is used twice. It is unknown who filmed these files or for what purpose, or whether there was even a cameraman at all. While some files have a distinctly handheld look to them or are clearly for the purpose of filming a counseling session, others are far more unusual; some appear to be hidden cameras, others appear to be professionally edited to show a series of events from a certain angle, and still others appear to be impossible or difficult shots, like aerial shots or shots of Lain in a bathroom mirror with no visible camera behind her. The CLN number, or client number, varies occasionally, but for most of the files is CLN01, or Lain. A few files in Site B use the designations CLN00 (Touko) or CLN-1 (a seemingly unnamed woman). The missing file, Dc1029, appears to be located between Site A and B, and its contents are located in the short manga "[[The Nightmare of Fabrication]]". The Serial Experiments Lain Official Guide calls these files "Movie".

*'''Env''' or network voices? is a series of 12 files that contain nothing but static and assorted voices. The server data for all these files are corrupted. These files are extra content and are not part of the regular game. All of these files are located on Site A's Level 0.

*'''Xv0''' is a collection of unused video clips. These files are extra content and are not part of the regular game.

*'''Xa''' is a collection of miscellaneous audio. Most of these files contain Touko in an apparent state of distress, though the first and last files contain Lain's voice. These files are extra content and are not part of the regular game.

==Connections between the game and the anime==
This game explains many elements in the [[anime]] that are taken for granted or left unexplained. It can be considered an alternate timeline to the anime, perhaps one where Lain is incarnated into a different environment.

*Lain's haircut

In the game, it is revealed that Lain cut her own hair. The longer lock of hair where she clips her [[hairclip]] is meant to prevent something that "enters from the right" from "going out through the left". Not much is known about the context of this statement (at least to the English-speaking fandom), but it has been theorised that Lain's hairstyle wards off demons or prevents her memories from disappearing.

*The chip from [[Layer 09]]

This may be the same in nature as the machine that [[Touko]] received from [[Tachibana Labs]].

*Shared [[themes]]

As part of the same franchise, both the game and the anime cover topics such as the reliability of [[memory]] and the nature of existence and [[reality]].

==Translation==
The game currently remains untranslated. There are currently two attempts to translate the game.
*'''The Serial Experiments Lain PSX Game Translation Project''' located at [http://psx.lain.pl/doku.php]
*'''ain's translations''' located at [http://ain-and-lain.tumblr.com/tagged/lain-psx-translation]

{{Media}}
[[Category:Media]]

Serial Experiments Lain (anime)

2014-03-17T22:05:26Z

Sioraf as Na Cillini:

'''''Serial Experiments Lain''''' is an anime series directed by [[Ryuutarou Nakamura]], original character design by [[Yoshitoshi ABe]], screenplay written by [[Chiaki J. Konaka]], and produced by [[Yasuyuki Ueda]] (credited as ''production 2nd'') for Triangle Staff. It was broadcast on TV Tokyo from July to September 1998 and has 13 [[episodes]]. [[Serial Experiments Lain (game)|A PlayStation game]] with the same title was released in November 1998 by Pioneer LDC.

The opening theme is [[Duvet]] and the ending theme is [[Tooi Sakebi]].

''Lain'' is influenced by philosophical subjects such as [[reality]], [[identity]], and [[communication]]. The series focuses on [[Iwakura Lain]], an adolescent girl living in suburban Japan, and her introduction to [[the Wired]], a global communications network similar to the Internet. Lain lives with her middle class family, which consists of her inexpressive older sister [[Iwakura Mika]], her cold mother [[Iwakura Miho]], and her computer-obsessed father [[Iwakura Yasuo]]. The first ripple on the pond of Lain's lonely life appears when she learns that girls from her school have received an [[e-mail]] from [[Chisa Yomoda]], a schoolmate who committed [[suicide]]. When Lain receives the message at home, Chisa tells her (in real time) that she is not dead, but has just "abandoned the flesh", and has found [[God]] in the Wired. From then on, Lain is bound to a quest which will take her ever deeper into both the network and her own thoughts.

The anime series is licensed in North America by Funimation since 2010. Before that, it was licensed bye Geneon(previously Pioneer Entertainment) who released the series on VHS, LaserDisc, and DVD, as well as a restored BluRay edition. It was also released in Singapore by Odex. The [[Serial Experiments Lain (game)|video game]], which shares only the themes and protagonist with the series, was never released outside Japan.

A remastered Blu-ray box set was released in Japan in 2009, and the US in 2012. It features the show redigitized to a 4:3 1080p format, with many CG sequences (such as the PRESENT DAY PRESENT TIME opening) re-rendered in higher quality.

The series shows influences from topics such as philosophy, computer history, cyberpunk literature and [[conspiracy]] theory, and it was made the subject of several academic articles. English language anime reviewers found it to be weird and unusual, with generally positive reviews. Producer Ueda said he intended Japanese and American audiences to form conflicting views on the series, but was disappointed in this regard, as the impressions turned out to be similar.
==Plot==
''Serial Experiments Lain'' deals directly with the definition of [[reality]], which makes its complex plot difficult to summarize. The story is primarily based on the assumption that everything flows from human thought, [[memory]], and consciousness. Therefore, events on screen can be considered hallucinations of Lain, of other protagonists, or of Lain fabricating the hallucinations of others. Story misdirection is central to the plotline; even the offscreen voices or narrations' information cannot be considered truthful. The series consists of a cross-reflection of philosophical themes instead of the traditional linear events depiction: episodes are called "[[Layer|layers]]".

''Serial Experiments Lain'' describes "[[the Wired]]" as the sum of human communication networks, created with the telegraph and telephone services, and expanded with the [[Internet]] and subsequent networks. The anime assumes that the Wired could be linked to a system that enables unconscious communication between people and machines without physical interface. The storyline introduces such a system with the [[Schumann resonance]], a property of the Earth's magnetic field that theoretically allows for unhindered long distance communications. If such a link was created, the network would become equivalent to Reality as the general consensus of all perceptions and knowledge. The thin line between what is real and what is possible would then begin to blur.

[[Masami Eiri]] is introduced as the project director on [[Protocol 7]] (the next generation internet protocol in the series' timeframe) for major computer company [[Tachibana Labs]]. He has secretly included [[Source code|code]] of his own creation to give himself control of the Wired through the wireless system described above. He then "uploaded” his consciousness into the Wired and died in real life a few days after. These details are unveiled around the middle of the series, but this is the point where the story of ''Serial Experiments Lain'' begins.

Masami later explains that Lain is the artifact by which the wall between the [[virtual]] and [[material]] worlds is to fall, and that he needs her to get to the Wired and "abandon the flesh", as he did, to achieve his plan. The series sees him trying to convince her through interventions, using the promise of unconditional love, charm, fate, and, when all else fails, threats and force.

In the meantime, the anime follows a complex game of hide-and-seek between the "[[Knights of the Eastern Calculus]]", hackers who Masami claims are "believers that enable him to be a god in the Wired", and Tachibana Labs, who try to regain control of Protocol 7.

In the end, the viewer sees Lain realizing, after much introspection, that she has absolute power over everyone's mind and over reality itself. Her dialogue with different versions of herself show how she feels shunned from the material world, and how she is afraid to live in the Wired, where she has the possibilities and responsibilities of a goddess. The last scenes feature her erasing everything connected to herself from everyone’s memories. She is last seen unchanged - re-encountering her old friend [[Alice]], who is now married. Lain promises herself to look after Alice.

{{Media}}

[[Category:Media]]

Serial Experiments Lain (anime)

2014-03-08T03:48:11Z

Sioraf as Na Cillini: /* Plot */ In this case it's a as opposed to the god so no capital letter.

'''''Serial Experiments Lain''''' is an anime series directed by [[Ryuutarou Nakamura]], original character design by [[Yoshitoshi ABe]], screenplay written by [[Chiaki J. Konaka]], and produced by [[Yasuyuki Ueda]] (credited as ''production 2nd'') for Triangle Staff. It was broadcast on TV Tokyo from July to September 1998 and has 13 [[episodes]]. [[Serial Experiments Lain (game)|A PlayStation game]] with the same title was released in November 1998 by Pioneer LDC.

The opening theme is [[Duvet]] and the ending theme is [[Tooi Sakebi]].

''Lain'' is influenced by philosophical subjects such as [[reality]], [[identity]], and [[communication]]. The series focuses on [[Iwakura Lain]], an adolescent girl living in suburban Japan, and her introduction to [[the Wired]], a global communications network similar to the Internet. Lain lives with her middle class family, which consists of her inexpressive older sister [[Iwakura Mika]], her cold mother [[Iwakura Miho]], and her computer-obsessed father [[Iwakura Yasuo]]. The first ripple on the pond of Lain's lonely life appears when she learns that girls from her school have received an [[e-mail]] from [[Chisa Yomoda]], a schoolmate who committed [[suicide]]. When Lain receives the message at home, Chisa tells her (in real time) that she is not dead, but has just "abandoned the flesh", and has found [[God]] in the Wired. From then on, Lain is bound to a quest which will take her ever deeper into both the network and her own thoughts.

The anime series is licensed in North America by Funimation since 2010. Before that, it was licensed bye Geneon(previously Pioneer Entertainment) who released the series on VHS, LaserDisc, and DVD, as well as a restored BluRay edition. It was also released in Singapore by Odex. The [[Serial Experiments Lain (game)|video game]], which shares only the themes and protagonist with the series, was never released outside Japan.

A remastered Blu-ray box set was released in Japan in 2009, and the US in 2012. It features the show redigitized to a 4:3 1080p format, with many CG sequences (such as the PRESENT DAY PRESENT TIME opening) re-rendered in higher quality.

The series shows influences from topics such as philosophy, computer history, cyberpunk literature and [[conspiracy]] theory, and it was made the subject of several academic articles. English language anime reviewers found it to be "weird" and unusual, with generally positive reviews. Producer Ueda said he intended Japanese and American audiences to form conflicting views on the series, but was disappointed in this regard, as the impressions turned out to be similar.
==Plot==
''Serial Experiments Lain'' deals directly with the definition of [[reality]], which makes its complex plot difficult to summarize. The story is primarily based on the assumption that everything flows from human thought, [[memory]], and consciousness. Therefore, events on screen can be considered hallucinations of Lain, of other protagonists, or of Lain fabricating the hallucinations of others. Story misdirection is central to the plotline; even the offscreen voices or narrations' information cannot be considered truthful. The series consists of a cross-reflection of philosophical themes instead of the traditional linear events depiction: episodes are called "[[Layer|layers]]".

''Serial Experiments Lain'' describes "[[the Wired]]" as the sum of human communication networks, created with the telegraph and telephone services, and expanded with the [[Internet]] and subsequent networks. The anime assumes that the Wired could be linked to a system that enables unconscious communication between people and machines without physical interface. The storyline introduces such a system with the [[Schumann resonance]], a property of the Earth's magnetic field that theoretically allows for unhindered long distance communications. If such a link was created, the network would become equivalent to Reality as the general consensus of all perceptions and knowledge. The thin line between what is real and what is possible would then begin to blur.

[[Masami Eiri]] is introduced as the project director on [[Protocol 7]] (the next generation internet protocol in the series' timeframe) for major computer company [[Tachibana Labs]]. He has secretly included [[Source code|code]] of his own creation to give himself control of the Wired through the wireless system described above. He then "uploaded” his consciousness into the Wired and died in real life a few days after. These details are unveiled around the middle of the series, but this is the point where the story of ''Serial Experiments Lain'' begins.

Masami later explains that Lain is the artifact by which the wall between the [[virtual]] and [[material]] worlds is to fall, and that he needs her to get to the Wired and "abandon the flesh", as he did, to achieve his plan. The series sees him trying to convince her through interventions, using the promise of unconditional love, charm, fate, and, when all else fails, threats and force.

In the meantime, the anime follows a complex game of hide-and-seek between the "[[Knights of the Eastern Calculus]]", hackers who Masami claims are "believers that enable him to be a god in the Wired", and Tachibana Labs, who try to regain control of Protocol 7.

In the end, the viewer sees Lain realizing, after much introspection, that she has absolute power over everyone's mind and over reality itself. Her dialogue with different versions of herself show how she feels shunned from the material world, and how she is afraid to live in the Wired, where she has the possibilities and responsibilities of a goddess. The last scenes feature her erasing everything connected to herself from everyone’s memories. She is last seen unchanged - re-encountering her old friend [[Alice]], who is now married. Lain promises herself to look after Alice.

{{Media}}

[[Category:Media]]

User:Sioraf as Na Cillini

2013-01-30T08:43:27Z

Sioraf as Na Cillini:

I first saw Lain on TV at night as a child and remember finding it weird yet one of the best things I've ever seen and today that's still how I feel about it.

== Real Life Events That Happened In Japan During Lain's Original Run==

25th July 1998: Mass poisoning at a curry festival in Wakayama.

6th September 1998: Akira Kurosawa dies.

List of fanworks based on Serial Experiments Lain

2013-01-29T13:06:03Z

Sioraf as Na Cillini: /* English */ If you click the links all they say is site disabled

==Related Websites==
===English===
* [http://per.hedbor.org/lain/ Serial Experiments Lain: Root] ([[Serial Experiments Lain: Root|article]]) has a collection of Lain media for download, including cover scans and soundtracks.
* [http://www.cjas.org/~leng/lain.htm Thought Experiments Lain] ([[Thought Experiments Lain|article]]) is owned by Lawrence Eng aka Lawmune. It includes, among other things, a review, fanart contest and glossary. It is perhaps best known for the [http://www.cjas.org/~leng/apple-lain.htm list of Apple references in Lain].
* [http://lain.angelic-trust.net/ Omnipresence] is full of information about SEL and includes episode transcripts, screencaps, a fanlisting and a very outdated list of links. It is impossible to navigate. Content is [http://lain.angelic-trust.net/wired.html here].
* [http://misslain.homestead.com/index.html Lain - Alive in Cyberspace] includes reviews, screencaps, poetry, and a rather intriguing [http://misslain.homestead.com/cyberqs.html dialogue] on Lain. (Site has been disabled).
* [http://www.mebious.co.uk/ Mebious.co.uk] ([[Mebious.co.uk|article]]) comes from a URL that appears briefly on a pressure gauge. Sometimes called "Mebi" or "Mebby". Allows anonymous text or image posting. The most recent 10 lines of text are displayed.
* [http://www.mebious.mobi/ Mebious.mobi] ([[Mebious.mobi|article]]), sometimes called "Mobi", is inspired by Mebious and notably includes features such as music upload and auto-refresh.
* [http://mebious.com/ Mebious.com] hosts this very wiki.
* [http://cerealexperiments.com cerealexperiments.com] Website with imageboard that is sometimes Lain-related
* [http://asphyxia.su/ asphyxia.su] Collection of every background image from mebious, going back over a year.

==Past Related Websites==
===English===
* [[Thewired.info]]

==Essays==
===English===
* [[VKK 320: Decoding Virtual Culture in the Media - a case-study of Serial Experiments Lain]]
* [[Serial Experiments: Lain as a Reflection of Modern Japanese Anxieties in the Digital Era]]
* [[The role of technology in modern society according to Serial Experiments: Lain]]
* [[The Problem of Existence in Japanese Animation]]
* [[The Sight of Your God Disturbs Me: Questioning the Post-Christian Bodies of Buffy, Lain, and George]]
* [[Give some examples of cybernetic systems at play in specific visual texts. What metaphors of the body in contemporary society do they suggest? And to what commodity end are they marketed?]]
* [[To what commodity end are concepts of the ‘post-human’ and the ‘cyborg’ marketed? Give screen and theoretical examples of each.]]
* [[The Real Verses the Virtual]] [sic]

==Other articles==
===English===
* [[All I Ever Needed To Know In This Fragile Layer Of Existence We Call The Real World I Learned From Serial Experiments Lain]]

==Analysis==
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjaG8gqE7uY&feature=g-u-u Youtube video] Analyzing exactly what happened in the anime.

==Fanfiction Recommendations==
===English===
* [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2196634/1/Stopped Stopped], a short story that concisely captures the essence of Serial Experiments Lain.
"Lain's watch stopped..."
* [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6974007/1/The_Gods_Themselves The Gods Themselves], an odd crossover between SEL and Puella Magi Madoka Magica in which Lain and Madokami are indistinguishable and [[Alice]] discusses [[God]] with Homura.
""Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens.*" Lain. Madoka. Homura. Arisu. I am uncertain what genre to classify this under."
(*Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.)

Talk:A day in the life of Lain

2013-01-29T12:23:32Z

Sioraf as Na Cillini: /* Scene Ideas */

==Tech Level ==

Do we want the setting to be 1999 tech, or modern? I would personally vote for modern, because it will be simpler to think about, and Lain with a smartphone could be interesting.

I say 1999. Putting mobile phones and all that into a game based on an anime that came out when these things weren't around could get to be a headache.
[[User:Sioraf as Na Cillini|Sioraf as Na Cillini]] 12:13, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

== Scene Ideas ==

Scenes that should exist in this story:
*work on upgrading computers. Perhaps buying a pressure gauge somewhere?
*part of the splitting paths could be deciding if you go out or work on your computer each night (or if you even get to choose), and how upgraded the pc is could affect further scenes appearing or not [eg- playing an online game or not])
::have social points and pc points. some events require at least however many of whatever kind of points, and some actions could grant/require both (Lain goes to hacker-con?).

I have an idea. Have 2 categories of points; Offline Points and Wired points with subcategories Body, Mind and Spirit (as in emotion) in both. Every character starts off with a base of 1 in everything then gets 3 points in each category to assign to the subcategories as they like. If someone removes themselves from the real world or Wired then all of the points from that category and its subcategories goes to the other one. I'm thinking about these for the game as a whole but decided to put these suggestions here as points aren't mentioned in any other VN article.
[[User:Sioraf as Na Cillini|Sioraf as Na Cillini]] 12:23, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

== Game Length ==

:What if we make it into a time loop in a Kagetsu Tohya style, where you can raise flags and accumulate points that change the second, third etc. playthroughs? That way, each time it's played, only a day passes, but we can still make progress and watch Lain cover her room in wires and coolant. EDIT: Also, I put an example of the reality-warping qualities of this story. Perhaps we could use the school days for comedy and introduce serious plot elements into the weekends? [[User:Amysteriousgal|Amysteriousgal]] 02:26, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

::I think looping on the day might be too short, unless we want to go into very minute detail,or we expect a large number of playthroughs, but in that case we would have to make a lot of content, so it might as well just be a continuous playthrough. I could see there being a bad end that is some sort of failed reset, so it goes back to almost the same, and maybe she manages to leave herself clues on the second time through (like that one star trek tng episode).[[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 03:48, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

:::I've played a bunch of slow-paced VNs recently, and there's a lot that we could do with one day, especially with the reality-warping effect. The more choices we include, the more replayable this story becomes, anyway. How about if time doesn't pass unless you make it the weekend? That would mean that the school day options won't change between playthroughs, but the weekend options will constantly change for a few days. On the ending menu after a day, the player can choose to go back and select another story or to live another day as Lain. After the first playthrough, I think this waking up scene won't be used anymore, but there can be an option that says "Today is... A weekday/A weekend". ...Or we could just organise this game into about a week's worth of, uh, Laining? The problem there is that we're forced to follow her actual weekly schedule, while the daily loop option would let us (and the readers) to be more flexible in which days to read about. Hmm... The reset idea is nice. Have you written any mystery stories before? I always wanted to try it. [[User:Amysteriousgal|Amysteriousgal]] 08:34, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

::::I like the idea of "looping" with variation. Perhaps making the weekend days special somehow could improve the pacing in the long run. Also, I am going to adapt the term Laining into my vocabulary. --[[User:アラベスク|アラベスク]] 09:54, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

:::::Just threw some ideas on there for daily looping. It should be easy to adapt if we decide to make the chronology linear, though. Does it seem interesting so far? It'll need a lot of expanding, of course... [[User:Amysteriousgal|Amysteriousgal]] 16:09, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

::::I feel like making it only one day, but adding this content and structure to make each playthrough is making it more complicated than necessary. Like, if someone is going to play it through multiple days, where they do different things, why not just play through several things, and if we want events to happen that aren't based on the day of the week, just have them based on the player reaching certain milestones, like point counters or something? [[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 16:15, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

::::Regarding schedules, other than school, and going out to party, I don't think there's much that would be affected by day of the week (and even then, it seemed like the kids in SEL were irresponsible and partied at the club on whatever day it was, rather than just Friday). I think it would be neat to have one or two end-of-game type events, like have there be a huge party at Cyberia, or the knights make a move, in two weeks. That way, there are goal events you could work toward, and then there could be like a bad end reset, or mediocre end like she just continues to be shy and doesn't do much. [[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 16:15, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

:::::Since there are three types of points, we could have a big event that you can do for each if it gets high enough.[[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 16:22, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

::::::A fair point. It would be a million times easier to structure it without the loop. For the "plot", maybe some comedic reality slippage happens, and Lain runs around secretly patching things up... Imagine if, I don't know, a LOLcat was found sitting on the teacher's desk at school when NAVI=2, or a giant tomato appears in the sky when Weird=3, or something. What if we have different endings depending on which point scale is maxed out first? Maximum Social would take place in Cyberia, where Lain maybe wins a karaoke contest; maximum NAVI might make Lain move back into the Wired and spend her days cyberstalking Alice; maximum Weird might lead to a reset which causes bear suits to become in fashion. [[User:Amysteriousgal|Amysteriousgal]] 16:37, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

== Tone ==
I like the idea of keeping this one light-hearted, slice of life style, since the others will probably be more serious. [[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 16:18, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

:I heard someone claim that Lain fans have no sense of humour. That sounds like a challenge... [[User:Amysteriousgal|Amysteriousgal]] 16:40, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

:: I think coloring will be an important part of this. I think flatter coloring, with less shading and more contrast would be best, and maybe have the background be bright and happy most of the time, but maybe still have Lain be moody looking? [[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 16:45, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

:::Hidamari Sketch-like pastel colours and probably cute and simple patterns - waves, large polka dots - during dialogue scenes... There should be plenty of cheerful music from TAM Music Factory that we can use. All the other characters can be similarly unshaded and pastelified - although all that black hair... [[User:Amysteriousgal|Amysteriousgal]] 17:00, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

::::So maybe a random storyline like this would work? Also, augh help I can't write comedy [[User:Amysteriousgal|Amysteriousgal]] 01:23, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

:::::I think we've definitely got the beginnings of a good plan here. As much as I do enjoy the brainstorming for this one, we probably ought to actually put our efforts into one the stories you've already made good progress on writing, so that we've got a better feel of the process. I'll have my evenings (CST -6) free starting Tuesday; until then I'll mostly be poking at this, so my efforts may stick to this story until then, but after that I am up for getting serious with this project. I personally have done basically zero writing, but I think if we bounce ideas around enough we can mold them into some kind of story, and as long as we keep it from being too SRS BSNS, we could probably find some subtle jokes and silliness to insert.[[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 03:24, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

== Structure ==
What kind of level of choices do we want in this? If we lean towards a small number, it will be simpler to design, and more effort will be spent on writing longer pieces of content, but more choices will allow us to have more scenes that are divergent, though they will necessarily be shorter. I guess I'm asking: do we want breadth or depth? I've only played maybe 3-4 VNs myself, so I don't have a very good idea of what is the norm, but I could see it being 2-4 choices per day, depending on the day and choices taken.[[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 22:28, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

:For comedy VNs, there tend to be more choices - maybe 5 per day, sometimes up to 10. Serious ones usually have fewer, maybe 2 or 3 on average, unless they're designed to be adventure and/or horror. I was thinking 5 would be a reasonable number for each day, and in any case, it's relatively difficult to write extended pieces of fluff. Or maybe it would be easy for someone other than me. ^^; [[User:Amysteriousgal|Amysteriousgal]] 23:18, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

::I will admit that the most comedic VN I've played is Katawa Shoujo. I could see how it would be better to have shorter scenes in this sort of story. It would make it easier to jump from idea to idea that way, so we don't have to worry as much about connecting all the comedic bits we come up with.[[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 23:30, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

== Quick ideas ==

In a pastiche of the cute-girls-doing-cute-things trope of school clubs, could Lain's school (I need to put my mind to a nice punny name for it) suddenly find itself with a computer club?

: perhaps being sufficiently social and technical could get Lain an invite to join the computer club. Re: school name, we'll have to do some research on good names. I'd like to see it be a Japanese with some interesting, relevant meaning. [[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 23:26, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

I also rather like the idea of sending Taro and Myu-Myu to Lain's school.

:Does the anime establish their age? (I suppose this wiki probably says...) If not, I'd say put them a grade or two younger. She could run into them in the hall, or in computer club maybe. [[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 23:26, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

Alice as class rep would be a nice little nod to, ahem, too. Ahania 22:35, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

:Yeah, a computer club! It magically appears in the school, or maybe it was always there and nobody noticed, or maybe it appeared as a result of all this reality slippage. What if the kids show up to take part in a competition? Inter-school gaming contest, using a game that Lain's school made? ...Was there already a class rep somewhere, though? Oh well, reality slippage is a good excuse for everything. [[User:Amysteriousgal|Amysteriousgal]] 23:18, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

== Ridiculous Bad Endings ==
I have a few suggestions:
* Lain finds a cybernetically enhanced bong in a bathroom and smokes it. This causes her to understand Evangelion and ride out of town on a rainbow coloured giraffe never to be heard from again.
* Lain mops the floor rather than sweeps it which leads to her being killed by a tiger in a hotel.
* It was all just a dream... had by Mr. Kimura from Azumanga Daioh.
* Agent Smith from The Matrix and Norose Genichi from Chaos;Head team up and make their way into Lain's world. All hell breaks loose.
* Masami Eri kills a few cows and dumps them into the city's water supply causing everybody to die from disease.
* Lain decides to start a new life as a rapper. She rises to the top but dies from AIDS/ being murdered/ killed in a shootout with the police.
* Lain finds a lot of money in an alleyway and unable to resist the temptation keeps it and uses it to buy the police. Corrupted by the power she then unleashes a reign of terror the likes of which the city has never seen before.
What? The article does say "ridiculous bad endings" and I'm only trying to help.
[[User:Sioraf as Na Cillini|Sioraf as Na Cillini]] 12:11, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

Talk:A day in the life of Lain

2013-01-29T12:13:44Z

Sioraf as Na Cillini: /* Tech Level */ My 2 cents

==Tech Level ==

Do we want the setting to be 1999 tech, or modern? I would personally vote for modern, because it will be simpler to think about, and Lain with a smartphone could be interesting.

I say 1999. Putting mobile phones and all that into a game based on an anime that came out when these things weren't around could get to be a headache.
[[User:Sioraf as Na Cillini|Sioraf as Na Cillini]] 12:13, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

== Scene Ideas ==

Scenes that should exist in this story:
*work on upgrading computers. Perhaps buying a pressure gauge somewhere?
*part of the splitting paths could be deciding if you go out or work on your computer each night (or if you even get to choose), and how upgraded the pc is could affect further scenes appearing or not [eg- playing an online game or not])
::have social points and pc points. some events require at least however many of whatever kind of points, and some actions could grant/require both (Lain goes to hacker-con?).

== Game Length ==

:What if we make it into a time loop in a Kagetsu Tohya style, where you can raise flags and accumulate points that change the second, third etc. playthroughs? That way, each time it's played, only a day passes, but we can still make progress and watch Lain cover her room in wires and coolant. EDIT: Also, I put an example of the reality-warping qualities of this story. Perhaps we could use the school days for comedy and introduce serious plot elements into the weekends? [[User:Amysteriousgal|Amysteriousgal]] 02:26, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

::I think looping on the day might be too short, unless we want to go into very minute detail,or we expect a large number of playthroughs, but in that case we would have to make a lot of content, so it might as well just be a continuous playthrough. I could see there being a bad end that is some sort of failed reset, so it goes back to almost the same, and maybe she manages to leave herself clues on the second time through (like that one star trek tng episode).[[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 03:48, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

:::I've played a bunch of slow-paced VNs recently, and there's a lot that we could do with one day, especially with the reality-warping effect. The more choices we include, the more replayable this story becomes, anyway. How about if time doesn't pass unless you make it the weekend? That would mean that the school day options won't change between playthroughs, but the weekend options will constantly change for a few days. On the ending menu after a day, the player can choose to go back and select another story or to live another day as Lain. After the first playthrough, I think this waking up scene won't be used anymore, but there can be an option that says "Today is... A weekday/A weekend". ...Or we could just organise this game into about a week's worth of, uh, Laining? The problem there is that we're forced to follow her actual weekly schedule, while the daily loop option would let us (and the readers) to be more flexible in which days to read about. Hmm... The reset idea is nice. Have you written any mystery stories before? I always wanted to try it. [[User:Amysteriousgal|Amysteriousgal]] 08:34, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

::::I like the idea of "looping" with variation. Perhaps making the weekend days special somehow could improve the pacing in the long run. Also, I am going to adapt the term Laining into my vocabulary. --[[User:アラベスク|アラベスク]] 09:54, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

:::::Just threw some ideas on there for daily looping. It should be easy to adapt if we decide to make the chronology linear, though. Does it seem interesting so far? It'll need a lot of expanding, of course... [[User:Amysteriousgal|Amysteriousgal]] 16:09, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

::::I feel like making it only one day, but adding this content and structure to make each playthrough is making it more complicated than necessary. Like, if someone is going to play it through multiple days, where they do different things, why not just play through several things, and if we want events to happen that aren't based on the day of the week, just have them based on the player reaching certain milestones, like point counters or something? [[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 16:15, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

::::Regarding schedules, other than school, and going out to party, I don't think there's much that would be affected by day of the week (and even then, it seemed like the kids in SEL were irresponsible and partied at the club on whatever day it was, rather than just Friday). I think it would be neat to have one or two end-of-game type events, like have there be a huge party at Cyberia, or the knights make a move, in two weeks. That way, there are goal events you could work toward, and then there could be like a bad end reset, or mediocre end like she just continues to be shy and doesn't do much. [[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 16:15, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

:::::Since there are three types of points, we could have a big event that you can do for each if it gets high enough.[[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 16:22, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

::::::A fair point. It would be a million times easier to structure it without the loop. For the "plot", maybe some comedic reality slippage happens, and Lain runs around secretly patching things up... Imagine if, I don't know, a LOLcat was found sitting on the teacher's desk at school when NAVI=2, or a giant tomato appears in the sky when Weird=3, or something. What if we have different endings depending on which point scale is maxed out first? Maximum Social would take place in Cyberia, where Lain maybe wins a karaoke contest; maximum NAVI might make Lain move back into the Wired and spend her days cyberstalking Alice; maximum Weird might lead to a reset which causes bear suits to become in fashion. [[User:Amysteriousgal|Amysteriousgal]] 16:37, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

== Tone ==
I like the idea of keeping this one light-hearted, slice of life style, since the others will probably be more serious. [[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 16:18, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

:I heard someone claim that Lain fans have no sense of humour. That sounds like a challenge... [[User:Amysteriousgal|Amysteriousgal]] 16:40, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

:: I think coloring will be an important part of this. I think flatter coloring, with less shading and more contrast would be best, and maybe have the background be bright and happy most of the time, but maybe still have Lain be moody looking? [[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 16:45, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

:::Hidamari Sketch-like pastel colours and probably cute and simple patterns - waves, large polka dots - during dialogue scenes... There should be plenty of cheerful music from TAM Music Factory that we can use. All the other characters can be similarly unshaded and pastelified - although all that black hair... [[User:Amysteriousgal|Amysteriousgal]] 17:00, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

::::So maybe a random storyline like this would work? Also, augh help I can't write comedy [[User:Amysteriousgal|Amysteriousgal]] 01:23, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

:::::I think we've definitely got the beginnings of a good plan here. As much as I do enjoy the brainstorming for this one, we probably ought to actually put our efforts into one the stories you've already made good progress on writing, so that we've got a better feel of the process. I'll have my evenings (CST -6) free starting Tuesday; until then I'll mostly be poking at this, so my efforts may stick to this story until then, but after that I am up for getting serious with this project. I personally have done basically zero writing, but I think if we bounce ideas around enough we can mold them into some kind of story, and as long as we keep it from being too SRS BSNS, we could probably find some subtle jokes and silliness to insert.[[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 03:24, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

== Structure ==
What kind of level of choices do we want in this? If we lean towards a small number, it will be simpler to design, and more effort will be spent on writing longer pieces of content, but more choices will allow us to have more scenes that are divergent, though they will necessarily be shorter. I guess I'm asking: do we want breadth or depth? I've only played maybe 3-4 VNs myself, so I don't have a very good idea of what is the norm, but I could see it being 2-4 choices per day, depending on the day and choices taken.[[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 22:28, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

:For comedy VNs, there tend to be more choices - maybe 5 per day, sometimes up to 10. Serious ones usually have fewer, maybe 2 or 3 on average, unless they're designed to be adventure and/or horror. I was thinking 5 would be a reasonable number for each day, and in any case, it's relatively difficult to write extended pieces of fluff. Or maybe it would be easy for someone other than me. ^^; [[User:Amysteriousgal|Amysteriousgal]] 23:18, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

::I will admit that the most comedic VN I've played is Katawa Shoujo. I could see how it would be better to have shorter scenes in this sort of story. It would make it easier to jump from idea to idea that way, so we don't have to worry as much about connecting all the comedic bits we come up with.[[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 23:30, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

== Quick ideas ==

In a pastiche of the cute-girls-doing-cute-things trope of school clubs, could Lain's school (I need to put my mind to a nice punny name for it) suddenly find itself with a computer club?

: perhaps being sufficiently social and technical could get Lain an invite to join the computer club. Re: school name, we'll have to do some research on good names. I'd like to see it be a Japanese with some interesting, relevant meaning. [[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 23:26, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

I also rather like the idea of sending Taro and Myu-Myu to Lain's school.

:Does the anime establish their age? (I suppose this wiki probably says...) If not, I'd say put them a grade or two younger. She could run into them in the hall, or in computer club maybe. [[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 23:26, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

Alice as class rep would be a nice little nod to, ahem, too. Ahania 22:35, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

:Yeah, a computer club! It magically appears in the school, or maybe it was always there and nobody noticed, or maybe it appeared as a result of all this reality slippage. What if the kids show up to take part in a competition? Inter-school gaming contest, using a game that Lain's school made? ...Was there already a class rep somewhere, though? Oh well, reality slippage is a good excuse for everything. [[User:Amysteriousgal|Amysteriousgal]] 23:18, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

== Ridiculous Bad Endings ==
I have a few suggestions:
* Lain finds a cybernetically enhanced bong in a bathroom and smokes it. This causes her to understand Evangelion and ride out of town on a rainbow coloured giraffe never to be heard from again.
* Lain mops the floor rather than sweeps it which leads to her being killed by a tiger in a hotel.
* It was all just a dream... had by Mr. Kimura from Azumanga Daioh.
* Agent Smith from The Matrix and Norose Genichi from Chaos;Head team up and make their way into Lain's world. All hell breaks loose.
* Masami Eri kills a few cows and dumps them into the city's water supply causing everybody to die from disease.
* Lain decides to start a new life as a rapper. She rises to the top but dies from AIDS/ being murdered/ killed in a shootout with the police.
* Lain finds a lot of money in an alleyway and unable to resist the temptation keeps it and uses it to buy the police. Corrupted by the power she then unleashes a reign of terror the likes of which the city has never seen before.
What? The article does say "ridiculous bad endings" and I'm only trying to help.
[[User:Sioraf as Na Cillini|Sioraf as Na Cillini]] 12:11, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

Talk:A day in the life of Lain

2013-01-29T12:11:22Z

Sioraf as Na Cillini: Suggestions for ridiculous bad endings

==Tech Level ==

Do we want the setting to be 1999 tech, or modern? I would personally vote for modern, because it will be simpler to think about, and Lain with a smartphone could be interesting.

== Scene Ideas ==

Scenes that should exist in this story:
*work on upgrading computers. Perhaps buying a pressure gauge somewhere?
*part of the splitting paths could be deciding if you go out or work on your computer each night (or if you even get to choose), and how upgraded the pc is could affect further scenes appearing or not [eg- playing an online game or not])
::have social points and pc points. some events require at least however many of whatever kind of points, and some actions could grant/require both (Lain goes to hacker-con?).

== Game Length ==

:What if we make it into a time loop in a Kagetsu Tohya style, where you can raise flags and accumulate points that change the second, third etc. playthroughs? That way, each time it's played, only a day passes, but we can still make progress and watch Lain cover her room in wires and coolant. EDIT: Also, I put an example of the reality-warping qualities of this story. Perhaps we could use the school days for comedy and introduce serious plot elements into the weekends? [[User:Amysteriousgal|Amysteriousgal]] 02:26, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

::I think looping on the day might be too short, unless we want to go into very minute detail,or we expect a large number of playthroughs, but in that case we would have to make a lot of content, so it might as well just be a continuous playthrough. I could see there being a bad end that is some sort of failed reset, so it goes back to almost the same, and maybe she manages to leave herself clues on the second time through (like that one star trek tng episode).[[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 03:48, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

:::I've played a bunch of slow-paced VNs recently, and there's a lot that we could do with one day, especially with the reality-warping effect. The more choices we include, the more replayable this story becomes, anyway. How about if time doesn't pass unless you make it the weekend? That would mean that the school day options won't change between playthroughs, but the weekend options will constantly change for a few days. On the ending menu after a day, the player can choose to go back and select another story or to live another day as Lain. After the first playthrough, I think this waking up scene won't be used anymore, but there can be an option that says "Today is... A weekday/A weekend". ...Or we could just organise this game into about a week's worth of, uh, Laining? The problem there is that we're forced to follow her actual weekly schedule, while the daily loop option would let us (and the readers) to be more flexible in which days to read about. Hmm... The reset idea is nice. Have you written any mystery stories before? I always wanted to try it. [[User:Amysteriousgal|Amysteriousgal]] 08:34, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

::::I like the idea of "looping" with variation. Perhaps making the weekend days special somehow could improve the pacing in the long run. Also, I am going to adapt the term Laining into my vocabulary. --[[User:アラベスク|アラベスク]] 09:54, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

:::::Just threw some ideas on there for daily looping. It should be easy to adapt if we decide to make the chronology linear, though. Does it seem interesting so far? It'll need a lot of expanding, of course... [[User:Amysteriousgal|Amysteriousgal]] 16:09, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

::::I feel like making it only one day, but adding this content and structure to make each playthrough is making it more complicated than necessary. Like, if someone is going to play it through multiple days, where they do different things, why not just play through several things, and if we want events to happen that aren't based on the day of the week, just have them based on the player reaching certain milestones, like point counters or something? [[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 16:15, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

::::Regarding schedules, other than school, and going out to party, I don't think there's much that would be affected by day of the week (and even then, it seemed like the kids in SEL were irresponsible and partied at the club on whatever day it was, rather than just Friday). I think it would be neat to have one or two end-of-game type events, like have there be a huge party at Cyberia, or the knights make a move, in two weeks. That way, there are goal events you could work toward, and then there could be like a bad end reset, or mediocre end like she just continues to be shy and doesn't do much. [[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 16:15, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

:::::Since there are three types of points, we could have a big event that you can do for each if it gets high enough.[[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 16:22, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

::::::A fair point. It would be a million times easier to structure it without the loop. For the "plot", maybe some comedic reality slippage happens, and Lain runs around secretly patching things up... Imagine if, I don't know, a LOLcat was found sitting on the teacher's desk at school when NAVI=2, or a giant tomato appears in the sky when Weird=3, or something. What if we have different endings depending on which point scale is maxed out first? Maximum Social would take place in Cyberia, where Lain maybe wins a karaoke contest; maximum NAVI might make Lain move back into the Wired and spend her days cyberstalking Alice; maximum Weird might lead to a reset which causes bear suits to become in fashion. [[User:Amysteriousgal|Amysteriousgal]] 16:37, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

== Tone ==
I like the idea of keeping this one light-hearted, slice of life style, since the others will probably be more serious. [[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 16:18, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

:I heard someone claim that Lain fans have no sense of humour. That sounds like a challenge... [[User:Amysteriousgal|Amysteriousgal]] 16:40, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

:: I think coloring will be an important part of this. I think flatter coloring, with less shading and more contrast would be best, and maybe have the background be bright and happy most of the time, but maybe still have Lain be moody looking? [[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 16:45, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

:::Hidamari Sketch-like pastel colours and probably cute and simple patterns - waves, large polka dots - during dialogue scenes... There should be plenty of cheerful music from TAM Music Factory that we can use. All the other characters can be similarly unshaded and pastelified - although all that black hair... [[User:Amysteriousgal|Amysteriousgal]] 17:00, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

::::So maybe a random storyline like this would work? Also, augh help I can't write comedy [[User:Amysteriousgal|Amysteriousgal]] 01:23, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

:::::I think we've definitely got the beginnings of a good plan here. As much as I do enjoy the brainstorming for this one, we probably ought to actually put our efforts into one the stories you've already made good progress on writing, so that we've got a better feel of the process. I'll have my evenings (CST -6) free starting Tuesday; until then I'll mostly be poking at this, so my efforts may stick to this story until then, but after that I am up for getting serious with this project. I personally have done basically zero writing, but I think if we bounce ideas around enough we can mold them into some kind of story, and as long as we keep it from being too SRS BSNS, we could probably find some subtle jokes and silliness to insert.[[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 03:24, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

== Structure ==
What kind of level of choices do we want in this? If we lean towards a small number, it will be simpler to design, and more effort will be spent on writing longer pieces of content, but more choices will allow us to have more scenes that are divergent, though they will necessarily be shorter. I guess I'm asking: do we want breadth or depth? I've only played maybe 3-4 VNs myself, so I don't have a very good idea of what is the norm, but I could see it being 2-4 choices per day, depending on the day and choices taken.[[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 22:28, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

:For comedy VNs, there tend to be more choices - maybe 5 per day, sometimes up to 10. Serious ones usually have fewer, maybe 2 or 3 on average, unless they're designed to be adventure and/or horror. I was thinking 5 would be a reasonable number for each day, and in any case, it's relatively difficult to write extended pieces of fluff. Or maybe it would be easy for someone other than me. ^^; [[User:Amysteriousgal|Amysteriousgal]] 23:18, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

::I will admit that the most comedic VN I've played is Katawa Shoujo. I could see how it would be better to have shorter scenes in this sort of story. It would make it easier to jump from idea to idea that way, so we don't have to worry as much about connecting all the comedic bits we come up with.[[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 23:30, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

== Quick ideas ==

In a pastiche of the cute-girls-doing-cute-things trope of school clubs, could Lain's school (I need to put my mind to a nice punny name for it) suddenly find itself with a computer club?

: perhaps being sufficiently social and technical could get Lain an invite to join the computer club. Re: school name, we'll have to do some research on good names. I'd like to see it be a Japanese with some interesting, relevant meaning. [[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 23:26, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

I also rather like the idea of sending Taro and Myu-Myu to Lain's school.

:Does the anime establish their age? (I suppose this wiki probably says...) If not, I'd say put them a grade or two younger. She could run into them in the hall, or in computer club maybe. [[User:Bytor|Bytor]] 23:26, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

Alice as class rep would be a nice little nod to, ahem, too. Ahania 22:35, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

:Yeah, a computer club! It magically appears in the school, or maybe it was always there and nobody noticed, or maybe it appeared as a result of all this reality slippage. What if the kids show up to take part in a competition? Inter-school gaming contest, using a game that Lain's school made? ...Was there already a class rep somewhere, though? Oh well, reality slippage is a good excuse for everything. [[User:Amysteriousgal|Amysteriousgal]] 23:18, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

== Ridiculous Bad Endings ==
I have a few suggestions:
* Lain finds a cybernetically enhanced bong in a bathroom and smokes it. This causes her to understand Evangelion and ride out of town on a rainbow coloured giraffe never to be heard from again.
* Lain mops the floor rather than sweeps it which leads to her being killed by a tiger in a hotel.
* It was all just a dream... had by Mr. Kimura from Azumanga Daioh.
* Agent Smith from The Matrix and Norose Genichi from Chaos;Head team up and make their way into Lain's world. All hell breaks loose.
* Masami Eri kills a few cows and dumps them into the city's water supply causing everybody to die from disease.
* Lain decides to start a new life as a rapper. She rises to the top but dies from AIDS/ being murdered/ killed in a shootout with the police.
* Lain finds a lot of money in an alleyway and unable to resist the temptation keeps it and uses it to buy the police. Corrupted by the power she then unleashes a reign of terror the likes of which the city has never seen before.
What? The article does say "ridiculous bad endings" and I'm only trying to help.
[[User:Sioraf as Na Cillini|Sioraf as Na Cillini]] 12:11, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

User:Sioraf as Na Cillini

2013-01-28T18:25:23Z

Sioraf as Na Cillini:

I first saw Lain at night as a child and remember finding it weird yet one of the best things I've ever seen and today that's still how I feel about it.

== Real Life Events That Happened In Japan During Lain's Original Run==

25th July 1998: Mass poisoning at a curry festival in Wakayama.

6th September 1998: Akira Kurosawa dies.

User:Sioraf as Na Cillini

2013-01-28T18:21:20Z

Sioraf as Na Cillini: Created page with "I first saw Lain at night as a child and remember finding it weird yet one of the best things I've ever seen and today that's still how I feel about it."

I first saw Lain at night as a child and remember finding it weird yet one of the best things I've ever seen and today that's still how I feel about it.