My Journey with Splatoon

Splatoon is a game you can play with friends, which naturally led to Discord servers, LINE groups, Facebook groups, Twitter circles, and more. Through these spaces, I crossed paths with quite a few fellow players.

It was a truly joyful period of my life, even though looking back, I definitely played way too much 😂. But I couldn’t help it—this game is just too addictive.

When it comes to people I meet in games, I make a conscious effort to keep them separate from my real life, sharing as little personal information as possible. It serves as a basic protection mechanism online, as well as a sign of respect for other people’s privacy. Still, gaming inevitably leads to making friends, and being able to cross paths in this vast world is a special kind of serendipity.

Funny story: back in 2017, I saw Splatoon 2 in Japan, thought it looked interesting, and bought it on an impulse. At the time, we had no idea it was a multiplayer online battle game. After playing a few stages of Hero Mode, it felt dizzying and repetitive, so I ended up putting it away and never turned it on again.

It wasn’t until 2020, when a Japanese colleague invited me to play, that I had a sudden epiphany: multiplayer battles were the true essence of the game. I also realized that Hero Mode was actually a lot of fun, and I eventually got so hooked that I bought the DLC.

Back in Splatoon 2, I rarely played PvP matches; I mostly played Salmon Run. Around that time, while chatting with a newly hired manager, B, I found out that both he and his daughter played Splatoon. From time to time in the evenings, we’d team up for Salmon Run or Turf War. Another engineer on the same project was also an avid player who had reached Rank X in Splatoon 2, and we would sometimes jump into private battles after work. Writing these words brings back a warm wave of nostalgia for those days we spent playing together.

In the beginning, I mostly played solo, occasionally teaming up with colleagues for Turf War or Salmon Run, pushing for 999 whenever the weapon rotation was good. It wasn’t until Splatoon 3 came out that I started actively looking for squads across various social media platforms. After returning to Taiwan, I even met up with some passionate Splatoon players for meals.

One amusing highlight was when a Japanese player joined our group. Even though he couldn’t understand Chinese, most of us knew a bit of Japanese, and with the help of a Discord translation bot, we managed to get by. Playing together through that kind of comical, broken communication created such a genuinely fun atmosphere. (Though for some reason, he later left the group.)

Making friends through gaming is a fantastic way to step outside your comfort zone and social bubble, since everyone comes from completely different professions and walks of life. Seeing people who manage to buy a car, buy a house, raise kids, work full-time, study for exams, write a thesis, and still hit 999 on every Salmon Run map leaves me in absolute awe. Meanwhile, I feel like I can only choose between work and gaming—and end up doing just okay at both.

Even though I often find myself grumbling about Splatoon’s weapon balancing, matchmaking, lag, and overpowered specials, at the end of the day, I still love this game. Its lore, music, art style, and fashionable gear choices are simply outstanding.

Whatever the case, being able to game together in this vast world is a rare and precious connection. For me, it has been a wonderful chance to broaden my horizons and step out of my bubble. I wanted to write all this down and capture the memories before they fade away.