Okay, believe it or not you can use code ANYAUSTIN50 to get 50% OFF your first Factor box plus 20% off your next month of orders at bit.ly/3XFDRf4 FACTOR FACTOR FACTOR FACTOR FACTOR Welcome to the video. This video makes me want to do more giant census videos, only even more in-depth, and even more biggerer. Shoutout to Zoë for recording the static shots in this one @MissDirectionTv on xitter. Hope you are all having a good Monday. If you're not, hop in the Discord and complain to me. I will listen. I won't. I might. See ya later.
Reminds me how archaeologists say a monument belonged to someone as well. If there's a name on it, they say it was built by that person. This is like me spray painting my name on a bridge, and a thousand years from now someone seeing that and saying, "Hmmm, Krythic must have built this bridge."
@@lordkrythic6246, to be fair, most of these names are embedded in the building or carved on the stones before said bridge was built, so it's mostly safe to assume the person mentioned had something to do with its construction.
@@insigil Except for the fact that Egyptian pharaohs, as an example, used to go around defacing monuments of their predecessors all the time. Even putting their own names on it, as well.
I watched the report in the seccond part of the video on speaker, and now my father thinks I'm learning about the economical status of a country on earth.
As someone who lives in a tourism town, about 20% of our working population is only in work for 7 or 8 months of the year. Isle Delfino is clearly a tourism island in off season, so their economy is probably just fine. It looks like a nice place to loaf about for a third of the year (when a certain family is stopped, anyway)
I can testify it too. ... With the bonus we have 30% of our population that is retired too. XD (Yes, it's a touristic destination, but the population is aging at a faqt pace)
A thing to add is the game only shows the tourist atractions of the island In a mario kart game its shown delphino square wich looks more like a common city or the place that the local population lives
Unemployment statistics actually only counts people who are actively looking for work. So if I quit my job and decide to spend my days sitting in a tall banana tree, eating it's delicious fruits and napping in it's shade, I'm not 'unemployed' because I'm not searching for work. So this video should be impossible, actually, unless Nintendo, for some reason, has each character introduce themselves like.. "I'm Bob and I was recently fired from the solarpanel plant due to the lack of sunshine! I'm trying to find work but it looks like no one's hiring for my highly specific skillset!" Which seems unlikely. Beyond that, many of the people he marked as unemployed (such as the people swimming around in the pool) are clearly just tourists. So....
Imagine having a 3/1 job, walking in the park in your only weekend in days, and then Mario comes around and asks you many stupid questions, saying you are unemployed
It's a real oversight that the developers didn't add a dialogue option to ask them if they are unemployed or not. Poor planning if you ask me, they should have had the foresight that a couple of decades after release, on a website that didn't yet exist, that someone's job would depend on knowing the employment status of the residents of Mario Sunshine. It's discrimination.
The bureau sadly missed the overwhelming majority of Noki in Noki Bay. They live underwater below the waterfall and are only present in the red coin mission and there are dozens of them there.
That blew my mind when I played Sunshine. Noki are sentient intelligent beings like us, yet they didn't lose their ability to survive underwater. They seem to breathe both underwater and above water. Living underwater where there's no technology, and being able to thrive just in the raw water, they probably don't need much financial income at all. So maybe the Nokis who are just chillin' in the water aren't contributing to the economy, but aren't consuming tax dollars either. Perhaps the Noki who choose to work jobs are simply bored of floating underwater all the time, and decided to join the "real world".
@@healthyminds9279"no technology" They live in a really elaborate skyscraper-height building down there. I think you need a bit of technology to build that
@isaacthered Very fair point. Though once rock buildings are built, they probably don't need a constant labor force and tax money to keep existing. There just would be occasional repairs, and maybe eventual expansion. The question to me is, do these Noki maintain their homes and survive on their own time (like a medieval farmhouse)? Or do Noki Bay citizens instead have formal jobs, paying taxes to Isle Delfino and collecting unemployment benefits etc, making them fully a part of the system? Perhaps Noki Bay is something of a micro nation, with its own informal "job" system. They could still trade with the rest of Isle Delfino and rent construction technology in exchange for being part of the tourist attraction.
@@healthyminds9279maybe the noki are indigenous population of delphino and most live on reservations or some other sovereign community underwater. This would explain why their population is so low outside these places.
Fun little fact: a person who regularly watches boats go through locks and canals is called a gongoozler. The person watching the boats in the plaza could probably be considered to be one, which is fun. Gongoozler
Couple interesting factors for Isle Delfino. 1) In the same way that it hard to tell if any of these individuals are employed or not, its ALSO hard to tell just how many actually live there. Isle Delfino is essentially a holy sight and homeland for the Piantas, so even if some don't immediately stand out as tourist, there could be annual influx of Piantas and Noki who make a kind of pilgrimage back to the island, thus they are familiar with the island but aren't currently working. Despite its tropical vibes, in several ways the culture of Isle Delfino references italian culture as well, particularly with Don Pianta from TTYD, or the fact that the name is literally just italian for plant. 2) In Mario Kart Double Dash, it is revealed that one of the tracks takes place on an island called Peach Beach. It contains Piantas and Noki as well as prominently featuring their architecture. Being a Princess, there's no question that Peach has the ability to own and invest in an island. So a potential answer to WHY Peach would chose this place, depending on the chronology of events, is that Peach is invested in the entire island, OR that the key reason she and Mario came there in the first place was for business and diplomatic reasons. That video at the beginning of the game wasn't a travel ad, it was a sales pitch. For less speculative notes, Noki Bay actually contains the residential area of the noki, and some of their homes are actually the little floating platforms out in the bay, but Noki can also breath underwater, so most live in the underground caves below the bay. Thats why we see very few of them on the surface, and thats why its such a big issue that the eel was creating all that pollution. It was like a smog wave that left them trapped in their houses. Similarly, Piantas village doesn't seem to have a ton of houses, but thats because its a more traditional area, the piantas used to live in trees, which is fitting considering they're all shaped like pears. And honestly compared to any other game we've done a survey on, there are so few interior buildings we can explore in Sunshine. For all we know they have a bustling tech sector. We can also further speculate if Peach is actually coming to the island for negotiations, that the island is actually just before its peak tourism period, which would explain why some areas are lacking for work or don't seem set up yet. And all that makes so much sense why they need to deal with the graffiti problem. Regardless if they think mario did it or not, Shadow Mario is going to hurt their business if it isn't cleaned up for when the ACTUAL influx of tourist arrive.
Yeah, Isle Delfino in Super Mario Sunshine screams "Not Peak Season" to me. Most of the people enjoying the sights are residents, who are taking the opportunity of it not being busy anywhere to enjoy the bay, go gamble, etc. I mean they're also having an ecological disaster so that would've also shut down a lot of employment, like how all the roads close in the south whenever it snows. It's difficult to gauge these things with just a pretty stagnant snapshot, like you get in a video game. But, I agree with you and am ALSO getting off season vibes.
Yeah I was thinking bc myself that a lot of tourist locations are seasonal in terms of income so it also would make sense that the tourism coming into isle delfino during the peak seasons is likely enough to sustain many piantas during the off season. They may not be unemployed so much as seasonal workers
Another thing to consider is that certain Pianta's may be business owners or otherwise have some sort of "job" revolving around passive income. Whether or not that impacts the numbers is up to those making the definitions of the term employed, but it might help to explain why some Piantas seem to be working regularly, while others are not. For example, maybe the Pianta's seen at the beginning of Bianco Hills own the windmill farm, and employ the other Piantas that seem to be working there.
Apparently Peach Beach is Peach's favorite island resort, not just something she owns. Also, interesting to note is that Coconut Mall and the Delfino Square courses are supposed to be somewhere ON Isle Delfino
Delfino's is a tax heaven striving on the very attractive tax rate they offer to the mushroom kingdom corporations Thanks to these they can afford to be a welfare state where the only really work to do is having a hotel where the head of corporation can come once in a while
Hey Austin, love your videos One small nitpick that’s been on my mind for a while is your use of “direct survey”. To be pedantic (or to capitalize on a learning moment) what you are doing would be considered a direct census instead. While they’re both direct because you are physically gathering data, the main difference is sample size. Surveys attempt to use a smaller sample size to make generalizations about a population as a whole, where during a census data is collected from the entire population to make objective statements (which is what you’re doing) The same can actually be said about scientific surveys not on human populations. The USGS (geological survey) can only physically test so much land, so things like their soil maps will have large generalizations about regional soil classes that are often not 100% accurate, but good generalizations Either way keep up the good work, you’re a super creative TH-camr and I love your channel 🫶
I'd counter that the actual population size can't be known, so this is assumed to be a smaller survey sampling the data which is available. Unless your quarrel is with how the data is presented - as largely factual instead of incorporating certain margins of error - rather than how the data was gathered.
just because you're unemployed doesn't mean that you're not essential to the value that delfino plaza has. just think, if you weren't being violently assaulted with water that man might spray other people.
I forgot what video I was watching for a sec when I read your comment and thought you meant coaster like you put down on the coffee table under your cup 😅
Bro that economic report was fucking rad. Like, so real and proper. I can tell you worked on that speech, and the podium and button up shirt really tie the room together
As someone born in a town (with my mother also born there, and my grandparents moving there before they had kids) that has been absolutely wrecked by increased attention, tourism, deconstruction of local industries, and more and more people moving in (plus the mass-scale housing crisis the western world is facing), this report hit me a little bit.
I just saw a video (The complex beauty of Super Mario Sunshine) arguing that's the intended message of the game. TLDW: every level follows the same pattern. You arrive and see the harm caused by outsiders, you work to help reverse the damage they've done, and then you see the beauty of the local environment and culture.
What missions did you go to in order to observe the populations of each part of Isle Delfino? Some places that are deserted in one mission may have a lot of people hanging out there in another mission. For example, the juice bar at Gelato Beach is full of people in the mission about the watermelon contest. And especially notable is that Noki Bay has a large underwater area where many people can be found if you revisit it in a later mission after defeating the giant eel boss. Plus, all of the people you can find throughout Isle Delfino have different dialogue in each mission, which may be helpful in determining their employment status.
Seeing the "Employed" graphic pop up next to Austin's head gave me a foreboding feeling, like suddenly the lines between reality and the fiction of the employment numeration world were suddenly blurred, and nobody is safe from judgment. Soon our innermost secrets will be laid bare by the most unassuming of strangers, and our employment status will be declared for all the world to see, complete with a triumphant jingle or humiliating arrow twang.
@@snakewithapen5489 Being freelance counts as employment as long as you're making money from it. I used to do commissions between people I knew for a while, and it made me over a thousand dollars for just a few pieces. I'm generally really busy with university and my other job so I don't have the time to do commissions anymore, but also I just really hate making art for other people (not to mention I hate making art on a schedule). The money was great while it lasted though lol. Just remember, if you get to a point where freelancing becomes your 9-5, you do have to start doing your own tax forms as your own business. Then you'd be all professionally self-employed! But if you're not making over 10K a year from your art, just pocket the cash and forget it (but you didn't hear that from me). Good luck with your freelance work.
One thing to note that in Noki Bay there is a substantial population of Noki living under the water (seen in Episode 8), however they refuse to answer a direct survey when questioned. Goes to show how valuable local participation is when making these reports.
Data gatherers and enumerators of various types often have a problem with this in smaller, more closed communities like the Noki. Proper intel in such cases may require a more anthropological, participant-observation-type approach, even just for quantitative data, but the process of gaining entree and community trust is more probably more involved than organizations like the BoLS want to bother with or have the social finesse for
I’m really enjoying videos like these of yours where you push the envelope on your fundamental idea just a little further, and end up moving into territory where you’re being absurdly analytical but it works because its still presenting actual ideas that “further the argument” artistically. I’m not a huge fan of the ones where you’re just determining whether people are employed because it gets repetitive, but when you create an overarching thesis like you did in this video it elevates the content so much. FTR my first video of yours was the one where you analyze the urban space of a racing game. This video reminds me a lot of what made that one so good. More please!
definitely not his fault, i know i can’t expect the enumerator to recognize the colonial-imperialist mushroom paradigm he’s operating within. still, smh.
Yo, Pianta Village is difficult because this is a residential area. Like, if Austin came into my house, saw me playing Vampire Survivors, and told me I was unemployed, I'd be upset too. I'm just enjoying my time off. I mean, if he asked me if I had a job, I'd say yes, but what if that wasn't a dialogue option?
I mean the answer is simple, really, whenever someone breaks into your house, make sure your opening line to 'em is always. "There's nothing like playing some Vampire Survivors after a stressful day at the Fish Factory" That's what I've been doing for the past decades, and it always served me right
Real neat video. A few things I've thought of 1. Given that piantas have trees coming out of their heads, and they do seem to be part of their biology rather than decoration given that their hats are specially designed to accommodate the trees, it could be that they're capable of photosynthesis and in turn require drastically less sustenance compared to us. Either they're animals that evolved plant-like characteristics or plants that evolved animalistic characteristics. There's living rocks and celestial objects in Mario's universe so it's not that far fetched. But if something did evolve such capabilities, not only is a major economic factor handled (since they don't need to farm/sell/buy as much food) but it could have had a major downstream effect on their culture where there is the ability to just laze about and exist for extended periods of time. Heck, maybe they get energy from the sun sprites which is why it was such a disaster when a bunch of them went missing and the shine gate stopped working. They arrested Mario, who would arguably have been an international celebrity by that point, all on the flimsy evidence that someone who looks kind of like him was mucking things up on the island despite there being ample evidence that Mario had literally just arrived minutes ago. This kind of behavior is not the sort one would expect from a stable community but instead a society in turmoil looking for someone to point a finger at. 2. One has to wonder how long Mario was on the island given that this info is only shared when he's present. Given that Pianta Village is the only area that has day/night transitions between levels and Serena Beach is perpetually at sunset. There's 8 levels in each area and clearly there's a period of time that occurs between levels like how Petey Piranha is on top the windmill in one level, then he's gone for a bit, and then he returns after spreading good everywhere. A conservative estimate would have Mario spending 8 days on the island doing a full round across all the levels each day but the argument could be made that Mario spent weeks there as well. 3. It mades sense that Noki Bay wouldn't be very populated given that it does seem to be an archeological site + the home of the Nokis underwater. There are some places on Earth that heavily limit how many tourists can go in a year like the Galapagos due to their fragile ecosystems. The raccoons charging an exorbitant amount for mudboat rides could legitimately just be really bad at figuring out where to set shop. Or given how flimsy the mud boats are, they could also be scammers. Given how they sell shine sprites during a critical time when the shine gate stopped working due to so many being stolen/lost, they don't strike me as the most honest characters. 4. One also has to consider the resources available on the island. Even if the Piantas didn't get energy from the sun, the amount of fruit on the island is staggering. Trees fully grow new fruit in seconds. Watermelon grow from the ground in seconds. As long as the Piantas don't reproduce faster than the island can sustain them, they shouldn't be in any dire straights for food. They get as close to a free lunch as economically possible. However if they aren't reproducing too fast for the island to sustain them, it then comes to question what other selective pressures caused them to evolve trees on their heads. Maybe they did initially, then eventually evolved trees, and then that resulted in them drastically consuming less of the island's resources and in turn resulted them in creating a culture that doesn't require as much work as here on Earth.
I know you probably meant to write goo, but the thought of Petey Piranha spreading good everywhere makes me happy. He's just a nice guy who wants what's best for everyone
I think Pianta Village is a farming community. There are lots of Pianta in Delfino Plaza selling produce, which has to come from somewhere, and a lot of it doesn't appear to be native to most parts of the island. The mushrooms they sell are identical except in size to ones only seen growing in Pianta Village, and not only is the jungle a likely origin for fruits like bananas and durians, but there's actually a tree in Pianta Village that grows every kind of fruit sold in the plaza. Since we don't see any evidence of farming in the village itself and there isn't much if any housing there, I think Pianta Village is a central hub supporting a spread-out, low-density farming. A small number of people live and work in Pianta Village itself, such as local government officials, but most people in the village are probably agricultural workers who live and work in the surrounding area, and visit the village for errands and leisure.
Huh. I hate to be that guy encouraging advertisement, but I do want to say I appreciate how candid you are during your sponsored segments. Also just in general you've hit quite a great stride in your style and it's a joy to watch! Great work.
Thinking about it, Delfino Plaza is a lot like where "Weird Al" wants to escape to in "Albuquerque." - The sun is always shining - The air smells like the goop from Bowser Jr.'s paintbrush, which may well have the odor of warm root beer - The towels, at least in Hotel Delfino, are most likely oh-so-fluffy - The townsfolk play their ukuleles all day long - Anyone on the street will gladly fling you into the distance for the equivalent of a nickel Wacka wacka doo-doo, yeah.
6:40 I would just like to announce to you that I have noticed, and appreciated the shadow here under the employed graphic. Very immersive. It has aided in my enjoyment of your content, and I appreciate the time and work that went into this unrequired effect shot you decided to do.
@@JonathanTash speaking as an editor myself, my first instinct is to explain how he probably did it lmao If he used After Effects he likely duplicated the text layer and set it to “drop shadow only,” converted it to a 3D object (3D text layers are flat like paper by default) and then rotated it to be in line with the ground below If he used Premiere, he likely did the same first few steps except rather than true 3D, he would’ve used an effect that imitates 3D and just allows you to skew objects to look like they’re at a 3D angle If he used another program I have no clue but I’d imagine it would be similar
austin, bc of you i now stop and check out every chess board i see in every video game i play. most are impossible/incredibly bad positions, but some have actual decent games! it’s so cool seeing the developers take the time to put a real position together
Your videos make me feel like a child watching early morning cartoons again. I get to gittery to yell out "a direct survey," EVERY time you ask. You are the educational Dora/Blues Clues of my 20's. Thank you sir.
Maybe the Piantas have a rotation system where only a section of the population works every season. And the other sections vacation or loaf about for a season. Then they switch. It would take a huge buy-in from the community, but once it worked, Piantas would love to labor for a bit to earn time off later.
My gf kinda does this because she works a long night shift job at a hospital: she'll work one week on, one week off. She vastly prefers it to working a bit and then getting a bit of time off.
That's what I was thinking. And yes, we would be able to have this system IRL if the capitalist class weren't taking such big profit margins, meaning we are all underpaid so much that we can't afford to take much time off.
One of the things I would like to point out is that we are measuring an un-employment or jobless rate rather than the standard definition of "unemployment" that is actively looking for work and unable to find any for a certain amount of time and therefore unable to afford their lifestyle.
It's an important point, and one I recall Austin pondering in some of the other Employment videos (Edit: I believe in the Pokemon ones, he counts some of the couples as 1 Employed and 1 N/A) But also, we already can't actually tell if some of these people are employed when they're theoretically not standing here saying one sentence forever. It'd be cutting one unclear group into two unclear groups.
This is a good point. The statistic being calculated is actually the "Labor Force Participation Rate," although the more comparable statistics may be the "Working Age Labor Force Participation Rate" (depending on whether children and the elderly are included in the survey or not). Interestingly, the USA (currently at a reasonable level of unemployment) has a "Working Age Labor Force Participation Rate" of ~84%, or a non-participation rate of ~16%, which isn't too much lower than Isle Delfino.
@@squmulonimbusHe does seem to be factoring retirement, as he isn't counting the elderly. I guess the other adults could also be retired, but also, we're already operating with little/no info to make these evaluations.
Counterpoint: Austin isn't playing the role of any Isle Delfino labour agency, he's specifically playing the role of the /United States/ Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is completely unequipped to report on any economic system that isn't modern-day American capitalism. I would argue that trying to describe Isle Delfino's economy with America's terminology and biases is part of the humor.
I just love that this is how Austin chooses to spend his time. And I mean, I can't resist it: I find each and every video so fascinating. Austin just seems like such a chill guy, like I want to go get coffee with him and talk about old video games.
9:38, responsibility of the rich to spend their money where it's needed. In this case the isle is in need of an economic boost to fix it's unemployment rate so sounds about right that a princess would spend her holiday there. Would likewise make the place famous as a holiday location of a princess and bring more tourists which in turn would demand more workers.
please do an oldschool RuneScape video! I am constantly thinking about how there aren’t enough beds/houses for everyone, though the employment rate in most cities is likely okay.
Pyanta village should not count for the survey. It is where they live, it would be like going into the suburbs and counting everyone in their homes as unemployed, and that guy at the gas station as employed, giving you a 99% unemployment. Your home is a leisure place, and the once you see working there are there to make the residents there have a better time.
The idea is, if these guys spend all day every day in these places and we literally never see them anywhere else, all we can do is say they're unemployed. If they have jobs, they aren't going to them lol
@@drake_diangelo A lot of the Piantas DO share character models with Piantas employed elsewhere though. Yeah, you see some of them there during the day sometimes, but there are a thousand ways to get around that. I mean, you can't really do much about it in the context of this type of video, because how else WOULD you count the area? But still. >3>
A substantial amount of Noki bay’s residents were displaced refugees for most of the game’s duration due to the ongoing natural disaster poisoning their home waters. The Noki are amphibious and live in houses floating just under the surface of the water. With Eely-Mouth’s rancid tooth decay poisoning the water of the bay, the residents of Noki bay were either confined to their homes or forced to seek refuge elsewhere on Isle Delfino, which was experiencing a broader pollution disaster at the hands of Bowser Juni- I mean, the fiend, Mario!
Maybe the Pianta's have less need for income (as compared to the shellfish-like Noki who need to work to eat) because they are partially plant/tree people? (What with their little head trees) As opposed for needing food for sustenance, they may be capable of physically thriving just by basking in the sun or water or otherwise "lazing" around. That is, aside from having fees for any of their living situations of course. With rent and whatnot. But hey, living in a balmy island climate with mostly rustic culture means less need for things like utility bills!
I thought so too. Maybe loafing around outside and gathering sunshine is really all they need, and everything else is just for the luxuries they want to enjoy.
That may well be the case, I had never considered that perhaps they have some bit of photosynthesis from the tree on their head. However the in game tourist guide on the Z menu says "The trees on their heads provide relief from the island's heat." Implying mainly that it is not something evolved from nutrient needs! Though to be clear, I realize that does not mean that they don't photosynthesis either.
12:32 Fun fact about the tanuki and fortune relationship in mythology: At one point in ancient Japan, gold paper was highly coveted since it could be used to decorate artwork. The problem was that the raw gold is very soft and needed to be hammered until paper thin. Goldsmiths would try, but their tools would easily tear through the paper. They discovered that using a bit of tanuki hide could protect the paper gold while hammering. So by investing in a tanuki's hide and a small bit of gold, a person could turn a huge profit by "stretching" that bit of gold into decorative paper gold and amass a fortune. Combine this investment advice into the Japanese love for a good ol' pun and we get stretchy scrotums protecting the valuable "kintama" (gold balls/ testicles) imagery and their association with financial success. This theory was proposed by researcher Shigeo Owaku studying the methods of metal workers in the Kanazawa Prefecture and the rise of tanuki related artwork during the Edo period (early 17th century).
I choose to believe that the majority of Piantas with no obvious employment are intended to be other tourists, wandering around and seeing the sights. They don't have a job on this island, but the are employed somewhere, and came to this island to spend the money they presumably earned. Isle Delfino is a seasonal tourist trap with a small native population. It wouldn't be a surprise for the tourists to outnumber the natives during peak months.
Yeah, my hometown has about 60k residents, but (including day tourism), the town hit over a million visitors over the course of a year a couple of years ago (according to the city, I don't know how they got that number), which would average out to tourists outnumbering residents the whole year round
Tanukis/Raccoons are indeed a symbol of fortune/good business in Japan, so you can easily find statues in shops, restaurants... (especially older ones), this is also why Tom Nook is the shop manager in Animal Crossing
Any time he asks whatever the best way to analyze an unemployment rate is (regardless of video), I respond like a giddy child watching Blue's Clues something akin to, "OOO, OOO, A DIRECT SURVEY!"
I feel like this is the channel you get awarded just when you think you've beaten youtube. Like you're done subbing to people and have found your niches then you find a dude talking about game economies and you're just hooked. Thank you.
The Bureau didn't even visit the underwater portion of Noki Bay which is where the vast majority of its residents live. I want to know if the Bureau will issue an addendum correcting this oversight.
Are we taking into account the underwater Nokis in Noki Bay Episode 8? They're not interactive, so a direct survey wouldn't be possible, but they could be counted to the population.
you have no idea how much your videos help me sleep (falling asleep is a constant problem in my life because I can't do it). your videos are so comforting and you're funny of course, but your voice has a relaxed tone and you never scream or put loud sounds or lights. i love it
So glad you did this one. Can't tell you how many hours I've spent pondering what the actual financial reality of living in this society would have been like as a kid. I'm dead serious. Trying to imagine how I would make a living if I weee to be magically teleported to Isle Delphino took up tons of processing power for me as a kid. You have to do wind waker, next! It's the perfect game for so much of the content you do on this channel!!
Please note that some NPC dialogue does change depending on the mission you enter a stage in or overall progress through the game based on some flags. For instance, the arguing sailors shown off early in the video have a whole argument played out through the course of the game. Hotel Delfino is another stage with lots of changing NPC dialogue depending on what's happening at the time. I have no idea what all these changes are, but they med shed additional context clues for determining employment.
I somehow watched this video from start to finish. WITHOUT skipping the sponsored segment. The way you said "gotcha" after the segue, just magnetized me lol. Cant skip after that.
I do wonder why you didn't look at every episodes for the levels, because some episodes have more people, sometimes its visitors, and sometimes its literally the entire population of Noki Bay. Noki Bay: the red coins episode has you go underwater where you can find a ton of Noki residents. Ricco Harbor: there is a market sale happening in one of the later episodes (where Gooper Blooper was originally) Gelato Beach: it has a watermelon festival that happens with a couple of new people, along with the Il Piantissimo race where you can find a couple of people cherring you on at the end Pianta Village: its episodes sometimes show different people working during the day and night episodes, and it shows a couple of the female Piantas working for the mayor to hold signs to help Mario un-goop the Piantas that are stuck in it. Overall, I dont get why not check all episodes to see how many people there actually are in these maps... I still love the Sunshine employment series, but it feels weird omitting all this info. I hope you can make an update on the employment rate of Delfino Island someday with this information :)
While it would provide more accurate numbers, I don't believe it would have significantly changed the reports conclusion, given that in many of those episodes people are vacationing or lazing about underwater. That said, it would illuminate that it is not only the Piantas that benefit from low level of employment necessary to reach potential GDP in the Delfinian Economic System, but the Noki population as well.
That's just Greece in 2008. Sun, beaches, sea and one big economy crisis and Italians. Btw AnyAustin, please concider looking up on economy of The Sims cities. In Sims 4 there is really weird thing with inflation, some products are loosing price in a staggering matter.
describing the unemployment situation of isle delfino as "semi-permanent vacation" feels like it reveals a major candidate for a driving factor: namely, the bountiful tropical island environment allows for many pianta to take up a less structured form of employment, such a small-scale fishing operations where a single fisherman can just go out onto the water on their own vessel, or join their peers on a collaborative expedition, and take home enough coins from selling their catch to sustain themselves and their family for several days. furthermore, without the pressure of an industrial employer, time spent "on the job" may be occupied without any apparent ( or actual ) productivity, such a fisherman heading off to sea or a fishing spot yet spending most of the day just relaxing by the water this also explains why the two locations with no unemployment are the two businesses dedicated to year-round tourism, as residents would have little reason to be around either pinna park or sirena beach without either direct employment under the business owners or the expendable income to take leisure days at establishments meant to siphon coins from wealthy foreigners. one would think the same for the trade-focused location of ricco harbor, but the aforementioned automation of its dockwork means that a significant amount of its employees could be technicians with rotating shifts of on-location inspection and on-call maintenance work, leading to a major source of employment that a direct survey is ill-suited to fully documenting. furthermore, the presence of leisure-goers and especially blooper surfing suggests that ricco harbor is not owned by a _business_ but is instead a public works facility that the residents can use for whatever purpose they deem fit, making it plausible that any able-bodied pianta can head to the harbor and contribute to dockwork whenever the automated systems are insufficient, inoperable, or just inappropriate for a particular load of cargo overall, it seems like isle delfino may be capable of sustaining a form of "at-will" employment that is the complete _opposite_ of how it's defined on earth, with a large amount of the population doing whatever work strikes their fancy at any given moment and spending the rest of their time idly enjoying the island's beauty and culture. i speculate that there may be a significant cultural norm of recruiting neighbors and wayfarers whenever the odd job could use more manpower, making use of the amount of residents living idly at any given time while further enabling this sort of fluidity in employment the jury's still out on whether this means the majority of labor on isle delfino is unspecialized, or if the native pianta and noki have a knack for being multitalented jacks-of-all-trade
I'm dealing with a lot in my life right now but the minute I put on one of your videos I get to this place of absolute peace and zen. Idk why cause your videos are chaotic in their own right
Austin your videos have single-handedly staved off panic attacks since I started watch your videos a month ago. I can’t believe unemployment videos have cured my mental illness
I thought there was a little implication that at least some of these piantas are in multiple levels; I'm almost certain Sunglasses Guy is just one person, the way he talks to you, but at least one other person talks about having a... bad time at the hotel, or something? also there's the whole secret level where a bunch of Chucksters are roaming around, either not doing a job, or having a very specific job of chucking folk for free.
Great analysis! I did notice one small error. In Gelato Beach, the Pianta Lady with her son actually owns the fruit cabana. There's a few lines of dialogue that confirm this, mostly from someone else who was concerned for her safety.
5:40 Would you go strike up a conversation with a known criminal who just showed up in your town? You need to take into account the perception the population has of the surveyor.
i think its important to reevaluate the meaning of unemployed, im going off of the bureau of labor and statistics but they say "People are classified as unemployed if they do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior 4 weeks, and are currently available for work." As far as i can tell in all of the years its been since the release of the game, not one citizan has done any of the listed activities the BLS classifies as looking for employment. this would mean isle delfino has 100% employment and this reflects with its high quality of life and economic development.
there’s so much any austin lore at this point. i love it. if this is your first any austin video, id encourage you to watch all his videos from the last year or so, and then watch this video again. thx for these videos austin! i feel like this one is so great for new viewers, and great for old viewers too because there’s a lot of almost lore 😂 like i said above.
Potential idea for follow up video: how does Mario’s efforts over the course of the game affect employment rate? Maybe the unemployment rate is so high since Mario hasn’t began to resolve the trouble bowser is wreaking upon the area yet? An example being I believe a smoothie bar employee begins to spawn at Gelato Beach after completing the melon fetch shine. Maybe villagers start to have different dialogue/behavior that indicates a profession? Not sure how many instances of this sort of thing exist, just an idea to continually check as progress is made
You know, given all these unemployment videos I don’t think anyone’s ever questioned the initial premise-IS a direct survey the best method? Where’s your sources bro
A possible consideration is that since Isle Delfino's revenue is so heavily reliant on entertainment and turism. That they might not be using the standard 5 workin days + 2 resting days commonly seen in western countries. They might instead have their rest days on a rotational system where a % of people are off work every day, rather than a vast majority being off work on a minority of weekdays.
Don’t want to sound like a cliché 2012 pewdiepie fan girl. But your videos have become my night time comfort blanket. After a long stressful mentally unstable day I love winding down to random nonsensical enumeration and Census collecting data about fictional places I spent my childhood exploring. ❤
One thing that might throw a wrench into the calculations is the idea that Isle Delfino might be a society that doesn't prioritize jobs like American culture does. In some societies, when you're asked "what do you do?" They might expect you to say a hobby, for example. The people who don't clarify their employment status might very well *be* employed, they just do not mention it because it's not so important. this is just an estimation based on something i heard long ago.
Some key points I think have been brushed over. We can assume that all tourists are actually employed on another part of the island and this is just their yearly vacation or something. This would reduce the unemployment a bit. The other thing is that, due to the money generated by tourism, the island can pay some sort of UBI to its citizens, while working is just increasing the money you get. Which would functionally work especially as some of the unemployed people might have seasonal employment. This might not be a busy season as Mario and his friends are the only tourists on the island not from the island. And in the port area, the people standing around gossiping might be port workers and their job is to supervise that the machines are working correctly, which isn't very taxing when we never see the machines fail.
"Like an archaeologist at an ancient dig site" Well that certainly rang a bell! I've recently gotten into watching an archaeologist's youtube channel where he did an excavation of the Minecraft trail ruins (among other things) If y'all like AnyAustin's content you might also like Daskalos' as well, similar vibes, different subject matter, it's a lot of fun
why is it that when I think about video game characters telling you about their employment the minute you meet them, the first example in my mind is always Nils, the cook up at Candlehearth Hall?
Okay, believe it or not you can use code ANYAUSTIN50 to get 50% OFF your first Factor box plus 20% off your next month of orders at bit.ly/3XFDRf4
FACTOR FACTOR FACTOR FACTOR FACTOR
Welcome to the video. This video makes me want to do more giant census videos, only even more in-depth, and even more biggerer. Shoutout to Zoë for recording the static shots in this one @MissDirectionTv on xitter.
Hope you are all having a good Monday. If you're not, hop in the Discord and complain to me. I will listen. I won't. I might. See ya later.
If you spawn any Tucker Carlsons from your frozen dinner empire, I'll be really sad.
you have to spawn them so you can squash them it's like waiting for zerglings to hatch instead of attacking the eggs
Economy of castle town vs clock town when lmao
Is that box mem made?
50%!? That's almost exactly half price.
Me: (suspiciously standing outside a bank)
AnyAustin: Hello!
Me: uhhhh, i own this bank
AnyAustin: This man is employed and owns this bank
✅EMPLOYED
Reminds me how archaeologists say a monument belonged to someone as well. If there's a name on it, they say it was built by that person. This is like me spray painting my name on a bridge, and a thousand years from now someone seeing that and saying, "Hmmm, Krythic must have built this bridge."
@@lordkrythic6246, to be fair, most of these names are embedded in the building or carved on the stones before said bridge was built, so it's mostly safe to assume the person mentioned had something to do with its construction.
@@insigil Except for the fact that Egyptian pharaohs, as an example, used to go around defacing monuments of their predecessors all the time. Even putting their own names on it, as well.
Me: (hanging/relaxing out on a day off)
AnyAustin: Unemployed
I watched the report in the seccond part of the video on speaker, and now my father thinks I'm learning about the economical status of a country on earth.
Hell yeah dude
17:47 "...there isn't a single noki, or a single raccoon, that's unemployed"
hope dad didn't hear that part.
I'm so old I instinctively pictured beige speakers to the left and right of your 4:3 CRT monitor, but you probably meant your phone, huh?
you are
@@deoTS1 Or he did hear that part but didn't bat an eye because his father is secretly a tanuki and is just happy that his people are doing well.
As someone who lives in a tourism town, about 20% of our working population is only in work for 7 or 8 months of the year. Isle Delfino is clearly a tourism island in off season, so their economy is probably just fine. It looks like a nice place to loaf about for a third of the year (when a certain family is stopped, anyway)
I can testify it too.
... With the bonus we have 30% of our population that is retired too. XD
(Yes, it's a touristic destination, but the population is aging at a faqt pace)
A thing to add is the game only shows the tourist atractions of the island
In a mario kart game its shown delphino square wich looks more like a common city or the place that the local population lives
7:37 I *ASSURE* you that standing around gossiping is very employed behavior
all you need is a water cooler
@@yungjoemighty879 true true
that's immediately what I thought, I don't think Austin's been employed for a while.
Employment is a joke
Unemployment statistics actually only counts people who are actively looking for work. So if I quit my job and decide to spend my days sitting in a tall banana tree, eating it's delicious fruits and napping in it's shade, I'm not 'unemployed' because I'm not searching for work.
So this video should be impossible, actually, unless Nintendo, for some reason, has each character introduce themselves like.. "I'm Bob and I was recently fired from the solarpanel plant due to the lack of sunshine! I'm trying to find work but it looks like no one's hiring for my highly specific skillset!"
Which seems unlikely.
Beyond that, many of the people he marked as unemployed (such as the people swimming around in the pool) are clearly just tourists. So....
Imagine having a 3/1 job, walking in the park in your only weekend in days, and then Mario comes around and asks you many stupid questions, saying you are unemployed
It's a real oversight that the developers didn't add a dialogue option to ask them if they are unemployed or not. Poor planning if you ask me, they should have had the foresight that a couple of decades after release, on a website that didn't yet exist, that someone's job would depend on knowing the employment status of the residents of Mario Sunshine. It's discrimination.
He should sue them. It's only fair
Clearly, we need a law.
I need to do that when I eventually make a video game. Maybe have an item that when used on an NPC will tell you whether or not they are employed.
I think youtube existed when the gamecube was around
@@Clouditivitythis game's release date predates TH-cam by like 3 years lol
The bureau sadly missed the overwhelming majority of Noki in Noki Bay. They live underwater below the waterfall and are only present in the red coin mission and there are dozens of them there.
That blew my mind when I played Sunshine. Noki are sentient intelligent beings like us, yet they didn't lose their ability to survive underwater. They seem to breathe both underwater and above water.
Living underwater where there's no technology, and being able to thrive just in the raw water, they probably don't need much financial income at all. So maybe the Nokis who are just chillin' in the water aren't contributing to the economy, but aren't consuming tax dollars either.
Perhaps the Noki who choose to work jobs are simply bored of floating underwater all the time, and decided to join the "real world".
@@healthyminds9279"no technology" They live in a really elaborate skyscraper-height building down there. I think you need a bit of technology to build that
@isaacthered Very fair point. Though once rock buildings are built, they probably don't need a constant labor force and tax money to keep existing. There just would be occasional repairs, and maybe eventual expansion.
The question to me is, do these Noki maintain their homes and survive on their own time (like a medieval farmhouse)? Or do Noki Bay citizens instead have formal jobs, paying taxes to Isle Delfino and collecting unemployment benefits etc, making them fully a part of the system?
Perhaps Noki Bay is something of a micro nation, with its own informal "job" system. They could still trade with the rest of Isle Delfino and rent construction technology in exchange for being part of the tourist attraction.
@@isaacthered They also live in the partially submerged platforms you spawn in on. They have little windows and doors. Always liked that detail.
@@healthyminds9279maybe the noki are indigenous population of delphino and most live on reservations or some other sovereign community underwater. This would explain why their population is so low outside these places.
I shout out “direct survey” every time, like I’m watching blues clues again.
I yelled Census and I was wrong 🤣
It’s so silly, but it feels good to shout it out. 😂
Honestly? True asf
**DIRECT SURVEY!!** we all shout in unison
ME TOO!!
Fun little fact: a person who regularly watches boats go through locks and canals is called a gongoozler. The person watching the boats in the plaza could probably be considered to be one, which is fun. Gongoozler
Thank you very much for this fun little fact!
Your videos are incredible. Thank you!
Person: Relaxing after a hard work day
AnyAustin: UNEMPLOYED!
Only unemployed people have free time, silly
@@MysteriousMusician33thanks for reminding me to get off my phone buddy
me: _it’s nice to take a vacation once in a while_
random italian dude on work-release: “then you’re ❌UNEMPLOYED❌”
Really glad to have had the opportunity to record footage for you here! Was a joy to see every part of the game with a photographer's eyes for once.
I'd love to get an amateur hydrologist's take on this game.
oh yea everyone upvote this comment I paid her to record the static shots in the background because I'm too dumb to figure out how Dolphin works.
@@any_austin in making fun of you for this there is NO WAY setting up a freecam in Mario Sunshine is difficult
:3
i only have an Xbox :(
Couple interesting factors for Isle Delfino.
1) In the same way that it hard to tell if any of these individuals are employed or not, its ALSO hard to tell just how many actually live there. Isle Delfino is essentially a holy sight and homeland for the Piantas, so even if some don't immediately stand out as tourist, there could be annual influx of Piantas and Noki who make a kind of pilgrimage back to the island, thus they are familiar with the island but aren't currently working. Despite its tropical vibes, in several ways the culture of Isle Delfino references italian culture as well, particularly with Don Pianta from TTYD, or the fact that the name is literally just italian for plant.
2) In Mario Kart Double Dash, it is revealed that one of the tracks takes place on an island called Peach Beach. It contains Piantas and Noki as well as prominently featuring their architecture. Being a Princess, there's no question that Peach has the ability to own and invest in an island. So a potential answer to WHY Peach would chose this place, depending on the chronology of events, is that Peach is invested in the entire island, OR that the key reason she and Mario came there in the first place was for business and diplomatic reasons.
That video at the beginning of the game wasn't a travel ad, it was a sales pitch.
For less speculative notes, Noki Bay actually contains the residential area of the noki, and some of their homes are actually the little floating platforms out in the bay, but Noki can also breath underwater, so most live in the underground caves below the bay. Thats why we see very few of them on the surface, and thats why its such a big issue that the eel was creating all that pollution. It was like a smog wave that left them trapped in their houses. Similarly, Piantas village doesn't seem to have a ton of houses, but thats because its a more traditional area, the piantas used to live in trees, which is fitting considering they're all shaped like pears. And honestly compared to any other game we've done a survey on, there are so few interior buildings we can explore in Sunshine. For all we know they have a bustling tech sector.
We can also further speculate if Peach is actually coming to the island for negotiations, that the island is actually just before its peak tourism period, which would explain why some areas are lacking for work or don't seem set up yet. And all that makes so much sense why they need to deal with the graffiti problem. Regardless if they think mario did it or not, Shadow Mario is going to hurt their business if it isn't cleaned up for when the ACTUAL influx of tourist arrive.
Yeah, Isle Delfino in Super Mario Sunshine screams "Not Peak Season" to me. Most of the people enjoying the sights are residents, who are taking the opportunity of it not being busy anywhere to enjoy the bay, go gamble, etc. I mean they're also having an ecological disaster so that would've also shut down a lot of employment, like how all the roads close in the south whenever it snows. It's difficult to gauge these things with just a pretty stagnant snapshot, like you get in a video game. But, I agree with you and am ALSO getting off season vibes.
Yeah I was thinking bc myself that a lot of tourist locations are seasonal in terms of income so it also would make sense that the tourism coming into isle delfino during the peak seasons is likely enough to sustain many piantas during the off season. They may not be unemployed so much as seasonal workers
Another thing to consider is that certain Pianta's may be business owners or otherwise have some sort of "job" revolving around passive income. Whether or not that impacts the numbers is up to those making the definitions of the term employed, but it might help to explain why some Piantas seem to be working regularly, while others are not. For example, maybe the Pianta's seen at the beginning of Bianco Hills own the windmill farm, and employ the other Piantas that seem to be working there.
For all we know the people who are "unemployed" just aren't on shift at that particular moment. Or maybe it's paid time off.
Apparently Peach Beach is Peach's favorite island resort, not just something she owns. Also, interesting to note is that Coconut Mall and the Delfino Square courses are supposed to be somewhere ON Isle Delfino
This video ignores Blackrock's 20bn coin investment into Delfino's shadow banking system.
Delfino's is a tax heaven striving on the very attractive tax rate they offer to the mushroom kingdom corporations
Thanks to these they can afford to be a welfare state where the only really work to do is having a hotel where the head of corporation can come once in a while
@@azerty1933in other words they're the Cayman Islands, got it
Hey Austin, love your videos
One small nitpick that’s been on my mind for a while is your use of “direct survey”. To be pedantic (or to capitalize on a learning moment) what you are doing would be considered a direct census instead. While they’re both direct because you are physically gathering data, the main difference is sample size. Surveys attempt to use a smaller sample size to make generalizations about a population as a whole, where during a census data is collected from the entire population to make objective statements (which is what you’re doing)
The same can actually be said about scientific surveys not on human populations. The USGS (geological survey) can only physically test so much land, so things like their soil maps will have large generalizations about regional soil classes that are often not 100% accurate, but good generalizations
Either way keep up the good work, you’re a super creative TH-camr and I love your channel 🫶
Also he did the workforce participation rate not unemployment. Lots of those buma are looking for work
I'd counter that the actual population size can't be known, so this is assumed to be a smaller survey sampling the data which is available. Unless your quarrel is with how the data is presented - as largely factual instead of incorporating certain margins of error - rather than how the data was gathered.
I am also unemployed in Delfino Plaza, currently on the streets as a mustached man sprays water on me violently
just because you're unemployed doesn't mean that you're not essential to the value that delfino plaza has. just think, if you weren't being violently assaulted with water that man might spray other people.
@@litapd311Sadly, I think everyone in the Plaza was violently aqueously assaulted.
@@litapd311 you have a point, a noble sacrifice for the life of others not to get hosed down
@@deaddreamdance damn, that says a lot about society
Living the dream
Love the idea that Princess Peach is just a coaster enthusiast.
The Defunctland video on Pinna Park will go crazy
I assumed she was there to annex the island.
I forgot what video I was watching for a sec when I read your comment and thought you meant coaster like you put down on the coffee table under your cup 😅
No TH-cam watching experience is complete without running into a wild CZ in the comment section.
oh hello czsworld
Bro that economic report was fucking rad. Like, so real and proper. I can tell you worked on that speech, and the podium and button up shirt really tie the room together
As someone born in a town (with my mother also born there, and my grandparents moving there before they had kids) that has been absolutely wrecked by increased attention, tourism, deconstruction of local industries, and more and more people moving in (plus the mass-scale housing crisis the western world is facing), this report hit me a little bit.
I just saw a video (The complex beauty of Super Mario Sunshine) arguing that's the intended message of the game.
TLDW: every level follows the same pattern. You arrive and see the harm caused by outsiders, you work to help reverse the damage they've done, and then you see the beauty of the local environment and culture.
What missions did you go to in order to observe the populations of each part of Isle Delfino? Some places that are deserted in one mission may have a lot of people hanging out there in another mission. For example, the juice bar at Gelato Beach is full of people in the mission about the watermelon contest. And especially notable is that Noki Bay has a large underwater area where many people can be found if you revisit it in a later mission after defeating the giant eel boss. Plus, all of the people you can find throughout Isle Delfino have different dialogue in each mission, which may be helpful in determining their employment status.
exactly ! checking all places during only the first episode isnt fair at all !
Seeing the "Employed" graphic pop up next to Austin's head gave me a foreboding feeling, like suddenly the lines between reality and the fiction of the employment numeration world were suddenly blurred, and nobody is safe from judgment. Soon our innermost secrets will be laid bare by the most unassuming of strangers, and our employment status will be declared for all the world to see, complete with a triumphant jingle or humiliating arrow twang.
*twang* (x)unemployed(x)
I'm in trouble. :(
I (currently, while in college) work as a freelance artist. I worry what Austin would assume about my employment status.
@@snakewithapen5489 Being freelance counts as employment as long as you're making money from it. I used to do commissions between people I knew for a while, and it made me over a thousand dollars for just a few pieces. I'm generally really busy with university and my other job so I don't have the time to do commissions anymore, but also I just really hate making art for other people (not to mention I hate making art on a schedule). The money was great while it lasted though lol.
Just remember, if you get to a point where freelancing becomes your 9-5, you do have to start doing your own tax forms as your own business. Then you'd be all professionally self-employed! But if you're not making over 10K a year from your art, just pocket the cash and forget it (but you didn't hear that from me).
Good luck with your freelance work.
Then we can all dream of retiring and achieving a prideful n/a graphic
One thing to note that in Noki Bay there is a substantial population of Noki living under the water (seen in Episode 8), however they refuse to answer a direct survey when questioned. Goes to show how valuable local participation is when making these reports.
Data gatherers and enumerators of various types often have a problem with this in smaller, more closed communities like the Noki. Proper intel in such cases may require a more anthropological, participant-observation-type approach, even just for quantitative data, but the process of gaining entree and community trust is more probably more involved than organizations like the BoLS want to bother with or have the social finesse for
1:09 the hype he builds before he drops the "direct survey" line is unmatched
Has to be a reference to Ferris Bueller 😂
I compulsively yell at the screen every time 😆
I’m really enjoying videos like these of yours where you push the envelope on your fundamental idea just a little further, and end up moving into territory where you’re being absurdly analytical but it works because its still presenting actual ideas that “further the argument” artistically. I’m not a huge fan of the ones where you’re just determining whether people are employed because it gets repetitive, but when you create an overarching thesis like you did in this video it elevates the content so much.
FTR my first video of yours was the one where you analyze the urban space of a racing game. This video reminds me a lot of what made that one so good. More please!
2:42
Literally one of the best transitions into ads I have seen. Well done.
Anarcho-delfinoism was a successful system until the CIA toppled it 20:36
definitely not his fault, i know i can’t expect the enumerator to recognize the colonial-imperialist mushroom paradigm he’s operating within. still, smh.
Noki Bay of Pigs
@@StarscreamsGirl Ahh, but that was a humiliating defeat of US imperialism.
@@wawawuu1514 You mean a humiliating defeat of the Bowser Kingdom?
@@Stunkosthat was a Mushroom Kingdom operation, not a Bowser one.
Yo, Pianta Village is difficult because this is a residential area. Like, if Austin came into my house, saw me playing Vampire Survivors, and told me I was unemployed, I'd be upset too. I'm just enjoying my time off. I mean, if he asked me if I had a job, I'd say yes, but what if that wasn't a dialogue option?
I mean the answer is simple, really, whenever someone breaks into your house, make sure your opening line to 'em is always.
"There's nothing like playing some Vampire Survivors after a stressful day at the Fish Factory"
That's what I've been doing for the past decades, and it always served me right
@@BlackINKimEMPLOYED✅
Real neat video. A few things I've thought of
1. Given that piantas have trees coming out of their heads, and they do seem to be part of their biology rather than decoration given that their hats are specially designed to accommodate the trees, it could be that they're capable of photosynthesis and in turn require drastically less sustenance compared to us. Either they're animals that evolved plant-like characteristics or plants that evolved animalistic characteristics. There's living rocks and celestial objects in Mario's universe so it's not that far fetched.
But if something did evolve such capabilities, not only is a major economic factor handled (since they don't need to farm/sell/buy as much food) but it could have had a major downstream effect on their culture where there is the ability to just laze about and exist for extended periods of time.
Heck, maybe they get energy from the sun sprites which is why it was such a disaster when a bunch of them went missing and the shine gate stopped working. They arrested Mario, who would arguably have been an international celebrity by that point, all on the flimsy evidence that someone who looks kind of like him was mucking things up on the island despite there being ample evidence that Mario had literally just arrived minutes ago. This kind of behavior is not the sort one would expect from a stable community but instead a society in turmoil looking for someone to point a finger at.
2. One has to wonder how long Mario was on the island given that this info is only shared when he's present. Given that Pianta Village is the only area that has day/night transitions between levels and Serena Beach is perpetually at sunset. There's 8 levels in each area and clearly there's a period of time that occurs between levels like how Petey Piranha is on top the windmill in one level, then he's gone for a bit, and then he returns after spreading good everywhere. A conservative estimate would have Mario spending 8 days on the island doing a full round across all the levels each day but the argument could be made that Mario spent weeks there as well.
3. It mades sense that Noki Bay wouldn't be very populated given that it does seem to be an archeological site + the home of the Nokis underwater. There are some places on Earth that heavily limit how many tourists can go in a year like the Galapagos due to their fragile ecosystems. The raccoons charging an exorbitant amount for mudboat rides could legitimately just be really bad at figuring out where to set shop. Or given how flimsy the mud boats are, they could also be scammers. Given how they sell shine sprites during a critical time when the shine gate stopped working due to so many being stolen/lost, they don't strike me as the most honest characters.
4. One also has to consider the resources available on the island. Even if the Piantas didn't get energy from the sun, the amount of fruit on the island is staggering. Trees fully grow new fruit in seconds. Watermelon grow from the ground in seconds. As long as the Piantas don't reproduce faster than the island can sustain them, they shouldn't be in any dire straights for food. They get as close to a free lunch as economically possible. However if they aren't reproducing too fast for the island to sustain them, it then comes to question what other selective pressures caused them to evolve trees on their heads. Maybe they did initially, then eventually evolved trees, and then that resulted in them drastically consuming less of the island's resources and in turn resulted them in creating a culture that doesn't require as much work as here on Earth.
i ain't gonna read all that, but anyaustyn needs to hire this guy wow
I know you probably meant to write goo, but the thought of Petey Piranha spreading good everywhere makes me happy. He's just a nice guy who wants what's best for everyone
A thing to point out is mario spent likely a week for each map this is indicated by pianta village that every epsode is a different day
I think Pianta Village is a farming community. There are lots of Pianta in Delfino Plaza selling produce, which has to come from somewhere, and a lot of it doesn't appear to be native to most parts of the island. The mushrooms they sell are identical except in size to ones only seen growing in Pianta Village, and not only is the jungle a likely origin for fruits like bananas and durians, but there's actually a tree in Pianta Village that grows every kind of fruit sold in the plaza.
Since we don't see any evidence of farming in the village itself and there isn't much if any housing there, I think Pianta Village is a central hub supporting a spread-out, low-density farming. A small number of people live and work in Pianta Village itself, such as local government officials, but most people in the village are probably agricultural workers who live and work in the surrounding area, and visit the village for errands and leisure.
Huh. I hate to be that guy encouraging advertisement, but I do want to say I appreciate how candid you are during your sponsored segments.
Also just in general you've hit quite a great stride in your style and it's a joy to watch! Great work.
Thinking about it, Delfino Plaza is a lot like where "Weird Al" wants to escape to in "Albuquerque."
- The sun is always shining
- The air smells like the goop from Bowser Jr.'s paintbrush, which may well have the odor of warm root beer
- The towels, at least in Hotel Delfino, are most likely oh-so-fluffy
- The townsfolk play their ukuleles all day long
- Anyone on the street will gladly fling you into the distance for the equivalent of a nickel
Wacka wacka doo-doo, yeah.
AND THEY ARE ALL OUTTA BEARCLAWS
why is this so accurate?
@@Horsethe666 then what do you have
Also a plane incident where they had their tray tables up and the seat back in the full upright position.
I'm so happy that someone else remembers that song
6:40 I would just like to announce to you that I have noticed, and appreciated the shadow here under the employed graphic. Very immersive. It has aided in my enjoyment of your content, and I appreciate the time and work that went into this unrequired effect shot you decided to do.
That's what I thought too. I don't know how he did that or why he bothered, but wow.
That’s so cool I didn’t notice at first!
@@JonathanTash speaking as an editor myself, my first instinct is to explain how he probably did it lmao
If he used After Effects he likely duplicated the text layer and set it to “drop shadow only,” converted it to a 3D object (3D text layers are flat like paper by default) and then rotated it to be in line with the ground below
If he used Premiere, he likely did the same first few steps except rather than true 3D, he would’ve used an effect that imitates 3D and just allows you to skew objects to look like they’re at a 3D angle
If he used another program I have no clue but I’d imagine it would be similar
@@kevwoxty for the knowledge
good catch!
austin, bc of you i now stop and check out every chess board i see in every video game i play. most are impossible/incredibly bad positions, but some have actual decent games! it’s so cool seeing the developers take the time to put a real position together
Fun fact: in Sims 2 the full on game of chess plays out every time sims use the chess table, it is quite interesting to watch!
Any simpleflips fans that just thought of the classic "check in two moves" quote from his car quest videos?
If the board is the right way around and the position doesn't look ridiculous, it's probably some famous game :D
Your videos make me feel like a child watching early morning cartoons again. I get to gittery to yell out "a direct survey," EVERY time you ask. You are the educational Dora/Blues Clues of my 20's. Thank you sir.
the melancholic vibes of "I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my time" have absolutely captured my soul. Please keep doing this stuff.
Maybe the Piantas have a rotation system where only a section of the population works every season.
And the other sections vacation or loaf about for a season.
Then they switch. It would take a huge buy-in from the community, but once it worked, Piantas would love to labor for a bit to earn time off later.
I want this system irl, ngl
Damn, I would love to live in such a system
My gf kinda does this because she works a long night shift job at a hospital: she'll work one week on, one week off. She vastly prefers it to working a bit and then getting a bit of time off.
That was along the lines that I'd suggest (though I didn't think about a seasonal rotation exactly)
That's what I was thinking. And yes, we would be able to have this system IRL if the capitalist class weren't taking such big profit margins, meaning we are all underpaid so much that we can't afford to take much time off.
One of the things I would like to point out is that we are measuring an un-employment or jobless rate rather than the standard definition of "unemployment" that is actively looking for work and unable to find any for a certain amount of time and therefore unable to afford their lifestyle.
Yeah I would think isle delfino would have a significant retired population and not just a huge unemployment rate
It's an important point, and one I recall Austin pondering in some of the other Employment videos (Edit: I believe in the Pokemon ones, he counts some of the couples as 1 Employed and 1 N/A)
But also, we already can't actually tell if some of these people are employed when they're theoretically not standing here saying one sentence forever. It'd be cutting one unclear group into two unclear groups.
This is a good point. The statistic being calculated is actually the "Labor Force Participation Rate," although the more comparable statistics may be the "Working Age Labor Force Participation Rate" (depending on whether children and the elderly are included in the survey or not).
Interestingly, the USA (currently at a reasonable level of unemployment) has a "Working Age Labor Force Participation Rate" of ~84%, or a non-participation rate of ~16%, which isn't too much lower than Isle Delfino.
@@squmulonimbusHe does seem to be factoring retirement, as he isn't counting the elderly. I guess the other adults could also be retired, but also, we're already operating with little/no info to make these evaluations.
Counterpoint: Austin isn't playing the role of any Isle Delfino labour agency, he's specifically playing the role of the /United States/ Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is completely unequipped to report on any economic system that isn't modern-day American capitalism. I would argue that trying to describe Isle Delfino's economy with America's terminology and biases is part of the humor.
I just love that this is how Austin chooses to spend his time. And I mean, I can't resist it: I find each and every video so fascinating. Austin just seems like such a chill guy, like I want to go get coffee with him and talk about old video games.
To be fair, it does pay the bills, and I don't think he has much choice anymore. But would he consider himself to be employed...?
9:38, responsibility of the rich to spend their money where it's needed. In this case the isle is in need of an economic boost to fix it's unemployment rate so sounds about right that a princess would spend her holiday there. Would likewise make the place famous as a holiday location of a princess and bring more tourists which in turn would demand more workers.
please do an oldschool RuneScape video! I am constantly thinking about how there aren’t enough beds/houses for everyone, though the employment rate in most cities is likely okay.
my man counts having a lunch break as being unemployeed, what is this distopia?
Pyanta village should not count for the survey.
It is where they live, it would be like going into the suburbs and counting everyone in their homes as unemployed, and that guy at the gas station as employed, giving you a 99% unemployment.
Your home is a leisure place, and the once you see working there are there to make the residents there have a better time.
True, but what else can he do. It's not like he can have real conversations with the residents as it's all scripted dialogue of course.
The idea is, if these guys spend all day every day in these places and we literally never see them anywhere else, all we can do is say they're unemployed. If they have jobs, they aren't going to them lol
@@drake_diangelo working from home exists maybe they are the bookkeepers for the various locations.
piantas are no-good lazy settlers stealing noki land
@@drake_diangelo A lot of the Piantas DO share character models with Piantas employed elsewhere though. Yeah, you see some of them there during the day sometimes, but there are a thousand ways to get around that. I mean, you can't really do much about it in the context of this type of video, because how else WOULD you count the area? But still. >3>
13:35 "You're not supposed to enjoy life, You're supposed to work and be miserable." So True!
A substantial amount of Noki bay’s residents were displaced refugees for most of the game’s duration due to the ongoing natural disaster poisoning their home waters. The Noki are amphibious and live in houses floating just under the surface of the water. With Eely-Mouth’s rancid tooth decay poisoning the water of the bay, the residents of Noki bay were either confined to their homes or forced to seek refuge elsewhere on Isle Delfino, which was experiencing a broader pollution disaster at the hands of Bowser Juni- I mean, the fiend, Mario!
8:05 to be fair, my town's harbor has an unemployment rate of 100%
Because I live in Utah and we don't have any harbors though I guess
Wouldn't that just be an unemployment rate of Null?
Maybe the Pianta's have less need for income (as compared to the shellfish-like Noki who need to work to eat) because they are partially plant/tree people? (What with their little head trees) As opposed for needing food for sustenance, they may be capable of physically thriving just by basking in the sun or water or otherwise "lazing" around. That is, aside from having fees for any of their living situations of course. With rent and whatnot. But hey, living in a balmy island climate with mostly rustic culture means less need for things like utility bills!
I thought so too. Maybe loafing around outside and gathering sunshine is really all they need, and everything else is just for the luxuries they want to enjoy.
I wondered if Pianta village was a retirement resort
That may well be the case, I had never considered that perhaps they have some bit of photosynthesis from the tree on their head. However the in game tourist guide on the Z menu says "The trees on their heads provide relief from the island's heat." Implying mainly that it is not something evolved from nutrient needs! Though to be clear, I realize that does not mean that they don't photosynthesis either.
3:30 "The juices are very good. It's like it was milked straight from a Yoshi."
Sold.
12:32 Fun fact about the tanuki and fortune relationship in mythology:
At one point in ancient Japan, gold paper was highly coveted since it could be used to decorate artwork.
The problem was that the raw gold is very soft and needed to be hammered until paper thin. Goldsmiths would try, but their tools would easily tear through the paper. They discovered that using a bit of tanuki hide could protect the paper gold while hammering. So by investing in a tanuki's hide and a small bit of gold, a person could turn a huge profit by "stretching" that bit of gold into decorative paper gold and amass a fortune.
Combine this investment advice into the Japanese love for a good ol' pun and we get stretchy scrotums protecting the valuable "kintama" (gold balls/ testicles) imagery and their association with financial success.
This theory was proposed by researcher Shigeo Owaku studying the methods of metal workers in the Kanazawa Prefecture and the rise of tanuki related artwork during the Edo period (early 17th century).
Is "gold paper" the same thing as "gold foil"?
@joshmartin2744 yes, I guess the most accepted term would be "gold leaf" used for gilding.
I have been sent here by Nick Mason of the Weekly Planet Podcast, and I must say his recommendation was spot on, this is great
oh! I listen to them a lot! Was it on the most recent episode?
@ it was, in What Are We Reading? as far as I can remember
yelling "A DIRECT SURVEY" at my screen like I'm watching dora the explorer
I choose to believe that the majority of Piantas with no obvious employment are intended to be other tourists, wandering around and seeing the sights.
They don't have a job on this island, but the are employed somewhere, and came to this island to spend the money they presumably earned.
Isle Delfino is a seasonal tourist trap with a small native population. It wouldn't be a surprise for the tourists to outnumber the natives during peak months.
Yeah, my hometown has about 60k residents, but (including day tourism), the town hit over a million visitors over the course of a year a couple of years ago (according to the city, I don't know how they got that number), which would average out to tourists outnumbering residents the whole year round
they are paid citizens made to bolster the numbers of the tourist locations :D thus employed
It's worth mentioning that the "old guy just wandering around" at Gelato Beach, is actually a biologist watching over the great sandbird.
@2:50 is literally the funniest advertisement I have ever seen
When he says "gotcha" he really did gotcha
@@fitzywings92 He fucking got me
Do you by chance recognize the song playing during the ad?
Tanukis/Raccoons are indeed a symbol of fortune/good business in Japan, so you can easily find statues in shops, restaurants... (especially older ones), this is also why Tom Nook is the shop manager in Animal Crossing
Any time he asks whatever the best way to analyze an unemployment rate is (regardless of video), I respond like a giddy child watching Blue's Clues something akin to, "OOO, OOO, A DIRECT SURVEY!"
I feel like this is the channel you get awarded just when you think you've beaten youtube. Like you're done subbing to people and have found your niches then you find a dude talking about game economies and you're just hooked. Thank you.
The Bureau didn't even visit the underwater portion of Noki Bay which is where the vast majority of its residents live. I want to know if the Bureau will issue an addendum correcting this oversight.
Are we taking into account the underwater Nokis in Noki Bay Episode 8? They're not interactive, so a direct survey wouldn't be possible, but they could be counted to the population.
You’re like my substitute for what Brian David Gilbert’s unraveled was to me, but chill. Man love this kinds of videos
you have no idea how much your videos help me sleep (falling asleep is a constant problem in my life because I can't do it). your videos are so comforting and you're funny of course, but your voice has a relaxed tone and you never scream or put loud sounds or lights. i love it
That report at the end was so informative thank you. These questions were keeping me up at night.
So glad you did this one. Can't tell you how many hours I've spent pondering what the actual financial reality of living in this society would have been like as a kid.
I'm dead serious. Trying to imagine how I would make a living if I weee to be magically teleported to Isle Delphino took up tons of processing power for me as a kid.
You have to do wind waker, next! It's the perfect game for so much of the content you do on this channel!!
Please note that some NPC dialogue does change depending on the mission you enter a stage in or overall progress through the game based on some flags. For instance, the arguing sailors shown off early in the video have a whole argument played out through the course of the game. Hotel Delfino is another stage with lots of changing NPC dialogue depending on what's happening at the time.
I have no idea what all these changes are, but they med shed additional context clues for determining employment.
'Completely unnecessary data points about video game worlds described in full beaurocratic glory' is an unexpectedly fire style of video.
I somehow watched this video from start to finish. WITHOUT skipping the sponsored segment. The way you said "gotcha" after the segue, just magnetized me lol. Cant skip after that.
Noki Bay actually has dozens of unemployed people living under the water after you beat the eelymouth boss
I do wonder why you didn't look at every episodes for the levels, because some episodes have more people, sometimes its visitors, and sometimes its literally the entire population of Noki Bay.
Noki Bay: the red coins episode has you go underwater where you can find a ton of Noki residents.
Ricco Harbor: there is a market sale happening in one of the later episodes (where Gooper Blooper was originally)
Gelato Beach: it has a watermelon festival that happens with a couple of new people, along with the Il Piantissimo race where you can find a couple of people cherring you on at the end
Pianta Village: its episodes sometimes show different people working during the day and night episodes, and it shows a couple of the female Piantas working for the mayor to hold signs to help Mario un-goop the Piantas that are stuck in it.
Overall, I dont get why not check all episodes to see how many people there actually are in these maps... I still love the Sunshine employment series, but it feels weird omitting all this info. I hope you can make an update on the employment rate of Delfino Island someday with this information :)
yeah! usually when Mario removed the major disaster/threat more people are there (to work!)
Yeah! In my case, I was thinking about the watermelon festival the whole time, big missed opportunity there.
Glad someone pointed it out! He clearly did his research into Serena Beach, but I'd love to see that level of research into all the game's areas.
While it would provide more accurate numbers, I don't believe it would have significantly changed the reports conclusion, given that in many of those episodes people are vacationing or lazing about underwater. That said, it would illuminate that it is not only the Piantas that benefit from low level of employment necessary to reach potential GDP in the Delfinian Economic System, but the Noki population as well.
And what is the status of the weirdspace levels with the Chucksters?
Im glad we’re examining this conundrum.
I don't know why but I really really like this comment
That's just Greece in 2008. Sun, beaches, sea and one big economy crisis and Italians.
Btw AnyAustin, please concider looking up on economy of The Sims cities. In Sims 4 there is really weird thing with inflation, some products are loosing price in a staggering matter.
Mario Sunshine predicted Greece and Italy's future.
describing the unemployment situation of isle delfino as "semi-permanent vacation" feels like it reveals a major candidate for a driving factor: namely, the bountiful tropical island environment allows for many pianta to take up a less structured form of employment, such a small-scale fishing operations where a single fisherman can just go out onto the water on their own vessel, or join their peers on a collaborative expedition, and take home enough coins from selling their catch to sustain themselves and their family for several days. furthermore, without the pressure of an industrial employer, time spent "on the job" may be occupied without any apparent ( or actual ) productivity, such a fisherman heading off to sea or a fishing spot yet spending most of the day just relaxing by the water
this also explains why the two locations with no unemployment are the two businesses dedicated to year-round tourism, as residents would have little reason to be around either pinna park or sirena beach without either direct employment under the business owners or the expendable income to take leisure days at establishments meant to siphon coins from wealthy foreigners. one would think the same for the trade-focused location of ricco harbor, but the aforementioned automation of its dockwork means that a significant amount of its employees could be technicians with rotating shifts of on-location inspection and on-call maintenance work, leading to a major source of employment that a direct survey is ill-suited to fully documenting. furthermore, the presence of leisure-goers and especially blooper surfing suggests that ricco harbor is not owned by a _business_ but is instead a public works facility that the residents can use for whatever purpose they deem fit, making it plausible that any able-bodied pianta can head to the harbor and contribute to dockwork whenever the automated systems are insufficient, inoperable, or just inappropriate for a particular load of cargo
overall, it seems like isle delfino may be capable of sustaining a form of "at-will" employment that is the complete _opposite_ of how it's defined on earth, with a large amount of the population doing whatever work strikes their fancy at any given moment and spending the rest of their time idly enjoying the island's beauty and culture. i speculate that there may be a significant cultural norm of recruiting neighbors and wayfarers whenever the odd job could use more manpower, making use of the amount of residents living idly at any given time while further enabling this sort of fluidity in employment
the jury's still out on whether this means the majority of labor on isle delfino is unspecialized, or if the native pianta and noki have a knack for being multitalented jacks-of-all-trade
I'm dealing with a lot in my life right now but the minute I put on one of your videos I get to this place of absolute peace and zen. Idk why cause your videos are chaotic in their own right
At 1:02, when you said, "Let's stop wasting time and get started," my head exploded from the irony.
best 20 minutes i've ever wasted
I hit the Dora "I DO!! I DO!!" when i was asked if I know the best way to figure out the unemployment rate
i am almost 30
To be fair, that is about the age that would be right for doing that for
Austin your videos have single-handedly staved off panic attacks since I started watch your videos a month ago. I can’t believe unemployment videos have cured my mental illness
Usually I go “silence brand” to youtube sponsorship ads, but I like that you’re upfront about having Factor bc of the convenience
Austin this is a HILARIOUSLY hard to read font 0:19
My astigmatism just flared
@@oighor mine too 😭
I disagree, maybe because Im on PC.
high unemployment rate and the only plumber in the city is running amok with a talking water gun
I thought there was a little implication that at least some of these piantas are in multiple levels; I'm almost certain Sunglasses Guy is just one person, the way he talks to you, but at least one other person talks about having a... bad time at the hotel, or something?
also there's the whole secret level where a bunch of Chucksters are roaming around, either not doing a job, or having a very specific job of chucking folk for free.
Volunteers should not be counted in unemployment statistics.
Great analysis! I did notice one small error. In Gelato Beach, the Pianta Lady with her son actually owns the fruit cabana. There's a few lines of dialogue that confirm this, mostly from someone else who was concerned for her safety.
impeccable segue to the ad read, I'm not even mad
5:40 Would you go strike up a conversation with a known criminal who just showed up in your town? You need to take into account the perception the population has of the surveyor.
Yo fair point
Objection: the first guy is a landlord, and thus not actually employed.
Based
It's an on call job but it's still a job lol
It’s still a job. Property upkeep is a job. Loser leftist trash
"Hopefully the dockworkers had a good union *cough*" topical and in general 10/10 joke
i think its important to reevaluate the meaning of unemployed, im going off of the bureau of labor and statistics but they say "People are classified as unemployed if they do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior 4 weeks, and are currently available for work." As far as i can tell in all of the years its been since the release of the game, not one citizan has done any of the listed activities the BLS classifies as looking for employment. this would mean isle delfino has 100% employment and this reflects with its high quality of life and economic development.
I regularly come back to this video to watch the transition to the ad read because the "gotcha" cracks me up every time.
there’s so much any austin lore at this point. i love it.
if this is your first any austin video, id encourage you to watch all his videos from the last year or so, and then watch this video again.
thx for these videos austin! i feel like this one is so great for new viewers, and great for old viewers too because there’s a lot of almost lore 😂 like i said above.
Potential idea for follow up video: how does Mario’s efforts over the course of the game affect employment rate? Maybe the unemployment rate is so high since Mario hasn’t began to resolve the trouble bowser is wreaking upon the area yet?
An example being I believe a smoothie bar employee begins to spawn at Gelato Beach after completing the melon fetch shine. Maybe villagers start to have different dialogue/behavior that indicates a profession? Not sure how many instances of this sort of thing exist, just an idea to continually check as progress is made
You know, given all these unemployment videos I don’t think anyone’s ever questioned the initial premise-IS a direct survey the best method? Where’s your sources bro
A just question.
Heresy
You ask dangerous questions, traveller
the Isle Delfino Bureau of Labor is the source of course... why dont you use google?
For Delphino Plaza you keep forgetting about the Lawyer and judge. So whatever population and people with jobs you get add two.
Extremely funny to imagine the guy giving press conferences at the bureau of labor statistics asking the reporters to follow him on Instagram
A possible consideration is that since Isle Delfino's revenue is so heavily reliant on entertainment and turism. That they might not be using the standard 5 workin days + 2 resting days commonly seen in western countries. They might instead have their rest days on a rotational system where a % of people are off work every day, rather than a vast majority being off work on a minority of weekdays.
Finally, refreshing the TH-cam homepage every eight seconds paid off
9:03 I definitely misread the "WATER" at the bottom-right as "HATER" as if the game itself was shaming the woman for putting down her partner, too
Don’t want to sound like a cliché 2012 pewdiepie fan girl.
But your videos have become my night time comfort blanket.
After a long stressful mentally unstable day I love winding down to random nonsensical enumeration and Census collecting data about fictional places I spent my childhood exploring.
❤
i’m so glad to see you do well, your vids are the exact weird little thing i need in me life
One thing that might throw a wrench into the calculations is the idea that Isle Delfino might be a society that doesn't prioritize jobs like American culture does. In some societies, when you're asked "what do you do?" They might expect you to say a hobby, for example. The people who don't clarify their employment status might very well *be* employed, they just do not mention it because it's not so important.
this is just an estimation based on something i heard long ago.
I appreciate the Sonic rings that are floating around Austin's glasses, it keeps me motivated to complete the level I mean video
Some key points I think have been brushed over. We can assume that all tourists are actually employed on another part of the island and this is just their yearly vacation or something. This would reduce the unemployment a bit.
The other thing is that, due to the money generated by tourism, the island can pay some sort of UBI to its citizens, while working is just increasing the money you get. Which would functionally work especially as some of the unemployed people might have seasonal employment. This might not be a busy season as Mario and his friends are the only tourists on the island not from the island.
And in the port area, the people standing around gossiping might be port workers and their job is to supervise that the machines are working correctly, which isn't very taxing when we never see the machines fail.
"Like an archaeologist at an ancient dig site"
Well that certainly rang a bell! I've recently gotten into watching an archaeologist's youtube channel where he did an excavation of the Minecraft trail ruins (among other things)
If y'all like AnyAustin's content you might also like Daskalos' as well, similar vibes, different subject matter, it's a lot of fun
why is it that when I think about video game characters telling you about their employment the minute you meet them, the first example in my mind is always Nils, the cook up at Candlehearth Hall?