Seems like the "product" is made by a art collective (https://mschf.com/ - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSCHF) based in New York. Since it doesn't seem to actually be available, it seems to just be landing page with graphics, rather than a actual game/program. Vaporware essentially.
Still, really funny idea and I'm sure it'd help someone to file their taxes (if it's real), as there seem to be people really obsessed with anime or dating sims out there, or a combination of both.
The modal dialog that immediately pops up when you navigate to the taxheaven3000.com site usefully tells you that it's not released yet and gives a date: April 4.
It literally says "Coming next" next to that project on their timeline, with the project before listed as "Latest release". Hold your horses, it is releasing soon.
IN the past 2 days I've encountered that both the cable and gas companies used mine to verify. I sure didn't give it to em either, that's the more concerning part.
its required to fill in your taxes, but also potentially abusive if the developer isn't honest, and probably not something steam wants on their platform.
handing out your SSN makes it easy for someone to try to open lines of credit, credit cards, loans, etc. in your name. You'd need other data, but that's often trivial.
SSN also wasn't designed as a universal ID and has a few weaknesses, on top of being shoehorned into a role it wasn't meant to fill.
The USA should just bite the bullet and publish everyone's Social Security numbers. That way we can stop pretending they're some kind of secret password and finally force companies who don't want to be defrauded to stop using them. They should not be used for authentication in any way! It's crazy that non-secret information about me, like my SSN, birthday, home address, and mother's maiden name, can be used by anyone to prove that they are me.
IANAL, but in cases where the SSN is just used as a unique identifier (rather than for tax purposes and/or social-services benefits), there are laws about having to offer people a different number.
For example: in the US, drivers licenses are issued by state (what would be called a province anywhere else) governments, not the federal (i.e. national) government. My first drivers license used my SSN as my license number, but if I had asked, the state government would have been required to issue me a license with a different number.
These laws were passed because it got to the point where just getting someones name and SSN were nearly sufficient to completely steal their identity.
I've never heard about them before, and my initial impression of art collectives releasing things like this without actually be able to try it is to assume it's just to gather reactions out of people, rather than actually releasing finished products.
But of course, you might be right, I hope no one put any weight on my initial impression which is based on very little.
I purchased their Illegal Chips series [1], because I'm weird like that. They had partnered with Good Mythical Morning's Josh Scherer to make the fugu flavor. I did get finished products - the horse meat and maggot cheese ones didn't taste like anything wild, like normal bbq and cheese flavors. But fugu was actually really cool in my opinion. I've also see their Big Red Boot [2] while watching wrestling. I believe MSCHF was also behind the Eat the Rich Ice Cream bars [3].
Overall, its a limited edition designer brand "art collective". But they've consistently released their products. Thinking about the TurboTax workflow, it doesn't sound outlandish for MSCHF to contract a game company to make the same thing with an anime school background and cartoon avatar to guide the process.
Another example of an art collective bringing very cool things into existence is MeowWolf. If you're ever in Vegas, check out Omega Mart and do the full story.
I actually worked with them to develop a fake SAT test. It was released, and they had an online competition where they gave $26k to the highest scoring test taker.
Forms are boring. I can get behind a movement toward replacing them with a dating sim.
Weighing my health insurance options is particularly onerous. I'd rather have waifu awkwardly blushing her way through the relevant questions. That would be more narratively satisfying than the usual "it costs more and covers less".
I'm sorry but because of the commas I can't help but read that first sentence as implying that Tax Haven 3000 is the program without any sort of erotic undertones compared to the very sensual TurboTax.
Why have forms or dating sims at all? Most of Europe just has you log into their version of the CRA / IRS, confirm the numbers look right, and hit send.
If you want to add exceptions, tax credits, etc, you can, but if you don't log in then it assumes you give it your blessing.
Moving to these sorts of PAYE systems was a _huge_ project back in the day, and the US never did it. Arguably, given the incredibly messy state of US tax (federal, state and city, all with terribly complex rules and far more credits/exemptions than ~any European country) it _would_ be a lot less practical there, in any case.
LOL, this is another brilliant idea from the same company that previously sold thousands of keys for a single car, which could be shared by everyone. These guys are marketing geniuses.
Most cheap locks work on a similar premise. At my last building, my apartment key could open two other doors on my floor and the floor above. And I once stole a bike by accident because the owner had the same color and model, and brand of lock, and my key worked! I thought the lock was a bit stiff, and the seat felt odd, but I didn't figure out what had happened until the next day.
Anime is just a short for animation, so it's not really Japaneses, more Japanese slang of an English word. But in this specific case, the term anime is more referring to the specific art-style and game-concept, which originates from Japan.
I think some people's objection to the term is that they think it's just American animation and Japanese animation, why does Japan need a special term?
But there are clear stylistic differences between many cultures and separate terms for them are inevitable. Japan definitely has a family of styles preferred there, versus American animation styles. (Note my plural.) Europe has different styles too, as does the many cultures of the rest of Asia that isn't Japan, and I'm sure if large animation industries start up elsewhere they will all end up with distinguishable styles too.
Anime doesn't just distinguish between anime and "not anime"; it specifically identifies the Japanese styles. For this purpose it's fine, and I kinda think that anyone who is objecting to it doesn't understand the number of styles in the world already, not to mention the ones I'm sure we'll see develop over the next decades.
At first I hesitated, not because this wasn't made in Japan, but because dating simulators are not anime per se. This conveys this project's visual style really well though (like you can say “anime art” about the sort of pictures you can find on Pixiv), so I decided to leave this in. It also clues people in (just a bit) who don't know what a datesim / VN is. If you have any suggestions on another choice of word, I'd be happy to hear back!
Although probably just an art stunt, in the absence of meaningful genetic matching, one about corresponding income tax returns would certainly be a good substitute...
This makes me remember CrystalDiskInfo. You can download versions with cute anime girls, with little thumbnails looking concerned or panicked when the SMART looks too bad.
I would be totally up for such AI assistant, but it absolutely has to be self hosted. I would also like an option to audit its memory and scrub sensitive information.
I wonder if anyone has ever tried this on an actual dating site, offering to complete someone's tax return for several dinner dates. There is a huge benefit, in terms of assessing dating prospects, to the person completing the tax returns.
This is one of those ideas that sounds like it might work, on the surface of it, but the more I think about it the worse it gets.
You're on a date that you don't really want to be on, and the person sitting across from you knows precisely how much money you make, where you got it all, and what tax write offs you have.
It's not just sitcom _material_, didn't this actually _happen_ in Seinfeld? George had to get back together with a horrible tax lawyer because Jerry was being audited, IIRC.
Eh, doubtful. You'd need America's awful tax system for it to exist and I suspect that Japan is more like Europe where the tax authority does everything for you and you just log in and confirm that it looks right
So, do non-joke dating sims exist? Beyond this, I'm aware of three; the one where you date pigeons, a Pride and Prejudice one, and one involving cats in some way. I assume that all of these are parodying a real genre, but the joke ones seem much more prominent than the real ones.
There was a fun thread where someone played through it on, er, SomethingAwful, possibly? Some old forum.
(Strictly speaking I think it was a bit of a Jane Austen mashup, but mostly Pride and Prejudice; if you screwed up you could end up marrying the awful vicar, for instance)
I mean, Fire Emblem is pretty much a dating sim, as was Valkyrie Chronicles. And Persona, and many other JRPGs.
Matchmaking your soldiers together to find romance on the battlefield is a common trope and basically is a dating-sim with regards to "guess the character's likes/dislikes". (Giving gifts to various characters to earn romance points in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, for example)
There's just, also a whole battlefield / tactics game going on at the same time. But the dating-sim portion gives extreme benefits (support-class A or S gives huge bonuses that allows more attack/defense/dodge).
From my point of view, dating sims have declined in popularity over the past two decades. The west has always had a niche following, but Japanese titles rarely made it over here, and indie dating sims exist in a community that's quite disconnected from the one this title invokes the idea of.
In Japan, dating sims used to be huge, Tokimeki Memorial being notably famous. Unfortunatel, there seems to have been a quite aggressive decline.
When thinking of currently running dating sim series, I can recall Tokimeki Memorial: Girl's Side, ×CATION, and a recent trend of remakes (such as Doukyuusei). However the fervour the genre once had is noticeably absent from current releases.
With rare exceptions (like Hatoful Boyfriend) these joke dating sims feel pretty fake. They comment on a genre they struggle to properly portray or understand. The most egregious cases parody galge or otomege and erroneously label themselves as dating sims.
As an example, Doki Doki Literature Club (for all its merits), suffers from being described as a dating sim when it clearly isn't one.
To be clear, while pure daring sims kind of barely exist, they do pop up from time to time as secondary gameplay loops in hybrids. The Persona series (3 and onwards) as well as the Fire Emblem series (Awakening and onwards) do this.
Dating sims are a real thing. Konami (The Japanese company behind Castlevania and Metal Gear Solid) has a long running dating sim series called Tokimeki Memorial. The games were never officially translated in english (a few of them have unofficial fan translations), but journalist/ Youtuber Tim Rogers has a five and a half hour video review of the first game in the series on Playstation.
Yeah, they're crazy popular. Old genre too, goes back to at least the '90s (though mostly in Japan), and probably older.
The reason you're not aware of them is probably—assuming you're a guy—because they're mostly played by women (especially the ones that aren't outright porn—though, those too). They're particularly popular on mobile. If you've ever seen the stats about how there's a huge number of "women gamers" and been like "wait, if there are so many, where the fuck are they?" it's because a large proportion of them mostly play dating sims and visual novels (often those two have more than a little overlap) and other game genres that you don't, like casual browser games or puzzlers.
It's similar to why the average woman can name more romance novel authors than the average guy can.
> Turbo: An unsavory SaaS bro, quick to anger and oddly fixated on Iris. He seems to be up to no good... Likes: Corporate lobbying, confusing forms, dark UX, fleece vests
119 comments
[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 201 ms ] threadThe slide show messes with my screen reader while reading the description though.
I have a hunch most people would be a lot less regarding of security vulnerabilities for tools that boast such as nice "packaging".
This has potential of bringing "free browser extension that sells your data" to a whole new level.
Still, really funny idea and I'm sure it'd help someone to file their taxes (if it's real), as there seem to be people really obsessed with anime or dating sims out there, or a combination of both.
No reason to believe this will be any different just because they are an art collective.
https://taxheaven3000.itch.io/tax-heaven-3000
Perhaps because it asked for your social security number.
https://imgur.com/a/KmWM6KU
/from someone who never lived in the US
handing out your SSN makes it easy for someone to try to open lines of credit, credit cards, loans, etc. in your name. You'd need other data, but that's often trivial.
SSN also wasn't designed as a universal ID and has a few weaknesses, on top of being shoehorned into a role it wasn't meant to fill.
For example: in the US, drivers licenses are issued by state (what would be called a province anywhere else) governments, not the federal (i.e. national) government. My first drivers license used my SSN as my license number, but if I had asked, the state government would have been required to issue me a license with a different number.
These laws were passed because it got to the point where just getting someones name and SSN were nearly sufficient to completely steal their identity.
It's also why the US Senate designed to represent states like the EU council, was never intended to be proportional.
But of course, you might be right, I hope no one put any weight on my initial impression which is based on very little.
They've made some wild shoes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNAsx7kQ6PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0KHuSctqtg
Coffeezilla covered them a couple of years ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZKGJCbP6Y
As I said when this was posted yesterday, I'm for sure a fanboi.
Mschf and Improv Everywhere have done some endearing stunts over the years.
"Gather reactions" and do what with them exactly? This seems like a cynical view of art
According to who?
Overall, its a limited edition designer brand "art collective". But they've consistently released their products. Thinking about the TurboTax workflow, it doesn't sound outlandish for MSCHF to contract a game company to make the same thing with an anime school background and cartoon avatar to guide the process.
[1] https://illegalchips.com/
[2] https://www.instagram.com/reel/CooJI8WujyJ
[3] https://stupiddope.com/2022/07/mschf-creates-eat-the-rich-ic...
https://meowwolf.com/about
Weighing my health insurance options is particularly onerous. I'd rather have waifu awkwardly blushing her way through the relevant questions. That would be more narratively satisfying than the usual "it costs more and covers less".
This product would be more effective as a browser extension to modifying the TurboTax web page styles.
But then you'd use and support turbotax and it's efforts to pointlessly complicate the tax system so their software is required to make it easy.
Per Iris:
> TurboTax, per its own internal documents, is built on the “Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt” that ordinary people have about their taxes.
If you want to add exceptions, tax credits, etc, you can, but if you don't log in then it assumes you give it your blessing.
Why get anime waifus involved at all?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=l30V426-_S4
Most 1990s Dodge Shadows worked on a similar premise. My friends could unlock and start each other's cars.
Or seriously, why use a Japanese word for something that already exists in English?
But there are clear stylistic differences between many cultures and separate terms for them are inevitable. Japan definitely has a family of styles preferred there, versus American animation styles. (Note my plural.) Europe has different styles too, as does the many cultures of the rest of Asia that isn't Japan, and I'm sure if large animation industries start up elsewhere they will all end up with distinguishable styles too.
Anime doesn't just distinguish between anime and "not anime"; it specifically identifies the Japanese styles. For this purpose it's fine, and I kinda think that anyone who is objecting to it doesn't understand the number of styles in the world already, not to mention the ones I'm sure we'll see develop over the next decades.
At first I hesitated, not because this wasn't made in Japan, but because dating simulators are not anime per se. This conveys this project's visual style really well though (like you can say “anime art” about the sort of pictures you can find on Pixiv), so I decided to leave this in. It also clues people in (just a bit) who don't know what a datesim / VN is. If you have any suggestions on another choice of word, I'd be happy to hear back!
Yup, it checks out.
You're on a date that you don't really want to be on, and the person sitting across from you knows precisely how much money you make, where you got it all, and what tax write offs you have.
That's sitcom material.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0697801/
Plus you're going to give your personal info to someone you just met... in exchange for dinner? Man you're trusting.
Unrelated: there is a bridge that I own roughly 131km from here. Interested in buying it?
I believe Steam has had a massive uptick in them over the past few years.
They're usually a form of interactive novel almost, but some are more advanced.
Even Stardust Valley has a "dating sim" portion.
There was a fun thread where someone played through it on, er, SomethingAwful, possibly? Some old forum.
(Strictly speaking I think it was a bit of a Jane Austen mashup, but mostly Pride and Prejudice; if you screwed up you could end up marrying the awful vicar, for instance)
By the developers of Genshin Impact.
Matchmaking your soldiers together to find romance on the battlefield is a common trope and basically is a dating-sim with regards to "guess the character's likes/dislikes". (Giving gifts to various characters to earn romance points in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, for example)
There's just, also a whole battlefield / tactics game going on at the same time. But the dating-sim portion gives extreme benefits (support-class A or S gives huge bonuses that allows more attack/defense/dodge).
In Japan, dating sims used to be huge, Tokimeki Memorial being notably famous. Unfortunatel, there seems to have been a quite aggressive decline.
When thinking of currently running dating sim series, I can recall Tokimeki Memorial: Girl's Side, ×CATION, and a recent trend of remakes (such as Doukyuusei). However the fervour the genre once had is noticeably absent from current releases.
With rare exceptions (like Hatoful Boyfriend) these joke dating sims feel pretty fake. They comment on a genre they struggle to properly portray or understand. The most egregious cases parody galge or otomege and erroneously label themselves as dating sims.
As an example, Doki Doki Literature Club (for all its merits), suffers from being described as a dating sim when it clearly isn't one.
To be clear, while pure daring sims kind of barely exist, they do pop up from time to time as secondary gameplay loops in hybrids. The Persona series (3 and onwards) as well as the Fire Emblem series (Awakening and onwards) do this.
The reason you're not aware of them is probably—assuming you're a guy—because they're mostly played by women (especially the ones that aren't outright porn—though, those too). They're particularly popular on mobile. If you've ever seen the stats about how there's a huge number of "women gamers" and been like "wait, if there are so many, where the fuck are they?" it's because a large proportion of them mostly play dating sims and visual novels (often those two have more than a little overlap) and other game genres that you don't, like casual browser games or puzzlers.
It's similar to why the average woman can name more romance novel authors than the average guy can.