These opinions are my own and don't represent the views of the company, though I have asked their permission to publish this, as it is very much focused on YSI and Romance Club.

My first job in game development was as QA (a game tester) at a large publisher. I started in 2009, and ever since, I have worked in numerous roles with various companies. I've seen business models, studios, player expectations, and technologies come and go.

Ultimately, I left the first company I worked at due to changes with the company culture. The pay was fine and the benefits were great, but the direction the company was headed was not. The company underwent a merger, then an acquisition, then the CEO left. The focus became about profits, profits, profits. There were layoffs, and more layoffs. "Fun" was removed from the company's core values—at a game development company. I was relieved when I left, and I'd later hear from others who stayed that I got out at the right time.

It's coming up on eight years since I started working on Romance Club for YSI. When I began here, there were 2 stories on the app with more on the way, and my role was very limited. At first, I just proofread text in small batches. The CEO personally emailed me the files. The company and I have both grown and changed a lot since then.

I fell in love with the work that YSI was doing. There was, and still is, a great deal of passion in it (and I'm not talking about Adelaide and Sebastian hooking up). Despite being an introverted hermit, I built friendships with many of my coworkers, and I slowly discovered what made YSI and Romance Club special.

I'm writing this now because, like everyone who works here, I care about what you, our players, think. Personally, I not only care, but I can relate to the feelings of betrayal and doubts. I've been burned by a lot of companies over the years and become increasingly picky about who gets my hard-earned money. I've learned to recognize the signs of a company that sees its customers as nothing more than more dollars to be extracted.

The comments that hurt the most are the ones from long-term players who feel that they don't recognize their favorite app anymore. You've been playing Romance Club as long as I've been here and even longer. It hurts because the nostalgia comes through, and I remember what you're talking about. I remember the old dynamic between the community and the company. (I should note that I was and still am mostly exposed to the English-speaking side of the fandom—I recognize that my perspective is limited.)

I want to write a few words about why I work here. Why, even though YSI is a company and Romance Club is a product, I have always believed in and supported it.

I traveled to Moldova and spent a week working at YSI headquarters a few years ago. It was a hectic, wonderful, meeting-filled week. I'm pretty sure every week at that office is, if I'm being honest. (Thank you, Veronica, Vova and Anna, Anny, Daniel, Anatoli, Ecaterina, Vlad, Katya, and I'm sure I'm forgetting others, for making me feel so welcome there!) The reason I'm bringing this up is because of a conversation I had with Vlad, the CEO, about the company's vision and long-term goals. At the time, I was looking to relocate out of the US and wanted to be sure that YSI was a company that had a future.

I wanted to know why YSI does what it does. What the goals are. What the long game is. Is the company just trying to hit a certain profitability so that it can be sold to a big investor? After all, I had recently watched the slow decline of my previous employer, and I had zero interest in going through that again.

To paraphrase a reasonably long conversation, Vlad told me that he had no interest in ever selling the company, that he wanted to put Moldova on the map as a place where games are made, and that he wanted to focus on telling stories.

These are things that have not changed. YSI is an independent, proudly Moldovan-headquartered game developer with team members all over the world, and we tell stories. There aren't shareholders expecting dividends: there are employees who earn a living through their creative work. There isn't a board of industry advisers dictating what the company should do: company leadership makes decisions based on what they believe is best for the company with input from various departments. This is one thing that makes YSI special.

And while this makes YSI special, it's a double-edged sword. For one thing, it's not a company with the million+ dollar marketing budget and the massive infrastructure that a studio working with a large publisher would have access to. The company has minimal bureaucracy, and depending on the situation, this can be a blessing or a curse. Sometimes things get fumbled, servers go down, bugs get through. That's a downside, and we apologize and try to make the situation right. The upsides, though? For one thing, if I had a problem at my first job, it would be a cold day in hell before I could personally discuss that situation with the CEO and other upper level management. Not so with YSI. When there's a problem or doubts, or someone has a really cool idea, even, it's possible to talk to leadership. And with regards to my own writing, I know that the amount of diversity and many of the topics that I include in my stories would be outright rejected at most other companies due to a narrow-minded focus on profits over all else and fear of risk. I am incredibly grateful for the creative environment that YSI has fostered through Romance Club. I may have the loudest mouth at times, but I'm sure I'm not alone in being incredibly proud of and personally invested in YSI's achievements and continued success.

I am part of a team of 200+ people with wildly different opinions and life experiences, and we are united by our love of stories. Romance Club has achieved success through both our enormous passion for storytelling and by connecting with and listening to you, our players. Despite the confusion and lack of transparency in the most recent update, these values have not changed. If anything, I think their importance has been driven home, and I believe that we will continue to bring you some of the best stories in the visual novel space.

We may be a company, but all of us who work here are also profoundly human.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. My goal in writing this is to assure you that while Romance Club has changed a great deal over the years, we are still, by and large, the same passionate team of people who believe in creating great stories.

With love,
~Yim