Music Video Review - Krys Daddy Mory Lord Kossity - Dancehall Soldier (Video)

This isn't a video I have anything to do with, except as a viewer.

I like the high energy and lyrical economy of this video. I think it suits the "Military" Riddim (the name of the instrumental track) on which is is built. The images reflect and re-enforce this theme as well, and the spraseness of the beat is reflected in the composition of the elements of the video.

Although an upbeat song, I think it also reflects the almost mechanical way in which a "machine of war", or a military machine, functions... and, by extension, how most corporations, industries, and so on function. By keeping the body strong but the soul dead, passionate wars are fought by empty soldiers. 

Well, at that point, I'm reading too much into it, but a Dancehall is usually a fairly densely populated place... to be alone in on physically might be impossible, but this video reminds me of the saying "alone in a crowd", but carried to the extreme where you don't know you're alone because you're busy moving... and because that sense of self-awareness has been replaced by attention focused on the music, which is like marching orders, telling the (dancehall) soldiers what to do.

So, I like the video because it reminds me of what I call the Cognizants' Condition, but apparently others call the Human Condition....

Trailer - Pesona 2 - After Innocent Sin, Before Eternal Punishment

Link:

P3 - Deadly Faily -- Suicide By Demons to Escape This Boring Dungeon!

I tried to solve my insomnia by playing some P3, but a few hours and 27+ floors later, I ran into some strong enemies, and made critical tactical mistakes... since I didn't save at all during that time, it turned out to be a genuine waste.... deadly failure on my part :(.

Kartia LP - Let's Play Kartia Series by Kentaro / Bajan 13 K

The Long Awaited Moment: My first "proper" Let's Play series... although it is unconventional in some ways, watch to find out more.

133. Random Rant and Kartia LP is coming

Read more at the LJ blog: http://bajan13k.livejournal.com/

Kartia (Test Upload) - Magic Text and Rambling On...

Link:

Madara (n2)

Link:

ToP Long Play 001 7L Embed Test

Link:

A Little Bitsy Update

Me: 8,905. Flu: 10,240.

So, I've still got a point level below 9,000.

I'd like to rant that all of these attempts to "enforce copyright", don't actually enforce copyright at all, and they just serve to piss off fans... who would have been customers in the past but might not be in the future due to the self-loathing way in which these companies are behaving. I mean, even when it comes to trademarks, I don't think Spam's sales have been hurt by the fact that it is now known as unsolicited mail... but I could be wrong, and I could be harassed, if not sued, by the owners of the Spam trademark, just for mentioning that name... but if I had that company, I'd "roll with the punches" and just promote my product as "better than the competition, tastier than unsolicited email", or something like that.

See, and that's an idea that just came thru a few seconds of thinking. Instead of harassing fans, companies should be pressuring their marketing departments to actually push their products. And rather than harassing me about putting up the Odin Sphere intro/idle sequence, Atlus should perhaps be working on Odin Sphere 2, or a spin-off anime series (they could just collect the cutscenes, really), or hiring some of their fans, or getting a contract with Gemini to officially mass-produce an Innocent Sin translation.

Yeah, instead of trying to control what I do with a product that I bought, with my hard-earned money, why don't you just give me more products to buy?

The answer, of course, is that companies, esp. Atlus US, are filled by mediocre idiots. I somehow think that the real reason Atlus Japan doesn't release most stuff in English is because they think that the majority of the world, esp. English speakers, are idiots. Sorta like the attitude that Dexter has in Dexters' Laboratory (you know, the cartoon network comedy series).

Anyhow, instead of ranting about this, I'm going to go and get some vitamins and stuff to help me get better. Although, I picked a weird day because it is rainy and overcast... most Bajans are afraid of the rain... me, I rather like it, but it would be bad to get soaked whilst already having respiratory problems, wouldn't it?

Umbrellas are useful in high wind... and I don't have a raincoat anymore (I wonder what happened there... I guess I must have outgrown them, haven't used a raincoat in eons). Of course, I could wear my water-resistant jacket or something... but if I really wanted to go out, I wouldn't be blogging.

Nope, right now, I want to answer a question posted on one of my youtube vids, "Revelations: Persona - Beginning, Philemon - Part 2/2", which, who knows? I might soon get harassed for, which would just piss me off me. Really, I'm between two minds as to what to do about it. The "boiling frog" way would be to just ignore, it, go back to sleep, and keep up with the channel since it is sorta fun to get feedback and stuff... but in the meantime, YouTube and Atlus are getting richer, I'm still majoring in minors by keeping up a hobby which has no monetization value, whilst I need to fund some major projects and I don't have any momentum going there.

So, I'm gonna view this whole things as a Tower, and rather than getting eaten by the Moon, and oppressed by Materialism(Devil), I'm gonna move fowards and do something different. Of course, I'm not sure if anyone will read this, since Google now owns both blogger (where this blog is hosted) and youtube (where my vids are hosted). So they might censor everything, or even delete me from the Internet, for daring to have a contrary opinion.

Realistically, they probably don't know I exist... my channel is small (less than 1,000 subscribers) and the notice I got was sent by an automatic system... so I'm very much "under the radar", or hiding in plain sight.

Well, anyhow, about emulators: Sony should, similarly, have contracted Bleem or something, and promote development on their PS1 platform, at least... rather than discontinuing Yaroze, move it to PS1-based and expand it... but, they'd rather see people develop for XBLA or Wii, or even cellphones, I guess.

I will continue this entry in my new blog, http://bajan13k.livejournal.com/ which, to my knowledge, has not been absorbed into the Goggle Collective.

Me: 8,698.
Flu: 9,200.

I'm getting much better, but the flu also threw me a few curve-balls, disrupting my sleep and keeping me restless. So, I compensated by drinking water, some special anti-flu tea, and moving furniture. As a result, I should soon be back to 100%... I'm about 72% (or normal health) now.

Well, I've go a ton of things to do this week, because Univ. classes are starting back next week, I'm still sick, and also I wanna work on some for-money projects as well as catch up with some other stuff that I had put of whilst I was working at my last assignment.

So, no long rant or youtube update yet ;).

Nothing for Free

Well, I was going to do a big update to my channel over last weekend, but partially because I was sick...



... and moreso, because I was a bit disappointed in myself, I didn't do very much. Yes, I uploaded nearly a dozen videos but I have at least twice as much, and I origionally planned to make more.

In a previous blog, I mentioend (implicitly) the Operations - Tactics - Strategy triad. It's part of all forms of managment theory, not just military. Anyhow, I think I can define the seperations better, for "wargames" (RealTime whatevers):

• Operations - the details of what is done (e.g. "walk north", "shoot at the enemy to the south-east", "follow allied unit #23")
  
• Tactics - a goal-oriented directive which informs operations over a longer time-space ("protect this building")
  
• Strategy - a bias which informs decisions, such as resource allocation, over a very long time-space ("build logging operations in the forest, and protect them with gun turrets and bases on the east and north coast").
  

Actually, strategy in its "pure" form is even more abstract, which allows for generalisation, or symbolic representation, e.g. "build resource-gathering operations in the center of a circle of protective, active-defense structures". By then tagging specific resources with as belonging to classifications defined in the strategy, they would be chosen as needed, e.g. gun terrets would be aan "active defense structure", and the coast would be the circumference of the protective circle.

Or something like that.

However, this post is really about YouTube. I used to say it "just works", but that is not really true... I always had trouble with it, primarily with the "non-video" stuff like comments, but now I have enen more trouble with it, and some of my videos mysteriously don't work or something.

That is annoying and, although I've posted over one hundred videos, I've had enough of it. If there's no viable alternative, then I'll build one.

Health Update:

Flu: 9,005
Me: 8,192

Yip, I'm catching up to it!

It's raining today, which means cooler temperatures... and I got a lot of sleep yesterday, which means a happier, less STUPID me.

Rant 4 - A Really Sick Sounding Guy

Despite how I sound in my latest youtube rant, I don't really feel that bad.

Flu: 9,001
Me: 7,382.

The Flu is still ahead, but I'm gaining ground, slowly but surely.

Hey, I can embed my YouTube vids here:



But, you should still visit the Bajan13K YouTube Channel. It is all sorts of kool!

Plus, I just finished uploading a couple hours of Persona 3 (P3) vids, so if you are into that sorta thing, enjoy!

Quantity and Quality

From my YouTube Channel Homepage [link] thingy, 13th August:

I am currently engaged in a serious battle against the common cold, or something. However, I still intend to continue doing vids and do a big update this weekend.

Well, it seem to be quantity over quality as far as my recently blog post here are concerned, eh?

However, I find the fact that is is virtually unknown to be liberating... so I just ramble on aimlessly... I plan later to come back and write better articles based on what I post, but I'd need to spend more time on it, and for that, I need an economic profit motive. This is because, as I may have mentioned too many times before, I'm almost broke and also very sick.

Well, I'm a bit less sick, now. It's Flu: 9,001. Me: 7,200. (or Me + 200 pts since last check). Flu still leads by 1,801 points.

Ambient temp. : 35.0 deg. C or 95.0 deg. F.

Well isn't that just awesomely depressing?

So, in order to do more of what I enjoy (writing), and do it better (professional level), I need to have some sort of income to offset the energy costs - besides the current ones of running my PC, and feeding myself, and stuff, there's also the future of air conditioning my area and building my space into a SOHO (small office/home office) type thingy. Although, I think HOZC (home office zaibatsu core, where "Zaibatsu" means "mega-corporation", is more appropriate, since, you know, I'm a megalomaniac).

Anyhow, I've decided that one possible solution lies in web-based games. HTML-based games like... err, what was that... anyhow, any example I choose will be bad, because they mostly all suck. They're like playing Starcraft without the graphics. And, since I feel more like a cog in a machine than like a commander when I play starfraft, or any of those "Real-Time Strategy" games which are really "Real-Time Operational" games, not even Real-Time Tactics, I can't say that is a compliment. But the presentation of starcrast: graphics, sound, and how it all works together (animation): A+ superb!

So, let me explain what I mean with RTS-S being a lie:

• operations are what you do step to step. Like, "walk this way", or "shoot at that particular enemy".
  
• tactics apply a bit of intelligence to situations, like "provide cover-fire for the men moving West, by targeting the enemy forces in the North". In most games, "cover fire" doesn't even exist because forces blatently walk into an active firezone.
  
• starategy is the overall, long-term picture. Like "by drawing the enemy forces south, I'll invade the base from the north"

If you're point-and-clicking individual units, then you're at the operational level. If you have an organisational structure based on physical rather than logical units (i.e. "this grunt here" rather than "five footsoldiers with flamethrowers") then you're still at the operational level. If you can't differentiate roles from the people performing those roles, i.e. set up a transport route, seperate from making a shuttle follow it, then you're still at the operational level. Tactics only exist in your head.

And if the tactics exist only in my head, then the game exists only in my head: hence, I'm the real "computer", not the PC which I want to be doing all the "hard work" for me.

So, that's why I don't think StarCraft is an RTS. It's an RTO game. It's a very pretty looking, fun, well balanced, long-living RTO game, but it offers nothing in the way of tactis nor strategy, besides what the players themselves invent as they play.

Now, that might be just fine for most players. They love to micromanage, and feel that their "hard work" which they make to do, in parallel, operation, tactical, and strategic thinking, pays off... and it probally does. They can multi-task well. A tactic which helps a lot in today's high-stressed environment.

And will probally help them to die before age 40.

I mean, I would really like the option to play games at higher or lower levels of abstraction. What if, in a RT wargame, you could really focus on converting strategies to tactics? Or you could step back and issues strategic directives to several battlefield commanders, who could be AI or human, etc...

Perhaps that's how Lineage plays. I'm not sure, I've never tried it... perhaps they're tons of games like this already... but since they're not as popular as Blizzard's stuff, and I don't know about them, clearly more work needs to be done.

Atlus, as a game company, has produced a ton of games... but so far, I can't say that each isn't without major flaws. An as for the megaten series, the major flaw is that the series remains an obscure japanese franchise. No matter how popular Persona 3 is, the fact is that it's probally the least impressive of the games in terms of depth of gameplay and story. The Commu system was a great innovation, though, and the closest thing to this were probally Shenmmue and Brave Fencher Musashi... but P3 does a key thing by pushing forward time based on major events, automagically. Personally, I don't quite like it, but it works to keep people always moving forwards, so it is harder to get stuck or get that "what do I do next" feeling. Which is important when you're stuck in a pre-written story.

Anyhow, I don't like to be too critical because what I should do is mind my own business and move from being a rather unproductive person to being a prolifically productive firm. If there's anything to take from the story of Atlus as a company, it is that you can have a big impact by being productive, and promoting yours features all as strengths. I mean, they wouldn't still be around, in a era where Square is falling to Enix, and Electronic Arts is being sued by its own employees, and SNK went bankrupt (yeah, I know, the founder revived it recently), if it wasn't doing something right.

I'm doing something right, too, but not so much as a firm... I've managed my money carefully, spent little, worked part-time jobs... and until recently, I could say that I took careful care of my health to that saved a lot of lost time in productivity... but asside from that, which in a way turns out to be a blessing in disguise, I've done better than even I would have expected, for my low levels of effort and productivity.

So, I think it is time I "face the music", invest in the equipment I need, make the plans I need, and try something. It can't be worse than P1.

MLP - Because Randomness is Kool

This is another Mindless Link Propogation.

What features are in the ideal RPG? A comment I found [ link ] suggests these features:

• pick (or create your character, including)
  
• stats
• team (questing party): chose who and wheter to gather as "teammates"
• teammates (supporting party characters) with unique storylines which you experience by having them in your team
• the ability to change stats almost at will (like "Red Mage", I guess, in 8BT)
  
• various choices: a branching, rather than linear, time/story-line
  
• side quests. by the thousands
• upgrades for weapons, armour, and and other equipment (and, I supposed, vehicles as well). "endless" is that the comment suggested.
• endless endings which are based on your choices

Well, an "ideal" concept is not supposed to be realisitically obtainable, so words like "endless" are justified in this case, just like "incompressible" describing an ideal fluid.

Moving on to more links:

Something about math, and why it is useful to express things using mathmatical symbols.

Some-one did a "Playtest" of P3, the JPN version. This was before the English-language releast. It is well-written, this playtest. [ link ]

I've been researching "Greensleeves", because I have vague but strong memeories of, in primary school, around age 9 or 10, learning this song which freaked me out because it talked about someone being buried and grass growing on their gravesite, and the grass was called "green sleaves". It was to the tune of "Greensleves", but was nighter a romantic song like [ this youtube vid ], nor does wikipedia give me much joy. I found lyrics to a [ longer version of the love song thingy ] than the [ traditional medley ], but none is as morbid as what I remember.

I'm starting to wonder what I could have possibly learnt when I was younger... could it be that I watched some "thriller" on late-night TV that had alternate lyrics to the tune? This small, non-consequential problem threatens to dominate my whole life, but no, I will just forget it for now and focus on more important things, like how to get rich and make a difference in the world. Or something. That's what world domination is called nowadays, right: social responsiblity.

What Era are We Living within?

I remember when I became aware of an important social phenomenom: the specifics of trade, and how the majority trades, and how your trade, influence your "level" in society. In the Agrian (Direct/Small-Scale Farming) Era, most people maintained farms, in order to sustain themselves and their families... with improvements in farming technology, more time was freed up, and more organisation was put to food production, leading to food security.

Food security means population security. Long-term plans. Social security. You can no do things like build the Great Wall of China over several hundred years, or many, many generations. A society can't really afford the time and effort for engineering if they have inconsistent food production, and most people under-fed.

It occured to me, as we were studying steam power and how it affected the Industrial Revolution in England, and thus, worldwide, that China had the same technology, even earlier, but refused to use it en mass because they were already trying to increase gainful employment/size of work-force, and having machines doing most of the world would be against the goals of the state at that time. I actually saw this issued discussed explictly in a kung-fu movie set back in that time period (sorry, I don't know the proper name for it, I really didn't do history for very long in school), I think it was one of the Wong Fei Long series starting Jet Li.

Anyhow, we have all sorts of social-changing technology now, from nuclear power to electronic voting machines to sex toys to videogames. How each technology is used depends more on social concerns than on pure functionaltiy.

For example, several countries oppose nuclear power, because of the perceived danger: disposal of necessary waste, and the risk of a "meltdown" like Chernobol(sp?)/Wormwood. Other countries oppose nuclear power, not for themselves, but for others, since they fear it could lead those other countries to possess nuclear weapons. The chief concern is never a cost-benefit analysis as you'd expect in a truly captialist, commerical-interest-comes-first society.

It is not that democracy reigns, either... it is that the ruling class feeds the public the "slanted truth" and the public resonates it. Because the mainstream way of trade when it comes to information is to comply with a few assumptions:

1. they're good and bad(evil) options
2. we are chosing the good ones
3. we live in a democracy because of voting

These are all "memes" in the true sense of the word: they're mental genes, and they influence perception and thus behaviour. For example, because of #3, the repositioning of the US as a "police state" is seen as impossible by most people, and even those who have experienced the reality of the changes which have already taken place lack the vocabulary, or perhaps, will, to discuss it, since everyone "knows" that democracy = freedom.

Anyhow, I got off-track. I think this era that we live in is a combination of commercial and social (Sociocommercial?). It has the legacy of even the industrial era, with factories still mass-producing things, but with a class of "time-rich" people already widely in evidence, due to affluent parents, part-time jobs, being in the education system, or even having been laid off but not in a rush to find new jobs.... and a lot of these time-rich people are doing things largely for social, rather than commercial reasons (like me and this blog).

Yet, we can't discount commercial reasons or influences. A lot of out culture and development comes from sources which we would never even be aware of, if not for the commercial motive. For example, "keyeske - see his youtube channel" mentioned that Persona influenced him a lot - see his youtube vid where he says this -, and I find the roots in Jungian Psycology to have helped encourage my interest in formal study of the subject (whereas, before, I viewed all formal study as a giant waste of time).

Well, Persona was and is a commercial product. In fact, the reason why the Snow Queen story was removed (and the Ambrosia quest by extention, together totally about 60% of the videogame), was due to "commercial constraints": there wasn't enough time-money to make the full game available for the launch window. Since Atlus US seems... sorta anemic when it comes to initiative, it's unlikely that they would have taught of later releasing the full version, plus some improvements... like how Atlus JPN did with P3 and P3:FES (upgrade and dual), thus driving Atlus US to relase P3:FES (based on the dual JPN edition, which includes an enhanced P3 and the additional FES story).

I should mention, though, that not everyone is living in the same era. The word "ghetto" was used during Nazi oppression of Jews to describe the seggregated areas where Jews were forced to lived in order to stagnate their economic power whilst awaiting execution; although potrayed as somewhat kool places where rap artists are born, or something, areas called ghettos nowadays have similar effects: economic depression, and shortened life-span (although, not necessarily by Nazis). Although, I can't fully appreciate that since I life in a bizarre place.

Moving further, they're people who don't even have access to running water. They have to walk miles each day just to get water rations. And, forget about electricity.

I can hardly imagine what that must be like, but you hear about that and then about the fact that there's a growing housing crisis which will displace 2/3 of the population of the world within a generation, and you get the feeling that we've already passed the "peak point" of success, and us who are fortunate to have running water, electricity, and access to education (not necessarily formal; self-study works, esp. with e-book and other ways of getting access to knowledge) have almost an obligation to solve some of the world's problems... no only because it is "right", but moreso because it is commercially smart.

Hanging around playing aimlessly whilst people live below a basic standard of living was tried before, a little thing called the French Revolution resulted and serves as one of the sharpest and most famous reminders that, as leaders, and forunate people, we need to also have "social responsibility", and also, a commercial mind, or else, the very fabric of society will collapse.

Well, I didn't expect to write all of this... but after reading the article about FF7 as a refection of Japanese society, by kotowari, I guess I sorta got off on an inspired tangent.

Also, there's a brief article on that same site about P1 (Persona 1, "Revelations: Persona".

Misinformation

What are "professional" gaming sites doing nowadays, eh? Gamespot, 1up, etc. hardly have any info on Revelations:Persona (P1), and what little they have is inaccurate.

Anyhow, flu: 9,001. Me: 7,000. The battle has been intense but I am far away from being the victor. More importantly, the flu has a point score "Over 9,000!". At least my bases still belong to me.

There's been a rumour since march that Revelations: Persona is coming to PSP, and someone [ link ] assumed that it would be properly translated to English if it does come over. I say... not bloody likely. At the Atlus Panel, they explictly said that they don't want to translated "old" games (form the PS1 era, which means everything before P3), and they haven't eeven translated Innocent Sin (that's being done by Gemini/Tom, as I mentioned in a previous blog). So at best they'll republishing the pre-existing PS1 title, with its missing Snow Queen storyline.

Assuming that I don't die first, I'm going to upgrade my vid. cap. rig and do some more P1 gameplay vids, based on various requests. However,I've also got this real-world problem of being near-broke and stuff, so I have to work on hat until I fix it... for the week, though, I did actually gain a bit of revenue... spent more in food alone, but, it's a start (the balance comes from the part-time job that I did recently... said job also helped weaken my immune system, but I'd have to say that the nail in my coffin was my own self-neglect, and I'll have to be more careful in the future).

I haven't been sick like this in at least 3 years. I guess I took it for granted and stopped paying suck close attention. I mean, I actually thought to myself "I'm going to get sick if I keep this up...", but I guess aprtly I wanted a vacation and being sick is a way to get it. Normally, people don't think of unconscious motivations like that, but I'm goot at reflective introspection. I know exactly what my weaknesses are... but perhaps it is time I focus on, and build, my strengths.

So, one of my strengths is getting things done. Not only with computers, in general. And I've decided that what I want to do is make a small adventure game, but with a sci-fi edge to it, so I can have an excuse to use some sort of "plasma laser" weapon... I'm sure the better name for it would be charged-gel-low-velocity-missle-launcher, based on how slow "lasers" move in most sci-fi thingies... I mean, peopel dodge them in realtime, and shit... but I'm setting my thing underwater, and using ballistic weapons just seem to me to be a tad less than wise, when a shot in the hull means almost certain death for everyone.

*cough, cough* no, I'm not hinting at anything, I'm actually coughing. It is annoying.

[I stopped here to go an sleep, or something. As I mentioned earlier, I'm really sick.]

May's Law

"May's Law: Software efficiency halves every 18 months, compensating Moore's Law."
- ripped from Wikipedia, link - Bio on David May, who formulated the law. He's a ... largely unknown genius type, I guess, being one fo the designers fo teh Transputer system. Of course, even Tiem Sweeney and John Camrack are largely unknown (key programmers behind the Unreal and Doom/Quake engine-games, respectively).

Flu: 27. Me: 23. Flu leads by 4 points, but there's still a chance that I will reign victorious.

I have some MLP (Mindless Link Propagation), based on my research into the Transputer arch. and Occam in particular... since the Terminator systems in Chronicles are rumoured to be based directly on the Occam sofware. From a glance, Occam looks retarded, because it forces the designr to explicate parllelism. However, it is interesting that someone tried so hard to build parallel computer systems. Pity they didn't use them for arcade games or military simulation equipment... or did they? No way to knwo about the latter, really.

Anyhow, all these links are from WIki pedia articles (pardon my typos, I'm in a lot of pain but I need to keep moving or else I'll die. Shark blood):

Transputer - the worlds' best kept secret next to the C64 REU. (i.e. the secret is "best", not "best-kept". It would have been nice to be able to buy a microcomputer which could upgrade to a supercomputer just by buying additional parts... basically, like what LAIN did in Serial Experiments Lain.

Occam - Created by people who think that question marks should do things other than ask questions, and were obviously too nerdy to care that their language looks like shit and can't be understood by outsiders.

The must have been Pink.

The article of Process Calculus, which makes that shit sound hard, and ignores the obvious problem (at least to me): sync. stuff blocks the calling process, and async needs to know when data is valid. Unreal acrually addresses some of this via "state" and "latent" keywords, andthe constructs which implement native finite state machines for classes (actually, modes of operation as named states), and soft co-threading on a massive level (hundreds, if not more than thousands, of threads , typically. Mostly sleeping but wtvr).

I hate "math" because it makes easy things sound hard. However, asside from classes which I never bothered to attend, I've never gotten less than a 90% on a math exam. THat's probally bullshit,but the point is that I'm great at math, but I need to apply it to stuff. Which is why I chose Physics, Mathematics, and Accounts at A-Level, eons ago, even though I was too sick to do the exams... hmmm... and now I'm sick again... I shouldn't tell teh Internets this stuff, suppose I can't get a job? What will I do without wage-slavery?

In order to fomally describe concurrent systems CSP was developed. Did I mention that Unreal does all this concurrent stuff, without that fancy math notation shit? I mean, you edit the code in an editor that is part property dialogues, part graphical/art/map editors, and part self-aware code re-interpeter. Or something.

Oh, look, besides Hawkins, thatere's anotehr Steven in science who is actively doing interesting stuff. Actually, I'd more out SE-Z in SMT than Hawkins... but arccording to SMT 1, the Steven in the game was not in a wheelchair due to physical illness, but, rather, as a result of a demon negotiation that went bad, leaving him crippled.

And, of course, since digital media is the new printing press (in that there's a social change and economic reform going on because of these new technologies bring "power to the masses"), I have a link to an article related to stuff like that. Something about Elvis and the business side of music popularity.

I'm gonan go ask the lady in the moon to heal me of this flu. It's almost full, after all.

"Have you ever danced with the Devil in the pale Moon-light?"

Competing with Unsanctioned Reproductions

I know that I'm the only one that seems to care about the word "Pirate" as much too harsh, but if you don't stand for anything, you're fall for ... something.

Err, that's not the saying at all.

Anyhow, link: http://www.positech.co.uk/talkingtopirates.html

A popular article which replies to feedback from people who use "Unsanctioned Reproductions" (URs) of videogame software. It was very interesting, because few if any people have bothered with collecting any real data on the subject... usually, the *AA just pulls numbers out of Uranus or something. I mena, $750 USD as the cost of an Unsanctioned, compressed copy of a song? Freaking heck!

Anyhow, the score, if you were paying attention to my last blog, is now 21-19, the Flu being the 21, and me being the 19. I am functioning just one notch above "blob of useless human waste", or something.

I blame... Sony, for publishing at least some of the Persona games, although it has nothing to do with why I'm... a little bit... sick...( and a lot in denial about it!)....

You see, I sat in front of a fan in a room that was around 90 deg. F. The fan oscillated, and blew on one side of my body, but not the other. For like twelve hours staight, whilst I did nerdy stuff like write blog entries like I'm doing now, and... I dunno what the freak else.

On top of that, two people at my last part-time short-term assignment job thingy were sick. One so sick that she went home early, the other, the one sitting right next to me, boasting that she wanted to spread her sickness to everyone. I like a fool boasted about a "strong immune system".

Then there's the fact that University is starting back and I feel ill-prepared, and generally am going through some sort of social aversion issues.

However, I have been out of the house today and yesterday... and even made a bit of money... well, overall, I spent more than I made, by far... and I must say that I need to open my own PC/gaming shop, but whatever... that's another rant and I just don't have the endurance for it.

The Most Obscure of the Big Three JRPG Series

Final Fantasy, everyone has heard of.

Dragon Quest, well, at least most gamers know of Dragon Warrior, even if they don't know of the roots of the series. And Dragon Quest 8 (or DQ VIII) was highly anticipated as the first English-language release of the series to carry the Quest rather than the change to Warrior.

However, Megaten, as on of the Big Three Japanese Role-Playing Game series of all time, and still ongoing now ( SMT: P4 in English in December this year, P3 and P3:FES selling well over the last year, in fact, I'm play SMT:P3 and a friend of mine is playing Persona 3: FES, the upgraded expanded release which was hot on its heels), is relatively obscure.

Perhaps the emphasis on symbolism and psychology should give an hint as to why: clearly, its creators live in a world of "high art", and are unconcerned by meager things such as, say, making money by making the games available to as many people, and accessible to many peoples, as possible. In fact, "megaten" is a name coined by their fans: without that, you'd hardly even realize that there is a whole, sprawling series of titles.

I just this night found out that the Persona series, known to true megatenist as the "Megami Ibunroku series", apparently (which lit. translated means Another Goddess, I think), has another entry besides Mgami Ibunroku Persona (aka P1, or Persona 1, or just Persona... but don't confuse it with P2:IS, P2:EP, or P3, or P3:FES... or the upcoming P4). I'll just quote from the source, it's message # 100 on the Tsumi fantranslation blog:

Still… Even if Persona is fully translated, the Megami Ibunroku series will still not be complete without “Ikuu no Touhen”. (I doubt it will ever will be translated, considering that that this Persona 1 “Gaiden” was only released on cell phones in ‘06.) In case you don’t know about Ikuu no Touhen, it’s a Persona 1 gaiden about the Deva System throwing the old team into a weird tower ruled by the Queen of the Night… You can see some photos here:

http://www.famitsu.com/k_tai/news/2006/12/19/607,1166501029,64690,0,0.html

- Tom (translator for Tsumi)

Well, anyhow, I wanted to write more but I'm sorta tired and feel inspired to do something else anyhow, so, for now, that's just more info for your otaku / budding megatenist out there.

Flu Versus Me

Sometime between Sunday night and now, Tuesday evening, I got some rest, built a PC, and did a 10-minute (or so ) video for the YouTube Channel, Bajan13K.

As a result of all of this work and static-ness, I'm now fighting off the symptoms of a 'flu. The enemy is not inside the gates yet, though, I am fighting it back with vigor and concentration. Not to mention, activity.

So, today I went and did a few errands, and I also cleaned up a bit... one of my neighbors says that I seem to somehow create space with my re-arrangement skills (which I call, humbly, layout-fu).

I'm not sure if anyone reads this blog yet, I haven't tried to promote it other than an easily overlooked link from the Bajan13K YouTube Channel, but it moved from something I just started out of a random link-following spree, into a diary of sorts which aims to parallel updates to said channel, but also includes a much more detailed and wider look at issues affecting video-gaming.

Well, in Persona 3 (P3) , if you study every night as well as run thru the dungeon (there's only one as far as I know, Tartarus or whatever) for extended periods, you'll be sick and have to forego both acedemic and physical excursions for a time, until you recover. It seems therefore that I didn't take the hint, eh? But, my problem is really the heat of this "cave" that I live in. It's made of mostly solid rock and metal, so it is hot an constricted, even at night. Actually, ambient temp. here is around 30-35 degrees C (90s of F. scale), so, for me at least, it is rather brutal.

The fact that it is hotter inside than outside is not inevitable, though: ceiling fans, high roofs, and box-fridges (you know, AC units) all help... none of which I have, so, I have to suffer, for now. However, I'm thinking of more and more ambitious yet somehow realistic plans to rennovate this apartment, ior build a better one... for now, though, I need to get strong enough to work thru the heat, which is why I worked so hard recently.

The score, then, is so far about 10-18, with me being the 18, in the match between the Flu and myself. I'm winning, but I can't afford to become complacent.

Sharks and Consoles

For a long time, the Gameboy (you know, the shades-of-green one) was the most prolific gaming platform. Even though PCs have always been a good hardware platform, the legacy of being designed as a office/business platform rather than a consumer/entertainment platform still haunts it, and will forever, but that's another rant.

The Gameboy was not popular because ti was the best of the handhelds. It was popular because it had the three main characteristics with respect to commercial software (games): fun, accessibility, popularity. "Tetris" embodies this the best, but the huge library of titles which followed its launch mostly capitalized on these trends, thanks to Nintendo's visionary involvement in approving and promoting games for the platform.

Tertis was fun. Anyone could play it (accessibility), anyone who bought an origional SKU got Tetris free (accessibility, popularity), and it was promoted well.

Although Nintnedo released more handheld platforms, such as the GBC (Gameboy Color), their backwards compatibility protected the investment of early adopters, whilst giving benefits to new adopters. This "sliding upgrade model" was something Nintendo wanted from the NES to SNES, but due to limits of their engineering team, couldn't accomplish it at the time-cost available.

So, anyhow, Sony does a similar "sliding upgrade" as far as consoles are concerned. Even the newfangled PS3 can play PS1 games, and PS1 games are being re-released for PSP and so forth.

In a way, the PS3 is an extension of the PS1... the "PlayStation brand" is not just a brand; it is a virtual platfrom with a very wide compatibility window. This stuff matters to peopel who've invensted in dozen, if not hundreds of games.

PCs, on the other hand, continually break compatibility with older version of themselves. This is not strictly for technical reasons, but, rather, because of Microsoft shifiting the "sliding window" and developers not being aware, or not taking advantage of, future roadmaps to "future proof" their software. Hardly any DOS games work unmodified on recent systems, but since hardly any PC-publishing houses from DOS days still publish/support even updated versions of their titles, then who cares, right?

In the console world, Sony has done the best job on protecting the investment of gamers... and even now, you can buy a PS2 or PS3 and play all you PS1 games, and, depending on model of the PS3, your PS2 games as well. Software emulation of PS2 games for the PS3 models without it built in is possible, but I don't know much about it.

The point is that the PS3 represents somewhat of a climax in console technology (the XBOX360 and Wii could be seen in the same light, but more for business than technical reasons). HD is fine for mature gamers with disposable income, but many unvoiced gamers play on SD screens, even if they can afford something better, for various reasons... from here on, esp. with a 10-year lifespan of the PS2 being understated, we can expect a lifecycle which is more aboud increasing penetration, and expanding the software library, than about making a "bigger, stronger" console.

This is not the same as consoles dying. This is, moreso, the market becoming more mature.

Oh, yeah, this rant was inspired by an Edge article [link].

Unofficial, not Pirate

I know that, over time, the meaning of words change. However, I'm still irked by the way "pirate" is used so universally to mean unofficial products based on "IP" which was once embodied in official products. Especially when the unofficial product has no official competitor.

For example, fan fiction is refered by some (most?) authors as "copyright infringement". I could go for trademark infringement, if, say, "Harry Potter" or "The A-Team" were registered trademarks, but to say that a whole ficitonal universe is the property of the creator is rather bizarre. Universes only exist when they're observed - wheter you believe in the physical, quantum physics, version of this or not, it is totally true for works of fiction. If Anne Rice writes a book and nobody reads it, then it only exist for the author, in their role as observer. From the time someone else reads it, there's not a copy of that universe - and, due the to differences of perspective, also, a derivative form of it.

I understand that creators intend to have their cake and eat it too. "Royalty", or the "ruling class", have been doing that since the beginning of historic times.

However, in an era of accelerated information, copying and deriving are even more common than basic necessities of life. I mean, you have anorexic people posting youtube videos for and against the deprivation of nutrition as a "lifestyle" or a "disease". The fact that people would rather create information, and spread their own opinions, then eat, a basic human necessity, is perhaps an extreme example but it shows that information creation is very important to people.

And in creating, we sometimes re-use things which went before.

Getting back to "piracy", the term orgionally mean physical theft, often accompanies with death and destruction of transportation systems (sinking ships which may take months or even years to build). Somehow, I don't see making an unofficial copy of a song or movie as having the same impact. At least, not to the creators. The makers of the unofficial copy, however, can be sued for more than their weight in gold (I don't exaggerate, gold is relatively cheap nowadays and the lawsuits start at $750 US per song, or some stupid thing like that), and imprisioned for several years.

Meanwhile, China, where large-scale organized unofficial production occurs, still has "most favoured nation" status in the WTO.

To reconcile this difference: the individual is persecuted, the nation is exalted, there's an obvious answer: the real crime is "being small".

Thinking Big is not just something to help you be creative in day to day life, apparently, it is also the key (or at least, part of it) to unlock the door to world domination. Large-scale production of unofficial goods by any individual is seen as seperate from their host country, and occasional "raids" to raise publicity obviously help both the producters (who are seen as victims of an Evil Empire) and the customers (who become aware that they should be supporting unofficial, rather than official products, since the official ones are more expensive).

Having said all that, I still like official stuff... I'm not one of those people who says their "only testing out" a game and don't buy it. I bought Bushido Blade, even in retrospect I can't say it was a great game for the money, I can still resell it... in the meantime, I can trade or borrow games if my money is low. Or I can use the time I would have spent playing games to make money, instead. Or educate myself. Or go to the beach.

However, the life cycle of "software", which I'm using to refer to not only games, but DVD movies, CD audio, and so on... is geared to be brief. The life cycle of the remixes, samples, and remakes could be longer, but the producers are mostly clueless and uninterested in this. THey don't even have "software maintainence" departments, and don't often keep their own source code.

No, really. FF7 hasn't been remade yet because Square lost the source code to it!

And there was a similar problem with the Japanese-language self-parody game, SGGG:

“I remember finding a pirate version in Brazil! Why the hell would such a version be made and sold, especially when you think about all the Japanese text? The Dreamcast used GD-ROMs – if the GD-ROM was used to its full capacity you could not make a copy of it on CD-ROM, so I bought one of these Brazilian CD-ROM copies and brought it back to Sega to analyze it. I realized that the content had been edited to fit the format; many things were missing or changed. But this pirate version had an interesting role afterwards as we were thinking about adapting the game for the mobile phones. We were lacking the source code and there was no possibility at the time to take it from the retail version: I recall thinking about trying to get it from the pirate version. But in the end we didn’t because the project didn’t happen."
(from an Edge story on SGGG)

In a way, it is as if the wealth of knowledge, culture, and "IP" that has been created by the "game industry" is being lost through their short-term perspective... but, why should we really care, if we're living in a short-term era?

Well, I care because I see game-making as a part of the growing entertainment sector, and related to the growing demand for "Makers", be they Engineers, Artists, or Business builders... or even construction workers, Architects... everyone who can make something are going to be in higher and higher demand, for a few reasons:

• People want more custom-made stuff. Look at the car aftermarker, but also, PC mods an even fashion.
• Entertainment, even if it is following a formula, involves a lot of creation, both for animation and live action
• Post-war areas would benefit from rapid re-building which avoids the problems of the past

Well, anyhow, I'll stop there for now... this has just been another random thing.

MLP

A fan site for Kartia (one of my fave stories/games):

http://www.amphisbaena.com/spot/kartia/index.html

Perfect Playstation, a catalog of sorts of every PS1 game:

http://www.game-rave.com/

Prelude to Rant 3

Right now I can't really make YouTube videos, but here are notes from what was going to be my next rant:

• I actually don't like P2 (Persona 2: Eternal Punishment) very much. Not a fan of the Tarot Card system they used for the persona creation/negotiations.... and the story bored me so I didn't bother to finish it.
  
• I'd probally play thru Tsumi, though. And then play thru EP again, with more enlightenment.
• Has anyone out there played Project: Space Station, esp. the C64 version? It was my fave game on that platform... a "simulation" type game and stuff
• Creative Labs sucks. A4 Tech rules.
• Sony, RCA, etc. suck. SANKEY is on the way to becoming good... they're good value for money for sure.
• You don't need to be perfect, or even very far above pathetic, to succeed. It's mostly about availablity to fufill than ability to astonish and awe.
• For example, YouTube "just works" as far as its main goal of serving video.
• However, it has a lot of flaws/problems for the 1% or less of people-time that are trying to use it to publish, rather than "consume", video. It fufills its major purpose, even at the expense of the minor ones.

I Never Buy Games....

The last game I bought was "Kartia", which I bought together with "Bushido Blade". They were expensive, since they were new and I bought them locally, for like $250 BBD total (about $125 US). However, I wanted to spend a lot of money on myself in an attempt to cheer myself up.

Since then, I've enjoyed Kartia but was disappointed by the abortion that was Bushido Blade. You can see the potential for a great game there, but they got too caught up in their "system" to actually make it... to date, no other game has had such free movement, not even the Dead or Alive series with its multi-tiered levels... but, Dead or Alive is actually fun to play; Bushido Blade makes you wonder if they ever heard of the concept "play testing", where actually people who aren't brainwashed by their "developers' reality distorition field" could tell them "look, this control scheme sucks. one-hit kills are interesting, but you need more play modes. you need tons more variety in the one-player mode "Slash".... why not reuse parts of the fighting arena?" and stuff like that.

Kartia was complete as a game but needed an enhanced sequel. It should have began a series, rather than being a stand-alone. I mean, they created this whole world, and only used it once? What a waste of "IP"(Intellectual Property)! Kartia needed something like an expansion pack, at least. However, that is something that never, ever happens with console games, until the recently released Persona 3:FES (P3:FES or just FES) for the PlayStation 2 (PS2).

Of course, sequels and enhanced revisions are released more often in Japan, but that doesn't matter as the people with the money (Middle America) don't speak Japanese.

So, since then, I've borrowed, traded, and otherwise acquired games. Technically, I don't have a console videogame system anymore: a friend lent me his PS2, part of his game library, and his DreamCast. I actually play the PS2 a bit but haven't set up the DC in forever. I just don't make the time.

You see, if I spend a lot of money on something, I want to feel that it was worth it... but game-making is an "industry", and there's something wrong with that. Contrast it with writing or singing. Yes, they're commercial publishing houses for books... but plenty of people write for their own benefit, or with the hopes of being paid in attention. Similarly, people sing in the shower. However, most people who make games in the "industry" are... delusional. The delusions vary. Some people love playing games, so they study, get a CS degree, and get hired, ridden like slaves, burnt-out, all the whilst lying to everyone, mostly themselves, that they are doing what they love.

Until people come out of the shower, or wake up from a dream, and express a game in the same way they'd express a song or a story, and moreover, at least a few of these people become obvious commercial successes, I can't say that game-making is really "mature". It is still a den of delusions....

Before I rant on, though, I do actually play some games... P1 (Revelations: Persona, now better know as Persona 1 since Persona came out) and P3 the most frequent on console, and I have a on-and-off relationship with StarCraft.... but most of all, I think about how games are made, or could be made. It fascinates me.

And, I think we (I) can do it better... and, in parallel, do something else: to liberate my mind from delusions, and rule over my own world. In other words, to "grow up". To mature. To balance. To attain the standard of life, rather than wallow in poverty or under-achievement.

So, blogs are a part of the expression, but there is a more powerful form of express, in the form of creation... poetry, prose, "moving comics", and ultimately, interactive audiovisual dramatic presentations (my view of what videogames can be, when done properly), are all forms of expression which I try at...

Most of the time, I fail to concentrate enough. That has bothered me for a while, but nowadays, it is less of an issue, because I clearly am expressing more, and more consistently.

In any case, I also need a stable, wide income stream in order to even consider buying games... right now, I am like a spoilt kid in that I get things which I don't directly work for... but I believe that by under-acheiving, it is as if I am burying myself, one wasted day at a time... so, I came up with a plan to "actualize" myself... and it basically goes like this: live long and strong, with frequent remembering of self, an the path to success will open itself.

"Hitman(2007)" quoted the Psalms when it said the same thing in another way:

Trust in the Lord,
... and everything you desire
shall become manifest.

(my paraphrase).

Ah, A Purpose!

I've decided that this can serve a purpose, after all:

I can use this exclusively for stuff that I have made public and viewable by the casual world, like the youtube channel (Bajan13K) that we maintain. This then leaves my "Threshold of Kohesion" blog( granitor.livejournal.com) for rants (and general neglect).

At least, that feels like the right thing to do.

So, I've gotta go see if I can get my video capture rig operative again, but, here are some megaten related links (and news):

They're at least three translation projects in the works:

(the "Old Testament" of megaten):

http://kyuuyaku.blogspot.com/

(Persona 2: Innocent Sin, the prequel to Persona 2: Eternal Punishent, called Tsumi and translated for ... estimated retail price of $30 US (requires seperately acquired image of japanese game) work in progress, ETA before Dec. of this year)

http://tsumi.wordpress.com/

The main author of this work also has a youtube presence, with video clips of their progress so far:

http://www.youtube.com/user/geminimewtwo

The P3 Manga is beingtranslated by fans:

P3 Project:-
http://gekkoukanhigh.ongakusai.net/?page_id=4

but they're stuck and are recruiting people:-

http://gekkoukanhigh.ongakusai.net/?page_id=38

And, that's all for now.

Just Another Mindless Link Propogation

Well, google is really "in everything", but I don't really see the point of blogger, when livejournal is doing an okay job and there are already vibrant communities...

EDIT: My newer livejournal blog: http://bajan13k.livejournal.com/

So, you can usually find my cousins' blogs at http://granitor.livejournal.com
and our youtube presence is http://www.youtube.com/user/bajan13k
and this is just something I did randomly, I guess.