Revival?

Since Google owns YouTube, Blogger, and Google Mail... and has them well integrated, it is a bit easier for me to post here than on LiveJournal or elsewhere.

However, I will likely only use this blog to post information on videos and to promote stuff, if you really want to form a friendship or a casual online acquaintance or something (buddy-ship?), you can reach me easier via PM on YouTube or LiveJournal.

Now that that is out of the way, I have plans that are too big for my current ability, so, I'll be upgrading over the next few months. Hopefully it will take less time than I expect, for me to be making videos with consistent frequency.



Meanwhile, I have just over 400 videos on my youtube account right now. I'd like to talk a bit about the whole YouTube thing... on the one hand, it is a great invention, and it still remains one of the best sites for a combination of posting videos, receiving and moderating feedback, and linking into offsite stuff.

For people who are eligible (I'm not, by nationality), being a youtube partner also brings financial perks... enough that some people can make it into a second or part-time job.

However, for me, it was always a random, "do whatever" thing... but it turns out that my brand of "whatever" was actually above some of the semi-professional stuff out there. This is due to my intense training for world domination self liberation....

The whole "being on YouTube" experience helped to boost my confidence, and also, I learned a lot, not only from my own interaction with visitors to my channel, people who leave comments and send PMs and such, some of whom became good friends, but also, from watching some of the more educational videos on the site.

Jimmyrcom, Keyeske, Bipolar or Waking Up, and others have helped me to develop my thinking process a lot, and inspired me to also think of ways in which I can help others with true edutainment (entertaining education). Sadly, I don't think I'm capable of doing anything close to their high level of education, just yet...

LPers like HCBaily, Valis77, LuccaRPG, and many others have also been an inspiration, esp. as they make me feel more at home. Although they vary in the amount of planning and organization that they use, they all love playing games for the sake of the experience, and that is something that I previously felt alone in.

It seems that as time goes on, the vast difference between people with taste who make conscious choices, and people who do things solely out of peer pressure, common conformance, and so on, becomes more and more clear.

In fact, it is hard not to get caught up in a rush to be just like everyone else.



Despite my focus on the Persona series, I am actually, less interested in gaming and more interested in personal development (back to self liberation again). Society and Economy are both forces that put restrictions on individuals, but even after you overcome some of the external restrictions, the internal ones remain, and can lie dormant, sapping strength and destroying potential for progress, growth, and success.

The Persona series is generally, a more "realistic" series in terms of setting and the challenge faced. There is constant pressure to pay attention to what you want, and how to get it, whilst balancing a myriad of positions within several systems. More realistic than the "save the world" mythos common in the other big two series (Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy).

For example, in Revelations: Persona (aka P1), you have to manage your Spell Card inventory whilst also planning your excursions into battle zones carefully. It can be 3-4 hours between save points, and it really bites to lose all of the work you put in during a random battle, because you weren't properly prepared.

Persona 3 and 4 make "life lessons", i.e. philosophies that can be applied in the real world, much more explicit, with their emphasis on Social Links and their deeper development of even causal NPCs (for example, the shop-keepers who talk about things from their own perspective).

I never played the cellphone game (or games?), and prob. never will, so I can't comment on them... but Persona 2 was basically messed up. Innocent Sin may be the better half of the series, but I haven't played it all yet, only a dozen hours or so... and Eternal Punishment failed to keep my interest, due to its inane Tarot Card system, which is inferior to both Spell Cards/Negotiation and Shuffle Time (although I hate Shuffle Time, the Compendium makes up for it to a degree).

Well, that's all for now. When I have more solid plans, I may announce them.

Overall, though, this will be the year that my awesomeness begins to multiply.

Shifting Over to LiveJournal

I don't plan to post on this blog anymore, check out the one at bajan13k.livejournal.com for now... the reason is fairly simple: I never tried to promote either blog, but, livejournal is a good place to get the types of news and discussions that I am keen on, so, even if both of these blogs are just as ignored, at least that one has other benfits.

There seem to be different ways to cross-link blogs and such, which are great for commercial interests or shallow popularity... but not so much for the type of social links which I enjoy via LJ and YT.

So, feel free to check out the archives and if you leave any messages, I think I'll still get an email... but more recent information will be either on my youtube channel, or more likely, esp. if it is a detailed writeup, on the livejournal blog.

Madara

This game was released only in Japan, on the Nintendo Family Computer or Famicom, roughly equivalent to the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in the US. However, it used a special "mapper" and an additional chip not present in the NES, so it took a long time for emulators to be capable of playing it properly.

The translation to English was done by AeonGenesis (AGTP), who I am not affiliated with, but I'll give you a link to their site:

http://agtp.romhack.net/project.php?id=madara - Their Project Page about Madara.

I also did an FAQ for the game, which is still hosted on gamefaqs.com. Read that FAQ for a lot more information about the game. The link is: http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/nes/file/579581/46515 (just to make it absolutely obvious).

Sadly, I misplaced my savefiles in a frenzy of data migration, so I haven't beaten the game (yet?)... it is actually rather tedious, even with cheats, so, I don't know when or if I'll finish it.

If you have any questions about the game other than what I already said in the FAQ, then I probably won't be able to answer, since I haven't played it a long time and have no intention to do so, currently.... I hate to leave things unfinished but I have higher priorities.

Full Romaji name: Mouryou Senki Madara

Also know as "Madara 1", since there's a sequel, Madara 2, on the SFC/SNES (translation of which is still in progress, it seems).

On the subjective side, I love the music for this, and the impossible story is nonetheless amusing. It also has dramatic cut scenes! In an 8-bit game!

...and "saving trees", sorta like Revelations:Persona aka "Persona 1".

Two Victories! Ken Dominates Thunder Hawk and Balrog!

I run thru T.Hawk and then Balrog,
playing as Ken.

A little-know fact is that the names of the warriors were, at first, limited to 8 chars for technical reasons.

Or maybe I just made that up.

Anyhow, that's why it's "T. Hawk" and "M. Bison" instead of the full names.

If anyone is actually reading this, leave a comment 'cause I don't think I've ever gotten a diddly squat of feedback on this blog, but I have on the LJ one... but that's how it usually goes.. LJ is a true community, blogspot, err, I dunno, it seems like a place to just post stuff easily but I wonder whether to continue with it.

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.]

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.

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).