Playing PC Games on the 3DS.

In Dr. Potts' recent Pak Watch post, he mentioned two games that are some damn fine looking 16-bit era games reminiscent of two of my favorite series: Castlevania and The Legend of Zelda.  This got me to thinking about my recent experience with VVVVVV on the 3DS and how I know that the 3DS hardware could handle these games and how much fun they would be to play on the go.

So naturally I go to see what the possibilities are with playing existing PC games through an emulator on my 3DS.  

Apparently, there are no options.  Or at least none that I was able to find.

There is the Ri 4Gold card to play NES games on the 3DS, but that's not exactly what I was looking for.  And I am not looking to play Skyrim or Amnesia, but games that would translate well to a small screen.  Games like Super Meat Boy, The Binding of Isaac, Guacamelee and Full Bore. Games like Slain and Courier of the Crypts.  Additionally, I don't think that these games have to have an official Nintendo eShop release with full 3D capabilities either (although all mentioned games modified for 3D would be admittedly pretty awesome if done correctly).

The closest thing I was able to find for was how to transfer videos from the PC to the 3DS and while that's not really what I was looking for, it might be something to look into if I get the time and brainpower to figure it all out.

So this is where I am at, at the moment.  It's not that there aren't enough good games out or coming out on the 3DS that I am starting to look to other sources, but there are games that I feel that I would enjoy a lot more if I did not have to play them on or through a PC; even if that PC is HDMI'd through the TV and I am using a controller (still looking at you Super Meat Boy).

This is apparently all that my brain can muster at the moment and rather than pad this thing out to what would visually look like enough meat for this post-sandwich, I'm going to call it and send it to the printer before anything weird starts to happen, if it hasn't happened already.

We'll see you on the flip side of a sunny-side-up egg.  Oh, and a side of house browns with a cup of coffee, black.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
[SPOILER]

Emulator Hour: Mega Man 3 (NES/3DS)

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I am finishing up today's post from the Aéroport de Bürbànk and sitting less than a foot away from a bin de trash.  But onto more important matters.

I recall first playing Mega Man 3 (III) way back in or around 1991 or '92 (seeing as how I was rarely one to play the newest video games, let alone games in the Mega Man series of which I was never able to beat until June of last year).

But I did it, I beat Mega Man 3 and I think I've come to, at least for now, a bit of realization that I like this game as a whole more than the frequently touted Mega Man 2 as the best in the series {{Citation Needed}}.  Thinking about the first three games in the series up to the year of our lord, Nineteen Hundred and Ninety, I found that I enjoyed the level design of Mega Man 3 the most whereas I like the music from Mega Man 2 just a smidgen more than MM3.  Plus there's the additions of the newly created slide ability and the robot pet dog Rush with his various, if somewhat limited use abilities (Marine Rush!?).

First off, everything that I loved about MM2 was refined for this installment.  The level design gave me enough of an idea to the robot boss type and I didn't notice too much of the level art being reused for subsequent levels.  But it's the level design is what makes me enjoy this game just a little bit more than MM2.  After defeating the first eight bosses, you have to go through four of the levels again, but they are in a ravaged state.  chunks of the world are now missing, as if the absence of the boss or the havoc brought on by Mega Man has left portions of the world/level in a state of disrepair.  In Gemini Man's stage part two, there are Jamacys that fall through cracks and holes in the blocks that create the borders to the stage.  In every stage that you run into Proto Man, his escape routes are still there.  Then when you get to the boss area, you now have to fight one of the bosses from Mega Man 2, which is a nice throwback until you realize that your weapons are all different than the ones used in that game so your weapon choices have to be decided upon rather quickly (or you can use the aforementioned chart like I did).

Similar to how I played Mega Man 2, I used a chart to figure out which bosses I should play and it what order.  And how I defended my decision as I previously did, I don't find this to be cheating.  I find it no different than talking to Dr. Potts or Delaños about the order they used and which weapon they found to be more effective against which boss.  Again, I still had to go through the level and defeat the bosses on my own in the end, I just did it with an additional bit of information.

But here is the order that I took the bosses in:

1) Snake Man

2) Gemini Man

3) Magnet Man

4) Top Man

5) Shadow Man

6) Hard Man

7) Needle Man

8) Spark Man

I decided to start with Snake Man, because that's what I remember from playing 23 years ago.  Also, Snake Man's theme is pretty damn catchy and there isn't much more to get me interested and stay playing a game that hearing awesome music while being destroyed by a giant undulating robotic snake hellbent on destroying a modified service and homemaking robot.  

Now, I know that based on the aforementioned chart, that this list doesn't take into account "the best" way to go through the game and choosing the bosses based on their weaknesses.  Sometimes, as in the case with taking on Magnet Man before Shadow Man, that I needed to take a break from constantly dying in Shadow Man's stage and I found I was able to get through Magnet Man's stage and take him out.

Going back to the music, I find it interesting that Capcom brought on newcomers to the Mega Man franchise, introducing Yasuaki Fujita (credited as "Bun Bun" during the credits) who wrote all but two of the songs (Gemini Man and Needle Man) and Harumi Fujita. What I find interesting though, is that the music from this game blends fairly seamlessly with that from Mega Man 2, while still sounding different enough to not be repetitive as to be disinteresting to long time players of the series.

In the end, Mega Man 3 took me 6h21m to complete with an average play time of 25 minutes.  In MM3, I found that the regular stages were a lot more difficult than MM2, but that the Dr. Wily stages were a lot easier to traverse.

I guess I should in closing say that if you haven't played any of the games in the Mega Man series, that Mega Man 3 wouldn't be a bad place to start as it is a great continuation of a great series that, so far anyway, is a bit easier than the previous two games but is still a challenging experience that should not be missed out on if you are at all into older NES games from a great era of gaming.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
If It Ain't Broke. . .

Sims, Or Something Like It.

Welcome back to the beginning of a new week and I'm here to talk to you all about sims.  No, I am not referring to The Sims, but to certain aspects and qualities of simulators and hoo-boy are there a lot of them (on Steam); I specifically refer to Steam as it's my gateway to AAA and indie PC gaming although I know (I'm sure there are; there have to be) other outlets for video gaming out there.  Right?

Last week when I was listening to The Patch (#75 I think), Gus Sorola brought up indie game developer Lucas Pope (Papers, Please) and how he frequently gets requests to make other "Gate-Sims" like Papers, Please but in different departments and how he has absolutely no desire to do another gate-simulator.  This led the cast to come up with other ridiculous gate-sims with Mr. Sorola finalizing that a Drive Through Sim would be great because of how complicated and specific an order could get, which then lead to Ms. Turney stating that there are people who are paid (horribly) for actually taking orders at a drive through.  Would they feel that the game trivializes the kinds of shit they have to put up with from customers?

Which brings me to video game simulators, or at least some games that are sims and one other in particular.

Now, I have a couple of sim-type-style games at my disposal: Papers, Please; The Sims 2 & 3; Civ. 5; Ace Combat X, Joint Assault, Assault Horizon Legacy and Assault Horizon Enhanced Edition; Day-Z; Reus; Goat Simulator. . . you get the idea.  Then there are a slough of games with "Simulator" in the title that I do not own nor have I played: Farming Simulator, Euro Truck Simulator, Ship Simulator Extremes, Digital Combat Simulator World (DCS World), Construction Truck Simulator, Surgeon Simulator. . . more ideas you are getting behind, yes?

Which then brings me to This War of Mine.  It's a game that came out last month (November 14th) that I first thought that I would really like to play.  To put this game into context, in This War of Mine, you play as normal everyday citizens in a war torn fictional country.  You are not playing as a super soldier armed with 184 lbs of guns, equipment and additional rounds of ammunition, but as people attempting to survive everything else around them.

Then I thought of the real life This War of Mine.  In Palestine. In Sarajevo.  In Baghdad.  In every city, town and country that has had some form of major military conflict take place within its borders.  People live their lives surrounded by what this game is apparently trying to represent.

A part of me thinks that I would and should feel guilty about playing a game about people who are living a life where they are afraid to go out at anytime, for any reason, because they could be attacked by either military force or by fellow citizens.  The simplist things in life become a hardship such as finding sufficient food to feed your family or find clean drinking water.  But the real question is why did 11 bit studios create this game?  Was it to glamorize the suffering of people who regularly live in such war-torn communities?  Somehow I doubt that those were their intentions.  

In an interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun, senior writer for 11 bit studios Pawel Miechowski said that This War of Mine "is not a simulator of atrocities, it’s a take on how people struggle and what are their emotional challenges" and that "We want to raise awareness about how civilians suffer when war is breaking out. We want to show the other side."  If this game had come from, say, Sledgehammer Games (Call of Duty) or EA Digital Illusions (Battlefield), I might question their motives.

When I started this short article (seven paragraphs ago), I was on the fence about buying/playing this game.  Now, I feel that I need to not only play this game, but to experience.  This War of Mine was obviously created with a lot of thought and care to convey the right imagery, tone and sense of weight as opposed to another war simulator.  It's quite a powerful trailer too that 11 bit studios released a while back.

It's settled then.  I talked myself back into it.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
And When Jesus Comes He'll March On With The Winning Side

Haters Gonna Hate: A Brief Look At The Motivations of Villains in Video Games.

In the spirit of Halloween, I've been saving this post for a while and after a few additions, changes and alterations, I feel it's ready for public eyes.

I started Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation a month back while awaiting the return of my computer charger (which was left in SoCal) and like a lot of JRPGs, the game started with the player controlling a teenage boy with spiky hair in a small mountain village.  As was the case with Secret of Mana and Paladin's Quest, I half expected to do something to piss off the town elders that would get me kicked out of town with my so-called close friends abandoning me upon my being exiled.  That was not the case at all thankfully.  There were, however, murmurs of an evil being somewhere out in the world threatening the rest of humanity with destruction/domination/desolation/dismemberment, basically any evil word starting with "D."

This is what I actually wanted to talk about today.  The ultimate bad guy (final boss) in video games and their motivations.  In a lot of JRPGs, the ultimate goal of the main antagonist is world domination either with or without destroying the rest of the world in the process.  This article will not be all encompassing as I have not played against every type of villain ever created, so there is going to be some unintentional bias on my part.  But in the meantime, let us look at a few games and the motivations of the main villains.

Dragon Quest/Warrior:  In the first game, the Dragonlord simply wants to take over the known world.  I do not recall there being much else in the way of motivation.  The Dragonlord hates the Orbs of Light, steals them and you have to get them back.  It is a pretty simple story line, complete with rescuing a princess from a dragon; although that happens about a third of the way through the game.

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link: In this game, the main antagonist, Ganon, is already dead (spoiler: killed at the end of the first Legend of Zelda), but it is the threat of his return that propels Link forward to complete his quest.  The enemy correctly believes that if they sprinkle/pour the blood of Link over Ganon's ashes, that he will return to continue his plan of ruling over Hyrule that he had began in the first game in the series.  And while not needing to rescue Princess Zelda, she is under a sleeping spell that will only be lifted upon . . . you know I forgot.  I know Shadow Link is the final (pain in the ass) boss and maybe something to do with combining the Triforces together.

Final Fantasy VI: This game has multiple main antagonists with Emperor Gesthal being in the forefront for the first half of the game and Kefka taking over right before the beginning of the second half.  For Emperor Gesthal, he wants unlimited power as a ruler, for every civilization on the planet to be under his rule.  Kefka on the other hand just "want[s] to see the world burn."  He is a true socio/psychopath.  He does not care about ruling the world or enslaving the world population, he simply wants to destroy everything, himself included if need be.

Portal: Moving away from JRPGs (for the moment), Portal changes the role of the main antagonist, GlaDOS, away from world domination to just wanting to continue to do the role she was programmed to do: conduct tests.  Yes, I know there is more to it than all that, but those are the basics.  And yes, it is true that GlaDOS does exhibit some typical sociopathic behaviors.  GlaDOS sees what she is doing is not wrong, but necessary to continue testing of test subjects.  Left to her own devices, she might run out of test subjects, or maybe she will learn how to artificially inseminate her stock of female test subjects and create a constant supply of growing subjects.  This outcome is hinted at in the Portal 2 co-op portion of the game, but it is hard to believe anything that GlaDOS says.

Dead Space:  One thing I love about this game is that there is no official main boss.  Sure there is the hugely giant tentacled Lovecraftian creature that came out of who knows where because why not!?  The majority of the game is spent repairing parts of the USG Ishimura so that you can escape all the horror that is happening on board.  The stereotypical villain here is more of the presence and influence of the Red Marker, but in this case is somewhat similar to Sauron as an overseeing enemy that has no direct contact with the main character but exudes its will against them.  Yes, there is Doctor Whatshisname who keeps trying to unleash the constantly regenerating brutish thing upon Isaac, but that creature functions more as a mini-boss.  The appearance of the final boss at the end seems very rushed and unclear by the end of the game, which is when it makes its first and only appearance.

Super Mario Bros.:  Let us take a step back to 1985 and take a quick look at Bowser and his Koopas.  They have invaded the Mushroom Kingdom, turned all of the citizens into bricks and plants and have kidnapped Princess Toadstool, thereby preventing the Princess from reversing the spell.  So why did Bowser want to invade the Mushroom Kingdom in the first place?  The manual is not clear as to Bowsers motivations and although Wikipedia expounds upon Bowsers frequent kidnapping of Princess Toadstool/Peach, these motivations are never stated.  Sure he wants to take over the Mushroom Kingdom, but what then?  What are his long term goals?  Marry the Princess (because his first wife died after giving birth to the seven Koopalings?) and rule the Kingdom.  Simple I guess.

Donkey Kong:  I am referring to the original arcade game from 1981 for this, the last character in today's article.  In this game, Donkey Kong is the main villain with Jumpman (aka Mario) attempting to rescue Pauline.  But why does Donkey Kong have Pauline?  The story behind the game states that Donkey Kong belonged to Mario/Jumpman, but Mario mistreated Donkey Kong so DK retaliated by kidnapping Pauline.  So what is DK's endgame then?  I believe that DK does not have a final plan as to what to do with Pauline, although Miyamoto has said that the game originally began as a love triangle Popeye game, but changed the characters when they could not acquire the license.  So maybe Donkey Kong is in love with Pauline but that premise would be absurd, right?  I would like to think that he lashed out at being abused too many times and Pauline was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I am going to leave this painfully short list of villains and main antagonists now as even attempting to do an all encompassing list is the very definition of time consuming.  I also do not get paid enough to take on such an endeavor.  From this abbreviated and biased list, it would appear that the motivation behind the majority of known evil is world domination.  I guess that would be the simplest motivation to write a story around with a clear and cut ending.  Just something to think about.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Instrumental

A Bit Of A Rant

I haven't ranted in a while.  I don't really "rant" all that often come to think of it.  Unless it's about Dinosaurs, or being told that Dinosaurs were created by the devil (Satan/Lucifer) to pull people away from the one true god (God/Yahweh), but today I feel a bit of a rant.

First off, what the hell is up with the headlines on every other video that people decide to put up on facebook.  I've done my fair share of posting videos or articles that I find interesting, but the recent trend (recent as far as I just started noticing anyway) is pretty annoying from the perspective of my blown up head or how my belief system will be changed by this one thing.

Just Thought It Was Water. When I Stepped Back, My Jaws Dropped! (sfglobe.com)

These 21 Pictures Are Not What You Think. They Will Blow Your Mind! (viralnova.com)

 An Artist Reimagined Disney Princesses With Different Races And The Results Will Blow Your Mind! (eonline.com)

They Pulled Over And Started Playing For The Cows - I Can't Believe What Happened Next! (blog.petflow.com originally titled "Jazz for Cows" on youtube)

5 Mind Blowing Easter Eggs Hidden In  Famous Publications (cracked.com)

The Groomsmen Surprise New Bride With An Epic Dance Set! (youtube.com)

You get the idea.  I understand that the point of these headlines is to invoke enough interest  for people to without giving away the punchline.  I can't believe I have to get angry about this shit!  Actually, I'm not angry, I just wanted to say that.  But I think I'm just more annoyed about seeing how often my mind is supposed be blown or if someone needs to pick up any one of five body parts that have fallen on the floor.  Really, jaws?  As in more than one?  And to be clear, it's not the people posting the videos and articles that I'm annoyed with, but the headlines being overly dramatic.

The second part of my rant, which is not related to the first rant, is actually topical to our reason for being out here in the Netlands.  Nintendo's 3DS.  Specifically the people who own a 3DS or even the 2DS for that matter.

Besides any one of the PAXs, where are you all located!?

Back in August of 2012, Conklederp and I saw "Weird Al" perform in Seattle and naturally I took my 3DS along just to see if anyone else had as well.  I streetpassed with four other people there.  Last month when Conklederp and I went to the Final Fantasy: Distant Worlds performance and when John Williams conducted the Portland Symphony, I again took my 3DS as I figured there would be at least one like minded person at either of these events.

Nothing.  Not a sausage.  Bugger all.

Now granted, I don't go out a whole lot, but even the last few times I've gone out to the local arcade bar Ground Kontrol, nothing.  Do people just not have or play 3DS' anymore?  The last few times I've been out in public, for any number of reasons, I've seen kids with their parents playing games or watching video using either their own or their parent's phone.    

Is this where portable gaming is going?  This is probably a question for another post although it's not a new question.

I guess that's not really much of a rant either.  Maybe I'm just not capable of fulling ranting, especially while online.  I guess that's what you would expect coming from a person who is physically incapable of frowning.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

I Was A Doubter Just Like You

Is Anxiety Over Video Games A Real Thing?

DISCLAIMER: With this post, I am in no way attempting to make light of anxiety disorders such as post traumatic stress disorder, as I know that these are very real for the people who suffer from their effects.  I only bring up PTSD as a question, a way of springboarding into what it is that I want to talk about.

I am currently at a crossroads in a couple of games that I am playing.  These crossroads have occurred in the form of anxiety when I think about the situation that I will have to put myself in if I want to continue on with the game, a video game form of PTSD if you will (see above disclaimer).

The first game is Slender: The Arrival, which I covered in a previous post.  I have reached a point in the game that is an homage to the free to play Slender: The Eight Pages, where you wander around an enclosed area trying to collect eight pages that are randomly placed on any one of 10 landmarks all before you are chased down by The Slender Man.  I have played The Eight Pages quite a few times and have never been able to collect all eight pages.  TEP is odd in that it is pretty terrifying in a minimalistic way, but I still end up jittery with a racing heart-rate each time I play/fail.  This is where The Arrival comes in, the level that is an homage to TEP.  When I first reached the area I recognized what was going on and I felt my heart-rate begin to quicken.  All of the times that I had failed in the past came back and began to nag at the back of my mind.  I told myself that this stage in TA would not be as difficult as in TEP because it wasn't the entire game, just a stage.  However, as was the case with TEP, I was caught by The Slender Man after only finding a couple of pages (my record in TEP was five).  I have not played the game since because of the nagging feeling/fear of all the times I had failed in the past and the tension I went through just to fail.

The second game is Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together.  I have reached a story battle that is very reminiscent of a battle from Final Fantasy Tactics that I found to be very difficult.  Anyone reading this who has played the FFT will most likely remember the final battle against Wiegraf when he turns himself into the Lucavi Belias.  It has been stated (by the linked website as well) that this battle is one of the more difficult battles in the game and that is very much not a lie.  Currently I have changed the main character's profession from a Warrior to a Ninja and I am grinding to build up the Ninja level and skills in an attempt to better equip myself for the battle.  All the while I have previous experiences of going up against a very strong (and annoying) enemy in the back of my mind, reminding me of all the self imposed mental anguish I put myself through at the proverbial hands of this religious demon.  However, if I want to continue with the Let Us Cling Together and the story, I have no other option but to defeat this boss after an initial battle with only the main character.  I have not resorted to gamefaqs, but that might just be a very real option to save my sanity, if only a little.

It might seem/sound odd to a lot of people, but I genuinely get anxious when I think about going back to either of these games to play them, knowing that I have these challenges ahead of me.  One might say that there is no reason to worry so much because "it's just a game."  I do not have a response to someone with this point of view as it is their own and have already made up their minds and that the way I feel is not legitimate according to the way they live their own lives.  I guess it could be like telling someone who cries (for any reason) during a movie that "it's just a movie."  To me though, that anxiety associated with these two walls I have come up to is very real, in both a mental and physical sense.  In Slender: The Arrival, I know that if I fail the first time, I will most likely try again at least one or two more times, depending on how many pages I am able to achieve, all the while knowing that after being caught twice, I will become more annoyed than afraid.  Ogre Battle: Let Us Cling Together is a bit different in that I can always just forego the battle and just raise levels with my current party, although that could be dangerous in and of itself as the random enemies level along with the average level of your party as they do with Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy: 4 Heroes of Light, and I do not want a repeat of that debacle.

So in answer to my question: Yes, for me, I believe that fear is a real thing to be afraid of.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian (In Canada)

See Him Surface In Every Shadow

Image credits for Slender Man

Image credits for Wiegraf

Monthly Update: March 2014

Happy March everyone!  Happy Soon To Be Spring Equinox!  It'll be my birthday in just under three weeks!

An interesting little tid-bit that I found out last week was about the process to determine the day to celebrate Easter.  I know a lot about Easter as far as the Catholic holiday is concerned seeing as how I'm a "little heathen" as my mother likes to call me; it's a term of adoration as opposed to one of repulsion.  So apparently Easter is determined to be the first Sunday, after the first full moon, after the Spring Equinox.  I don't know about you, but that process sounds very pagan to me.  I honestly don't know what the wording in the Bible says to make this determination as a floating day as opposed to a permanent day such as Christmas.  Anyone?

That aside, how was your February?  How is your March looking to be?

Beginning in the end of February and finishing up near the end of yesterday, I participated in another of Bethesda/Zenimax Online's beta tests for The Elder Scrolls Online.

I don't know about you, but I enjoy falling through a flight of stairs only to have my feet embedded in the underlying rock, then typing /stuck in order to kill myself, but only after I have submitted a bug report to the proper authorities.  Actually, I am quite enjoying this whole process.  Sadly, as has been the case with other ESO betas, but I had work all weekend so I wasn't able to participate as much as I would have liked.  I was able to invite Conklederp to join in on this beta test as well, but she was having a harder time with the download to play part.  I'm trying to figure out what is going on on her side before the early access launches later this month.

A few weeks back, I purchased an A/V Cable to HDMI converter with the hope that I would be able to play both my SNES and N64 on our super HD LED 1080p TV.  Without the converter, the TV cannot completely translate the signal that is coming from a 24 and 19 year old video gaming console.  This inability to correctly translate the console signal comes out as flashing colors on the screen as well as colored bars that move from top to bottom while the game is being played.  The converter was an attempt to fix this issue.  Sadly though, the converter I purchased, possibly through no fault of its own, did not fix this issue.  I am still on the lookout for a fix to this that does not include buying an older non HD TV, although that may end up being the final solution.

And now for some reason, the second half of this article decided that it didn't want to exist anymore.  After saving then closing down and coming back here to publish, everything that followed after the HDMI article is no longer here.  I guess it must not have been very good and knew it for it to want to off itself and I can respect that, even though I don't particularly like it.  So with that done then, I will go play a bit of FEZ as that was how I concluded the article after I talked a bit about free to play games that I had recently downloaded as well as noticing that Castlevania II: Simon's Quest is now available through Nintendo's eShop.


~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
The Underlying Theme

Full Review: The Plan (PC)

The Plan, a "game" of sorts developed by Krillbite Studio, the same people who are developing the first person survival horroresque game where you play as a two year old, probably does not require it's own full article, but you know what, it's going to happen because I enjoyed it that much.  I've played through three times and I think I enjoyed it more the second and third times around.

Krillbite describes the game as an "atmospheric videogame, exploring the issues of death and meaning."  I feel that The Plan, while it does allow the player to explore those issues, I feel that they happen after the game has finished.  And by finished, I mean that it will take you between 5 - 10 minutes to complete.  And believe it or not, the game comes with it's own achievement that is really more of an Easter egg than anything else.

So what exactly then is The Plan?  You begin the game as a fly with the camera very close up on you, almost uncomfortably close, especially if you are not personally fond of flies.  You then progress through the game/stage and slowly the camera pulls back and back, all the while the music in the background (from 19th century Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg) becomes more-and-more pronounced and powerful, but not obnoxiously so.

The game is very simplistic and very calming for the most part, considering that you are controlling something that most people tend to kill on site and cats for some reason like to eat.  I would say that it would be better to go into this game without any expectations although I did tell The Kid that she would "either like it or think it's absolute shit."  And really, that is all I feel you need to tell people, that the game is a small file (~120MB) that takes less than 10 minutes to play and if you don't like it, then you only lost maybe 20 minutes tops.

I just find that The Plan is a nifty little experiment from a video game studio that, from what I have seen from them, is true to their development philosophy, not to put words in their brains.  I highly recommend downloading this free game if for no other reason than to give your opinion about it and what defines a "video game" in todays market.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

The Concealment of Joyful Laughter

What Does It Mean To You?

I figured I had better put this post up before it becomes irrelevant, although talking about what a word means to ones self can't really become irrelevant.  A couple of weeks ago, Felicia Day posted an update to her Youtube channel, Geek & Sundry, she rhetorically asked what "geek" meant to her.  There she listed off a few descriptive words like "Outsider, Dreamer, Creator, Rebel, Fighter" versus what she feels the word Geek has taken on in the larger media, such as "Cliche, Monetize, Brand, Exploit."

I liked a lot of what she had to say, but I kept in mind that she was saying what geek meant to her.  I didn't feel like she was saying that "This is what Geek means and this is how the world should see it.  Now!"  That point of view would go against the whole point of her video, that "it's a person who dares to love something that isn't conventional" and that "your judgement is not my problem."  That I like, and that's as a whole is what I took away from her two and-a-half minutes.

This brings me to my next point, although it's less of a point and more like a "bullet point."  A lot of people have their own definition of what a geek is and what constitutes that that person sitting by themselves over there is a geek.  Or how about a nerd?  Earlier this year, Portlandia made a mock PSA that was about the word and association of "Nerd."  This type of "thing" could be made for just about any group who feels that their moniker has either been used incorrectly or abused by any other group.  I'm not saying that such corrections are unwarranted, I guess, something, I don't know.  And what makes someone a geek and not a nerd or vice versa?  Likewise, what makes one person a gamer and someone accusing someone else that they aren't because of X, Y and R?

And now I've tread into very dangerous and accusatory ground.

I feel it all comes down to labeling.  One person's labels may not coincide with another person's and that person may already have negative connotations towards any one of labels you throw at them.  Hippie?  Metalhead?  Hipster?  Gamer? Golfer?  Secretary?  Tea Bagger?  Chances are you formed what you personally feel is a stereotypical image of what that person looks and possibly acts like. Is it the right or wrong view of that person?  Is your view politically correct?  Does your view of any of the above possibly conflict with someone else' view?

And you know what, I'm guilty of it too.  I've said, "Fucking hipster" to myself while driving and have been cut off by a person riding a fixed gear bike on the 33rd block of Hawthorne.  In a very similar light, I'm as guilty as the girl scoffing at the guy sitting on a bus playing a game on his PSP Vita and thinks "stupid nerd" when he doesn't move allowing her to sit in the last open seat on the bus.  This idea of visual perceptions of people reminds me that I want to talk a little bit more about this, but I will save that for it's own post.

But going back to what "geek" means to Felicia Day, myself or you the reader, it's a potentially touchy topic. I could say, let it mean whatever you want it to mean for you, then someone else could say that "you can't just assign any meaning you want to geek, that's not how language works!  You can't say that "bacon" now means "french fries covered in cheese curds and brown sauce" because that's it's own thing already."

So where does that leave us?  This discussion isn't going to be solved in a single article or blog post, or youtube video and I don't think it really needs to be "solved."  It just is.  And who am I to come to such ambiguous conclusions?

I'm a person who loves video games (RPG, FPS, Survival Horror, Puzzle, Racing, Action, Flight Simulators, Adventure, Platformers, Point-And-Click, Simulation), music {Metal [Gothic Doom, Progressive, Doom, Death, Battle, Epic Heathen, Melodic Death, Black, Symphonic Black, Blackened Death, Meloic Black, Power, Folk (Scandinavian, Russian, Celtic), Pirate, Viking], Rock, Hard Rock, Movie Soundtracks, Video Game Soundtracks, Broadway Musicals (not a fan of Cats or Rent), Classical, Baroque, Folk [Irish, Scottish, Russian], Klezmer, Parodies, Classic Rock, Indie Rock, Latin Pop, Punk, Alternative Rock, Grunge Rock}, reading [Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Apocalyptic Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Mythology (Celtic, Norse)], painting (Miniatures, Ceramic Figurines), watching movies [Horror, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Dystopian, Comedy. . .

Under what category would I be placed?

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
The Likes Of Us All

But Is It Really Cheating?

Dr. Potts brought up a nice point, his first in fact, about LIMBO in his post on Tuesday.  His first sentence was, "I cheated twice."

In our current world of near internet connectivity through laptops, netbooks, game consoles, e-readers, smartphones and desktops, the way that we seek and take in information has changed dramatically, especially since I started playing video games in the mid 1980s.  The way this affects gaming and how we game is what I wanted to talk about.

I can remember,  not the exact year, sitting outside on a set of bleachers waiting for my swimming lesson to start (so let's say somewhere around 1988-89) talking with one of my friends about how to beat The Legend of Zelda.  I was at the battle with Ganon and didn't have an idea as to how to slay the Prince of Darkness.  I obviously knew enough about the game's mechanics to know how the game worked to know what I was doing for the most part.  This friend told me that he had heard and possibly implemented as well, the tactic of using the meat/bait that worked for lesser enemies and that it would draw Ganon out and then you could kill him with the Silver Arrow.  My tactic of firing frantically with the Silver Arrow wasn't working too well and Nintendo Power only gave so much information, but not how to defeat the final boss.  Talking with friends about being stuck in areas in video games was the earliest form of Gamefaqs.  I do not consider this cheating.

Enter Game Genie.  Yes, the desire to cheat in games was very great, especially with a device whose sole purpose was to subvert the pre-existing game program to allow special allowances such as allowing Mario to perform multiple jumps in mid air, make Mega Man's special weapon meter never go down or even giving General Leo's "Shock" attack to Terra in Final Fantasy III/VI.  For me, I would never (okay, maybe not "never" but very rarely) use Game Genie on a game that I hadn't beaten...... Okay, with the exception of Mega Man II, although that was to see what bosses and weapons were like and I never beat a game with Game Genie.  Either way, I've never been a fan of cheating.

If I remember correctly, in Goldeneye 007, whenever you enabled a "Cheat," it would not progress the game beyond the level you were currently playing.  Even if was something inane as "Paintball Mode" you could not progress the story line.  I thought this was a brilliant idea in a few ways.  First, you had to "earn" the cheat and not just punch in a certain code or button combination.  You could almost say that this was a form of functional achievements as I know Dr. Potts and I would frequently ask if we'd gotten a specific cheat yet.  (Dr. Potts is also the only person I've known who was able to earn the Invincibility cheat by beating "Facility" in 2:05 on 00 Agent).  Speaking of which, I watched a similar video that Nintendo put out  way back when, showing how to go through the level to get the cheat.  To this day, it's still the only cheat I don't have in that game.

So with that, what do I consider "cheating?"

1.  Looking up or seeking information about how to beat/pass a particular area/puzzle/boss/enemy in a game without having tried it before.

2.  Using codes, exploiting bugs/glitches or otherwise manipulating the game that was not intended during regular gameplay.

     -Examples: 150 item cheat in Pokemon Red/Blue; The Konami Code; Typing "Red Alert" or "On Screen" (among others) in Warcraft II.

3.  Completing a level for someone.

     -While I won't beat a level for someone if they ask me to, I do have a "policy" of sorts that I will show them how to beat a level, but then make them do it themselves.  I don't see this being any different than someone looking up a video on youtube.
4.  Using maps for areas or dungeons that you have not previously tried to explore on your own.

With that, I do not consider Dr. Potts to have cheated on LIMBO.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Little Gage Says "No Fair!"