College commercials bother me, especially the ones for technical schools. Not that I have something against them, just that they always promote these supposed places of higher learning as only “Knowledge for the sake of profit.” Oh, and the jingles they use grate against my nerves.
I don’t claim to be against the use of knowledge to grind out a living, or even something to enjoy making money at, I just have a problem with watching so many people around me give up on the prospect of new knowledge, while they seem to get stuck at their jobs, whittling away more and more at what they are with no real repose from the day to day torture of something they could probably enjoy again if they could just have something else to think about for a while. It’s a cheap and low taxing way to relax the mind.
It seems I may not be old enough to complain about such a thing from a personal standpoint; though, to avoid funneling down a path like that myself, by the age of 15 I didn’t like only having introspective thought about the god-awful crap they were making us deal with at school, so I began seeking new things to think about, starting with a lot of literature, expanding onto things like philosophy (which came in handy when learning how to not give too much of a crap about the little things), and psychology (which came in very useful when trying to read the people I’d play cards with). Using all of those things to just relax and feel better about things around me. Escapist education I guess you could say.
Learning, with no fear or pressure of deadlines, production, or retribution from some big scary school-teacher, out to get your delicious snack cake from your lunchbox if you couldn’t identify what X is equal to, can be a truly relaxing experience in my opinion. It helps me by taking attention away from a lot of day to day worries while expanding my mind to something new, flexing those thought muscles and alleviating stress by giving me a sense of earned confidence that I can lord over those around me in a sense of brain-swelled pride.
Now, in no sense am I saying go out and only seek learnin’s from a stance of mere erudition (FEAR THE RARELY USED WORDS!). I am suggesting, though, more people taking time to set their minds to a new task. Learning in this context is more about act in itself than what you’re actually educating yourself about. The possibility of subjects are open and broad; like learning a new language obsess and learn more about your favorite shows/characters, brushing up on your vocabulary or math, learn how to do your own taxes so you don’t have to pay that blasted accountant that’s probably been screwing you all these years. Just to name a few.
It’s also something that can come easy to just about anyone. A hobby like this can be inexpensive; left for an individual to decide how much time and money can be spent on it, with no consequence for being cheap or broke. The internet can hold a plethora of information on an infinite amount of subject matter, just stay away from the porn. Yes, I stand by that, STAY AWAY FROM THE PORN. It will only distract you. Bookmark it for later use. And ESPECIALLY if you’re using the internet at your local library. A library, an ancient building with square things full of knowledge and sometimes pictures. Kinda like the internet, but solid and finite in information, but still a great place to go for information.
I encourage all who would read this to go out, learn a craft, new words, how to improve your mind, body, soul, anything to keep you going in a way you may not have experienced before, and you may even get addicted.
Always annoying you and the people you love,
Mega
Yeah kids imma be away for a while (moving (the house! (with my very strong arms: Cruz carry puny house))).
So I offer the first rant from Cruz in the 2010!!!!
Cheers-
Recently I saw this story: Japan’s 2ch. Replies To RPG Complaints
Now, this is one of those talks where Mega and I sometimes duke it out -explosions included- and express our points about why JRPG’s suck, or not.
Leaving all the common thought’s on the subject behind, I would like to expose a little something I thought of.
Nintendo and the next-gen:
Back in the 00’s (lol, whatta thought!) When Sony consolidated as gaming master, Nintendo suffering from the all the turned backs on the N64 and Sega giving its last kicks at console-ing, all company’s where Japan based.
Then the c-c-c-c-combo breaker came in the form of Xbox.
From here on my crazy theory starts…
With the incredibly big user base the ps2 had. The JRPG era kept its steady course of growth and refining.
Nintendo’s gamecube, like the N64 failed to capture a great user base, mainly because like the N64 it opted for weird media and a strange focus on connectivity (I’m looking at you Crystal Chronicles). Then the name Xbox became big on this side of the seas, mainly by providing an almost windows based programming platform for developers. Wich gave birth to a few -but great- games.
So during the course of the PS2 life cycle, Atlus became more niche than ever, Square enix became a Mongoloid game creator (with a very few exceptions) and other like NIS and Level 5 gained popularity and cred.
Then Sony went Nintendo on us…
When the new generation was starting to get announced everyone made a very safe bet on Sony retaining its crown. After all, it produced a library of games for the PS2 so massive, it was crazy.
Sony then went for creating new technology, Cell, RSX, Blu Ray. Microsoft learned from Sony and just upgraded what was good. And nintendo… Well… Wii… RPG’s… Like water and gremlins.
When the Xbox 360 was released, microsoft worked on some deals in japan to produce some RPG’s (while some westerns producing some too), said games turned out to be: Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey (also Enchanted Arms…). Good games, yeah.
Japan hated them it seems.
Nintendo was yanking off the wii-mote and the only thing resembling an RPG was The Legend of Zelda: TP, wich was a gamecube port.
So what happened? Sony took like a year to get to the field.
Atlus was bound on PS2 still (releasing awesome JRPG’s by the way), Square enix, NIS, and some others faced the same condition.
Also the video game production changed totally:
Production costs went from a few million to: OMFG!!! GET ME BILL GATES ON THE PHONE WE LACK MILLIONS OF DOLLARS FOR OUR NEW HELLO KITTY GAEM!11!!1ONE!11!!ELEVEN
“Hardcore” gamers found themselves hating the Wii, and developers learned -the hard way- that they just couldn’t sell “hardcore” on the platform.
Xbox 360 players formed by a new generation (and survivors of the PS2) found the new techs in the console to be appealing, while being provided with good RPG’s to lose precious time on.
And Sony had yet to release their console.
My guess (and the heart of the theory) is this:
There are good new JRPG’s… Just not on consoles.
“Next gen” games where extremely expensive to produce. But everyone that was producing great JRPG’s on the PS2 moved to the DS (and sometimes PSP).
And the games didn’t stale, Games like Devil Survivor, Atelier Annie, The World Ends With You, Knights in the Nightmare, are excellent JRPG’s, with new formulas and improved gameplay. One wonders how awesome would they look in Hi-Def.
So in short: Want to blame someone for the lack of good JRPG’s?
Blame the Hollywood-esque state of the video game world, Sony and Microsoft created.
MegaX50
Cruzifixio