Cheshire Catalyst:
Actually, I don't mind picking up most topics that get discussed during the week. Keeping up an interesting forum for debate is one of the goals of the venerated Q&A column. (right after "Promoting peace in the Middle East" and "Picking up chicks who can't do any better.") Submissions to intelligent conversations like "Star oecen SUX F4gg0t!!!111" are kindly deleted, though.

I like hard rock, and I think it could really mesh with the right kind of RPG. Granted, if you and your party are prancing about in the magic faerie forest looking for the mystic crystal love globes while cavorting with flagrantly homoseuxal elves then, yeah, Rammstein's Engel wouldn't be my first choice for BGM either. However, in those rare, beautiful moments when an RPG is made that breaks away from the cliché riddled fantasy worlds, then some rock music has it's place. I think "Other World" works perfectly during the Zanarkand blitzball mach at the opening of FFX. If you're playing a Final Fantasy random-battles turn-based style game in a more contemporary setting, then even better.

The real problem is, like Google said, the lyrics. When you're entering your 28th round against that Malfean Demon Prince, then those Metallica lyrics can start to get pretty stale and repetative.

That said, songs like "Other World" are a welcome departure from the usual fare of RPG soundtracks and I hope that composers like Uematsu and Mitsuda continue to work in excitng new directions. (Like, "A little to the right and downward." That direction's always excited me.

Cheshire Catalyst:
I don't sign online petitions, period. They're pointless wastes of space, and are largely ignored. With Star Ocean cancelled, bringing over an incomplete series seems kinda pointless.
Also, I'd like to confirm Denton Clark's assertion that Final Fantasy: Unlimited blows goats. It's a bad, bad show. Go watch Excel Saga or something.

Cheshire Catalyst:
The knowledge that my opinions can affect the success of various titles has gone straight to my bulbous, dandruff-filled head. Every night, game companies send a bevy of whores, liquor, and fruit baskets over to seek my etherially whim of a favor. Sometimes, Lord of Darkness John Romero tries to pass himself off as a whore and sometimes, more sucessfully, as a fruit basket. I am only occasionally fooled.

Black Isle/Interplay did an excellent job of bringing the D&D system onto the PC. While Baldur's Gate may get the props for being first, each title that came later improved on the system until Baldur's Gate II's interface had vastly improved on the original.
Other great games exist too. The Fallout Series, Vampire: Redemption, Anachronox, Deus Ex... even more mediocre titles like Septerra Core are worth it. PC games drop in price a lot faster than their counterparts, since PC RPGs have a history of only being marginally effective sales-wise. This is good for you, because you can probably get a good PC game for about $25 if you're willing to wait.

If I had to pick a game that I would hold above my head before a throng of gamers and shout "Behold thy new king!", it would be Baldur's gate II. If Neverwinter nights can emulate the experience of the Dungeon Master as well as it says it can, it shall succeed where RPG Maker failed. As evidenced by the staggering amounts of fan-fiction, fan-art, pretentious E/N sites, and Q&A columns filled with juvenile humor*, people like to stretch their creative muscles. Even if it usually results in bad Star Trek/X-files crossover fan-fiction and erotic Sailor Moon fan-art, people wanna make their own thing. Neverwinter Nights has serious potential for a future game-of-the-year.

*Seriously, what did John Romero ever do to me? I'm an ass.

Cheshire Catalyst:
You'll need a PAL/NTSC converter for that little job. I haven't done any importing myself, so beyond this I can not help you. Seek the shaolin monk who lives in the dumpster behind the White Hen. He shall reveal all.