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Ask Google |
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Boys Will Be Girls... |
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Googleshng - October 27 '04- 4:00 Eastern Standard Time
Sorry this is going up so late. I woke up this morning (fine, afternoon)
and started a crockpot full of adobo chicken because my family was coming for dinner. It came out great,
but either I succumbed to the hazards of handling raw poultry, or picked up a stomach bug that's been
going around, and my digestive system was less than pleased.
On the upside, the chicken came out great. Anyway, on with the letters.
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Level level level...
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Sup Goog,
Yeah, I know exactly what you mean, about being a guy and playing as a girl. My younger brother got me hooked on Ragnarok Online (before you say anything, I know, I know. I had NOTHING better to do), and I decided to play as a chick. No more than 5 seconds of playing occurred before the same sort of situation you experienced happened to me.
Likewise, I try to explain to them that they are all a bunch of prepubescent monkeys that need to get a grip on reality. I think I've hit on why they act this way. They assume that they are meeting an actual girl that plays MMORPGs, and that is as close to a real one as they are going to get, and my being there actually disheartens them to the point that they go mindlessly level for another hour and a half.
Speaking of MMORPGs, why are they so popular? I can see that they are addictive, but once you step back and take a look at it, its just a bunch of levelling with no real goal in mind. It's like playing FFVI and getting rid of Kefka. After playing a console RPG, I at the very least get a sense of satisfaction upon beating the game. When I play an MMORPG, I'm doomed to repeat the same tedium over and over again, hoping that I'll become an uber-l33t (I also in no way condone l33t, it's smurfing retarded) player, and all the 12-year-olds in the country will flock to my heel.
And this may sound odd, but I think a Pokemon MMORPG would actually be a lot of fun to play. Getting a thousand people running around the world capturing Pokemon and battling each other would occupy my time until I've CAUGHT EM AL...err..caught enough to satisfy myself.
Ourobolus
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Googleshng:
That there is exactly why I stay clear of the genre as a general rule myself. As for Pokémon Online,
well, that's a no brainer to make. On the other hand, competing with other players in such an environment
would get nasty quick. I mean, as is there's people out there who can mop the floor with all comers, and
as it stands, and that's without constant practice against fresh opponents. I doubt I could keep up personally.
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This is going to get me smacked...
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I understand the idea behind the 'But I'm not a girl' argument. My only
counter point is: How many people do you know that go on video games as a
dark elf necromancer who has the ability to defecate Necronomicons because
they think that it'll allow them to explore some deeper part of their
sexuality? Or will let them play out some twisted fantasy of theirs? Or
will let them display the questionable morals of a promiscuous necrophiliac?
I'm sure somewhere out there at least one person does. But as far as the
general population, when a guy plays a female character (in anything, not
just MMORPGs), the connotation is the same as wearing a mesh shirt. You may
very well have the most innocent of reasonings. But 95% of the people you
come across are going to make certain connotations that you likely don't
want them to make (or do want them to make for a reason).
Secondly, in regards to Final Fantasy cessation by Square, there's been an
interesting quote in one of my International Management textbooks. They
claim, in regard to Coca-Cola, "Even if all of Coca-Cola's physical assets
burned to the ground, they would have little to no trouble borrowing the
money to build it back again just on the strength of their name recognition
alone". Squeenix doesn't have anywhere near the investment in physical
capital that Coca-Cola does, but I think it'd be pretty fair to say the same
thing in regards to them on the strength of the Final Fantasy branding.
-- "Viva La Pelicula Del Fantasia Ultima"
That's the Espiritus Interior for you non-German speakers.
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Googleshng:
I realize you were posing that as a rhetorical question expecting me to answer none, but honestly, I know
a rather unsettling number of people who, in any game they can, play necromancers who are entirely too
friendly with their undead. Heck, I'm one of them... albiet in much less depraved a fashion as you're
suggesting here. In fact, if you poke around my page enough, you'll find the start of a comic based on
such a character.
Conversely, I'm pretty sure every guy I know has, at some point or other, played a female character in
an RPG (and every girl a male one), for the simple reason that it worked better with their character
concept. For example, some recent characters I myself have made for various games include:
- An aging partially possessed paranormal investigator: Male, as he was a composite of various characters
from a book, a game, and real life.
- An upbeat necromancer who thinks zombies are cute and cuddly: Cute teenage girl, as it's much funnier
that way.
- A big fat green humanoid frog wearing a dingy tanktop that played the jazz flute: Male, because less
people flee in terror that way.
- A big dumb strong orc: Female, because I can count the number of female orcs I've ever seen in any
context one one finger.
If you can conceive of any sick twisted fantasies I could act out using any of these characters, I
don't think you're one to judge anyone else's dirty thoughts.
Oh, and as a personal sidenote, I don't consider anyone's fantasies they want to act out via RPG characters
as any more wrong than anyone else's, although were I to play some online RPG where a male and female
human were exchanging lovey-dovey emotes, I'd roll my eyes, but if it was a beholder and a gelatinous
cube, I'd be amused. *Blinky wiggles his eyestalks happily.* *Cubey slides forward lovingly.* |
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More fun with gender identity!
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Hiya, Google/Andrew/Whoever ends up answering this!
First, in rseponse to Google's comment about cross-gender role-playing in MMORPGs: my roommate has the exact same problem you described, and as he was the first person I'd come across in my circle of friends who had a problem with it, I was kinda confused. When my roommate asked, rather puzzled, why I played a Mithra, I simiply shrugged and replied, "Because I'm a Thief." It made sense to me, anyway. What do you think about MMORPGs like FFXI, where there are certain races (Mithra, Galka) which only incorporate one playable gender? I don't mind it one bit--I think it's nice, actually (big hulking Galka women would be kinda scary)--but I wonder if it's a deterrent for those who have this kind of "cross-gender RP phobia"?
My second question is one that I know's been asked a lot before, and forgive me if you've answered it already since the release of Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne. I'm a huge fan of the MegaTen series, and I was wondering if you think Atlus will possibly consider re-releasing older games in the series over stateside in a Square-Enixy kinda way? In particular, I'm wondering specifically about Persona 2: Tsumi (AKA Innocent Sin). Since we got Eternal Punishment, which was actually part 2 of the Persona 2 series, but we didn't get Innocent Sin due to the "questionable content", do you think any amount of success with Nocturne could prompt them to release Innocent Sin over here, or come out with a PS2 collection disc that just has the Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment on it, or anything?
Ndoto
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Googleshng:
See previous example about the female orc. It always bugs me when a game has that sort of a restriction
on it. Is the other gender of that species non-sentient? Non-humanoid? Way too deadly/wimpy to be a valid
option? A lack of social equality?
Meanwhile, on the MegTen front, it's possible, but I'm not sure if it's likely. On the one hand, it isn't
exactly the most popular series. On the other hand, Atlus is, in recent years, losing all their popular
stuff to other publishers. So you never know.
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Megten
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Actually your list of Megami Tensei games is missing:
Megami Tensei 1
Megami Tensei 2
Persona 2: Innocent Sin
I don't know the names but there are also:
"The Second Last Bible"
"The Megami Tensei Gameboy Trading Card Game"
Finally I don't know if you want to include any of the
append discs to Soul Hackers. There was a Compendium of
Devil's Volume 1 and 2, and also some kind of bonus
dungeon disc that now sells for a rediculous amount of
money.
There's also a Megami Tensei Pinball game...
And the new Digital Devil Saga.
Not quite complete...
-Adam
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Googleshng:
I was pretty darn sure we had most of those. Thanks for the tip in any case.
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...and then you put Magus on the other arm...
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greetings googleshng,
long time off-and-on reader, first time (or second, i think i mailed thor
once) writer. just wanted to show off my new chrono trigger related tattoo.
it's not the best quality picture, but it gets the point across. feel free
to use this on rpgamer as you see fit. lemme know if you post this.
jared
p.s. notice my swank fatal fury hat in the background!
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Googleshng:
Now see, that's just plain nifty. Shame about those webcams though and their lousy auto-white-balancing
isn't it?
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Randomness.
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In a fight, who would win? The Ninja Turtles, or an entire settlement of Amish? Use whichever source you like for defining the Turtles, movies, either TV show, or even the manga if you're a weirdo, but I think we should leave Splinter out of the fight since he would negate most of the Amish's advantages.
With almonds,
LockeZ
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Googleshng:
What advantages? Barn raising? Refusing to fight? I don't think we're talking about the same Amish.
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