Matt Demers - 00:31 EST

THE NEWEST OBSTACLE HAS MADE ITSELF KNOWN. My forty-five minute long seminar shall be presented at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time tomorrow, and while it won't be airing on television stations across North America, any thoughts, wishes, prayers, good luck karma, chicken korma... that you want to send me are more than welcome. In reality, I'm only presenting to six people, but at twenty-five percent of my Biomath grade, this will be a rather significant moment in my graduate career!

Oh, great. "Freezing Rain warning in effect", says the Weather Network?!? Rain starting overnight with temperatures falling below zero in time for tomorrow morning? This sounds like a nightmare waiting to happen. What if buses are cancelled? What... what if... graggghh!!!

I need time to compose myself. I'll use the question-answering to calm my nervesNERVESnerves. I'll be okay, I Pro!!M!!..ISE. !!!

Mr. Matt, I really enjoy your qna section. I recently fell in love with emulation gaming and now must defend its wonderfulness. Emulation is my only means of playing many nes/snes goodies, and since they are out of print, I don't see any harm done. Secondly, there are several rpgs that never came over shores (e.g. secret of mana 3, treasure hunter g), so emulation is my only hope of playing them. Also, weigh the joy that I recieve, among other emulation gamers, to any economic harm inflicted on the industry by emulation gaming. Since you are a math major, you will probably say that it is non-quantifiable, or something like that. Basically, please weigh my joy. That's all I ask. It is a large sum of joy and I want you to acknowledge it. I haven't read all the emulator talk that has gone on, so tell me, what do you have against emulation? I don't really mind if anyone has a problem with emulation gaming, I just felt like writing.

Pretend that you are a psychology major for a moment: how do you think being a long time video gamer affects an individual?

Also, what are your thoughts on DQ Yangus?

Sincerely, butt-butt.

I was wary about it at first, and then I heard about the fact that "yay", there will be randomly generated dungeons. It's too bad they aren't including a pillow with the game, since randomly generated dungeons are awfully boring, repetitive, and downright bad. I'm not very hopeful, in the end, though I haven't given up entirely. We shall see as we hear more in the coming months.

Thanks for the letter very much, sir, ma'am, or, uh, butt. You've presented some interesting topics to chat about.

Heya Matt/et cetera (hard to pin it down sometimes, heh),

I, for one, amd very excited about Grandia 3. I remember picking up the PsX version of the original Grandia back in the day and knowing not one thing about it, but once I started playing it I got hooked entirely. One thing that's refreshing about the series is that innocence is portrays; a very idealistic view of the world that isn't all cyberpunk and space opera like a lot of RPGs we have anymore. Granted, all those other games are awesome and I own the vast majority of them, but I like Grandia for what it is.

If you ever want to get into the series, I'd highly recommend tracking down the first game, uh, first. It's an exemplary game, very fun and engaging, and has endearing characters. The second one ain't bad either, but I dunno if there are any differences between the original Dreamcast version and trhe Ps2 port. I would imagine there's less slowdown in the original, though. Gods did that burn me sometimes.

Anyway, on to the question. I am seriously jonesing for some Dragon Quest goodness after coming off the DQ8 high, and I've been wanting to see DQ6 released in the states for years now, seeing as how it's one of my favorite in the series. If Square Enix did green-light a domestic Dragon Quest 6 release, would you rather see it completely overhauled in the style of, say, DQ8, or just a translation and debugging of the original for a handheld? I personally could go either way, even though Hassan's Toriyama drawings are wicked hard to look at, and would probably be no better in cel-shaded form.

Thanks for publishing my first (admittedly snarky-sounding) letter, by the way! I've been reading the column for a long time now, but all the Dragon Quest talk was what made me WANT to contribute, heh.

- Janus

Well, no problem! We've certainly got no shortage of it here, but that's just because the series is so wonderful and you guys like writing in about it. Thanks for writing in, yourself!

Hello there! I've been reading this column for a while, but only now felt like sending a few questions. Mainly I feel a bit intimidated...several of thoes who send in questions you who answer are mostly seasoned players...Until only a few years back (2002) I literally have played enough RPGs to count on one hand. Due to financial reasons, I never owned an NES, SNES, or anything until I got a Game Boy Pocket for my 10th birthday. It wasn't until I was in middle school that I actually got something other than a hand held (the N64). Now my money's pretty stretched between the Game Cube, GBA and DS so plus time constraints, I play little nowadays. I never played a Dragon Quest/Warrior game, never played Secret of Mana, just Sword of Mana, Chrono Trigger, never played any of the 2-D Legend of Zelda games, and the ONLY Final Fantasy game I played is Crystal Chronicles (that's right, feel pity for this poor girl X_x). heck, ,my very first RPG was Pokemon Red! It wasn't until I got Phantasy Star Online for the GCN that I finally started to really get into them and even now I think I only played about 25 RPGs. I still love them though! I guess what I love most about an RPG are the characters. A good story is of course a plus, great music, fun battles and the like, but to me what separates a good RPG form a great RPG are characters and characterization, which is the main reason why Tales of Symphonia is one of my most favorites.

Well enough about this...sorry for rambaling. Let me get tot he questions: What's the difference, if any, between a strategy RPG and a turn-based RPG? I heard Riviera: The Promised Land referred to as a strategy RPG, but I though it was jsut turn-based? Also action RPG is the same as a real-time RPG, right?

Finally, do most RPGs provide reasons for why the land is crawling with monsters or not? Only a few games I'm aware of that don't explain the monster including Skies of Arcadia and Sword of Mana. In ToS it was Cruxis' doing; in Phantasy Star 1 they were (probably) created by the Dark Falz or King Lassic (I did Play the GBA Phantasy Star Collection), In Paper Mario they were Bowser's minions...Since my experience is rather limited, I'm just a bit curious.

Well that's all I have to ask for now. I sure hope this wasn't too long. Thanks for hearing this strange girl out!

--Strawberry Eggs

Enh, monsters crawl through the lands of RPGs for the same reason that monsters crawl through the lands in NON-RPGs, I guess. If there's some evil in the air, and there usually is, then there must be minions about! I've always tried to crack the puzzle of why they always seem to mysteriously increase incrementally in power from one region to the next, no matter where your travels bring you along the plotline, but well, you can't explain everything.

Thanks yourself, Ms. Strawberry Eggs! You're not so strange; at least, relatively speaking.

Hi there, QNA columnist,

I just wanted to say I feel SOOOOO bad having talked about Andrew the way I did last week, just to see that he's stoping writing the column right on this monday.

I just wanted to say, that despite the fact I had trouble understanding all these little references (or maybe it's just a vocabulary problem?) I had a lot of fun reading his column recently.

Actually, I couldn't stop myself from laughing at it while reading his last column at work. When I get it, it's fun.

Anyway, I wish him the best, and would like to..errr what the english formula to say so? Greetings? Good luck? I'm not sure so... "Bon courage Veronica, j'espère que tu feras aussi bien, voir mieux qu'Andrew et Matt!"

And now, if no one has asked you yet: which are your favourite RPGs in each of these categories? (not necessarly now, but when you played them first...)

Graphism (or may I say design?)

Music

Story

Ambiance (yeah, you know, like the overall "feeling")

Gameplay

Characters (good, bad and ugly ones)

Overall

And if you see another category that would fit in, feel free to add it yourself...

Well, see you soon

Chipstouille

Ps: I told you Matt, I just had to start and now I can't stop...

Why of course! I'm very glad you chose to write in again, and as for Andrew, he is holding nothing against you (he's holding a knife OVER you, though, so you might want to watch out for that).

Wassup Matt,

A-HA, I say, to all the skeptics, Mother 3's signs of life have finally surfaced, and they come in the form of three wonderful-looking, yet somewhat mysterious screen shots. I confess, I have been turning into a complete Mother fanboy, that I will be preordering the import immediately. (here's hoping a translation guide is released somewhere on the 'net)

Of course, we expected the game to return to the similar look of the past two games, but Mother 3 looks a whole lot more polished now, and the color looks slightly different this time. It looks a little bit faded to me, but that just may be the quality of the screen shots.

Now, I don't know if this is set in stone, but the characters in your party that were shown in those pictures, look very similar to the characters in EarthBound 64. If this ends up being true, I will be a happy camper, indeed. Also, according to those pictures, they show a different character in front of the party. Could this mean that you can switch off characters at will, a la Final Fantasy 6?

Anyway, I can hardly wait for this to come out, as that April 20th date lurks closer and closer.

Miho

It's possible, but there were also times in Earthbound where you controlled each of the four characters individually, if you remember correctly. Well, except for the girl, I think. She would have died by herself, sadly...her theme music, incidentally, was great though.

Anyway, I hope that this IS the light at the end of the tunnel. I've personally been waiting a LONG time for this sequel, because I can't wait to play more! Let's hope that we're not getting the wool pulled over our eyes yet again.

I love this column. I love harassing whoever is on the A side of Q&A on an every other day or so basis. Just wanted you to know that.

I need trade-in advice. I've got some RPGs that I've not touched in about 6 months. What do you do, trade em in and get some fresh blood or trade credit? There are quite a few games coming out soon. Or do you keep them, just in case?

- Macstorm

Man, I've never traded in or gotten rid of a game without regretting it at some point. Except for Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Yeah, that one I didn't mind getting rid of. But, you never know when you'll get a chunk of free time on your hands; maybe you'll fall dreadfully ill next October and be confined to your sofa with nothing else to do for a month. In that case, I guarantee you you'd smack yourself. Life can be tricksy sometimes. (Don't worry, that wasn't a prophecy.)

That said, if you don't have extra money kicking around, and you'd really RATHER play a new game than one on backlog, then sure, go and trade it in. If money is no object, then I'd just splurge (though I don't "splurge" on much else, don't make car payments, don't have a kid to feed, etc etc etc...)

Hey there Matt,

I've seen the new debates creeping into the Q&A column in regards to the subject of emulation. While I'm usually a bit skittish on the subject, I figured I might try my hand at offering an opinion (as I'm sure so many others have done by now).

It seems only right to start with a disclaimer that I do play games through emulators, for a multitude of reasons. Personally, I'm either too afraid of the consequences or too unwilling to figure all the ins and outs that come with playing current-generation games (ISOs, I believe they're called), but I do enjoy older games, usually 8- and 16-bit affairs, as well as out-of-date arcade fare. A part of me does realize that the legality of this issue is more then a little murky, or downright illegal in many respects, but the temptation is hard to resist, as I'm sure many can attest to.

I personally believe that those who explain away emulation under a banner of "backing up" games they own are living in a dreamworld at best, or just lying to themselves at worst. As you've stated, it's a fallacy to believe that people will agree to abide by the "Honor System" when it comes to emulation, because it's easy to feel like there's no real victim: many of the companies don't make money off of these older games anymore, and the only circulation they see is through emulation sites. As this may change when the Revolution goes to the market, this argument might very well become completely moot, but that isn't to say people still won't use it. People will always be searching for a "free lunch," and it's foolishness to think that supplying roms (and the even more questionable ISOs) under the auspices of "backing up" your games won't tempt people to abuse a virtual library of free video games. Perhaps that comes down to how much games cost (especially older, out of print games), but that's just one theory among many.

Personally, I hope that the Nintendo does offer their old library through the Revolution. I hope that all of the old SNES games I'm forced to play on a computer screen -- Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, Bahamut Lagoon, Seiken Densetsu 3, Star Ocean -- and even the NES games like Super Mario Brothers 2 and Final Fantasy are offered, and I REALLY hope that Nintendo offers them for free, and that there are so many requests for old games that it melts their servers. This isn't just because I'm cheap, or just because Nintendo doesn't pay anything on these games except for bandwidth to handle the download requests -- it's also so that maybe, in the future, when we're another console or two down the road, Sony or Microsoft (or whoever) will look back at how successful Nintendo was with offering their old titles for free, and perhaps Sony, or Microsoft, or what company holds the rights then to the games we play now, might actually offer those games again for anyone who might be interested.

I think that, frankly, they NEED to offer the full library in order to give themselves a leg up, especially in the face of powerhouses Microsoft and Sony. If Nintendo provides anything less, they will face some severe criticism from both the video game media and players alike, especially after making the promise last year. It would be an expectation that those games be offered for free as well, though maybe my head is in the clouds, what with Nintendo being a "big evil corporation" at the heart of things. Perhaps you're right; maybe this IS the beginning of a new generation of old-generational goodness. I can only hope so.

Anyway, thanks for the honesty and the memories; now I want to go play Super Mario 2.

Gragh! I must fly through this outro, or else I won't have a chance to practice my seminar a single time before presenting it tomorrow, and being so unprepared is usually a disastrous idea. DAMN, if I had thought of it earlier, I could have practiced right here in front of you all! Then again, maybe you don't want to hear about Partial Differential Equations arising from incorporating age distributions into population models. Bleah.

YESTERDAY'S ANSWERS ARE AS FOLLOWS:

Well, the first question asked about the first writer-inner from yesterday. She finally made her RPGamer debut, though she also wrote in a question during the Idol competition (a question answered by one of the other contestants). The person who wrote it was d) Diane, my twenty-one year old sister; guessing that correctly yielded a cool 95 points.

The second question was submitted by KnightTrain. I assume that the question was sound, though I've never played Lunar:SSS myself. Apparently, Kyle claims that Jessica's necklace looks like a) an IUD, or in other words, an intrauterine device, apparently a method of birth control or something else private like that. Sccaaaaarrry! 80 points for guessing KnightTrain's correct answer, though he receives 160 for the submission.

Question #119:
Consider the following Partial Differential Equation:

Question #120:
Ask Macstorm!-->In order to obtain a free Prairie Chicken in World of Warcraft, which of the following are you NOT required to do? (85 points)

a) Give over a few coppers
b) Dance like a chicken
c) Eat a chicken leg
d) Succeed in motivating a chicken
e) Feed a chicken

One more tomorrow to wrap up the week! When I asked above, I really meant it; whose role is it to Q and to A? To me, this is just a place where Qs and As get thrown back and forth between both myself and readers like you, but perhaps that isn't the way you think it should be. PERHAPS you're planning a coup! Perhaps I'm planning a surprise evil takeover of RPGamer... eeeeyayyayayahhahah!! Perhaps I should go, so that I don't fail my seminar tomorrow. Bye bye, loves!

***Matt is feeling semimalicious