Do I dare pick the thing up? I don't really want to, out of sheer honesty. What happened on the Tuesday scared the hell out of me to the point where I dropped my pen while I was writing, and I'm still a little scared, even though it's been nearly a week. I'm just scared that anyone who reads editorials was affected directly by the attack, or anyone else who was affected by the many aftershocks caused by it. I know there were several incidents inflicted on Islamic members here due to their association. I don't believe they should be attacked for believing in the same general religion as what some terrorists do, and I worry for anyone in America who might be the victim of such attacks.

But... well, someone's got to do it I guess. Someone has to send this back into normal operations, and I'm responsible for it so... I'm very sorry that it was late this week, and hopefully I won't have any reason to make sure that it's late next. Raincrystal has been somewhat affected, and won't be assisting me until she feels up to it, and neither will anyone helping with the archives... I'll encourage all of you to take a break and come back when you think you're ready to do so, but I think we're pretty much ready to move forward, as long as all of the readers are.

As for this week's editorials? We have more rebuttals, from a comment from a very much programming point of view on why the many faults within RPGs are there, another view about villainry, to another rebuttal by TSG concerning more faults in RPGs. This week's original pieces (although most were sent in before Tuesday's events) seem to be quite relevant to the events around now. An interesting piece on friendship prevailing within Final Fantasy, and another concerning Freedom within RPGs grace our stage this week... and it seems someone was crazy enough to take my dare last week about trying to argue what'd be better; real life currently or a reality defined within RPG terms, and to top it off he decided to try a somewhat unusual line. It certainly cheered me up quite a bit.

Now I'm going to throw out a few topics (apparently people liked the idea) that might entice you (or inflame you) to send something my way. You might have noticed that there's been a gradual increase of RPGs out there that are using voice acting... should a voice be put to every word a character speaks? You may also have noticed the shortcomings of online play, and the influence of those willing to take a shortcut and otherwise hack their way to victory, and maybe this will throw the whole ideal of RPGs online in doubt...

Then of course there's Tales of Destiny 2, which, from my glimpse at E3, looks to be an interesting title to say the least. With what seems to be a games explosion stacked all on one day across three platforms armed on the 25th, I'm sure there's a lot to look forward to... and I hope to see some comments on all of this.

I might make this a weekly dare of sorts, but here's a slightly unusual question I'm going to fire out for this update. Have you ever noticed all the near coincidences within the RPG worlds? (Two examples of this would be Magus/Guile and just who is Gogo from FF6?) Now the question I'm curious about is why they're placed within RPGs... do they really have any explaination for being there, is it totally for promotional reasons or are they there only because the programmers wanted to mess with people's minds by making them double guess?

Well, I hope to hear from you soon, so have fun reading... and writing. Maybe we'll see clear blue skies next week, and happier people.

And as for my minor comment, which I honestly don't think will mean much but...

For those who planned this out, if anyone finds you and you get discovered, death may be the easy way out. I am sure there's better ways to punish people than to just kill them.

For those out there investigating it, involved in the judicial process and in aquiring suspects, please keep in mind that there is due process and who you represent... and just because they didn't respect that doesn't mean we have the right to do the same. Lives are lives, regardless of who the owners are and remember that association isn't enough to determine guilt.

I hope for the best to those touched in the tragedy, and maybe, just maybe time will help heal some of the wounds caused by it. And if any divinity is listening... to help them through it.