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Googleshng - February 7 '99- 1:30 Eastern Standard Time
Weird Al rules. As I believe I said, I want to see him in concert
on thursday night. Actually, I felt really really bad for his band after it was over. They were
just standing around in the lobby, leaving through the front door, not one person said anything
to any of them! No, not me either, I don't strike up conversations with people I don't know.
Anyway, while I was gone, Paws was covering for Brad and she seems to have done a pretty good
job. Nice to know that, although she seems to have left me a few little gremlins to deal with
today.
Another thing before I get going, guest hosting this month is once again booked. This week it
will either be the person who does the music for the game I'm working on, or if he doesn't
get to work have time, I suppose I'll bump up Cheshire Catalyst.
Speaking of my game, after my last column last week, do to a combination of bordom and charity,
I through together a site for people who
want to make games to get together. Considering how many people stumbled on it before just
now (700 hits), I'll probably have a ton of work to do on that. Keep in mind I'm not done with
the thing yet. Also, I FINALLY got around to updating the fan Google's page, and I've gone
back to updating my page of rantings. Now let's see if I have enough Monday mail for a
column...
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Know Bo?
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Ask Google
Get that reference?
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Recent Q&A's
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02-06-00
02-05-00
02-04-00
02-03-00
02-02-00
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The Old stuff
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The Archives
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Draw Me!
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Fan Googles
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How do you pronounce...?
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Listen
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In the PSX:
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RE3
Infinate Ammo.
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In the Genesis:
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Phantasy Star 2
Not for long
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In the Gameboy:
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My cousin's copy of Pokemon
He WILL pay.
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In the SNES:
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Civilization
Gimme AC!
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In the SMS:
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Phantasy Star
Always.
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In the NES:
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River City Ransom
This game just plain rules.
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In the Saturn:
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Nothing
No games still
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In the N64:
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Nothing
I left town!
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In the Dreamcast:
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Soul Calibur
I think...
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Anime
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For the sake of preventing the spread of misinformation, I implore you,
as a fellow otaku, to make public what I'm about to say. Paws made a few
comments about anime and Sailor Moon in particular in her Sunday column which
aren't correct. She said things that made anime seem like it's all about sex
and violence and not appropriate for children. This is both untrue and unfair
to say. A lot of people have a negative enough view of anime and we don't
need it made worse. I thought she was joking at first, but I don't think this
is the case. I've got all of the post-dub Japanese episodes of Sailor Moon
(as well as a good number of pre-dubs too) and I've never seen any indication
of Usagi/Serena and Mamoru/Darien sleeping together. It's possible I missed
something (there ARE still a few episodes I haven't watched yet, so if I'm
wrong I apologize), but I always saw their relationship as a very innocent
one. Even kissing was a big deal between them. One episode of SMSuperS comes
to mind when Mamoru's college pals thought he was kidding when he said Usagi
was his girlfriend. And I know that Usagi never became pregnant in the
series. I've got no idea where Paws got this idea. She does have a daughter,
but that's far in the future after Usagi and Mamoru have been married.
There's also no ONE sailor senshi who is a guy that turns into a girl. There
are three of them (the Sailor Starlights) and they're not technically
considered in the same group as Sailor Moon and company. It is true that two
of the senshi are lesbians, but the show is rather discreet about it and you
never see any real blatant lesbian interaction between them.
There really isn't that much objectionable content in Sailor Moon or in
a lot of anime series, but most people aren't convinced of that because
they've got people like Paws telling them there is. I know I'm probably
making a big deal out of nothing, but I really like anime and I hate to see
it get a bad rap. I know this probably won't get posted, but I just had to
say something.
And one last thing which I think REALLY needs to be said: I'm getting
really sick and tired of seeing "you're" being used as the possessive form of
"your" in this column! Paws constantly made this mistake and that is very
unprofessional. I'm not trying to insult her here, it's just that I don't
think there should be such big grammatical errors on a big website like
RPGamer.
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Googleshng:
That's a tad flamey you know. Anyway, yeah, Paws did paint
something of a nasty picture of anime, accidentally I assume of course. It is true by
the way that a LOT of stuff on Sailor Moon doesn't get past the US children's TV censors.
For example, the fact that 2 of the evil generals from the first season were guy (they
just gave one of them a female voice actor in the US, he looked girly enough for it to
work), when they translate the next season, they're saying that the two lesbian Sailor
Scouts are sisters, they maimed the last episode of the first season (in Japan everyone
dies and later gets reincarnated), and there's various episodes they skipped for containing
blood, sappiness, or being just plain messed up (like the Loch Ness Monster episode).
Why did I know that? Oh right, my obsessed friend. Anyway, the point of my saying that
isn't that all anime is sick, rather that Sailor Moon, while kid friendly, happens to
have a lot of homo/bisexualism which freaks out US censors. Also US censors are REALLY
uptight. Think about how many times you've seen a deadly weapon connect on a US cartoon.
Plenty, as long as it's the hilt, or the stock or what have you... or a robot being hit.
They weren't even allowed to have the Necronomicon on The Real Ghostbusters!
Anyway, now that I've had my little tanjent, there's plenty of nice happy wholesome anime
out there. Saying all anime is sexist/sick is like saying all American movies are like
say, The Terminator. It's not the majority, it's not really good, but it's what you hear
a lot about. Look at Escaflowne, anything by Haiou Miyazaki, Slayers...
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Oh look, a Lun-AR eclipse.
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I still don't understand why it's pronouced Lun-AR. I mean in real life
like when we say Lunar Eclipse, we say it "Lun-er", so why on earth does
it have to be called Lun-AR in the game? When I tell people about LSSSC
or any of the old Sega CD Lunar's, I pronouce it Lun-er, because I mean
if someone didn't know it's real pronounciation and you started calling
it "Lun-AR" they'd think your dumbass who didn't know what the word
'Lunar' means. Just wondering why they made it called "Lun-AR". Maybe
a translation thing from Japanese to English?
Lun-AR's #1 fan :)
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Googleshng:
Yes, the only place I've ever heard say it Lun-AR is the
Making of CD. As for why that was, I'd blame it on the translator also. It does seem
a bit messed up. 8)
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STARS.
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Dear Ambigous Gender Humanoid with a Slime Googleshng,
Could you please tell me why there is a picture of my high school in your column (Feb. 23,
CLaire's letter with the pictures of Shiva and Tonberry). You realize the fear and horror you put me
through by posting a picture of the place I just left last June on my favorite website????? And to
make it worse, I recognise the guy dressed as Tonberry. *shudder* Evil High School memories.
Anyway, for something concerning rpgs. I have noticed that the ROM (not that I play them or
anything) translations of Square games are better than the official ones. Do you not think it is a
sad state when bored people working for free do something better than the best game makers in
the world? I love most of Square's games, though I have my gripes with them.
My biggest complaint would have to be on FFVIII (and I have reasons, I am not a
Bandwagoner). FFVIII has is good points. A new take on combat and magic. Fantastic Graphics.
Incredible animation. Squal and Rinoa are very well developed. But then there is the bad.
Repetitious combat. Too easy. Aside from Squall and Rinoa the other characters are not
extensively developed. The music is somewhat annoying to my ears (except for Laguna's battle
theme. Ever notice that those fungis creatures look like gophers with umbrellas dancing to the
techno beat?).
Oh yeah, and am I the only person who remembers that Square made Rad Racer for the
original Nintendo?
Thanx,
El Andvari
PS: How would you like it to find your high school on and RPG site?? Huh, Huh you freaky gender
switching thingy with a slime!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Googleshng:
If it makes you feel any better, I recognized a name on the
fan art page as the son of my old english teacher. Now then, there's a very simple reason
why ROM translations by college students are better than the official translation. The
translations of FF5 and SD3 by college students were labors of love taking extremely
long ammounts of time. Of course they're good. Then when Square translated FF5, well,
they were in a hurry. They hired a translator who, quite frankly, sucked. The game was
translated in a few months, and, well, it's good enough that you can understand it.
SD3 hasn't been translated officially, so there aren't any other examples to my knowledge.
The bottom line of course is that Square should look to these college students to do their
translations! 8)
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What a jerk
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Google,
Well, okay, here it is. A serious letter from me. I've been meaning to move out of Quickies a little...
Anyway, a while ago me and someone in a chatroom (who's now going to start arguing with me
again, probably) said that I didn't like FF8, specifically, that I didn't like Squall, because I lack the
life experience to connect to him (I'm 16). My theory was always that I didn't like Squall because
he's a jerk. And where is it written that a teenager must be immature, anyway? I think plenty of
deep things (right... I just prefer to be annoyingly cheerful because it's fun). I like to think of myself
as thoughtful and empathetic, and well, who's to say I'm not? Besides which, I've never really
disliked a video game character before, and I've been playing RPGs since I was too young to know
how old I was (fortunately, back then RPGs were generally Dragon Warrior, which didn't take much
intelligence to understand). Now you know I'm not here to tell you about how great and mature I
am, it makes me sound stupid, but I can't really think of any other way to say this. My question is,
well, what's your opinion?
-Cantatrix
"Squall's more like a real person, so I can hate him more like I hate a real person!"
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Googleshng:
I wouldn't say teenagers are always portrayed as immature.
Heck, not even restricted to FF8! Quistis seems pretty mature. A friend of mine also
considered Squall to be a jerk. On the other hand, me and another friend found having
a main character lacking in social skills and a desire to just finish things up to be
a refreshing change of pace from the typical Care Bear/Beldandy mindset of most protagonists.
I guess you just can't please everyone at once.
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Ogre Battle Continuity
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Hey Google. I wanted to answer a question in one of the columns Paws did
about the OB episodes in the game. There isn't any Ogre Battle games before
March of the Black Queen. It's like Star Wars, where they started at Episode
4 and then went back to do the first three. I think Quest did that on
purpose, if they ever wanted to go back. Then Tactics Ogre isn't the episode
right after March of the Black Queen if anyone has noticed, which most have.
Ogre Battle 64 is in between the two. When people play OB64 they will see
how. In Tactics Ogre the Lodis Empire is the Northern Kingdom mentioned in
the Ogre Battle endings that are attacking Zenobia. Also, in the best ending
in OB they mention stuff like Warren and Lans being MIA and stuff. In
Tactics Ogre you see the reason. But then in the endings you also see that
your Lord, Debonair, Aisha, Saradin, Gilbert, and I think Lyon leave Zenobia
for the Northern Kingdom. The Lord, Debonair, Aisha, Saradin, and I think
Lyon are playable characters in OB64. While in the endings Gilbert and
Canopus are supposed to meet again in a city called Heim, which is a place in
Tactics Ogre. This is all confusing unless you played the game but just
wanted to clear stuff up. March of the Black Queen is first, while PErson of
Lordly Caliber (OB64) is second, and Let's Cling Together (TO) is third in
terms of story.
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Googleshng:
Uh, I can't think of anything else that needs saying on this
subject.
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Ow!
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Hi Google! It may be the fact that I come home from school at 1:45 and
don't get to see your column until about that time, but you're always
updated on time :). Anyway, I just wanted to note out something(s):
1. Am I the only person that thought Leon from Star Ocean: 2nd Story when I
saw that pictures she put at the bottom of the column yesterday?
2. Saw on your rant page you might go to see Wierd Al. I'm going to! Are
you going to Aneheim like me?
And I small cry for help:
HELP! I can't get through the Miluda battle in FF Tactics because I'm
addicted to attacking my own team members! When I have one character go off
on his/her own to destroy an enemy, I get bored with the rest of my team so
they attack each other and sooner or later a chemist or archer turns into a
crystal!
All right, that's all, thanks! :)
-Xenochick
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Googleshng:
Heh, you're right about the Paws picture. Anyway, I know how
fun it is to character build in FFT, so here's an idea. Make people healers or bards
or dancers, or heck, give them Accumulate! Then you'll have ways to goof off that aren't
fatal to your characters! Oh, and as for Weird Al, I saw him in New London CT actually.
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