| Oh god what have I done |
[Jul. 1st, 2009|01:53 pm] |
So. In what appears to be a temporary lapse in sanity, I've decided that I think I want to revive my old game project, Project Oracle. REMEMBER THAT OLD THING, GUYS?
I'm a much better writer now, I have a better handle on the difference between good ideas and bad ideas, I know a bit more about game design, I have better access to sound and graphics assets, and I generally know my head from my ass much better when it comes to technology than I was in High School when I started this thing. I'm kinda dying to get my hands dirty and make this thing not suck.
I still don't know how to balance a game, though, orz. I guess I'll have to improvise. Unless anyone knows how to balance stats in RPG Maker 2003? Heh, yeah, I'm not banking on it. Right now the game is on the wrong side of way too fucking easy.
However. What started as a self-insertion story involving me and my friends, I think I'm going to revise into an original story with original characters. Characters BASED on me and my friends, granted, but the cheese factor should be significantly reduced.
The basic story's still contrived and unoriginal, but I think I'm going to stop caring. I'm sure a lampshade here and there will make it all better. 8D
( I'm already coming up with tons of ideas. )
^ Check out the cut if you're interested in the details of the game. |
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| Advice? |
[Jun. 30th, 2009|11:49 am] |
Say you've got a secret.
Say you've got people you want to tell this secret, so that it's not a friggin' secret anymore.
But the problem is that there's almost no way to worm the subject into casual conversation unless someone directly asks you. And it would be incredibly awkward to just toss it out there with no lead-in.
How the hell do you do it? I've no skill at conversation, so things like this that should be obvious to me, aren't. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 28th, 2009|09:07 am] |
So I clicked over to my website for the first time in forever today. You know what I realized?
The background is broken when I view it in Firefox. It's supposed to stay fixed instead of scrolling with the page, but it only works correctly in IE.
So how the hell are you supposed to do a fixed background that works in Firefox? Anyone know? |
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| Ack. |
[Jun. 13th, 2009|01:13 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  Shiiiiit. | ] |
So, one of the things I've been afraid of for a while now has finally happened. One of the hinges on my laptop broke.
Not completely, mind you, but enough to be an inconvenience. It looks like the part of the computer's body the hinge was screwed to kinda snapped off. So now, whenever I try to open the thing, it tries to yank up a piece of the computer's casing with it. AND it broke off the casing that was COVERING that hinge. Ech.
I really wish I could afford to repair or replace this thing. It's had me walking on eggshells for a while now, and I honestly don't know what to do with it.
Trading it in isn't an option. Computers lose value really fast, and I've had this thing for several years now... and any value it might have had is now officially shot to hell, thanks to these latest developments.
Obviously it still works-- fairly well-- or I wouldn't be able to be posting this. But yeah, it's less than comforting to know that my computer is falling apart. |
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| The first test |
[Jun. 4th, 2009|04:37 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | Vexed | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Castlevania: Rondo of Blood - The Beginning | ] |
Ugh, so apparently Final Fantasy IV: The After Years is now available for download on WiiWare. And I have enough Wii points to get it. Urgh. Not even half a month since the Crimson Echoes incident, and Squenix is already fixing to make a hypocrite out of me.
I'll be honest, there are only two things preventing me from downloading it right now.
First and foremost, it's episodic. Meaning I'd have to pay again next month to get the next episode (and probably not be able to afford it), and again the month after that, etc. etc., if I don't want to leave the game incomplete. Which I don't. And that adds up to more than I frankly want to spend on a WiiWare title.
Second, I was saving most of those Wii points for Cave Story-- which I feel is a bit more deserving of my money right now. If I were to spend the 800 Wii points on this game, I wouldn't be OUT of points, but there would be a very real possibility that I wouldn't be able to afford Cave Story, whose price has been stated to be between 500 and 1000 Wii points. (That's the equivalent of $5-$10.)
And yeah, I'm not going to go out and get more Wii points, not for the sake of this.
---
On a slightly off-topic note, I realized while writing this that, if WiiWare and similar digital distribution methods for video games takes off and becomes really successful? It could be the death knell of the used game industry. It's pretty much the only way the big names in the VG industry could put an end to used games, like they've been trying to do from the very beginning-- and it's surprisingly plausible. That's actually really scary.
I thought about that because I realized that, unlike with Dissidia and Birth By Sleep, I won't be able to buy a used copy of The After Years a few years down the road, thus depriving Squenix of profit from the purchase. That's kind of annoying. |
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| Hehehe |
[Jun. 2nd, 2009|06:40 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  accomplished | ] |
So guess who got his hands on a copy of Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles today.
Yyyyup.
Of course, you have to unlock the port of Symphony of the Night. Which requires playing the main game (a 3D remake of Rondo of Blood for the SNES). And the main game is a bitch. Thankfully, though, I managed.
So far? I'm liking SoTN a LOT better than the main game. Mainly because the main game is... well, it's hard in the way that only an old game can manage to be. It's not just hard, it's Nintendo Hard™.
;A;
But yes. Definitely approved. |
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| Wherein Matt gains a new fandom |
[May. 31st, 2009|01:36 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | What is a man!? | ] |
| [ | music |
| | The Megas - Promise of Redemption | ] |
So I finally found out that Castlevania III is available on the Virtual Console, so I shelled out a few bucks to get it. I got the cartridge off eBay years and years ago, you see, along with the first two games, but it turned out, the cartridge was defunct and I was pretty much gypped out of it. Until now.
Aaaaand now I think I've officially been upgraded to Castlevania fan.
Well, I got into it a little bit back when I first started playing the first two games, but I never really bothered to delve into the series's plot and characters back then.
Now I'm really itching to try out the Metroidvania-type games later in the series. I'm currently trying to work out how to get my hands on a copy of Symphony of the Night; preferably the PSP port. I mean, hey, CV3 is pretty cool, but the gameplay style of the later games looks downright awesome, and hell yeah I want a piece of that.
In the mean time, I'll just be over here getting the crap beaten out of me by gargoyles and wondering if I should have taken Grant instead of Sypha. Sigh.
Unrelated: Hahaha I want this so bad. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 21st, 2009|09:55 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | quixotic, pissed | ] |
Some days, I love Square-Enix.
Some days, though, I think they need to die in a fire.
What the fuck, Square. What the FUCK.
I... was even considering buying CT:DS, as it happens. But now, I'm gonna need to take a long hard think about my priorities with respect to this company. This behavior is nothing less than ludicrous, and if it's all for the protection of their financial success from such a... frankly imaginary assault, then I frankly want no part in said financial success.
Their rationale is that the makers of CT:CE intended to encourage the illegal download of ROM images (I think their wording was that they "[intended] to instruct others how to circumvent [their] copy protection"), which is grade A horseshit. As is tradition in the modding community, they never encouraged the illegal download of ROMs, and in fact adamantly encourage others not to partake if they do not own a legal copy of the game. (And CT doesn't even have copy protection.) And the use of ROM images as a backup copy of games one legally owns has a history of being upheld in court as an example of fair use. Legally? They might be able to win this thing, if they had the money to take it to court.
But that's just it:
"We do not accept the validity of Square Enix's claims, nor the legal rationale underpinning their position. Nonetheless, we are complying with their demands so as to avoid the expenses and burdens of litigation, because, frankly, they can afford a frivolous lawsuit more than we can."
Realistically? I don't think I can see myself opting out of a couple of their future releases, so I know this is all going to fall flat in a few months, but... argh. I just want to stew for a while. I can't believe the sorts of things people can get away with by throwing money around.
And that, really, is the saddest part, if you ask me. Square Enix gets to throw a spoiled hissy fit like this, they get to play Goliath to the fan community's David, and at the end of the day? People still want what they're marketing. I'm not even an exception. That's the worst part.
/sigh |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 18th, 2009|06:12 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Utada Hikaru - Hotel Lobby | ] |
I try, you know? I try damn hard.
In a world where everyone seems to hate everyone else, I try to be the one that sees the good in people. I try to be the optimistic one-- to not let a dram of evil spoil all the noble substance, as it were.
So why does it seem like people are trying so damn hard to disprove that outlook? Everywhere I look, there seems to be a counterexample. Is there no room in this world for optimists?
Assuming the best of people always seems to get you screwed over, too. So I'm naive, then? Is the line between optimism and naivete so fine as to be nonexistent?
...
A lot of what's bothering me is people's attitudes towards other people. Sometimes it seems... that ideas are more important than people.
What do you mean by that, Matt?
Well...
(I'm only using this overly specific pseudo-hypothetical situation because I failed at racking my brain for a purely hypothetical situation to explain what I meant.)
Say there's a thread in a forum about a controversial topic. Well... not even controversial; this "debate" is pretty one-sided, with the majority of people having severe objections to one particular side, with varying levels of rationality.
The OP of the thread, however, is picking up the unpopular side and defending it. He does this pretty competently-- but takes a lot of flak for being on the "bad side", whether or not he actually "agrees" with it, as such.
Say that I then decide to post in this thread. I say that I don't really agree with the unpopular side, but admit that my reasons for doing so may be irrational, and for that reason I'd rather not debate for or against it, given that I'm uninformed on this topic and find it uncomfortable to discuss anyways. Additionally, I state my reservations against the prospect of depicting the other side in a strongly negative light, given that I myself have had opinions that have been treated this way. And finally, I commend the OP on his courage for taking up such an unpopular side and defending it, in spite of all the abuse he's getting.
Cue the crapstorm. I'm accused of pandering to this side, of being "hyper-PC", and basically am looked at as a wet noodle. And, of course, you can tell by the language that the response uses that I am now officially lumped in with the unpopular side.
A lot of people's reputations in the forum in question are tainted due to the fact that they dared to defend the "bad side".
So... yeah. Ideas become more important than people. My efforts to support a person got interpreted as support for an idea, as if the two had become synonymous.
Of course... ideas are important. I won't pretend they aren't. But where's the line? When do they become so important that people stop mattering? And how many people am I going to alienate by thinking that they really don't?
And that's the kicker, really. If you try not to alienate people, you get alienated.
And this isn't even all I'm complaining about. Just a small bit of it. There are countless other ways that optimism seems to become a flaw, a maladaptation.
So, is that it? Am I in fairyland for still wanting to be that kind of person? Am I naive?
Fuck me sideways. I'm too optimistic to believe it. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 14th, 2009|08:27 pm] |
Oh, I forgot to mention. I got my AA degree last week. So, yeah, my time at Green River is -officially- done.
I keep forgetting to mention that. Mainly because it doesn't actually change anything Re: my immediate situation. orz
BUT HEY, lol!degree. |
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| Lol nostalgia |
[May. 13th, 2009|12:53 pm] |
So I dug out my old copy of Kingdom Hearts II today. And I'm discovering a whole bunch of new things about it.
I used to think the Negative Combo ability was useless or something. Now I know why it's there, orz. Slow Matt is slow.
Also, it turns out, even though he's normally immune to magic and I went all these years thinking magic was useless in this fight-- Reflect DOES damage Sephiroth. In fact, if you time it right, it damages him a whole fucking lot. Seriously, I've seen a single Reflect take out half a lifebar from this guy. (though, given that I've never played without the Magic specialty, your mileage may vary.)
Also, are the Paradox Cups unlocked based on your level? Because I've only got two and apparently that's what I need to do in order to finally complete Jiminy's Journal. Oh, and my level is 80 if that matters for anything.
brb being a completionist |
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| Fffff |
[Apr. 29th, 2009|10:35 pm] |
So for some reason, both AIM and MSNger aren't working for me.
Like, they'll let me sign in? But then the windows freeze and I can't do anything.
WHY BOTH OF THEM AT THE SAME TIME
this is very annoying
Am I showing up as online on either one, guys? |
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| ಠ_ಠ |
[Apr. 19th, 2009|04:22 pm] |
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^ So I know how to type that face without copy/pasting now |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 16th, 2009|06:55 pm] |
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Am I the only one who thinks that the criteria required to avoid the Bad Ending in Persona 4 were not unreasonable? |
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| Well shit. |
[Apr. 12th, 2009|06:32 pm] |
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Now I want easter candy. -.- |
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