Dragon Age 2: Review

It's been a while since I finished Dragon Age 2 and I meant to write a review on it but forgot until now. Better late than never! (Actually, no one cares so... yeah) I have a feeling this review will not be very organized in any way whatsoever. It will probably be all over the place and long long winded so be prepared! I've added little "titles" to each paragraph so you can pick what you want to read. This was done after having written the thing though so the whole thing still reads like one unified review.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

From the get-go I will admit that I was VERY biased going into this game. People had already been complaining about how bad it was and I had several friends constantly talking about how bad the story was and how bad the bugs were... etc etc. I bought this SIXTY dollar game with the mind-set of "This is probably going to suck." But that's what series loyalty does to ya. Dragon Age: Origins was so amazing that no matter what other people said I just HAD to play the sequel myself.

Story
But where to start in reviewing this thing? Story I guess. At first I didn't even try to follow with the story. "It was bad." was all that was imprinted in my mind and I found myself doing other stuff while the cut scenes were going on. Now that is 70% my fault. I had this bias and I wasn't willing to give it my full attention. It's no wonder that I felt the story seriously boring at first. But then it occurred to me that there was no way I was going to enjoy even a moment of this if I didn't pay attention. So I started to really invest myself in the cut scenes and found to my surprise that I was enjoying the game more.

Story & Quests
Even having started paying attention though (or perhaps because of it) I could plainly see the flaws all over this story. I would rather call this game a story of many stories with every story having one thing in common: Hawke. Problem was its very structure. The story of many stories thing didn't work. It just felt like one bothersome task after another all the while wondering what the heck my main quest was. The fact that the main quests felt like (and had the depth and length of) any other side quest was seriously wrong wrong wrong. Side quests are supposed to be little things that I can go off and do on my own but main quests are always supposed to be the thing that pulls me back to the story and re-immerses me in the game. That didn't happen. DA2's main attraction was side quests. Each "Chapter" all I was doing was clearing out all my side quests then doing the main quest just to unlock the next batch of side quests. The main quests weren't main quests at all but side quest trigger markers.

Quest Comparison
Let's compare the quests to DA:O (though some people don't like comparisons). DA:O had many tiers of quests: Main quest, Main quest's sub-quests, side quests, and mini side quests. Main quest was the big looming thing that was ALWAYS there. The thing you got at the beginning of the game and basically stayed with you the whole game: The recruitment process. This quest WAS the game. It was the outlying main thing that was always clear as the main thing and always guiding you. Main quest's sub-quests were quests that you got while doing the main quest (example: Main quest is to go to Redcliff and recruit Eammon. Main quest's sub-quest is saving the demon child).  Side quests were things like getting Shale, "killing" Flemeth, things from the Chantry board. Mini side quests were things like the Chasind markers in the wilds when you go out with the Wardens the first time, finding random people and telling giving them messages.. etc. Now, compare THAT with DA2's "side quest and mini side quest" quest structure. That's ALL that game was. There was NEVER a real main quest like in DA:O. Any dubbed "main quest" in DA2 had less depth than DA:O's main sub-quests. They were usually over very quick and constituted of you meeting people, talking briefly, then killing them.

Characters / Hawke
Enough on that. Let's go into characters. Why does Hawke not feel like a true hero? Because he's not. I'm not even sure why Kirkwall would name him the Champion in the first place. Yeah, sure he defeated the Arishok but a feat like that basically gets you a "thanks for the help dude" medal and a good-job slap on the toosh... NOT overwhelming influence over everything in the city. Hawke basically became the Whimsical Police. If Hawke had said "Hmm.. yes, I see. Your problems are grave indeed... but man, you're just SO ugly. Sorry dude, I gotta kill you." in a side quest, I don't think I would even have blinked. Hawke kills anything and everyone totally based on his own whims. This does NOT a hero make.

Aveline
What about the other characters? Aveline? What's wrong with you bitch? You're CAPTAIN of the GUARDS. "Mmm, yes Hawke... I completely disagree with your decision to slash and hack these poor people down and you just got +10 rivalry with me but oooh what the hey! Killing people is fun, I'll help!" She shows NO back bone about anything Hawke does. The most you get from her is a "HMPH!" You'd expect more from someone who looks like she was carved out of stone (meaning she looks blocky...).

Meredith
I initially really liked Meredith and her quests. I was very interested to see what she does with the Eluvian. So I got to the part where she's convinced she needs to see the demon again and we go to the mountain, yadda yadda, oh noes, Keeper Merethari. Wah. Then it's like the story just vanishes. Did I miss something? Was I supposed to trigger something else? I really feel like I missed something. She just drops the whole thing after the Keeper dies. I mean I COULD understand why if you attribute associated guilt to the whole thing (meaning she feels guilty about killing the Dalish clan and sees the Eluvian as the source of all her woes and decides to abandon it). But maybe this could have been shared with me? I mean come on I faced fricking DEMONS for your damn mirror, girl! Least you can do is let me know how the project is going on. For all I know this point may be invalid. I may have been supposed to go to her house and talk to her and stuff... I honestly don't remember if I did or not. All I remember is that this story was one of the better ones and it just kinda ended abruptly.

Bugs
I'm not going to go into all the characters, that would be too long winded even for me. So let's move on to something everyone loves to hate: Bugs. Stuff disappearing on me was a common problem. Everyone knows that when you kill a big dragon in Dragon Age this epic cut scene is supposed to happen with your character jumping on to the head and striking a sword between the beast's eyes to slay the thing once and for all! Yeah um.. my dragon disappeared. My character jumped into the air, landed on something invisible and started fighting said invisible thing. She swung around wildly and whipped out her greatsword majestically and went BAM!... into thin air. Good job Kirisone (Hawke), well done, my girl.
Then there's Fenris's quest of finding this woman whose name I forget and making her talk or something. I forget. But it's where you pick up that slave elf girl.. Orana? Is that her name? Again, I forget. I had to do this twice. Partly my fault I guess but Bioware should have seen this coming and prevented this. I thought, "hey, can I just go do Fenris's quest without him? I really don't feel like heading back to some place I can switch characters at.." and proceeded into the cave. Yes, you CAN do the quest without him. It just bugs out. You get some cut scenes and again my Hawke is interacting with something invisible. Namely, Fenris. He's not there but the cut scene acts like he is. His voice comes out of thin air too! Aveline was randomly chosen to be omitted from the cut scene in order to "make room" for Fenris. But after dealing with Orana (I made her my paid servant), four of my companions got points in the friends/rival meter. Aveline, Varric, and Anders (who were in my party)... and Fenris. Then we get to the end and this invisible man thing happens again with that woman we were after. She dies but I can't get the conclusion of the quest because Fenris isn't there (but he just was for the cut scene?). So I go out, bring Fenris, and walk all the way back to that damned corpse to try to trigger the end of the quest. Nope. No can do. I had to reload a previous save.
Then there was this thing with my girl's armor. The gauntlets she was wearing were shorter-than-typical gauntlets. It only went like a quarter of her arm instead of the standard half of the arm. This caused my character to have a gap in her arms between her armor arms and her gauntlets. There was just this blank hole that you could see through. Oh my god! Kirisone, stop having sex with Fenris! His invisible man syndrome is contagious! (And yes, I fucked Fenris once. One night stand. I then proceeded to make teh lovez with Anders.)
In one side quest this girl was kidnapped. I was supposed to go to the Wounded Coast to find their secret hideaway and rescue the girl. I think I found them... you turn right at the beginning and then turn right again soon after and there's this off-to-the-side little clearing. Except when I went there, there was this one Bandit Leader standing there just doing the idle motion animations. I couldn't talk to him or do anything. I thought maybe the game needed restarting. I went back to Hawke's house, quit the game, restarted, went back to that alcove... and deeerp. The Bandit Leader is apparently blind and deaf.

The Dialogue Wheel / Voice Acting and Hawke
I'm sure tons of people think the same thing.. but the dialogue wheel was awful. She said stuff that I didn't mean to say at all. The dialogue wheel is at fault for making me feel really distanced from my character. In DA:O I LOVED my character. I had her personality down. She was awesome and I just loved controlling her not only for her awesome damage but because I liked her and I liked BEING her. The only reason I liked controlling Kirisone Hawke was that she dished out damage. I wanted to give her a personality but the dialogue wheel and voice acting completely ruined any sense of her being my own. I get that it's a preset character type thing but isn't this supposed to be an RPG? Bioware really screwed up in trying to give you a preset character you could customize. It just didn't work. If you just give the player a preset character who will act a certain way no matter what with the choices given to you being only very basic... then the player will easily accept that and move on. After all, that's just how the character is! But Bioware tried this thing where Hawke is both preset and personal. It failed. Most of the time the personality I had in mind for Hawke wasn't an option on the dialogue wheel... Even if it was she said it completely wrong. Then there's some cut scenes in which you don't control Hawke's speech. Such as at the end when you're about to face which ever enemy you chose (I was facing the Templars) and she gives this speech of motivation. I'm just sitting there thinking, "my Hawke would NEVER give a cheesy speech like this." Oh, and don't even get me started on the jokes/sarcastic responses. They just made me cringe.

The Good
So far I've been pretty harsh and spoke only about the bad. So here's a section on the good. Combat. I went back and played a bit of DA:O after I finished DA2. The combat there was pretty slow and a bit awkward at times. DA2's combat was a lot more polished and fast paced. Making you feel like you were accomplishing more and that you were more bad ass. Which I suppose is the effect they were going for.
Some of the stories weren't that bad either. This game was, as I said, a story of stories. Some of the stories actually were pretty good. The only downside was that they were still side quests and so were cut short.
The character level up interface. I really liked that they explained everything this time and showed directly the changes. In DA:O, when I first started, I was a bit confused about what each stat did. Of course I had prior knowledge as well as the explanations they offered. But the difference was that when you put points into Dex in DA2 you saw the Critical points going up on the side. There was no doubt about what it was going to do and the explanation clearly states what takes Dex. DA:O's explanation of "piercing weapons" did leave me to assume some things.
Graphics. I'm not just talking quality. I don't know what it is with DA:O but I cannot run that game well on my computer. It has such bad frame rate issues. Issues that I did not have at with DA2. Perhaps this is a localized difference but for me, DA2 ran a lot smoother. People with good computers are probably thinking "pft wtf, get a better computer." But not really an option for me and that was just my own personal experience.


Conclusion
Dragon Age 2 is by no means a horrible game. I actually think it's a lot better than a lot of people give it credit for. It's just the fact that it has a masterpiece called Dragon Age: Origins to compare to really make DA2 look dismal. That does not excuse its faults though. Going back to DA:O after DA2, I realized that the crucial difference between the two was depth. This occurred to me while I talked to the Ash Warriors in the camp at Ostagar. The number of dialogue options and how far they delved into the Ash Warriors just struck me. Ash Warriors have damn near NOTHING to do with the story at all. They're just there to give it flavour and add to the realism. They are not important at all... yet they were given so much depth and information.. While as DA2 spent not even half the amount of info on real important things. DA2 just lacked depth. This huge review is hardly enough to cover stuff they did wrong. I'd give the game a 6.5/10... and trust me if I wasn't conscious of how long my posts are, I could talk a lot more on this game.

The Norm and The Different

So here's something that's always rather tugged at me as annoying: people who dislike the norm because it is the norm. Instead they opt for something out of the way in order to be "different." Let me ask you people, why does it matter?

These people are so bent on being an individual and not letting society shape who they are that they'll consciously dodge the things trending in society. But isn't that just a little bit silly? I knew a guy who liked Angelina Jolie as an actress. He claimed that he was a fan of her long before she become REALLY famous. But then he said to me, "but I don't like her anymore. Everyone else likes her now." Excuse me? So you're going to let the fact that other people like her sway YOUR judgment on her into a dislike. That does not scream individualism to me; that screams that you're just as much a "slave" to trends as you think those who follow it are.

Why these people think social trends are so awful is a mystery to me. Most of them say that they refuse to go with the crowd; that they will be their own person. But as I have just pointed out, these people are letting society shape them just as surely as if they were following them. You can't be a social animal (and if you wish to be a human then yes, you are a social animal. I don't care what you think you are. It doesn't even matter if you're an anti-social human; you're still a social animal.) and seek to escape the social trends. You can certainly dislike or disagree with things society does or likes. For instance when rap songs were all the rage I hated them so much. But not because I didn't want to follow a trend but because I honestly didn't like the rap songs. I like songs I can sing along to and with rap songs it's more like... speaking along. I also hated the attitude of "whoa man look at mah bling bling with these ho's dancin' and shakin' their booty."

So yes, you CAN dislike something that's trending. I am certainly not saying you can't. But to run away from trends is just silly. If you REALLY want to be an individual how about making your own judgments? When that new Lady Gaga song comes on the radio, don't let the first thought be "Oh its Lady Gaga, everyone likes her so I must hate this" but try judging it yourself. I have nothing against people who actually don't like her songs and her style. That's fine. Just don't judge everything relative to whether everyone else likes or dislikes it.

Then there's the flip side of people who want to be different but do so in a way that everyone else who wants to be different does it so in fact they end up not being very different at all. That was a bit of a weird, confusing sentence so let's give a really simple example: teenage goth kids. My apologies if you're that way because you like that style or because you think that reflects who you are. Then I have no qualms with you. But what about those people who are like, "I want to be different. Hey, those goth kids are different! I'll be like them." That's rather counter-intuitive of you, newly-turned-goth-kid. You want to be different from one group so you'll be different with another group...? I understand that it's a smaller group but at the same token, it's still a group. You're not being different.

I think a huge problem with these people is that they really want to be different and an individual; they want to be their own person but they don't yet know who that person is. So they just try to be different by avoiding the norm. These people really need to realize this. Their end goal is not to be different but to be an individual. Instead of wasting time running from trends, how about you spend that time trying to find out who are you are? When you first encounter something, always just go with your gut on whether you like or dislike it. No more thoughts on whether anyone else likes it or not because honestly, that's just plain silly.

Fair Play: Back Dooring

In every game there's something which someone, somewhere thinks is cheap or unfair. It's completely within the rules of the game yet they still think it's unfair and that you should not do it. They even go as far as to talk shit to you about it.

Take League of Legends for example. A game that a lot of you are familiar with. I'm sure all of you have heard of back dooring. It is when a champion goes up to a turret with no minions by their side and "tanks" the turret while just proceeding to take down the turret. While I find this very annoying I don't actually think it's unfair. Just looking at the word "unfair" is enough to explain why. Fairness. Equality. The lack of thus qualities is what constitutes "unfair." The back dooring of turrets is fair because no matter what character I am, I, too, could build up tons of health/armor items and go do the same thing to their turret. It is fair because I can do it too. I DO, however, think it's pretty lame for someone to JUST back door turrets. You know, when they spend the entire game just running up to the turret, hitting it, dying (either by turret or by someone coming to defend it), then revive, do it again. THAT is lame because it's not fun for either team.

However there are some people who have a HUGE problem with back dooring. I've heard that it is considered very rude, comparable, say, to walking all over a park flower bed. You damaged it and it's not illegal to walk on it.. but it's rude. I can understand that. It's very annoying and frustrating to deal with so I can understand why some people have a problem with it. It is NOT okay, however, for these people (meaning those who have a problem with it) to start conducting themselves in a derogatory manner. "You beeping piece of beep beep. That's so NOOB you BEEP." Yeah.. no.

Then there's the people who broaden the term of back dooring. On my team, I'm the resident back doorer. But not because I go up to turrets and tank it while killing it.. No. Because while my team engages them in skirmishes and battles, I go and push lanes and kill turrets WITH minions. This is another type of back dooring to be sure. However, I find that this one you REALLY can't complain about. Why? Because you had at LEAST a minute warning of me coming to hit even ONE auto attack on that turret. I am in plain sight the whole time hitting these minions. You know I'm pushing the lane. You know I'm going to follow my minions up and hit that turret. If you chose to ignore me and engage the rest of my team or go jungling or dragon or whatever have you... then that's not my fault. That's your own neglect. If you're neglecting your turret then hell yes I am going to go hit that baby up and call social services. (For those of you who don't know... I call turrets babies. "Top baby!" and "Bottom baby!" is something you hear a lot if you play with me. It's me crying for someone to go defend that baby.)

Yet people still feel the need to complain. "Fking Teemo back doorer!" "I'm pushing the lane..?" "If there's a team fight you HAVE to be there. You can't be hitting turrets!" Really? Please... point me towards the league of legends rules where it says I HAVE to be in a team fight or that your neglected baby can't be killed while you erm.. neglect it. Get this through your minds people... there's a huge difference between "annoying" and "fair play." Yes, I DO know that my push-lane-back-dooring tactic is annoying. But I ALSO know that it is neither illegal nor even rude. Actually, other than back dooring without minions, I don't really know of anything else that people widely consider "unfair" or "rude" in league of legends. Let me know if you know of any... I'm curious to know.

Traitors Must Die

So, I've picked up a web browser game called WarFlow a couple months ago... It's not the most amusing thing in the world and is basically built up of casual gamers who just like to click at things once in a while.. which is basically the reason I play it. While I wait for LoL to load or my videos to process I like to just click at it. The game takes no skill and is basically a little time occupier. Anyways let's move on to the real topic here.

So, one of the guiding quests is to join a Legion (a guild)... so I open up the legion window and look through the list of legions. There's nations and Legions are nation limited so my choices were narrowed down to legions in Volpugny (my nation). The two top legions of V nation AND the server were Demonz and Oblivion. Demonz was ranked number 1 and had more members. Oblivion had less members than Demonz (but still a fair lot) but a higher legion level (Demonz 49 vs Oblivion 57). Then I looked at the names... some how, to me, Demonz sounded really immature and the type that people with big egos would go while as Oblivion sounded more mature. Besides, Oblivion had a higher legion level. This is how I chose to join Oblivion. Mind that I had NO knowledge of either legions other than name, legion level, number of members. I chose at whim.

(Back story time, skip to next paragraph if you're not interested.) I think I can say that I'm a fairly average person and that most people pick with equal nonchalance in this game. Let me add that as the top two legions, Demonz and Oblivion are fierce fierce rivals. And although Demonz was ranked number 1 it was only because someone (Glintek) spent a lot of real money to level up its "prestige" level. When it came to legion wars between D and O, Oblivion always won. A little drama sprouted a month or so ago when the leader of Demonz had his legion forcefully taken from him by a member who had more "contribution points" than him and so by the game rules had the power to take the legion. People got pissed. Tons of people left Demonz for Oblivion. The Demonz leader came to Oblivion too. Glintek, the guy who took it, wasn't president for long. I don't really know why he left Demonz but he did. He said Demonz people were widely bullies (the other prominent Demonz member is GTR who really IS an asshole) and didn't want to be associated with that anymore and left it... for Oblivion. People got VERY pissed. They started cussing him out in Nation chat, having huge arguments. They'd basically internet bully him 24/7. Then he kinda snapped. He started cussing back and said ridiculous things like how he was going to find that guy who insulted him and go slit his throat. His crazy out bursts got him kicked from Oblivion. Not too long later, a new server came out and the players of this game just make a hobby or habit out of starting anew with each server. Tons of the strong players of Oblivion left for the new server but I didn't follow. I just stayed. Oblivion is still rank 2 but we were now missing a lot of strong, active players. Two of our very few remaining strong players, Staci and Zaan, decided to leave for Demonz.

(Back to the real topic now.) Now what is my point in telling you all this? It's to look at the people's reactions to the whole legion loyalty thing. Very few people join a legion in this game knowing the people in it or anything else about it and yet they very fast develop a sense of loyalty to it. Upon hearing that Glintek went to Oblivion, the rival guild, Demonz people were so damn pissed! How COULD he be such a traitor? How COULD he go to the ENEMY? Funny thing is that if you had moved your mouse down a centimeter and clicked the button there instead, you would have been in Oblivion, not Demonz. There's absolutely no difference between D people and O people. Just that they clicked different buttons. Yet there was so much hate going on between the two. I at first found it ridiculous. How could they harass a guy so much just because he switched up legion on a stupid browser game? Those people should totally chill the fuck out. But then when Staci and Zaan left for Demonz guess what I felt? Betrayal. How could they leave us? How could they go to Demonz of all places?! I was never close to either of them. Never spoke to them much or anything but I was still rather unhappy with their decision.

Why? I didn't look shit up or anything like that but it's just probably natural human social instincts kicking in. Humans are social animals. We automatically like to group up and then become very hostile to others who are not in our group. This made sense way back when: when a wrong move could get you killed with people you didn't know. But I guess even nowadays this instinct has come with us which gives fuel to discrimination of all kinds (racism being way up there). But it sure can lead to some very silly fights on a very silly place called the internet.

We are so very quick to stereotype, judge, and categorize. In all wars the soldiers were taught to see the opposition as evil. What kind of army would tell you, "that guy on the other side, he's just like you. He has a family, friends, a whole life story to tell, just like you. He has hopes and goals, likes and dislikes, hobbies and skills, just like you." ? Most soldiers probably didn't even have to be brain washed much (until it was you know, the time to actually pull the trigger). Just the fact that they're on opposite "teams" is enough. Moving away from the serious stuff... what about high schools? You guys have that rival high school when you were in HS? Mine certainly did. Kids from each school liked to go to the other one and scrawl their own HS name on the walls and doors of the other school.

Even knowing all this though, I find it very hard to get myself away from that group-mindset. I still see a lot of Demonz as assholes because a couple of them really are assholes. So not only are we quick to develop loyalty, we're are quick to develop hostility to others... regardless of how much (or little) we know about them. Funny isn't it?

Save The Date: OCD

I want a post for today... but it will be past midnight soon and must post this now in order to preserve the "real" date of May 20. It will profoundly bother me otherwise.

12:05 am... Technically May 21, but to me it is May 20th and so I had to actually post this before midnight and then come back to edit it when I have time.. like now. I didn't have anything planned to write about today so I guess this will suffice: my detail obsession. The reason I can't have this post be on May 21st is.. actually, two reasons: first off, to me, this post belongs on the 20th so it has to say the 20th; secondly, if it makes it on the 21st and then on the real 21st I want to post another blog post, it will mean I have two posts on the 21st which is not how I want it to be. One blog post on a day. I'm very particular when it comes to stuff like that.

In my old (and first) blog I used to manually time stamp EVERYTHING. Beginning of post had to be time stamped, if I went afk for a while I had to time stamp my leave and return, once in a while randomly I'd time stamp, then at the very end I'd time stamp. Why? I have no clue. For some reason it felt really important for me to mark down at which time I wrote the post and how long it took me and at what various times I wrote certain things or did certain things. Of course looking back and reading them now it makes no difference to me and I do not care one bit. But those details and jotting them down was like an obsession for me. To not do it felt really awkward.Then there's my real life journals: the ones done in actual hand. The date must be written down in a certain order: Day of the week, Month, Day, Year, Time. Then at the end must be the time. It annoys me so much because I often forget this order and have to check it from the last entry again. Sometimes it's not even that I forgot.. it's that I remember and have written it down correctly but STILL have to check that it's correct because it MUST NOT BE INCORRECT. Why? I don't know. It just can't. It'll feel wrong and tear at my chest if it is wrong.

Then there's other things beyond time keeping that I'm particular and meticulous about. Dashes vs colons. You know like when you take notes lots of people do definitions and after the word being defined is either a dash or a colon (for me anyways... it's never anything else). In long notes that have other stuff in between the definitions though I some times forget what I used before... dash or colon? If I use the wrong one I HAVE to fix it when I notice or it will nag at me... as well as when I get to the next one I will have a fierce indecision about which one to use.

I have a bad habit when reading a fast paced section of a book to kind of skimming over and picking out the important parts and dialogue. But while most people would just read on after that if they did such a thing, I cannot. I MUST go back and read the words that I missed. I don't really know how I keep track of which individual words I did or did not read but I will pick out the words/sentences that I did not read and read those in order to move on. It doesn't matter how trivial the word. I even have to read stupid things like "and she replied" or even "the" or "and." If I do not do this, moving on in the book will feel WRONG. I will feel rather uneasy or even stressed if I do not do this.

On a visit to a psychologist I asked her about my peculiar behaviour and she remarked that it sounds like OCD: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. She said from what she can tell I have a minor case of it and that if it bothers me so then I should consciously try to fight it. Which is why you don't see time stamps on this blog other than the one at the top of this one which isn't really there as a time stamp but as a part of the sentence it's in.

OCD can be pretty serious and it makes life hard for some people. I'm pretty glad that I only have a minor case. However, it seems to be some what of a trend these days for people to say they have OCD. Whether they really do or not, I don't know. But I hear way too many people casually throwing around phrases like "my OCD just kicked in" or "I can't do that cause of my OCD." Some how it seems to be teenagers who say this sort of stuff a lot too. I think some kids are getting rather confused between OCD and a strong preference for doing things a certain way. Being self-righteous does not equal OCD. Being a bossy know-it-all does not equal OCD. Being a picky ass bastard does not equal OCD. I even had someone tell me once about a movie they saw where this girl is really OCD and has to pick up all the bread crumbs on the table and how he thought that was so cool and how he was going to do that from now on. What? That's ridiculous and stupid. OCD is not cool. It's a mental illness.

The question just asks itself though: WHY? Why are there some people who think OCD is cool? If you're scratching your head wondering who in the world thinks OCD is cool or that you've never heard of this phenomenon before, just google "OCD is cool." I just did it and I'm glad to see though that there are other people out there who are rather "raise brow" at the OCD-is-cool trend.

You Still Listen To Your Mom?

Before we get on to today's topic:

Naizy said...

Wanna post any photos of yourself?

16 May 2011 07:59 

Dunno if you're aware but on my YouTube channel, under Other Channels, is a link to entitled1's Channel which is my old YouTube account which DOES have a picture of me on the profile. But I guess the photo is a bit small on there so here is a picture that is a bit normal sized. Now that we've established that I'm not a mere talking potato, let's move on.

It interesting what listening to your mom means in this western internet society. Not saying everyone thinks like this but there's the flying stereotype that anyone who listens to their mom is still very much a child or a loser. In real life this is less remarked upon (for in real life most cannot deny the power of their own mother on one's self) but on the internet I notice this a lot more. This probably has to do with the fact that there's another stereotype of the "momma's-basement-gamer." You know, the 40 year old basement dwellers... Now that's pretty extreme from even my point of view; but let's move on to something a bit normal.

A 18 year old playing a game gets called away by his mother to take out the garbage. "One sec guys, my mom wants me to take out the garbage." While with most friends and mature peers this is hardly worth noting other than perhaps a 5 minute wait for the guy, to some others just the fact that that sentence had "my mom" in it is enough to start making stupid judgments or stupid "jokes." These types of people are usually just trolls but from my perspective, something like this just bothers me. It may have to do with the fact that people have judged me and my interactions with my mother my whole fricking life.

Here's the major difference: I'm Asian. Other Asians out there will probably agree with me when I say that the relationship between child and mother in western-North American society and eastern-Asian society is VASTLY different. I was rather dumb founded when my elementary school best friend (grade 4) said to me that her mom wanted to be like her best friend to her (this was 2 years after my immigration to Canada). Mom and best friend being synonymous? Or even, just mom and friend?! Unheard of! Of course on the flip side, my friends always thought it really weird the way I kept having to refer to my mother for ANYTHING even beyond elementary school and into high school.

If I was a a friend's house and it was 6 pm I HAD to call home to just check in with my mom. It didn't matter that I had pre-arranged this get together 3 days ahead and my mother knew full well that I was sleeping over. Nope. 6 pm, I had to call. I forgot to call once when I was in grade 8. Oh yeah, big punishment time. I also envied my friends' freedom to make spontaneous plans. "Hey Nicole, want to come over to my house after school today?" "Sure!" was something I NEVER could do. For me that conversation would go "Hey Lyn, want to come over to my house after school today?" "Uh.. I dunno, I have to check with my mom." *calls mom* "Mom, can I go over to Miranda's after school?" "What, all of the sudden?" "Yeah...?" "No. You have to make plans at LEAST a day in advance." After which ensues a sad face on my visage and a confused one on Miranda's. No, it absolutely did not matter that neither my mother nor I had any plans that day; it just mattered that it wasn't set up ahead of time.

I'm getting a bit off track here but I guess my point is that for people of some other cultures, mothers mean a lot more than just mother. It also means Boss Lady. Most Asian mothers never give up the role of Boss Lady until the day they die and most of their offspring will always respect them and their wishes until the day they themselves die. The hierarchy of the family is much more strong felt than in most western cultures. My cousin back in Korea (who is arrogant and violent enough to scare me though he was only 14 when I was there visiting and 16 now. He permanently damaged some girl's eye at school by pushing her up against a wall and spraying the fire extinguisher in her face... which btw could have killed her through suffocation) once said to his mother something along the lines of "don't treat me like a child" and boy did he get beat up by my aunt and uncle for that. Kids here say that ALL the time heh. Defiance of authority is not cute in Asia; you will get your ass fucking beat.

So, yes, I still listen to my mother. To be honest, my parents are still better than a lot of other Asian parents out there and through all my grumbling about them I can recognize that I'm lucky. Next time you hear something about someone's mom... don't judge, you have no idea what their relationship is like.

Sinovera, You Should NOT LP.

I've actually never had anyone tell me that. I've had people remark that my LPs suck or my gaming skills suck (which btw, I will wholeheartedly agree with) but not an absolute "NO!" The closest I guess is that funny troll on Kevin's page who blathered on about anything and anyone. Anyways, I find it so odd that I LP because there are so many reasons why my LPs suck ass.

To have an LP you must have a game. An LP usually is a series of videos that allows people to see your playTHROUGH of the game. Note the capitalized "THROUGH." I am SO bad about finishing games. I take forever to finish playing a game and the number of games I bought that I finished can be concluded on one hand. I get all excited and pick up a game start playing it like mad... then forget about it. It's bad I know, I'm sorry. My god damned Chrono Trigger LP probably will take forever to get finished. It's a miracle that I'm even so far in Psychonauts (I do have more videos right now btw, I just haven't gotten around to posting them). I post up my videos so slow that I'm amazed anyone really bothers to watch each one as they come out. Seriously, I'd have forgotten all about what was happening in the game or that person's progress if I watched someone upload as slow as I do.

One thing that can make me watch an LP from beginning to end is commentary. First off, not even going into the words spoken but let's talk about voice. I generally like male LPers better because for some reason I find female LPers to lack that certain spark of enthusiasm. You know, the kind of energy that comes through when the LPer shouts with joy and you can HEAR the real feeling behind it. I don't know.. I just haven't found any female LPer who FEELS the games like a lot of the male LPers I have found. I'm not trying to be sexist, I'm sorry ladies, but that's just how things have been going. Turning this criticism to myself, I.. don't know. I don't think I react to things as... erm, genuinely (?) as other LPers. The only situations where you'll hear me scream with real feeling is either I'm REALLY frustrated at the game (see psychonauts when game crashes repeatedly) or I get startled by something (which, being a fuck faced coward, I'm prone to). 

Then there's the words themselves. Raocow.. Oh Raocow, what can you say about HIS commentary? His blathering nonsensical commentary that some how still make some sort of sense has brought endless entertainment to me. NintendoCapriSun: I find his commentary sometimes a little immature. Some of the jokes he makes are kinda.. eh. You know? But one thing I do like about his commentary is his willingness to share his life with the audience. I love to hear about people's lives, what they feel as they go through it, their thoughts about their past, what they thought then, what they think now... etc. etc. It wouldn't work with anyone really young like myself but for someone his age (34 or 35 now?) it works because he actually DOES have a past to talk about.

I find in my own commentary... erm, I don't know.. Nothing? Random babbling at best? And here's the thing: I've lived my whole life as the shy person who doesn't say much. On the internet I've had some liberties with text chat which slowly moved into voice chat 4 years ago. Since then I've gotten a lot better with voice chat (though I still pretty much suck at real life talking). My point is that I'm not accustomed to talking nor talking fast. Therefore when I try to commentate I have a tendency to not have the words come to me as fast as I want them to. It comes to me in my head just fine. It's just that I'm a thinker, not a talker. Somewhere in the translation of thought to speech something goes amiss and sometimes it comes out in non-sense. I have to admit though, LPing is a great was to practice such speaking lol. And my final issue about my own commentary... mumbling. I have such a bad habit of mumbling. I don't enunciate the words precisely or sharply. I say them softly and jumbled together. I got told when in a French Speech Competition that I don't follow through my sentences to the end. Meaning I will start out pronouncing alright and progressively start mumbling or jumbling the syllables together. I do a little better when commentating because I try to be more aware of enunciating but I hate hearing my own voice through echo on Skype. My mumbling even makes ME cringe.

Now let's get to actual game play. I know, I know. You guys don't even NEED a paragraph on this. You all know it already. I suck. Puzzle solving, platforming, general directions... lolzwutizdis? Some people are just naturally good at all this. Well good for you. I'm not. Stop watching, gtfo. lol. It really is interesting though, I watch Toegoff's LPs and damn near scream at him at the obvious things he misses or his misinterpretations of things. They're SO obvious you moron, why you missing them?! But then I go play my own games and fail at them too so what dah fuck man, what can I say? Even Raocow sometimes fails so much it makes me sigh (If anyone watches him.. example: Megaman Rocks - Repoman). Sometimes I'm blind to the game too but the solution is obvious watching others play. But some times it's the prior knowledge that you have of the game that makes someone else not being able to figure stuff out really frustrating. Kind of like telling someone to go make an overlay glow on Photoshop when they have never even used Photoshop before. It's so simple and basic but if you don't know it then you don't know it. It really doesn't excuse a lot of my bad playing though. I suck at games and I know it. But I play them anyways and some people watch me, god knows why.

So summary: I take too long to post videos or finish LPs, my commentary is lacking, I mumble, I suck at games. So why do I LP? Because it's just something to do that's fun. It's interesting to see what kind of comments you get too heh. It's something I CAN do (no matter the quality of it :P) so *shrug* why the hell not. If you LP, why do you do it? Or why do you watch LPs (not just mine, I mean in general)? I expect answers to be mostly "for fun" or such like mine but idk maybe some people have other reasons? Le gasp!

The Ladies of The Internet

So this is a topic that's been circling around my mind for a while now: females on the internet. Throughout my whole internet "career" I have always preferred the company of males rather than females in anything internet related: games, chatting, um.. more games... However, in real life I have very few guy friends and much much prefer to be in the company of females. Thus, I wonder, why?

Upon examination of the females who roam the internet I have found there exists several categories: the socialist, the ditz, the tomboy, the woman, and the Queen. (As a disclaimer, of course these aren't ALL the categories nor does everyone fit into one or the other category... however, this is just a generalized satire if you get what I mean.) Let's go through them in order.

The Socialist: This is a group of women who enjoy, as the name clearly implies, socializing. Be it with other females or males, it doesn't matter. They are friendly and out going no matter the other's sex. They're often easily spotted by their use of simple smiley emots and easy acceptance of people. Socialists will easily flirt with males but not always... and when they do it's usually in a carefree manner that hints at just plain fun and jokes.

The Ditz: These are females who are prone to being or acting (let's HOPE it's acting) really fucking stupid. You know, the ones who use excessive exclamation marks and question marks???!?!???!????!!!! Ditz's are very prone to flirting and flirting badly. The kind of flirting that makes you kinda shake your head at best and gag at worst. Ditz's are also very eager to make their gender known to the public. They are those females who get all excited and bubbly when a 13 year old boy on call of duty asks "hey MissPussyKat r u really a girl?!?! R u hawt?" They revel in the attention of those poor deprived nerd boys and take any advantages they are given for being a girl. You can tell already what my feelings are towards this group. (Anyone from the Toegoff forums will recall MissGamerKitty.)

The Tomboy: These are females who are just... one of the guys. They don't normally show any desire to let their gender known; in fact, they usually have user names that barely hint at their gender, if at all. Their gender usually gets known to people from random conversation snippets or from voice chat (at which they are often met with "Whoa, you're a girl?" Or if they're like me it once again goes unnoticed in voice chat :P). Tomboys don't flirt much and their conversation style is usually more male-like than female. I find tomboys to be my second favourite of the groups here. They're easy to deal with and easy to make friends with.. for me anyways. Probably because a part of me is tomboy-ish.

The Woman: My favourite of the groups! These are females who are just... well, females. They're not overly proud of their sex like Ditz's are nor ambiguous like Tomboys. They let their gender be known but don't usually hold any particulars about it. They conduct themselves on the internet much like they would in real life – which is why I like them! They're usually fairly mature in mind and real age. They know how to have fun but they also know manners. (Again, anyone from Toegoff forums can recall MonstarCookies for this category. I greatly respect her for being a mature, respectable, well-mannered female denizen of the internet... yet she's still great fun to talk to :D )

The Queen: Ah... the Queen. These are females you may directly compare to Queen bees. They love to be in a group of males... but in a manner vastly different from the way a Tomboy is. As the name implies, they're the Queen of a group of males. They flirt with every one of them though often picking out a favourite. These unfortunate males range from being infatuated with the Queen or at the least thinking it's cool and awesome to have a girl amongst their midst. The Queen takes every advantage possible and basks in all the attention.
But beware! If another female approaches things WILL turn ugly. The Queen may choose a direct approach in being openly mean and spiteful towards the new addition. However, this is a dangerous path to tread for the Queen as her open hostility will make the males stop and wonder why (and perhaps even find out the fact that they're being used). More often than not a silent competition will ensue between the two females. Whether the other female is aware of it or not depends on what that female is. For example, if the other female is a Ditz, she will be very aware but at a vast disadvantage as she is much stupider and hold much less graces and charms as the Queen. If she is a Tomboy then she may or may not be aware but usually won't give a damn other than to think the Queen mighty stupid. And of course... God forbid you ever have two Queens butting heads!

Unfortunately, the internet is brimming with Ditz's and not nearly enough Women. Now, armed with this knowledge, go forth and STEREOTYPE my minions! >=D Um.. I mean, please remember that this is just satire and that not every female fits into just one category nor are exactly like I say they are. If you want to, try to guess which category(ies) I, or your female internet friend, fit in to!

And So It Begins...

On a rather negative note I might add. I've been meaning to start up a "Sinovera" blog for a long time now and am now starting precisely because of this "negative note" which I will go into in just a moment. I do already have a blog. Two, in fact. One has long since been retired, the other... is just hidden (kudos to anyone who finds it, it is indeed here on blogger, cause even if you do you will be barred from entry).

So, for many a weeks now I've been entertaining the idea of starting a new public blog. If you're any kind of a writer you'd know the feeling of having writing topics pop into your head and perfect little sentences playing out in your head while you nod and think that it's a marvelous idea... then promptly forget it the next day because you didn't bother to actually write the damned thing down. That's basically how things have been going for me for a long time now and I'm finally getting around to starting this thing because of one reason: I'm sick.

Yes, this is the negative note which I previously mentioned. I'm lying in bed right now, head propped up with two pillows, my laptop standing up on my hips and leaning on my legs in such a manner that if you were to take me and turn me 45 degrees I'd be in a perfect sitting posture with the laptop on my lap. This is indeed how I like to be on the computer when I'm not playing games simply because I'm such a lazy bugger that sitting up in itself is annoying. It is a strange sickness I'm going through. I constantly feel like I need food. Not hunger but a general feeling of lack of energy that I normally associate with when I haven't had food for over 10 hours (those darned League of Legends matches). Yet if I eat I start feeling nauseous. I'm light headed yet my head feels so heavy at the same time; I'm also prone to having my body heat fluctuate up and down. It is easily described as... annoying.

Now that complaining about that is out of the way, I guess as an introduction post I'll go over my writing style with you. I do this so that some of you may leave while you're ahead because number one is sure to turn off 90% of any audience I may have whatsoever (which fact I'm not so concerned about for this blog is, please excuse me for saying but, more for my own purpose than yours): so let's start.

Number one: my posts are long as fuck. Okay, scratch that, fucks aren't usually very long... But anyways, yeah, my posts are long. You'll more than likely see a huge wall of text on approaching this blog. If that's not your thing, feel free to leave.

Number two: I have a tendency to complain a lot. Feel free to leave or skip.

Number three: While for the most part being fairly grammatical I have tendencies towards over using commas and ellipsis (for those who don't know, ellipsis is the three dots: ... ); therefore I, more often than not, end up with run-on sentences. If THAT bothers you in a casual blog then you truly are a grammar Nazi and I respectfully ask you to get the fuck out.

Number four: I have no qualms about using profanities. (eg. Number one and three.)

Think that's about it for warnings and I don't think that they're all that bad, no? Just remember the number one rule on this blog: Problems? Get the fuck out.