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About Me

One paragraph synopsis? Hmmm...I guess I'm a little like André Jurieux, flouncing around like an idiot, breaking all the subtle rules of society, yet nobody stops to tell me because they figure I'm smart enough to know them by heart. And by the time someone does - IF they do - the angry mob is already banging at my door. Cue hilarious chase scene as I run toward the camera, necktie billowing against my surprised face. And all the time in the back of my mind I'm thinking "damn, this'll make a great short story."

I'm a student first, gamer second. I don't really have time for games during the school year. Blame my classes and Cracked.com. In terms of my profession, I'm currently a freelance short story writer looking for a publisher, and I just finished my freshman year at A Good School(tm) in The United States studying My Dream and Practical Alternative, dual major.

Gaming-wise, I play pretty much everything but strategy. Generally, my favorite games are atmospheric, story-heavy, and focus on thought over action, but I do love twitch first-person shooters and beat 'em ups. Also, I've had a weak spot for JRPGS ever since I watched Yuna and Tidus kiss in that goddamn spring when I was 12/13, so I have a tendency to get lost in them during the summer. Some of my favorite games are ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, Persona 3 FES, Persona 4, the Secret of Monkey Island, Doom, Okami, Ocarina of Time, Earthbound (replaying soon), Chrono Trigger, LIMBO, Klonoa 2, 999, GTA3, Knytt, and Ristar. I'm currently playing Fez (slightly disappointing), Fight Night: Champion (getting quite good at it, still afraid to go online), Rayman: Origins (fantastic), and Skyward Sword (someday I'll finish it). My most anticipated games right now are Bioshock: Infinite, Virtue's Last Reward (better known as Good People Die), the Last Guardian, and, of course, Persona 5.

Just some of my general positions on various gaming "issues" to make things easier: I'm an avid single-player gamer, and what multiplayer gaming I do indulge in is either in the same room with real-life friends or freeware shooters with friends who live far away. I'm not a fan of online gaming with strangers, and as such find MMOs and shooters like Call of Duty to be little more than well-constructed wells for 12-year-olds to throw their money and time in. I played WoW and respect its design tremendously, but it's definitely not my kind of game. I detest grinding of any type in any game anywhere, which has made classic JRPGs like FFVI nigh-impossible for me to play. I detest almost all moral choice systems, especially those with meters and metrics (exception: Catherine), and I find the black-and-white morality in games nowadays to be rather unfortunate. I'll update this as I think of things: it's 5 AM. Even writers/famous Paris aviators need sleep.

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Following (1)

Rant: Linearity in FFXIII Pseudo | 10:31 PM on 03.16.2010 18 comments

http://tindeck.com/listen/nkge This is the first of a series of unscripted rants created via a headset mic, Audacity, and a Notepad document with a one-sentence summary of what I want to convey to the listener. The last of these is designed to keep me on track, as I have been known to blather on and on about completely unrelated things when I attempt to record one of these rants. These rants are by there very nature raw and unedited, so if you think that I should stick to a script or try some post-production in order to smooth out some of the stuttering and other audio hiccups, please let me know. In other words, criticism is always welcome. This week, I stammer on for fifteen minutes about Final Fantasy XIII, a game that was recently ripped apart by Jim Sterling. Needless to say, I respectfully disagree with his take on the game. My problem isn't so much with him but with the entire reviewing establishment, as they seem to consider linearity to be a negative trait in a JRPG. This doesn't really follow for me; I've never played a non-linear JRPG, or at least one that had non-linear elements before the endgame. I also talk about the Active Time Battle system actually being active this time around, as opposed to the glorified turn-based combat that's in all the other Final Fantasy games I've played. Feedback is always appreciated. XXII