LONG BLOG
10 things you never asked for from The Silent Protagonist
Aw hell, I guess I'll join in on the fun. Plus I haven't blogged in a while and I could use a spontaneous topic. It will be interesting to see if I can even get to ten things about me.
(1) I'm 34.
No one quite believes me when I tell them this. Then again, I never shut up about video games so that's probably why. So yes, I'm as old as Jonathan Holmes if that's really that old. I'm not much on the social concept of being "grown up" anyway since its really not the same thing as being mature. I guess the only thing being my age as a gamer nets you is a vast exposure to nearly 30 years of video games.
My parents never should have taken me to see Tron at the age I had nothing but questions to ask. I asked "Can we go to an arcade?" and that was what ruined me in their minds.
(2) I have a JOURNALISM degree.
Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking at the time, but I was having too much of a good time being in student clubs and pulling a Game Boy Color out of my guitar case from time to time to care. That was back when Goldeneye and Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 were a thing, so when all the work was done those were good times. I would have Ryo talk to Tom in Shenmue and play my ocarina in Majora's Mask.
I started out with a major for broadcasting because I was told I had a great face for radio, but switched up to Journalism because I like bullshitting and I'm quite excellent at it. One day I was sick and threw together a conspiracy theory for the campus paper about why people came to Boone, NC to "see the leaves turn" every fall. Fuckers from the city were after our trees and oxygen, i still maintain that.
I also have a psych minor. That along with the Journo major just means i can say insightful shit or find questions that piss people off. Protip for our potential and current college crowd; ALWAYS ask your psychology professors questions. They love to talk about their studies and research, so much they might forget to assign you homework.
(3) A backpack saved my life.
You know how people say you should never wear your backpack on your shoulder? Those people don't know anything. I was hit by an SUV while crossing legally in a crosswalk. Got into that last lane almost at the sidewalk and some preacher's kid tagged me.
Just one of those "Oh shi-" moments.
Since I was still in college at the time, there were about six thick, heavy textbooks in that backpack between me and this Ford Explorer. Got knocked into the next crosswalk and gave the women's tennis team a nice traumatic shock. The preacher's kid got really religious if "ohmygodohmygodohmygod" qualifies. I couldn't have really known as the next thing I knew is I woke up on a hospital and a nurse shoved a clipboard in my groggy face for me to sign with my fractured right arm to be airlifted to my home hospital.
Yay, run-on sentence! Not fixing it.
Ben Folds wrote a song about that exact hospital the same year. I was OK, though, mild concussion, some pavement in my face and a fractured right arm. My back was fully protected from impact thanks to that backpack and thick textbooks, though my poor Discman did not live to see another day.
I got a $35,000 settlement for my troubles. I also went to hear a sermon from the preacher's kid's dad who had a church just off-campus. It was a nice sermon, but it was really fun to see him turn white as a sheet when I introduced myself on the way out.
(4) I have a problem with brevity.
See above. Everything damn thing I type turns into an essay.
(5) I don't really hate Sony.
People think i have this malicious hatred for Sony. I don't. I just miss the Sony that made the PS2. I feel like the crazy Sony that has ruined the rest of the company is out to extinguish the brilliant flame the games division once had. You know, the part of Sony that wanted CD copy protections and wanted grandmas and six year-old girls arrested for sampling MP3s. That's the part I have a problem with,
PS2 was their SNES, a fricking second Golden age of gaming and they really don't seem to value that very much. It makes me sad. HD collections are nice, but have you seen the hideousness of the "PS2 Classics?" It makes me run back to SD versions of those games.
In fact, it actually has done that to me. I'm rebuilding my PS2 library as of today. I'm not going to wait for them to ruin Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne on PSN. No blurry Demi-Fiend in stretched to 720p.
(6) 90% of the music on my iPhone 4 is by Shoji Meguro.
I have all these other artists I could be listening to, but its mostly stuff from Catherine and Shin Megami Tensei games. Gonna get some Deus Ex Human Revolution in there soon.
(7) I have all three Etrian Odyssey games and still haven't finished any of them.
There's a fourth one on the way, too, likely by the end of this year. I like them, I think they're cool throwbacks with awesome soundtracks, but I never seem to get around to finishing them. I should fix that this year..
(8) Air ducts are my porn in games.
I'm bouncing between Metroid Prime and Deus Ex Human Revolution right now. I love games that really let me explore every nook and cranny of a world. I don't think we really have enough games that meet that potential and wish we had more of them. Skyrim is obviously an obsession for me. Sure, that's another dungeon with more drauger in it, but I haven't seen it yet.
I see an air duct or small space to morphball into and I get all excited. Knowing one place connects to another in a previously unknown way makes me happy. Samus Aran gave me this love for exploration more than Link or Mario ever did.
(9) I wish more games had non-lethal options.
I don't know why games always have to be about killing people. The Metal Gear Solid and Deus Ex franchises have really made me want more non-lethal options. I'm not perfect at stealth, I'm pretty decent at it, but being able to knock out people or talk my way out of a confrontation rather than just go about killing people feels more awesome than being the person who has to kill everyone.
Even Shin Megami Tensei has options to negotiate with enemies rather than always kill them. Its like The Boss said, enemies are determined by the times and are often enemies in relative terms, so why do I have to kill so many in a game like Mass Effect which is so obsessed with talking to people anyway when I can make it through MGS or DX without silencing so many lives?
(10) Gaming, more specifically RPGs, have made me fascinated with mythology and religion in games..
I'm quite a pop culture junkie, but gaming loves to take pop culture and myth and weave them together. You can have Deus Ex; Human Revolution synthesizing a love for Blade Runner and the Icarus myth harmoniously or have Kid Icarus Uprising which loves to forth wall while rubbing elbows with Greek Mythology more directly.
If a game has a beastiary, I'll thumb through it, then I might stuff it, then I might lose track of time on the wiki. Some games throw myth in with no real respect to it while others go for a creative take or a more literal representation. While I do get caught up in the exploration in Skyrim, when I'm hearing the story and lore I'm drawing connections to Norse mythology in the back of my head, seeing Sovengarde as Valhalla, the spirits of fallen warriors - the einherjar - making their way there and the coming of Alduin running parallel to Fenrir and Ragnarok.
Its just how I process things now.
And that's it. Ten things about me. Thanks for reading.
The Silent Protagonist 
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(1) I'm 34.
No one quite believes me when I tell them this. Then again, I never shut up about video games so that's probably why. So yes, I'm as old as Jonathan Holmes if that's really that old. I'm not much on the social concept of being "grown up" anyway since its really not the same thing as being mature. I guess the only thing being my age as a gamer nets you is a vast exposure to nearly 30 years of video games.
My parents never should have taken me to see Tron at the age I had nothing but questions to ask. I asked "Can we go to an arcade?" and that was what ruined me in their minds.
(2) I have a JOURNALISM degree.
Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking at the time, but I was having too much of a good time being in student clubs and pulling a Game Boy Color out of my guitar case from time to time to care. That was back when Goldeneye and Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 were a thing, so when all the work was done those were good times. I would have Ryo talk to Tom in Shenmue and play my ocarina in Majora's Mask.
I started out with a major for broadcasting because I was told I had a great face for radio, but switched up to Journalism because I like bullshitting and I'm quite excellent at it. One day I was sick and threw together a conspiracy theory for the campus paper about why people came to Boone, NC to "see the leaves turn" every fall. Fuckers from the city were after our trees and oxygen, i still maintain that.
I also have a psych minor. That along with the Journo major just means i can say insightful shit or find questions that piss people off. Protip for our potential and current college crowd; ALWAYS ask your psychology professors questions. They love to talk about their studies and research, so much they might forget to assign you homework.
(3) A backpack saved my life.
You know how people say you should never wear your backpack on your shoulder? Those people don't know anything. I was hit by an SUV while crossing legally in a crosswalk. Got into that last lane almost at the sidewalk and some preacher's kid tagged me.
Just one of those "Oh shi-" moments.
Since I was still in college at the time, there were about six thick, heavy textbooks in that backpack between me and this Ford Explorer. Got knocked into the next crosswalk and gave the women's tennis team a nice traumatic shock. The preacher's kid got really religious if "ohmygodohmygodohmygod" qualifies. I couldn't have really known as the next thing I knew is I woke up on a hospital and a nurse shoved a clipboard in my groggy face for me to sign with my fractured right arm to be airlifted to my home hospital.
Yay, run-on sentence! Not fixing it.
Ben Folds wrote a song about that exact hospital the same year. I was OK, though, mild concussion, some pavement in my face and a fractured right arm. My back was fully protected from impact thanks to that backpack and thick textbooks, though my poor Discman did not live to see another day.
I got a $35,000 settlement for my troubles. I also went to hear a sermon from the preacher's kid's dad who had a church just off-campus. It was a nice sermon, but it was really fun to see him turn white as a sheet when I introduced myself on the way out.
(4) I have a problem with brevity.
See above. Everything damn thing I type turns into an essay.
(5) I don't really hate Sony.
People think i have this malicious hatred for Sony. I don't. I just miss the Sony that made the PS2. I feel like the crazy Sony that has ruined the rest of the company is out to extinguish the brilliant flame the games division once had. You know, the part of Sony that wanted CD copy protections and wanted grandmas and six year-old girls arrested for sampling MP3s. That's the part I have a problem with,
PS2 was their SNES, a fricking second Golden age of gaming and they really don't seem to value that very much. It makes me sad. HD collections are nice, but have you seen the hideousness of the "PS2 Classics?" It makes me run back to SD versions of those games.
In fact, it actually has done that to me. I'm rebuilding my PS2 library as of today. I'm not going to wait for them to ruin Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne on PSN. No blurry Demi-Fiend in stretched to 720p.
(6) 90% of the music on my iPhone 4 is by Shoji Meguro.
I have all these other artists I could be listening to, but its mostly stuff from Catherine and Shin Megami Tensei games. Gonna get some Deus Ex Human Revolution in there soon.
(7) I have all three Etrian Odyssey games and still haven't finished any of them.
There's a fourth one on the way, too, likely by the end of this year. I like them, I think they're cool throwbacks with awesome soundtracks, but I never seem to get around to finishing them. I should fix that this year..
(8) Air ducts are my porn in games.
I'm bouncing between Metroid Prime and Deus Ex Human Revolution right now. I love games that really let me explore every nook and cranny of a world. I don't think we really have enough games that meet that potential and wish we had more of them. Skyrim is obviously an obsession for me. Sure, that's another dungeon with more drauger in it, but I haven't seen it yet.
I see an air duct or small space to morphball into and I get all excited. Knowing one place connects to another in a previously unknown way makes me happy. Samus Aran gave me this love for exploration more than Link or Mario ever did.
(9) I wish more games had non-lethal options.
I don't know why games always have to be about killing people. The Metal Gear Solid and Deus Ex franchises have really made me want more non-lethal options. I'm not perfect at stealth, I'm pretty decent at it, but being able to knock out people or talk my way out of a confrontation rather than just go about killing people feels more awesome than being the person who has to kill everyone.
Even Shin Megami Tensei has options to negotiate with enemies rather than always kill them. Its like The Boss said, enemies are determined by the times and are often enemies in relative terms, so why do I have to kill so many in a game like Mass Effect which is so obsessed with talking to people anyway when I can make it through MGS or DX without silencing so many lives?
(10) Gaming, more specifically RPGs, have made me fascinated with mythology and religion in games..
I'm quite a pop culture junkie, but gaming loves to take pop culture and myth and weave them together. You can have Deus Ex; Human Revolution synthesizing a love for Blade Runner and the Icarus myth harmoniously or have Kid Icarus Uprising which loves to forth wall while rubbing elbows with Greek Mythology more directly.
If a game has a beastiary, I'll thumb through it, then I might stuff it, then I might lose track of time on the wiki. Some games throw myth in with no real respect to it while others go for a creative take or a more literal representation. While I do get caught up in the exploration in Skyrim, when I'm hearing the story and lore I'm drawing connections to Norse mythology in the back of my head, seeing Sovengarde as Valhalla, the spirits of fallen warriors - the einherjar - making their way there and the coming of Alduin running parallel to Fenrir and Ragnarok.
Its just how I process things now.
And that's it. Ten things about me. Thanks for reading.
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About The Silent Protagonistone of us since 1:33 AM on 10.06.2009
I've been into games since I was able to reach the joystick on the Pac-Man arcade cabinet. That was 1982 - ever since that day I knew gaming and I would be bound by fate in some way, shape or form that I've still yet to figure out.
Until then, I've decided to just play games, enjoy them, blog about games and otherwise not shut up about them. Well, I do think about other stuff, I just keep coming back to the whole games thing.
Metroid is probably still my all-time favorite series. Its the one I keep coming back to year after year despite which version it might be. Super Metroid and Metroid Prime 2 are my favorites of the series and I also often enjoy anything Metroid-like. I enjoy the solitude and exploration of such games.
I also enjoy Shin Megami Tensei, Fallout, Deus Ex, The Elder Scrolls - pretty much anything with a lot of solitary exploration and a large world makes me a rather happy camper. To contrast this I usually need some lighter and happier games as well, which could be anything from a Pokemon game to a fashion game. Retro games of most stripes are something I still enjoy. Sometimes you just need that sort of contrast to keep going.
My platforms of choice tend to be handhelds, I'm starting to consider dropping any non-Nintendo console in favor of PC since Sony's IPs don't appeal to me and Halo just ends up on PC at some point anyway. I don't hate Playstation per se, I just hate what its become under the current Sony.
I do keep a PS2 handy to revisit Playstation's glory days. Great console, easily one of the best platforms aside from SNES, DS and Dreamcast.
As for other things about me, I guess we'll find out, won't we?
Until then, I've decided to just play games, enjoy them, blog about games and otherwise not shut up about them. Well, I do think about other stuff, I just keep coming back to the whole games thing.
Metroid is probably still my all-time favorite series. Its the one I keep coming back to year after year despite which version it might be. Super Metroid and Metroid Prime 2 are my favorites of the series and I also often enjoy anything Metroid-like. I enjoy the solitude and exploration of such games.
I also enjoy Shin Megami Tensei, Fallout, Deus Ex, The Elder Scrolls - pretty much anything with a lot of solitary exploration and a large world makes me a rather happy camper. To contrast this I usually need some lighter and happier games as well, which could be anything from a Pokemon game to a fashion game. Retro games of most stripes are something I still enjoy. Sometimes you just need that sort of contrast to keep going.
My platforms of choice tend to be handhelds, I'm starting to consider dropping any non-Nintendo console in favor of PC since Sony's IPs don't appeal to me and Halo just ends up on PC at some point anyway. I don't hate Playstation per se, I just hate what its become under the current Sony.
I do keep a PS2 handy to revisit Playstation's glory days. Great console, easily one of the best platforms aside from SNES, DS and Dreamcast.
As for other things about me, I guess we'll find out, won't we?