Violence: Virtual Vs. Reality

Today marks the beginning of a new journey for the gaming industry. Starting early today, at the United States Supreme Court, the judges are looking at a California ballot that is targeting at video games. What the ballot says is that it will rate Mature-titled games like Halo: Reach, Call of Duty, Mass Effect 2, Red Dead Redemption, and No More Heroes as the same category as pornography. That's right, the games you and I love where young boys and girls aren't the target demographic, will be in the same league as Jenna Jameson, Ron Jeremy, and Bikini Girls on Dinosaur Planet (real movie). The ballot has been shot down left and right in the state of California a couple of times for the main reason is that game developers and the content they create are protected by the Constitution and the first amendment rights of freedom of speech. For anymore information of how you can help out the cause, please go to the Video Game Voters Network Page here and lend in your support. But now let me get down to why I'm writing this.

A couple of months ago, my English 111 class had an assignment where we have to make an analysis on whatever topic we feel like is more important than anything. As a gamer, I chose the violence vs. gaming topic and made a powerpoint for my presentation on the topic. I won't post it up, but in the end I got a awesome grade out of it, and created a discussion after my presentation and after the class was over. Needless to say I was proud of it, and when I heard the violence in video games was going to be heard in the U.S. Supreme Court today, I thought it's a good time to bring my paper to The Internet and give you guys a good counter-point on why violence in video games isn't bad at all. Thank you for your time and enjoy.

The video game industry has grown as not only as a cultural phenomenon but also a marketing success, raking in total revenue of seven billion dollars a year (animationarena). But like every form of entertainment, there’s always a dark side that people try to bring the industry to its knees. It all started in 1993: a year when both the PC game titled Doom became the industry standards for first-person shooting games to come, and the Sega CD hit store shelves, along with a premiere title called Night Trap that got some U.S. senators hot under the collar. After a hearing from the senate governmental affairs and judiciary subcommittee, violence in video games has become self-aware not only in the government, but the American public as well. Less than a year later, the video game industry created the Entertainment Software Ratings Board or ESRB, a system where it regulates any games in development and gives the game a rating based on its content. But it wasn’t enough. In 2001, Grand Theft Auto (GTA) III introduces gamers to an open-sandbox game where they could not only follow the story of a mafia-setting plot but also wreck havoc against innocent civilians and police force. The game, such as Night Trap, was under rapid fire from the American government. The great debate of violence in video games is a never-ending struggle; it’s a series of blaming games from those who are against or defending violent video games, why the pro-gamers are right and those against gaming are wrong, and how can a theory help the pro-gamers win the argument. When all is said and done, the pro-gamers and gaming culture alone will be on top because they have potential to win this debate over those who are anti-gaming.

When it comes to violence in video games, it’s a touchy subject to gamers since more than half the games they played have one form of violence or another whether it is first-person shooters or fighting games. Mostly, the reason why is because gamers like it, as long as it’s simulated. It is also leads to the “alleged” facts that anti-gamers stated in belief that is plaguing the youth of America. First-person shooters are always the targets for the world’s ills, which it’s “supposedly” leads to not only the Columbine school shootings but also the Virginia Tech shootings. I say, “supposedly” because there are no facts to back it up, giving the anti-gamer side all the wrong hasty generalizations, false conclusions, and oversimplifications; sometimes a combination of all three. Some of the anti-gamers have never seen or play the video games they are accusing. As a gamer, I feel insulted by it and unless there are any real physical evidence connecting to a video game and criminal acts, they should use their time and energy on something good rather blaming violent games for all the world’s problems. The violent video game debate has many faces representing the anti-gamers, but two have stood out above the rest.

Just like video games, the debate has a boss or to be more precise, a group of bosses. The two that stand out the most are former Florida District attorney, Jack Thompson and former South Australian General Attorney, Michael Atkinson. Thompson was more or less the face of anti-gaming. During his time in Florida, he bashed GTA on television for the game being sold to kids. He created a state bill to ban mature-rated games in Florida and tried to make it into a law and failed. District Court Judge James Brady turned down the Bill and ruling it unconstitutional (McElroy). His hearings came to a halt in 2008 where he was disbarred from the state’s court system for making false statements and accusations in most of his cases, and accusing others for distributing sexual material to minors (gamepolitics), some of those cases could be video-game related. Ever since then, Thompson has gone on record, stating that he has played the games he has accused of selling to minors and real world violence, and that video games are the greatest technology and teaching tool in the world today. The same cannot be said for his international counterpart.

Michael Atkinson was more aggressive to violent video games than Thompson was. Before stepping down from being General Attorney, he disapproved a bill that would allow an R18+ (M-Rated titles) rating in the Australian gaming board system, giving games like Left 4 Dead (L4D) 2 and Fallout 3 to be distributed in the country the way their developers intended, and so far the Australian government is discussing of disapproving the bill. He deemed those said titles to be too violent or sexualized for it to be considered beyond the system since without proper rating, games like L4D2 are banned from the country (Polo). Australian gamers are so upset by it, they have been protesting from the start of the hearings hoping for the bill to be approved. Going so far as to have 500 of its gamers wearing zombie makeup and outfit, and protest in Sydney for the government’s lack of adults-only video game rating (Plunkett). Speaking of politicians, there are some in the United States that have talked about violent video games.

Violent video games get a rare lecture from the U.S. Senate but when it does he gaming community takes note. The biggest hearing was in 2005 when Senator Joseph Lieberman and then Senator Hilary Clinton introduced a federal ban on the sale or rental of games rated Mature or above to minors, and violators would be fined (Totilo). For a time, they were the bigger targets at Washington D.C. who tried to stop the distribution of games like GTA and one of its clones 25 to Life period. They believed that it would stop the violent behavior from kids under 17 at schools that was supposedly called one of the main problems in America. The Bill Lieberman and Clinton created never got through, but at the same time, no one hasn’t step up and given their thoughts about the Bill or the topic itself.

It concerns me is to why no one at Congress has ever gotten to be at the other side of the argument, giving their opinion on whether violent video games aren’t the main cause. The simple answer is they fear for being ridiculed by their own peers and opponents in their future elections. Some Senators have spoken out that they have played video games from time to time (Polis), but it’s a shame no one has ever given their thoughts on the legislations. Or maybe gamers might have the upper hand when it comes to their side of the topic.
The biggest reason for it is because there is no statistics of studies, experiments, and pieces of evidence out there to help the anti-gamers. There are no physical evidence that has a remote link between violent video games and real world violence. The sad truth is that those who think that there is any connected evidence are believers. They don’t care if they have no evidence to back up their claims; they just want to get everyone to believe it enough in hoping it would make sense, and that’s what the anti-gamers are built around on. Sure they or anyone can believe in something, but it must have concrete fact or reason in order to make sense, but in the violent video games debate it doesn’t pass the test (GAME OVERTHINKER EP 25). And this truth can only be use for the pro-gamers.

There are plenty of reasons why pro-gamers, including myself, have the upper hand in the debate. We have the advantage because we know what the anti-gamers don’t. GTA, the biggest example, isn’t really about killing men, women, cops, and doesn’t exploit “pornographic” material. The latest game in the franchise GTA IV lets the player take control of an immigrant who explores an urban environment that challenges his realize fantasy of the American dream. Recent releases like Splinter Cell: Conviction sets the narrative of a former black ops agent on revenge against the man who killed his only daughter. When it comes down to it, it’s called fighting smart and knowing who the pro-gamers’ allies are.

With the help of technology that is available in this generation, any or all pro-gamers have all the rightful tools to fight back the anti-gamers. More importantly, they have the right to call, write or email anyone in the state or congress. Pro-gamers need to give their reason why violent video games aren’t bad as others portray them and to tell their congressman or senator to vote against any or all anti-gaming legislation that is brought in the Senate. Thanks to the First Amendment that pro-gamers have to the right to do this, and they shouldn’t be afraid to do it. If this doesn’t help, then maybe a theory I found can put the anti-gamers on the defensive.

This theory that that no one ever thinks about what could be a positive link between violent video games and the psyche of why gamers don’t cause real world violence and that is Freud’s Theory. Sigmund Freud was born in 1856 at Freiberg, Austria. He was influenced by a study of hysterics and Darwin’s Origin of the Species that he was convinced that both the human mind and body could be specified through the scientific method of observation and analysis. He let his patients speak freely in hoping to unlock any previously repressed feelings (Question of God). He was a man who knew nothing of women, but it never stopped him from theorizing about them. He believed in psychoanalysis in which dreams are the key to how people really are. To put into perspective, if he ate something like anchovies or strong-salted food that would make his throat dry and if he goes to sleep without drinking a glass of water, he would have a dream of drinking gallons of water from a fountain before waking up and proceed to get a drink of water. The dream takes place of action before or after that action occurs in real life (Freud). This theory can be connected to video games in general; not just the violent ones.

Freud’s theory can be connected to video games because gamers like to be part of the video game world. Video games were created not only to be entertaining but to escape from the real world and to become someone or something else in the virtual world when they are playing in for a small amount of time. Whatever the amount of effort or time they spent can become a pretentious dream whenever they are asleep. They can remember any achievement the gamer accomplished and perhaps changing it inside their dream so that they can re-live that experience if they were better at it. It’s really not a bad thing to dream about it, and thanks to those dreams, the gamer will never experience any real world violence just so they can just dream about it. In order to have a clear understanding, let me use a video game as an example.

To prove Freud’s Theory and its connection to video games, I’ll use a popular video game title to give the big picture. In the first-person shooter game titled Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the players are in the boots of army men and Special Forces trying to save the world from a nuclear threat. Hardcore fans of the game play it for the online multiplayer which is fast and most of the time competitive. If a gamer is playing it and gets beaten by the opposite team, they might go to bed and re-experiencing the matches they played. The gamer would think they could have gotten every single headshot, but in their dream, they do; and at the end of every round, they will always be number one for killing sprees, headshots, and more. The gamer is trying to perfect their skills instead of playing the game for hours on end. When the gamer wakes up they may remember the dream, and if what they dreamed is true, they will get better at it and not grab the nearest gun and try to use it on their family. This is an introspective and more of a thought than a belief, but it might work better than any allegedly evidence brought up by the anti-gamers.

In the end of this violent video game debate, sooner or later, the anti-gamers must answer to the questions asked by the pro-gamers. They don’t want to believe that there is no concrete evidence supporting their accusations and constantly accusing games like GTA and Modern Warfare for the real world violence and shootings. Pro-gamers have the right to fight back by fighting smart and know who they trust in order to put the anti-gamers in their place. They have the metaphorically bigger gun thanks to the amendment rights and give a good reason to anyone at Washington D.C. why violent video games shouldn’t be a concern. Hopefully Freud’s theory will put an end to the debate and leave the pro-gamers the winner. Personally, I hope the pro-gamers win this debate because it isn’t the retailer’s fault for selling mature-rated games to minors or the creators for making them. The only ones who should be partly responsible are the parents. They don’t need to keep an eye on their children 24 hours a day to see what they’re up to. They need to look at the game they are getting for their kids. If they see that it is a mature title, they need to think the behavior of their kids and decide if the game is really good for them. Once the problem is solved, then it’s one step closer to end the violent video game debate. I know for certain, it will be the pro-gamers and gaming culture itself will win this debate proclaiming victory over the anti-gamers.

Works Cited

"DISBARRED!" www.gamepolitics.com. ECA, 25 Sep 2008. Web. 10 Apr 2010. <http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/09/25/disbarred>.

Freud, Sigmund. "III. THE DREAM AS WISH-FULFILMENT." www.psychwww.com. Psych Web, 02 Jun 2007. Web. 30 Apr 2010. <http://www.psychwww.com/books/interp/chap03.htm>.

"GAME OVERTHINKER EP 25." YouTube. Web. 10 Apr 2010. .

"Life of Sigmund Freud." The Question of God 2004: Web. 10 Apr 2010. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/questionofgod/twolives/freudbio.html>.

McElroy, Justin. "Judge: Louisiana must pay ESA's legal bill, Taxpayers: Crap." www.Joystiq.com. Weblogs, Inc, 16 Apr 2007 . Web. 21 Apr 2010. <http://www.joystiq.com/2007/04/16/judge-louisiana-must-pay-esas-legal-bill-taxpayers-crap/>.

Plunkett, Luke. "Zombies Protest Against Aussie Game Ratings." kotaku.com. Creative Commons, Mar 30 2010. Web. 23 Apr 2010. <http://kotaku.com/5505949/zombies-protest-against-aussie-game-ratings>.

Polo, Susan. "Australian AG Michael Atkinson Resigns." www.geekosystem.com. Geekosystem, LLC, 21 Mar 2010. Web. 23 Apr 2010. <http://www.geekosystem.com/michael-atkinson-resigns/>.

Rotis, Jared. "Commentary: 'congressional spouse' breaks barriers." cnn.com. Cable News Network, 15 Oct 2009. Web. 21 Apr 2010.

<http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/10/15/polis.congressional.spouse/>.

Totilo, Stephen. "Senators Propose A Federal Ban On Explicit Video Games." mtv.com. MTV Networks, 30 Nov 2005. Web. 09 Apr 2010. <http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1516675/20051130/story.jhtml>.

"Video Game Salary." www.animationarena.com. animation arena, 2009. Web. 09 Apr 2010. <http://www.animationarena.com/video-game-salary.html>.

Author's Note: My Journey in The World of Dead: Week 1

I'm trying to do this thing where I'm setting up a world to fit w/ my Halloween costume. It's also to see if I can build an interesting story w/ whatever kind of context I have. I put a lot of thought into and I hope you all will enjoy it. This was meant to be done this past Saturday, but due to difficult of being an lazy ass and hw, I didn't got it done in time.

Week 2 on the other hand will hopefully be done tomorrow morning or evening. The problem w/ this one is that tomorrow is Extra Life day where gamers will be playing video games for 24 hr. straight in the name of charity. It's a great cause since anyone can participate and donate. I don't have a donate page to call my own, but if you want to read more information on how you can donate or participate, go right to this link and read more about the event. See parents of the world? Video games aren't the biggest waste of time.

Anyways, have fun reading My Journey in The World of Dead.

-jnp08

My Journey in the World of Dead: Week 1

I can't believe I've found a laptop. It's small as hell, but it's better than a computer that doesn't work at all. The other survivors and I all are cooped up in a small hardware store, right in the middle of a 3-story building right next to a dock of dozen or so boats. Too bad not one of them is a yacht. I don't know why in the hell I'm writing this after one week of un-nerving, never-ending, pain of running away from a horde of walking carcasses that feast on the living. I've pinched myself a thousand times and tell myself it's all a dream, but it ain't. If anyone survives this outbreak and lives to see this, let it be know that I have and will document every single step of my journey to the bitter end. It's my story, and this is how it all began.

It all started last week in an early breeze, sunny day in my town of Juneau, the capital city of Alaska. With bright sun came cold chills that might freeze you up if you stand out there with nothing but a short pajamas and a Rolling Stones t-shirt. At least the sun looks pretty enough to look at. After a quick shower and a small breakfast, I head out to college campus where I'm destined to become a journalist. Now that I think about it, that's kind of what I'm doing right now except no one is gonna read this for 2 decades. My life in school down the drain I guess. By the time I got there, people were crowding in front of television sets. Some of them were in awe and others in shock of terror. I look at the TV in the cafeteria room when the first thing I hear is "Epic pandemic is spreading all over the world, as hundreds; if not thousands of radiating people have risen from the ground." Obviously the word the reporter wanted to say is "walking dead", but I guessed even during this epidemic they're not allowed to say it. Like everybody else around me, I was shocked by this. After the breaking news, the PA came on and said as of now all classes have been canceled for the day. I was thrilled and at the same time sad since my English paper that I worked on all night and was due today was all the hard work for nothing.

My friends called me up one-by-one telling me their plans for defending this outbreak. Some are obvious, others try to be creative. But here's the thing about this town; it's isolated from the rest of the world. The only way out here is by plane or boat. We are fine since it's gonna take years for zombies to get up here. At least so I thought.

The next day I wake to a horrifying crash I hear from outside of my apartment. At first I thought it was a car until an explosion banged so loud, it ranged my ears and the apartment. I walked outside only to see a piece of a air wing in the middle of the elementary school nearby, burning like it's a bomb-fire. I see people scrambling around, getting into their cars, and fleeing away from here. Then I hear a groan coming on my right and I see I thought I would never see; a walking corpse. It lunges at me going for my head, but I swung my door right at it and I knocked it down. I ran back inside, heart beating out of my chest, and grabbed the nearest thing; a green cheap-metal broom. Not the first weapon of choice, but it was all I had. The dead-man rose up and lunges at me again only to meet the end of the broom straight through the heart. I plucked the broom out of the dead corpse and plunge it again this time through the skull. It's only risen arm fell after whatever life it had fade away. My heart didn't stop pounding thanks to the shock and thought that they're here in Juneau. Aftershock went through me when I saw one of my friends, Barry, ran into my apartment and witnessed my first un-dead kill. "How did it felt?" he told me.

"Like a wakeup call from life telling me to go die in a horrible and painful death," I replied.

Me and Barry gather our things and decided to find and rally up our other friends and find a safe place to shelter ourselves from the walking dead. Since phone lines were down and internet being the last thing to check up after a corpse walks into your front door, we decided to head towards The Valley Church around sundown once we find everyone. What I wasn't expecting was that's the last time I get to see my long time friend again.

Since the town is divided into three boroughs, traffic will either be 1) non-reverent, or 2) a major cluster of epic proportions. Either way, my Jeep will be covered in body parts by the end of the night. After stocking up on food supplies and more green brooms at the nearest supermarket, I headed downtown where another great friend of mine is there w/ no car or any kind of transportation that needs some help. As I swerve around the highway dodging wrecked cars left and right and hitting a corpse or two along the way, I stopped at the only red-light that was blinking. I noticed there aren't people or cars heading to the nearest hospital. I start to wonder why. But before I thought the hospital's contingency plan, I hear another vehicle swerving on the highway at full speed except it's taking both sides of the highway recklessly. I step on the gas and maneuver away from the truck, but by the powers it be, the truck notice my general direction and decide to head towards me. I step the gas so hard, I heard the engine roaring before the truck clipped my back Jeep and spun me around for 2 seconds before to a complete stop. The truck on the other hand ran off the highway and into the nearby lake, collapsing on its side. After recovering from a minor headache, I see that more of those un-dead walking towards me. I got out of the car, grabbed my only used broom and swung at any nearby hunk of flesh that dared to touch me. I was lucky enough to make it to the medical store, barricaded the door w/ furniture, and killed some more un-dead. After searching through the fridge for early dinner, I placed myself in a room w/ a barely lit candle. W/o a window to look through I had no choice but to close the door shut and place a desk right on the door. I thought that room was gonna be my tomb as I drown myself to sleep.

I once again woke to a thunderous bang. This time it sounded like a shotgun. Scarcely, I slowly pulled back the desk holding the door, and slowly check to see what the noise is. Next thing I knew, the door slammed open send me to the back of the room. A flashlight shines upon me before I heard a woman's voice shouting to the person to hold their fire. Thank god it wasn't the military. Instead it's a group of survivors like me, faces who I've never met before. That really says a lot consider this town is small. There were a total of 5 survivors; three male, and two female. Their names are John the middle-age janitor, Zack the high-school jock, Harry the mechanic, Lisa the brain-smarts, and Joanna the medic. I picked their titles after hanging out w/ them for the first hour. Sure it was by looks, but I know sooner or later we're gonna open up to each other. By this point it's close to midnight, and I was starting to wonder about my friends and if any of them are still alive.

"Hey guys," I asked them. "My friends and I were gonna meet each other at the Valley Church by sundown. And since it's midnight, you think we can stop by and--" Zack walks up towards me and tells me that The Valley is nearly filled w/ un-dead and it's very likely we'll be stopping by and knock on heaven's door and check if my friends were there. I want to punch him the face, but I stopped myself and ask nicely if we can try. After a quick talk to themselves, they agreed, but one condition; this will be the only time they'll head down The Valley. I swallowed my pride and agreed. W/ their handful of arsenal and ammo and my only trusted broom, we get into a minivan and headed down the Valley.

Morning broke as we reached The Valley. Zack was right; nothing but walking carcasses. The Church was in the middle so we all know that the only we'll go in is also we'll get out. No alternative. I just can't abandon my friends and I hope they're alright. We fought wave after wave of those things. It seemed like for every horde of meat we fought off, we move two miles and it wasn't easy. By the time we saw the Church it was afternoon, and so far no sign of life. We finally reached our destination and had little time to spare before more of them head towards us. W/ my nearly broken broom, I banged on the front door hoping for someone to respond. There was nothing. Me and John open the doors only to find it mysteriously un-protected. We ran in and the only thing we saw was a note and 2 bags. On the note, my friend Barry wrote that by the time I get this. he is either dead, alive, or in-between. Everybody else we knew beside him and his girlfriend was dead by the time they got here only to find out it was a big mistake. Inside the bags were sticks of dynamite from his father who was a mine-worker. He gave instruction to gather as many of those things inside the church and blow it sky high. It was a daring risky move, but at least it will give anybody else alive in The Valley a decent chance to leave while they can. After a moment of silence of my fallen friends, we placed the dynamite and use some of the gas from one of our tanks and create a line so that the dynamites would go off like dominoes. As me and John throw ourselves as bait, we lured them in, and when it was full, I gave him the signal, lit the fuses, and jump out of the building, and ran away before the walls exploded and collapsed on them. I wasn't so sure if Barry or anyone else I knew was in there. But now it was turned into rubble.

We made it to Downtown once midnight broke signaling another day of staying alive. We searched for wherever to stay in and camp until we find a way out of this town. Of all the places, we found a 3-story compartment building big enough to last us a week. For those last several days we killed those things in the morning, scavenge in the afternoon, and have fun on the roof in the evening acting as if this is our new home. My new friends did a proper burial for the loss of our friends and loved ones. Since I'm closest thing to a catholic, I tried my best to be a priest and prayed that they will find rest in the afterlife. Lord knows were struggling to survive.

And now I've found this. Since I didn't want to let my writing skills go to waste I have wrote what needed to be written. And there's plenty of more to come, no doubt about that. I must not let the others know about this. Some of them were internet junkies and seeing a functioning operating system would force me to look up those search engines and find out who was the first celebrity to be eaten. It's almost my time to be the lookout scout for any intruding un-dead inside out building. I’ll report back next week and give anyone who reads this an update of our current situation. Don’t be surprised if we don’t find a “cure” to this “disease”. See you all next week.

Wait am I dead?

No not really. I've just been so busy that I didn't follow on my promises.

So there's no Part 2, my trip to New York City has has come and gone, I'm now 21 years old, and taking college. Oh and I've been playing video games.

So during my time away, I was actually thinking of doing a written review of Metroid: Other M and other games afterwards, but there's one slight problem w/ the game. And that is THE GAME IS SO CHEAP AND THE FINAL BOSS IS SO HARD IS UNBEARABLE! Now let me explain. Other M lets you play the game w/ the Wii remote on it's side ala NES style. Whenever there's an object in your way that you can't blast w/ your regular beam, you go into first person mode by pointing the Wiimote towards the screen. You point at the said object and it'll shoot Missiles, Super Missiles, and on occasion, a Charge Beam at a specific target. Oh and you can't move while you're in first person. Throughout the game I had no problem w/ this mechanic. There were times that I wish Team Ninja, the developers of Other M, would've added the Nunchuk so the time to point the Wiimote to the screen is cut to no time at all, especially when it comes to boss fights since it can so frantic that the game takes a bit of time rendering that the Wiimote is pointing the screen.

Here's the problem I had w/ the game. I'm at the final boss. Samus (the player) is in a room where she can barely move around because the boss is huge enough it takes the middle portion of the room. Right at the start of the fight, the boss hatches a metroid, an alien life-form that sucks the life of anything it sees and contacts. The only way Samus can let go from the metroid is the use of her power bomb. The only to kill a metroid is by freezing it w/ the freeze beam, and shoot it w/ a good charged Super Missile. Back to the fight. The boss hatches a metroid the second the fight starts, then two more 30 sec. later, than three more before the first minute is up. Time so very limited and not to mention the metroids can out-run you and grab you before you can stop and take a good charging shot at one of them. Or the game can screw over your shot, and instead point at the boss itself. And even if you get one of them frozen, you have very limited time to shoot the frozen metroid before you get grabbed by one of the other metorids. Not to mention the game takes a full second to register you pointing the Wiimote on screen. You see where I'm going w/ this? The boss is hard enough as it is, but when you have a lot of distractions going on around you, you can't focus on the boss alone. It's so frustrating and so annoying and I hate it!

Anyways I wanted to fill in something for this blog so I know it still exists and probably do something good w/ it. Maybe this weekend I'll make another post, giving my final thoughts on an anime show that has caught my attention this whole summer and a story about a kid and a very weird Majora's Mask cartridge. And who would have thought it's October. And yes, they are Horror related.

Also as of today, I can officially say I have both a Facebook and a Twitter. I tried to resist twitter for a long time until one of my close friends gets one, and today is the day that happened. So yeah. Friend me, follow me, whatever. Have a good day.

-jnp08

P.S. Apparently someone took my name on twitter so I had to put the_real_jnp08 so no one would confuse w/ the other jnp08 twitter.

Why haven't I posted anything recently? (Part 1)

Well a few things have distracted me that it killed my overall schedule I planned for June.

First, I was planning doing a review of an multi-platform game called Red Dead Redemption and a comparison/thoughts on Evangelion 1.01 (DVD) and 1.11 (Blu-Ray). Soon after that I would write a Super Mario Galaxy 2 review, but that got shoot down too. Once that was done I would do quick reviews of digital games I find on Xbox Live or PlayStation Network like Final Fantasy IX or Snoopy's Flying Ace. That plan, like the others, never happened.

So what's been holding me up? Well the most important thing is life happened. In more ways than one. Work makes the pay good, but it can be painful at times. Family matters that really would've not been a matter if only I were a year older. And a good friend of mine has got me into two shows that I really like. The two shows are an classic science-fiction show that became the flagship franchise of the channel that once called itself Sci-Fi, and an anime show that totally changed my perspcive on it.

Stargate SG-1: Okay so that same friend let me watch the Stargate movie that spawned the show, but once it was out of the way and after watching the first two episodes, I was hooked. I can see why it has a cult-following. I like the idea of having the Stargate team go to different worlds and learn from what each world has to offer. It makes good time to develop the main characters and how each member plays key essential roles. I'm only 5 episodes in, but sooner or later the show must go back to the main plot it set itself up in the first episode.

NANA: Whenever I look up anime shows on websites like Hulu, they show a picture on the top of the page to give you a perspective on what the show is. When I first saw the picture for NANA, my first thought that it's a drama show. And I was nearly right. What's about is there are two main characters and both happen to be named Nana. After their first meet-up in a rail train to Tokyo during a blizzard, the two split and met again near the end of the first episode, sharing the same apartment. The first Nana we meet (Posh-Nana as I call her) is a hyper, go-getter, caring, expressive woman w/ a pure heart. The other Nana (Rocker-Nana) is the chick that's more than meets the eye. Despite looking the rock-goth type, she's has every same equivalent to Posh-Nana, but has a attitude to boot if you get on her bad side, and a voice that can rock a thousand faces. What will really draw you in is the story of both Nana's backstories and what follows after the two meet. And the intro for the first 20 episodes is awesome. It may be 1:40 long, but it sounds like what would happen if The Material's vocalist turn it up to 11. The lyrics are half-Japanese/half-English and it might be a bit gibberish, but I've never been so pumped for an intro since Death Note's intros. Give NANA a shot and maybe you'll like it too.

While I like to continue on what else I've been doing, I'll make another post later on when the sun comes up and I'm not tired. Check back for part 2 later...would you kindly.

Hello and welcome.

Hello to one and all. I’m gonna give blogging a chance to see where it’ll take me writing wise and possibly other stuff in the future. I’ll be writing reviews and impressions of whatever I feel like I need to say like video games, movies, music, anime, TV, etc. I’ll also discuss and give personal opinions on whatever subject that needs to be address.

I’m planning a schedule to give me a pace at blogging and I’ll start off w/ video games first since the lifetime job I’m aiming for is Video Game Journalism. This will either help me in the long run or it’s gonna bite me and take my pride w/ it. My introduction might be a cliché since other blogs have tried this method, but where they have failed I will succeed and prevail.

See you all soon!

jnp08