Posts by _LS_

    Show me a single solitary case where the united nations has imposed its will on the united states.

    I don't know where you got the idea that the UN can "basically do whatever they want if they choose to." The UN has effectively no legislative power whatsoever. It's a diplomatic body, not a governing one.

    I'm strongly tempted to go into sass mode, because it would be hard for me to think of a game that I enjoyed less than MQ. But honestly, I really want to know: what about Mystic Quest did you enjoy? Help me to understand.

    The game had redeeming elements, but overall I thought it was just dreadful.

    I think it's apt to make a comparison of the openings of Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess.

    Ocarina of Time's opening is shorter, and most of the tutorial stuff is optional. A lot of the length in Twilight Princess opening comes from cutscenes that are wayyy too long, and that god damned fishing minigame that isn't even a little bit fun. Oh, and then there's the goat herding, which you have to do twice.

    Zelda games aren't that complicated. Tutorials aren't really needed at all, and if they insist on including them, then they ought to keep them short.

    There's also the issue of tone. How does Ocarina of Time begin? A fairy flies into your room and wakes you up shouting "SHIT IS GETTING REAL! GET YOUR ASS UP OUTTA BED! THERE'S BAD STUFF GOING ON! GO GET A SWORD! GO GET A SHIELD! NOW GET YOUR ASS INTO THE DUNGEON!"

    The opening of OoT isn't perfect, but there's urgency there. Something is happening. There's adventure to be had.

    In contrast, the opening of Twilight Princess includes:
    1. Performing routine horse care.
    2. Going to your day job.
    3. Doing odd-jobs around town.
    4. Being told that you're being entrusted with the ever-so exciting task of...a delivery job.

    1YDUZKY.png

    I've got at least 2 hours of gameplay time under my belt at this point, and the game has yet to pick up any steam. During the brief intermissions between cutscenes, I've yet to actually be allowed to swing a sword. There was some dumb thing about a bunch of kids I didn't care about getting captured, and I kept thinking "Okay, is this where I get to start playing the game? To save the kids?" But no, then they turn you into a dog. Which, whatever. I think it's dumb, but I'm not going to shit on the idea. It was an odd choice, an experimentation, kudos to them for trying something. Unfortunately, they fucked it up. The jingle-jangle of that god-damned chain around your leg is ear-bleedingly maddening. Midna is somehow even more annoying than Navi ever was. And blah blah blah, boring story boring story, something about light spirits, then I got to fight a few guys as a dog. The introduction cutscenes for the enemies took longer than the actual fight against those enemies did. Bleeeeeeeeeeeeerg.

    I'm really hoping I can eventually get SOMETHING out of this game. (Well, something other than the self-important feeling I get from hating something as hard as I hate Twilight Princess so far).

    She and I were close. At least I thought we were, I've never been able to tell if she didn't like us that much, or if she felt guilty for lying about her identity for so long. And creating an entire fictional sister was pretty nuts, to be sure.

    She eventually told me her real name, but I didn't find out Annabelle was fake until you told me, Kaynil.

    Someday I'd love to hash things out with her.

    Hrmmmmmmnnnmnmnmmnmnm.

    • My journey begins in 2001. My parents finally allowed me to create my first email account on Yahoo. This, in turn, enabled me to sign up accounts elsewhere, and to submit things to other websites.
    • I spend every day going to Nintendoland.com reading fanfiction and news and history. I eventually find their zelda sub-website, "The Grand Adventures."
      I become kind of a fixture at TGA; submitting editorials, game information, etc.
    • I join the TGA forum for about a week. I had very explicit instructions from my parents not to talk to strangers online. The guilt overwhelmed me and I confessed. They told me I had to stop. For awhile I did, but this was pretty much the last time I ever cared about my parent's rules.
    • Zelda GC: I joined as staff to write game walkthroughs. Zelda GC had a forum, so I joined the forum. Turns out that forum was just a sub-forum of TSR. I eventually made my way outside the ZeldaGC section and started to engage with the community at large. I honestly don't remember ZeldaGC lasting very long after that. There was a ~3 month period in there where I didn't have internet, and I think Zelda GC went away.
    • TSR: From then on. I was a constant member until it went offline.
    • Chit Chat Paradise was run by Annabelle (who was apparently just the alter ego of Madeleine). It had a very different group than the one hanging out at TSR, but there was some overlap. This is where I met Lady TK, I think. Software was EZBoard
    • Warteen's Final Fantasy III Message Board: Another EZBoard. A small group of real life friends whose primary hangout was (for some reason) a video game message board. I ended up hanging out there off and on for at least five to eight years. I'm sure I probably annoyed them more than anything else.
    • Unknooooown.... I ran an RP board at some point in here. I honestly do not remember what it was called, or when it was. I remember one of my characters was Ryu Hayabusa from the Ninja Gaiden games. (I think, maybe, it was "The Hylian Legacy Forums?")
    • TSR Goes down: We are set adrift.
    • Livejournal: I was on Xanga for awhile before this, but LJ had the majority of my friends on it. So it was a good tool to keep in contact + gave me a space to write about stuff.
    • Twilight of Heroes - My versions: The old grey and blue version. Was specifically geared towards former TSR members.
    • Twitter: From ~2010-2013 I was on Twitter a lot.
    • Twilight of Heroes - 'Zilla's version: Black and gold. Good times.
    • The OSR: I started Comma, Blank_, my D&D blog, in August of 2011. I connected with some Old School Rennisance bloggers, and started drawing an OSR crowd. Eventually I switched my blog to Papers & Pencils, and switched over to OSR games myself.
    • Google+ Primarily as a continuation of the OSR community. At this point it's the only traditional social media I use.


    This proved to actually be a pretty difficult list to put together.

    Also, Machine Supremacy rocks.

    Charlie wanted everyone around him to know that he was too cool to care about 'internet stuff.' His favorite passtime seemed to be raining on everyone's parade. I hated him so passionately as a 14 year old; it's ironic that I now agree with him on a lot of the issues we butted heads over.

    The last I heard from him was in 2009, when he said he had a child due to be born very soon. The only contact info I ever had for him was his MSN account, and since that's gone, I don't really have any info.

    I found the chat logs. I won't post the whole thing, but here's some highlights as of 2009:

    [12:11:22] dark_the_7th@msn.com: MISTER SKYWALKER
    [12:11:30] LS: Why hello there.
    [12:11:35] LS: Never thought I'd see that name again.
    [12:11:37] dark_the_7th@msn.com: Why helo there yourself
    [12:12:05] LS: How is things?
    [12:23:08] dark_the_7th@msn.com: Good, I suppose
    [12:23:12] dark_the_7th@msn.com: You?
    [12:25:33] LS: Can't complain. Life never goes quite how you've planned, but mine has worked out well enough so far.
    [12:25:56] LS: Still trolling oversensetive teenagers in your spare time? =P
    [12:27:58] dark_the_7th@msn.com: Nah
    [12:28:03] dark_the_7th@msn.com: I hate computers now
    [12:28:06] dark_the_7th@msn.com: I never go on them
    [12:28:15] dark_the_7th@msn.com: I can't stand being online, really
    [12:28:22] dark_the_7th@msn.com: It's too... synthetic?
    [12:29:25] LS: I've gone in quite the opposite direction, but I doubt anybody didn't see that coming. =P
    [12:29:58] LS: I understand what you mean though. It's not real, and it never will be.
    [12:30:30] dark_the_7th@msn.com: Yeah... I'm not surprised.
    [12:30:35] dark_the_7th@msn.com: But in truth I like people.
    [12:30:40] dark_the_7th@msn.com: I mean
    [12:30:41] dark_the_7th@msn.com: I hate them
    [12:30:48] dark_the_7th@msn.com: But I'm sympathetic
    [12:30:49] dark_the_7th@msn.com: haha
    [12:31:01] dark_the_7th@msn.com: I'm going to medical school.
    [12:31:13] LS: Congratulations, that's quite an achievement.
    [12:31:17] LS: Got pre-med out of the way?
    [12:31:36] dark_the_7th@msn.com: Nah, not yet... I only recently decided this
    [12:31:49] dark_the_7th@msn.com: I've been kind of in limbo for a while.
    [12:32:04] dark_the_7th@msn.com: But I'm registered for the fall.


    [12:34:45] dark_the_7th@msn.com: I've been partying for too long.
    [12:34:58] dark_the_7th@msn.com: I was in a band that was getting kind of big but I just quit.
    [12:35:17] dark_the_7th@msn.com: I'm twenty-fucking-one now... I'm sick of kids.


    [12:42:32] dark_the_7th@msn.com: Yeah, basically I lived in Texas for a while, got addicted to drugs, became homeless and then found out my mom was insane and everything she ever told me was a lie
    [12:42:57] dark_the_7th@msn.com: Then lived in a fifth wheel behind a laundromat with the crazy laundromat lady
    [12:43:16] dark_the_7th@msn.com: Lost my mind and then had delusions about being Jesus and bringing about the end of the world
    [12:43:19] dark_the_7th@msn.com: Y'know, same old.
    [12:43:22] dark_the_7th@msn.com: lmfao
    [12:43:35] LS: Sounds like good times.
    [12:43:40] dark_the_7th@msn.com: Not really
    [12:43:54] dark_the_7th@msn.com: But after I recovered I kind of had a new love for helping people.
    [12:44:38] dark_the_7th@msn.com: So now I'm in Alaska, I'm about to have a daughter and I'm going to med school. o.O
    [12:44:41] dark_the_7th@msn.com: lmao
    [12:45:36] LS: Congratulations on all of it. Sounds like you've had some shitty times, and coming back from that can be hard.
    [12:46:14] dark_the_7th@msn.com: Oh fuck it was.
    [12:46:28] dark_the_7th@msn.com: When I first came up to Alaska I was ready to blow my brains out.
    [12:46:47] dark_the_7th@msn.com: I mean, c'mon... "Yeah Charlie, everything you were raised on was a lie." Haha
    [12:48:56] dark_the_7th@msn.com: But anyway
    [12:49:07] dark_the_7th@msn.com: I don't mean to bich about my life
    [12:49:21] dark_the_7th@msn.com: But it's weird catching-up with someone who knew me well when I was 14.

    @'zilla You have worked really hard for that training. It's weird to think the services of an engineer would ever not be wanted. But now that you have the education, no one can take it away from you. You'll be back on track to being president of Norway in no time.

    @Kaynil Bridging the gap and allowing coworkers to become real, actual friends can be scary. If they end up being unpleasant, then you can't simply stop seeing them. You still have to see them every damn day! But I've personally found it can be pretty rewarding. Some of my very good friends used to be my coworkers.