The Great Mobile Experiment, Part 2

Okay, there's no part one.  I was just trying to be interesting.  Not really.  This actually refers to my second attempt to find worth while mobile games on my phone.  The first time disappointed me so much that I never bothered again until now.  So on with the story.

Recently, I downloaded two games to my phone.  The first is called 80 Days.  It's loosely based on the Jules Verne novel Around the World in Eighty Days (remember the Jackie Chan move that came out several years ago?  Probably not.  Ha ha.).  I first heard about 80 Days on Gamasutra's site.  I love going there because those folks are on the bleeding edge of gaming and it's a great place to pick up new trends.  80 Days caught my eye because it's basically an interactive novel.  Being a voracious reader (able to use big words like 'voracious') it's a no brainer.

So how was it?  It was boring.  80 Days is essentially about planning a trip around the world.  The key word being 'planning'.  Mostly it's choosing a destination and then sitting back to see what happens.  The goal is to get around the world in 80 days and poor planning means you will fail.  That's just the problem.  I don't have fun planning the trip.  I have fun ON the trip.  On that note, when you do get to your destination, you have a choice of exploring the place, or... plan your next move.  Dull.  Sorry.

My second game, though, is what I really wrote this to talk about.  And it's a bit of a confession.  The second game is........ Kim Kardashian Hollywood.  Yes, you read that right.  Kim.  Kardashian.  No don't go!!!  Stick with me!!  Please! 

ANYway!  This is my first free-to-play game and I've heard horror stories about these types.  They rope you in with a semi-competent game then force you to pay money if you want to make any sort of progression in decent time.  KK Hollywood is no different.  But I expected this.  What I didn't expect was how bad it was.  First, there's the whole concept of energy.  Most of you who have played 'free' games know what this is.  It's a time limit concept where by you cannot do anything until you have sufficient energy stored up.  How do you get energy?  By waiting.  Or by paying for more!  I understand KK Hollywood isn't the kind of game you do a sit-down-and-focus-marathon-style session.  It's mean to be played while waiting in line at the supermarket.  Only problem is, the game gives you so little energy that you barely have enough to make it to the cash register.

Like I said, I expect this.  But there's something worse.  Energy is only one form of currency.  There are two more.  In-game cash, and Stars.  Cash isn't so bad.  The game gives you plenty of those and you don't have to buy expensive stuff if you don't want to.  But Stars... that's another matter.  Stars are used for almost everything from moving on with the story to meeting new NPCs, to fast forwarding time, to buy fashion accessories, to flirt, to keeping relationships and even to repair broken relationships should they go down in flames.  Yes, Stars are important.

How do you get stars?  By doing the usual 'free to play' crap.  Watch video ads, sign up for other apps and of course, pay for them.  At first, I thought: okay, if I really want, I'll plunk down a buck or two, buy a handful of stars and off I go.  Oh now little did I know.  First off, there's no such thing as 'a buck or two'.  Lowest purchase you can make is six bucks. That gets you 50 stars.  How much do 50 stars get you?  A pair of shoes.  The CHEAPEST pair of shoes.  Some of them cost upwards of 100 stars!  This is bull!  Of course, you can also go for the best deal.  Get your self over a thousand Stars...  For over 100 dollars!  That's more than a AAA new release console title!  Are you crazy?

Well, you might not be crazy but I am.  Because I..... actually...... no no I didn't pay a hundred bucks.  I didn't pay a cent!  But I confess to liking the game.  I take it out every 30 minutes to an hour and use what little energy accumulated to do fashion shoots, commercials, go on dates and what have you....  It's... strangely addictive.

I don't suppose I can convince anyone else to play?  Our characters can team up.  Please?

To Download or Not to Download

The game:  Guilty Gear Xrd Sign

The place:  Gamestop, Commerce Court location

The Dillemma:  Should I buy the retail copy, or download the game from PSN

 

Normally, this is a no brainer.  A niche Japanese title with a limited run supported by a diehard fanbase.  It's an instant grab just for collecting purposes.  But there is also the flip side.  My home is running out of space for physical copies of games.  I'm still super busy working on Dragon Age Inquisition and I've got tonnes of backlogged games like Assassin's Creed Unity.  Finally, it's actually cheaper on PSN and I don't have to pay any sales tax.  In the end, I bought a couple of PSN cards and called it a day.  Download won.

 

The collector in me is screaming bloody murder right now.  I've pretty much turned my back on a decade of game buying habits.  A niche Japanese game, more often than not, tend to have resale values greater than the price paid but a downloadable copy is basically worthless to a collector.  Still, times have changed and I think, so is the art of collecting games.  For one thing, a limited edition of Guilty Gear Xrd exists and anyone serious about collecting the game would get that instead.  For another, I want to play the game, not have it sit on the shelf, which means the need to crack open the packaging and thereby, diminishing the resale value.  Underlying all that, however, is the one realization that games just aren't worth collecting anymore.

 

I came to this conclusion while browsing Guilty Gear Xrd on PSN.  Already, there is an extra downloadable character available for free.  That's when it hit me.  Is the physical copy of a game going to be worth anything when, right out of the box, it's already missing a character?  The answer is no, of course not.  This isn't like the old days.  You buy Street Fighter for the SNES with 8 playable character, wait 20 years, and you will still have a game with 8 playable characters.  This has changed.  If I bought Guilty Gear Xrd 20 years from now, I would actually have LESS characters than buying it this afternoon.  20 years from now, will PSN still be around?  Even if the extra character is one of those on-disk-DLCs, will I need to hack a PS4 to access it?  Why jump through fancy hoops just to enjoy a 20 year old game?

 

I know I'm talking in theoreticals.  20 years from now, there will probably be more Guilty Gear sequals, rendering Xrd pretty much useless.  But what I described can be applied to just about any number of games.  You name it, it's there.  Senran Kagura?  DLC characters just came out.  Persona 4 Arena Ultimax?  It had free characters for download too.  Almost every game these days will be 'incomplete' in 20 years just because access to some content will be locked out.  Owning the disks maybe worthless.  Not all games are like this, however.  Collecting is still viable but you really have to do some research.  For instance, as far as I know, Dangan Rompa 1 and 2 are still good as stand alone games with no DLCs in sight.  That's more of an exception, however.

 

Gamestop corporate CEO said recently that game prices have dropped beyond a sustainable point.  People aren't willing to pay more than $35 for a new game even if the game is AAA caliber.  I read this on a news site, and one of the commenters had a very good point.  He says that games are basically worthless right now in the long term and most people know this.  Factoring in DRMs (digital rights management) locking out games, always online features, DLCs, day one patches, etc. and your physical copy of the game is nearly worthless.  At least, before, if you buy a game for 60 bucks and beat it in a month, you can still expect a reasonable trade in value.  Nowadays, people are getting smart and realizing that physical disks just don't have the same value anymore. 

 

I'm seriously thinking about buying games digitally from now on as default.  If a game is on sale physically, I'll make an exception and get that instead.  A lot of games can be pre-downloaded these days and that makes wait times a non issue.  There are other reasons to get physical copies, but those reasons get thinner and thinner year after year…

 

Just a quick cap:  I downloaded Sunset Overdrive on the Xbox One because Gamestop didn't have physical copies.  Later, I bought a physical copy of Assassin's Creed Unity and, as I was putting it into the maching, something nagged at me.  Didn't I have to take out the Sunset disk before putting in the Unity disk?  I had totally forgotten downloading Sunselt Over drive.  I gave a mental shrug.  One less thing to worry about.

The Challenge Premium

I'm getting a bit of writer's block right now, so I'll just come out and say it:  it drives me crazy that professional game reviewers keep giving higher scores to more challenging games.  I'll just jump right into it an name a name.  This is the game that revitalized the whole 'challenge is cool' trend.

Demon's Souls.

This game got rave reviews.  There are some good reasons for this.  It featured a very creative way to play with other people.  You can join another person's session and help them out.  Or you can go in as an invader and try and kill them.  Or you can play by yourself but once in a while see 'shadows' of other players as they do their own thing.  But most of all, I think, the reviewers love the game because it's challenging.

Like most others, I bought into the hype and played it.  Yes, the game is challenging.  Too challenging for me, I admit.  But despite the challenge it is an uneven game.  For instance, the combat is slow and sluggish.  The story is thin and bare boned and it suffers from a wiggy third person camera.  Fans of the game would probably like this though.  They probably think the slower combat makes for a more intellectual and strategic experience.  I know a lot of people don't care for a good story if the game plays well enough and third person camera wigging out happens all the time.

BUT WAIT!  Let's do a little thought experiment here.  Suppose Demon's Souls was actually 'normal', or even 'easy'.  Would it still get the good scores?  I don't think so, and if you search deep within yourself, I think you'll agree.  If the game was easy, people would complain.  'Oh, the combat is too slow and sluggish.'  'Oh, the story is too thin and bare boned.'  'Oh, the third person camera wiggs out too much.' 

All of a sudden, a game with flaws gets given a free pass because it's challenging.  But you don't have to take my word for it.  The proof is out there for all to see.  Let's do another experiment and in doing so, you will see a double standard..  Ask you self the following:

Have you ever read a single review where a game got high scores because it's easy?

Aliens in Virtual Worlds

A few weeks ago I got done reading a book:  The Future of the Mind by Michio Kaku.  In it, the author tried to make sense of consciousness and in one bold chapter even went so far as to describe the possible consciousness of aliens.  From outer space.  Including reasons why none of them have (as far as I know) visited Earth.  One tantalizing theory is that aliens, being thousands of years more advanced than us humans, are spending time on their home planet with their equally advanced virtual reality simulations. The idea being aliens with such a neat technology would want to use it rather than, say, explore the galaxy for other sentient beings.

Or, as I would say, the aliens would rather play videogames.

As a gamer, this makes perfect sense.  Let's look at Star Trek, for instance, and their Holodeck.  If people had access to a machine that can create any scenario they wanted and have it indistinguishable from real life, then why bother with real life?  I'm surprised these people even bothered to go flying around in space at all.  After all, there are dangers all around the universe.  Just ask any old redshirt.  It's much safer sticking with virtual reality.

Yet, in our day and age, real life still trumps all.  Would I rather fly to Japan and see it for real?  Or would I rather 'go' there with an Occulus Rift program (assuming one does exist)?  Of course I would rather fly there.  Sure, it's gonna be more expensive, but you get what you pay for.  Seeing things with your own eyes, touching them with your own fingers and tasting the food with your own tongue trumps anything and everything VR could offer.  At least, for now.

Already, there are glimpses of the future and I'm not talking about the Facebook acquisition of Occulus Rift.  Although that does how how serious some people in the world are about virtual reality.  I'm talking about games like the upcoming Akiba's Trip.  It takes place in Tokyo in a place called Akihabara, a place I have seen with my own eyes.  Yet, it offers players a chance to do the extraordinary:  strip vampires (don't ask).  That's something I can't do in the real thing.

There are other medium to show where VR might be headed.  The novel 'Ready Player One', is one of the most exciting I've read despite sounding like a glorified fan fiction at times.  The book gives one very plausible scenario of what a VR centric society might be like.  It's not all roses and rainbows.  Or, you can watch the movie 'Her', which my girlfriend and I did just recently.  It's a great movie about a real man falling in love with a virtual artificial intelligence.  No, it's not VR, but it does show how a flesh and blood person can form real attachments with a machine.

Bottom line is:  if you think video games now are immersive (or addictive), oh boy, you ain't seen nothing yet.

Final Fantasy Freedom

No, it's not a newly announced title from Square Enix.  Yes, it's about Final Fantasy 14.  And yes, it is what you think it is, but I will write it out in a long drawn out fashion anyway.

As my long time readers must know, I've been... ahem.... addicted... to Final Fantasy 14 for the better part of a year now.  It's a great game.  A fantastic game.  But, it came at a cost.  Corpses of games are littered all over while I was enjoying FF14.  To this day I have yet to even start Metal Gear Solid Ground Zeros or Dynasty Warriors 8 Extreme Legends.  Of the games I did start, Conception II and the new Professor Layton still languish in limbo.  It was a miracle I was able to beat Infamous Second Son.

As with all good things, the Fantasy foray came to an end.  There wasn't much of a choice - two weeks in Tokyo means two weeks without FF14 it's as simple as that.  In this sense, I was very lucky.  The night my subscription ran out was the night before the flight.  I was able to enjoy FF14 almost up to the minute when I can't any longer.

Fast forward a month and I'm back from the trip.  But... still haven't logged back onto FF14.

And it's liberating.

Prior to the trip, the game had it's claws in me real bad.  It's just the way it is.  The game is designed to be played a bit each day.  If you don't, you miss out on various bonuses and as hardcore as I was, missing out was not an option.  Of course, there's also the matter of subscription.  For about 15 bucks a month, can I afford to skip out on even a single day?  The answer, until we had to fly to Japan, was no.

Yet, having gone cold turkey for two weeks straight, the spell has been broken.  The urge is gone.  I can go on with my life without Final Fantasy 14.  I felt free.  Games are opened to me again.  Since I came back, I've dabbled in Child of Light.  Now I'm sucked into Watch Dogs.  Only difference is, Watch Dogs will eventually end.  I'm looking forward to starting Murdered: Soul Suspect and Mind Zero when it does.

That's not all, I can blog again.  You may have noticed my blogging frequency increasing.  This Wednesday, I also promised my girlfriend I'll build models instead of playing games.  I can do this because I'm free from Final Fantasy 14.  Weekends, I feel more comfortable hanging with my friends or hanging outside the house with just my girlfriend and I.  Watch Dogs can wait.  It can't leave me behind.

Officially, I'm on 'break' from Final Fantasy 14.  At least, that's what I've been telling everyone.  But I think, effectively, it's over.  Though I do not bar myself from returning - one day, I might want to go back, just to see - for now, it's so long... and thanks for all the pugils.

Another Reason Why the Japanese are so Thin: The Subways

Okay, I'll give away the punchline right here.  The second reason why the people in Tokyo are so thin is because they walk alot.  BUT, the subway has a lot to do with it.  Here in Toronto, the Transit Commission has been taking a lot of flack for... well... sucking.  It's not until I had a chance to see another city for myself, however, that the contrast sunk in.  Compared to Tokyo, Toronto's transit system is like a child.

Here, the TTC has maybe four lines and I'm being generous.  In Tokyo, there are over a dozen.  We're not talking rinky dink affairs with five or six stops like our Sheppard or Scarborough line.  We're talking routes that span halfway across the city or more.  These lines also cris cross each other at regular intervals, so transfer between subway systems are incredibly easy.  It also means there's alot of places in Tokyo you can reach just by riding the trains.  Indeed, that's what we did.  Everywhere we went was by train.  We never had to take a bus or a street car or even a taxi.

But the thing is... what do we do once we reach our destination by train?  Why, we walk!  And that's the point of this blog.  Tokyo's transit is so efficient and far reaching that owning a car is probably optional in the city.  We see so many people taking transit that I'm convinced it's the default mode of fast transportation.  So my guess is that the people of Tokyo do what we did.  They walk to the subway, get where they are going, then walk the final steps to their destination.  That's a lot of walking.  For some places on our itinerary, we had to walk 15 to 20 minutes to get to.  Most, however, are within 5 minutes.  We got lucky with our hotel which has a two-line junction station less than a minutes walk apart!

But what if, you say, it's too far to walk? What if you live in the middle of nowhere but still must take the train?  Well, there's the bus.  But there's also something else. 

Bikes!  I think this is the second half of the equation.  A lot of people walk in Tokyo, but a great many also bike.  There are so many bikers that pedestrians are constantly threatened of being run over.  In fact, it's nearly happened to us multiple times.  Bike racks are also everywhere outside train stations and a lot of times are filled to capacity.  You can see such example of bikes on the right side of this picture.  People just leave them there and hit the train station.  So even if you cannot walk to or from a station because it's too far, biking is always an option.

That's not all.  The train system itself is ripe with opportunities to do a little walking exercise.  Remember how I mentioned the multiple lines and how you can transfer between them at certain stops?  Well, imagine if you have a stop that's a junction for two, three or even four different lines.  The station itself would have to be huge, wouldn't it?  And that's exactly what we saw.  Alot of the bigger stations are comparable to the PATH we have in downtown Toronto.  It's a maze of shops and hallways leading hither and yonder.  And what does that mean for the citizens' health?  It means a lot of walking.  In some of these big stations, to transfer from one train to the next you often have to walk several hundred meters.  This is true for subway entrances, too.  We've seen signs for the subway in places where you still have to walk several hundred meters for the nearest train.

Tying neatly into my last blog, a lot of these stations are quite vertical with multiple floors.  This means riders are also taking a lot of steps.  Alot of stations even have stairs with no escalators.  You walk up or you don't go up at all.  These are rare, however, but be prepared to really have to travel even if you are within a subway station already.

And this concludes this blog.  I've still go one more reason why the people of Tokyo are so fit, so stay tuned!

P.S.  Below is something the TTC sorely needs.  These platform gates open and close only when a train is on the other side. Rush hour in Japan can get packed, so my guess is they are there so people don't fall onto the tracks by accident.

I Miss Japan a Little Too much

Close friends of mine are probably pretty sick of hearing this, but I miss Japan.  Alot.  After spending a mere 10 nights at the place, I feel what most likely is homesickness since arriving back in Toronto.  The weird thing is, I've never felt homesick in my life and have never missed any one geographic location before.  After immigrating from Hong Kong back in the early eighties I haven't felt much for land of birth.  After moving out from my old place in which I spent 20 years of my life I never got much urge to go back despite all my memories there.  Japan is the first and only physical location I have ever gotten misty eye over.

That's not an exaggeration.  I missed Tokyo so much I've shed tears over it.  One day, last week, my girlfriend showed me the Dragon Quest Slime coin purse I got her in Akihabara and it was all I can manage to hold back tears.  The tears came later on at work.  This happened twice, actually.  The second time was triggered by a Choro Q figure (basically a cute car, or in this case, a train) of the Narita Express - the train we took from the airport to Tokyo.  I saw the toy in the morning and got teary over it after getting to work.

So yes, this is serious stuff.  Because both instances happened at work it would seem that I don't actually miss Japan.  Rather, I just miss NOT having to go to work.  There is merit in the theory, but I think there's more.  Giving it some thought, one conclusion stands out.  If Tokyo were a person, the personification of the city would be of someone very much like myself.  The city is civilized, clean and most importantly, quiet.  Not a day goes by in Toronto without some jerk ride by in either a noisy motorbike/car or blasting bass from their car stereos.  In Japan, nobody makes any unnecessary noise.  The people riding subways are quiet as mice.  Speaking of mice, even the cats we saw in the cat cafe neither meow or purr.  And the city is steeped in geek culture.  Yes, Toronto has it's expos and conventions but in Tokyo, geek districts are around 27/7.  The people there aren't ashamed of it too.  I've seen men in suits show up at places like Gundam Front.

Leaving Tokyo is like parting with myself.  Like splitting apart.  While on the jet plane back to Toronto, I'm convinced that a small part of my soul got left behind in room 621 of the Higashi Shinjuku Hotel.  Every morning since then, this little spark would visit the places it knows so well.  Maybe Yodabashi Camera in Akiba, or the 901 building in Shibuya, or J-World in Sunshine City.  At night, it might go to Artnia, or visit the kitties in the cat cafe at Shinjuku.  Then it would do that all over again the next day.

Eventually, this little spark would fade and disappear.  Perhaps it would find it's way across the ocean where the big soul lives.  But this too, would be a sad event because it would mean nothing remains of me in Tokyo and all that's left are fond memories.

P.S.  When I first thought of writing this blog, the idea itself was enough to make me sad.  Actually writing the blog, thankfully, didn't do much.  I think... maybe... finally... I don't miss Japan so much anymore. 

Why the Japanese are So Skinny? Cause they're Always Going Up

Spend but a moment in Tokyo and it hits you like a lightning flash.  99% of the people on the streets are fit.  Either they are skinny or they are normal.  I think I've only seen one or two big people on the streets the whole time we spent there.  It's something most Canadians can only envy.  How do they do it so easily?

In this blog I'll try to explain one reason but it also happens to be an excellent avenue for exploring Japanese culture.  Consider the picture below.

This is a shot of the main shopping area in Ikebukuro.  It should immediately be apparent that the buildings are very tall.  You might be thinking that, given this is a shopping district, that the shops are on the ground floor and the other floors contain living quarters.  Nope.  The other floors are most likely other stores.  Or bars, or even restaurants.  Look closely at the signs, and you can tell that there are definitely something on the upper floors.  In Canada, upper floors are mostly reserved for doctors or accountants, but it's not so true in Japan.  In fact, let's take a closer look at another location.

This shot is from a street level sign in Akihabara.  It's readily apparent how there are different establishments selling different goods and services located over multiple floors.  It's safe to say that, if you were a tourist focusing only on ground level retail, you are literally missing out on half of all that Tokyo has to offer.  Just as an example, personally, in our travels, we have seen two cosplay stores located on the 2nd and 3rd floors.  We ate at a T.G.I. Friday's which was one floor up.  There was a used game store located on another building at the 2nd and 3rd.  Finally, we even found a cat cafe a whopping six floors up from ground level.  And that's not all.

This is a shot of Don Quijote, a popular chain of department stores all around Tokyo.  This particular one was taken in Asakusa.  Now, notice just how tall it is.  In Toronto, department stores are dying, but in Tokyo, they are alive and kicking.  Also in Canada, department stores rarely push past the second floor but here, it can clearly be seen that it's at least five stories tall.  Indeed, we must have gone up four floors when we explored the place from the inside.  Don Quijote is only one example.  A Kotobukiya store selling figures and models went up five stories and a manga/anime store we found went up an astounding eight.  In fact, in our freshman view, when we entered the Kotobukiya store, we thought it only existed on the ground floor!  Until we found the escalator hidden in the corner.  How easily are treasures missed!  Had we not go up, I would have missed out on some awsome models.

Okay, so what does all this have to do with the Japanese being skinny?  Well, imagine living in such a city with this much emphasis on verticality.  There's going to be alot of stairs to climb, isn't there?  And so there are.  Yes, it's true, every building we've see has an elevator of some sort and many of the bigger stores feature escalators.  But at the same time, stairs are readily available.  Now, if you were in a hurry, would you wait for an elevator?  Or just take the stairs?  We just took the stairs.  For six stores, we prefer the elevator, but for the usual 2 or 3, stairs are just faster. 

Okay, what about escalators?  Well, the curious thing about Japan is that they design buildings with escalators AND stairs in mind.  In Toronto malls, if you want to move between floors, you  take the escalators because there are no other choice.  The stairs are usually hidden away some where but in Japan, stairs and escalators co exist.  If you find yourself closer to a flight of steps than an escalator, you are free to use them.  Of course, noone stops you from walking up and down an escalator if you so choose.

So yes, what I'm trying to say here is that the average Japanese walk up waaaaay more steps than the average Canadian.  Those of you living in houses are lucky to get free exercise every time you go up and down from the bedroom but not all of us are so fortunate.  But from what I saw, the Japanese are forced to use stairs, alot, if they wish to take full advantage of what Tokyo has to offer.  And if you happen to work at one of these establishments not at ground level, then your opportunity to exercise just doubled.

It's easy to get thin when the entire city is working you out every time you shop.  And this concludes my first entry in this matter.  I've thought of many, many more reasons.  Taken together and you got yourself one set of fit city dwellers.  But I'll blog about those another time.

P.S.  I can't prove this, and I wish I took pictures but I think my theory extends past stores and shopping.  Observing Tokyo living quarters I notice alot of apartment buildings have very prominent stairways built right up the side of buildings.  I'm not talking about the flimsy fire escapes some old buildings have but rather huge, meaty flights of steps made of stone and concrete.  This suggests to me that some of the smaller apartments don't have elevators.  Otherwise, why built such obvious ways of getting up and down when people will just take an elevator?  I think this is another reason why so many Japanese are thin.  If you lived on the third, fourth, or even the fifth floor and your building only have stairs, then you're getting exercise every time you leave the house and come back.

Malencholic

I just came back from a trip to Japan and right now, I feel kinda... malencholic.  I miss Tokyo alot.  This morning, if I tired, I probably would have shed tears.  That's how much I miss Japan.  It's a little scary how a mere 10 night stay can have this much affect on me but Japan is a great place for someone with my hobbies and interests.  Right now, the prevailing theory is that I just didn't want to go back to work, back to the daily grind.  So I'm sad about that rather than about not being in Japan.

The weird part is, while I was in Japan, I hardly missed Canada at all.  The hotel became my home, and exploring Tokyo became the routine.  It was lovely.  But there was one instance... just a fleeting minute or two, where I did miss my home in Toronto.  Just for a bit.

I will probably never forget the place in this photo for as long as I live.  It is here when I was reminded in Japan of how much I do miss home, if only for a moment.  This is a picture of a store in Akihabara and on the outside, it's really not that special.  Typical of some stores in Japan, the goods extend out to the sidewalk in a messy but neat kind of way.  Inside is a cramp-quartered store selling electronics.  It's a far cry from the Sources and Best Buys you see in Toronto.  Yet, it reminded me of home.

Thing is, it's not what I saw, but what I heard.  Playing on the speakers was 'Malencholic' by Junky and it is one of my favorite songs in Project Diva F.  Yet, it wasn't the same song.  Whoever sang this version isn't the same person from the game.  For those not familiar with Project Diva, all the songs in that game are not sung by real people but by machines.  But this version I heard sounded like it was sung by a real person.  It reminded me of home because in such a far away land I came across a piece of something which gave me, my girlfriend and my friends hours of enjoyment.  It made me miss home.

I do see the ironies.  For one, I was reminded of home by a Japanese song while IN Japan.  For two, it's not even sung by the same singer.  But none the less it made me melancholic for home.  There is some poetry to this.  Here I am in possibly one of the strangest places on earth.  There is something new waiting for me around every corner.  I feel like the song is kinda like this.  It is familiar but strange and is fitting for a place which, until that time, was halfway around the world.

I guess it just reinforced the idea of where I was while reminding me of where I came from.  In the end, I pretended to browse the goods while just listening to the music.  I was sad for a bit but when the song was over it's time to move on.  There was still much, much more to see.

Careless Whisper - FF14 Version

I've never felt so sure

As I round up my friends

And lead us to Amdapor

But as the healer dies

I tried to close my eyes

To erase the image of the scene

One where my friends died

 

(Chorus)

 

I'm never gonna tank again

Guilty heals has got much aggro

Though it's easy to pretend

That Flash's a tool for fools

 

I should have know better than to DPS

And waste the shield that I've been given

So I'm never gonna tank again

Then I won't look like a noob to you

 

I hear around the bend

The careless whispers of a bad tank

Was I supposed to know?

Get Iron Giant's aggro?

I tried to say it's all a lie

As the alliance fries

 

(Chorus)

 

Tonight we'll make it through somehow

I think I can control this crowd

Maybe it's better this way

Think of this as practice c'mon what do you say?

We're gonna be so good together

Can run this dungeon near forever

Let's do Halitali

Please stay!

 

(Chorus)

 

Now that you're gone

Now that you're gone

Now that you're gone

Was what I did so wrong

So wrong that you had to leave me alone

 

P.S.  Hope you enjoyed!  This is something new for me.  Oh, and that last part after the last chorus was lifted straight from the original song with no changes.  I couldn't think of anything to change, and it's appropriate enough as it is.  Thanks for reading!

Watch Out, or the Titan Just Might Fall... on You!

For about a month before the launch of Titanfall, the Xbox One exclusive, there was hardly a day gone by without some sort of news on the subject.  It's almost like Microsoft gave explicit orders to it's PR staff to hold off on info and dole them out on a day by day basis.  Maybe it's screen shots, gameplay details, frame rate or resolution, it seems that each new day brings forth a nugget of info about the game.  Either that, or sites like Gamespot are just taking advantage of all the Titanfall hype.  But one of the most important news in the week before the launch of the game was the price.  No, it wasn't as obvious as $60.

 

Most people think sales of the Xbone is lagging the PS4 is because the latter is $100 cheaper.  That may be why, about a week before the release of Titanfall, an announcement was made that the European release would get a sweet deal.  I believe it was $500 for both the system and the game, effectively putting the game up for free.  It's all confusing now that I'm trying to recall it, but shortly after that announcement, American chains like Walmart began announcing the Titanfall bundle for about $450 US.  Then, a bit after that, Microsoft themselves posted the price officially on their webstore.  Yes, it's $450 for the Titanfall/Xbox One bundle.  I think.  I barely remember, but that's not really the point.

 

The point is Microsoft is clearly betting on the game being a success.  That's why there's so much hype and that's why there's such a steep discount on the system mere months after the system's launch.  MS knew it had a great thing and knowing that they went all the way.  The result?  In the month of March, the Xbox One dramatically closed the gap with the PS4.  At least, for that month.  Total sales numbers are still pending.  The point is, the hype worked.  The game sold like hot pancakes and moved systems.  In terms of sales, I believe the game lived up to the hype.  

 

As expected, a few weeks after the game's launch, the news died down.  After the reviews and the early discussions out of the way, Titanfall coverage dropped to a level of any game post release.  Then, a couple days ago, I saw something a bit odd.  It seems that the major chain Target is selling the Xbox One/Titanfall bundle for $450 and includes a free 12 months subscription to Xbox Live Gold.  This is worth about $60 make the effective price of this bundle much lower than the PS4. 

 

No, I'm not tempted to write that the Xbone is failing, or that sales are lagging, or that noone wants the machine or all that negative jazz.  This may or may not be the case but what struck me as most odd about this news is….  that it just might be too much.  Not just the Target sale, but the whole thing.  I get the feeling that retailers and the public in general still can't really get over Titanfall as an Xbox seller.  What I'm trying to say is, maybe Titanfall just got a little bit TOO much hype.  By itself!

 

It's pretty obvious that the game was hyped to the gills and that's no mistake.  Sales numbers speak for themselves.  But what is the opportunity cost of all this hype?  That's what struck me.  To me, there's a danger to succeeding too much with a game like Titanfall.  Now, after months of talk, it's possible that in the eyes of gamers and the overall public, that Titanfall = Xbox One!  And that's not good!  The Xbox One already made the misstep earlier when it chose to highlight it's TV watching potential over gaming.  It's just now starting to reverse that trend (with the new guy in charage of the Xbox division for one thing).  Now it's backed itself into another trend.  A Titanfall trend.

 

See, Titanfall is a very specialized game.  It's multiplayer only and it's competitive.  It's also a first person shooter.  So in hyping the game to the Nth degree, Microsoft is essentially saying 'Multiplayer competitive shooters are what you will be getting if you get an Xbox One'.  This works great for the male 18-30 crowd but not much beyond that. 

 

In Microsoft's defense, a bigger installed base can only be a good thing.  Sell the machines now, then sell the different games later.  They also have a Forza bundle, but it's not nearly as hyped and car racing games still fall firmly into the 'brogamer' category.  Finally, MS is doing a great job with their self publishing system, the ID@Xbox LIve program.  Developers are saying it's a move in the right direction and they've got a few Japanese indie creators on board already for it's Xbone launch in Japan.  Clearly, MS is looking beyond the 'brogamer' demographic to make sure they have a well rounded machine.

 

Yet, with all their tooting of the Titanfall horn, I'm wondering if it might not backfire in some way.  Gamers and retailers alike are already equating the Xbone with shooters.  If they want to switch directions, MS will have to fight another tidal wave of opinion, one which they themsleves created.  My question is…  when the indie games are ready, when the Japanese ports are ready, would the Xbox owners be?

P.S.  Yes, I wrote this weeks ago.  The March results from NPD are in.  For the month of March, the number one retail sales belong to Titanfall.  Number two was Infamous Second Son.  However, the number one console sold that month was the PS4.  So the Xbox One still fell behind the competition despite Titanfall having the biggest software sales.  I think this somewhat proves what I wrote above.  Sure, Titanfall sold well, but perhaps the reason the Xbox One still lags behind the PS4 is because the game only appeals to a limited (but large, by numbers) demographics.  I think people who play a variety of games, or the people who don't like shooters, or people who like single player might be getting turned off by the Xbone, and so, did not buy one.  Not if it's used to 'only' play a game like Titanfall.

A Rift in the Occulus Rift

The biggest news in gaming last week (Edit:  I wrote this two weeks ago):  Facebook bought Occulus VR, the makers of the Occulus Rift virtual reality headset, for $2 billion in combined cash and stocks.  If you read some of the internet comments regarding this move, you'd think the world is ending.  What is the Occulus Rift?  It's a crowdfunded organization responsible for develping one of the most advanced virtual reality headset around and the initial purpose of such a device is to play games with it.  Their first headset was made purely for development purposes and it's reception was an immediate success.  Just about everyone who's tried one says great things about it.  Developers who tried it can't wait to start making games for it.  And then, one day, last week, all that was sold to Facebook.  Why is it such a big deal?

 

I'll answer that in a bit, but first, I want to get own personal views out of the way.  When I first joined Facebook (which wasn't that long ago, actually), the site almost immediately recommended me a bunch of people I can 'friend' with.  Shockingly, I actually know some of these people!  As a newly minted account, how does the site know who I could possibly be friends with?  Of course, it read my address book.  Without my permission.  I remember another shocking incident, also very recently.  I was doing searches on the net tyring to find a hotel for our Japan trip.  After looking up a bunch, I went onto Facebook.  Lo and behold, the very first advertisiment on the site wast the very last hotel I just looked up!  How does Facebook possibly know this?  Of course, it read my browser history.  Again, without my permission.  When I use Facebook, I give only the most necessary information and to be honest, I don't even use my real name.  Why?  Because of behavior like this.  This is called spying and it's not appreicated.  If so many of my friends weren't on the thing, I wouldn't be either.

 

And that's partially why the Facebook acquisition of Occulus VR is such a big deal.  Because A LOT of people online feel the same way about Facebook I do.  Trust for Facebook, as a company, isn't very high.  And of course, there's Occulus VR themselves.  The owners of Occulus VR sold out.  It had to be.  There's probably only a dozen people in the entire world who can turn down a share of 2 billion dollars and the folks at Occulus aren't those people. 

 

I think that, in a nutshell, is why people are up in arms over this deal.  The people who love Occulus enough to crowdfund them feel ripped off because the owners sold out, and every body else hates the deal because they also don't like Facebook.  The thing to understand here is that the company had the unanimous support of probably every single developer who've heard of the machine.  They all fell in love with the concept and the possibilities.  The people who chipped in some cash felt pride at having done so.  Occulus VR had nothing but positive PR prior to this news.  Now, they have mostly the opposite.  I think anyone with such a strong commitment to Occulus would feel betrayed by the move.

 

Normally, this will do in a company.  When the people who love you now mostly hate you, you have problems.  But Occulus VR isn't actually selling anything.  They don't have a device on the market, all they have are prototype units/development kits.  Yes, they sell them, but no, they can't be making that much money off them.  Truly brining the device out to market - that is where the money's at.  Therefore, as sad as it is for me to say, in the long run, Occulus VR, now part of Facebook, will do just fine.  Even if the entire development community turns against them.  Why?

 

Marc Ecko.  Okay, not really, but yes, really, because this reminds me of what happened at E3 once in the early 2000s.  Marc Ecko… yes, THAT Marc Ecko (I don't even know if I spelt the name right) was a keynote speaker at E3.  Here was there to promote his video game (yes, he has one).  Then, the second he opened his mouth, he made big news.  Imagine, right there, in the middle of thousands of developers, he said, to their faces, that they don't matter.  He said to the developers that they don't matter.  Just like that.  Why?  Because nobody cares about them.  Noone knows who they are and so, noone cares.  They care about the games they are making yes, and since 2000, many developers have become semi celebrities but for the most part, developers are just part of the faceless crowd. 

 

I have to day that this is harsh, but true.  My bet is that the mainstream haven't even heard of the Rift until the deal came out and some of them are probably still scratching their heads as to why this is such a big deal.  The developers who loved the Rift so much barely registered in the scheme of things.  If Facebook manages the deal to the end and brings out a market version of the Rift, then firms like EA, Activision and all the others would make games for it.  It doesn't matter if individual developers within these firms don't like Facebook.  If the boss says 'make a game' the employess make a game.

 

So while the majority of the development community hate the idea of Facebook owning something they so cherish, my bet is that most of them don't have the power to do anything about it.  In the long run, if Occulus succeeds with Facebook, then they will just have to fall in line.  It is a very sobering thought, and my sympathies lie with the game developers but the success of Occulus VR has almost been guarenteed by this deal and that is something everyone will just have to live with.

Stuck Between a Rock and a Not So Final Fantasy

It was easy in the beginning.  From December to Febuary, new gaming releases were like an endangered species.  So it was easy in that environment to focus my spare gaming moments to Final Fantasy 14.  Months passed, and I was hooked.  The game is pure magic and I even made it my number one pick for game of the year 2013.

 

Then March came and the flood gates opened.  Dangan Rompa, Professor Layton, Grounds Zero, Dynasty Warrors Extreme 8 and of course, Infamous Second son.  Yet even then, it was easy.  I simply didn't play these new games.  Sure, I started Dangan and am loving it, but since it's a hand held it's easy to play in small chunks.  However, with each passing day, the urge to start something besides Final Fantasy grew.  One day, it would be impossible to ignore.

 

That day came two days ago, when FF14 had to undergoe maintenance in preparation for a huge content patch (EDIT:  I wrote this two weeks ago, but only posting it now).  For one whole day we simply could not play.  I took advantage of that one day and opened up Infamous.  And I was hooked.  Re-hooked, that is.  After months of FF14 cooperating with strangers and friends I had forgotten what it was like to play a good single player game.  Infamous is that good single player game and it brought back all my repressed memories.  That's right, all of a sudden, I didn't want to play Final Fantasy anymore.  I wanted to play Infamous.  If not that, I wanted to play Dangan Rompa.

 

So I did just that.  The next day, when I should be diving head first into the new FF content, I was playing Dangan instead.  For the second day in a row I did not touch Final Fantasy.  And it felt GREAT!  No longer was I bound to do things dependent on others (such as waiting for a party, for example).  I could play Dangan at my own pace.  There was no pressure and no wasted time.  It was just me, my Vita, and a great single player experience.

 

Yes, I'm in trouble.  I always knew this day would come.  There wasn't a chance in hell I'd be able to stick exclusively with one game.  Simply coming this far in FF was a first for me and practically a miracle.  Now the day of reckoning has come.  Do I stop playing FF to start other games?  Do I put yet even more games on hold for FF?  Or can I strike some sort of balance?  Quitting games have never been a problem for me.  In fact, there was already one casualty.  Bravely Default.  I played over 25 hours of the thing and stopped.  Yes, it was the game's fault for being such a needy grind but it was ultimately my conscious decision to stop playing.  It was an easy decision.  But dropping FF?  That's not.

 

And it's because of my friends.  I still have a couple of good friends playing FF and I want to take advantage of that.  There's nothing better than playing the same MMO as your friends.  You can play with them or just chat with them but having people you know playing the same game makes the game that much better to play.  If I don't log on now, while they are still on, I will regret it when they are no longer.  Good memories are to be made now while there is still that chance.  And so it is that I cannot give up on Final Fantasy 14.  I did it once already, in September, and I don't want to do it again.  Because when I did it the last time, I let a friend of mine get so far ahead of me that, to this day, means I'm still unable to party with him for high level content.  Do I want to make the same mistake now?

 

I'm really, really pressed for a good solution here.  I know what must be done.  There must be a balance.  But I simply do not know how to do this.  Should I make FF14 a venture once every other day?  Every other week?  Only when I feel like it?  What if I don't?  There's just no easy choice.

 

I'll have  to get back to you on this.

P.S.  Since I wrote this blog, it's been off and on Final Fantasy for me.  It's actually not been so painful provided I can let that game go.  Every time I'm not logged on I'm worried.  Will my friends get ahead of me?  Am I wasting my monthly subscription by not playing the game?   If I can forget about these questions then It's fine for me to play something else for a while.  It's working out.  By the time I want to play FF, I'm all revved up.  When I get tired of it, I'm excited about playing other games.

Who the Heck is Kurt Cobain?

And did I even spell his name right?

 

That's right, I don't know who he is.  Okay, I know who he IS.  He's the lead singer for Nirvana, right?  Even I've heard of Nirvana but if he were to mysteriousy come back as a ghost and bump into me (or through, rather) I wouldn't know him from Justin Timberlake. 

 

A lot of people think this is sad.  A couple weeks back I was talking to a couple of my coworkers about it.  They were saying how everyone remember what they were doing when they heard that Cobain had killed himself.  Wait, he did, right?  I think I know more than I think I do.  Anyway, they were saying how everyone remembered the event, like how they remembered what they were doing when Kennedy was shot and during 9/11.  Now I'm too young for Kennedy, but I do remember 9/11.  But I don't remember Kurt Cobain.  When he died, I had no idea who he is, or where I was, nevermind what I was doing.  So my coworkers were like, you don't know Cobain?  And I'm like, no, I don't.  Not really.  They're like, you must know a few of his songs, right?  Nope, I said.  One of them starts singing Smells Like Teen Spirit and I had to stop her after a few bars.  No, never heard it.  She said that it's probably a song I've heard before, but don't know where it's from and that's most likely true.  But I'm pretty sure if a Nirvana song were to play right now, I wouldn't know it.  Or if I did, I wouldn't know it's Nirvana.

 

Bottom line:  I don't know Mr. Cobain.  End of story.  Now what does this have to do with videogames?  A whole lot, actually.  Because the reason why I don't know Cobain (and a whole bunch of other 'popular' artists) is because I was too busy playing games than listening to music.  Since I happen to LIKE the tunes coming from my consoles, I never listen to any outside music when I play games.  Still don't.  Even if the game doesn't have music I don't go around adding some from an MP3 player or whatever.  When I play games, I PLAY games. 

 

It's been like this for me since elementary school and I've been lucky.  Noone's ever teased me or bullied me for not knowing my music.  For the most part, I managed to get away totally scott free.  Well, except for that one time, in media studies.  See, in that class, we had a school group assignment.  It has to be the toughest assignment ever.  We were to build our own magazine and one of the sections we wanted to include in our little publication was a music column.  Guess who was in charge of that?  Yes, me.  It was totally brutal because I had to do a top 10 list, and back then, we didn't have HD or internet radio and people who've lived during that time know how bad the radio DJs are.  They'd play a song, then say the name of the song and the artist out so damn fast that a music illiterate such as myself stand no chance of deciphering what was said.  And, being a music neophyte, I didn't know where to look it up either. 

 

In the end, I didn't know how I completed that assignment and to be honest, I don't want to remember.  The only thing I can recall was that Michael Jackson's song, Black or White, was number one at the time.  I think I only remembered that because I already knew Michael Jackson and the name of the song is…. well… black or white.  It's easy to remember.

 

I try to have a theme in my blog.  Some kind of point.  This one doesn't but if I had to pick one, I'd say it shows how old I am.  If I was in a media studies class today, making a faux magazine, there'd totally be a gaming section.  And I'd be in charge of it.  And the top ten games?  Oh please.  Like I don't know (or don't know how to make one up, given that top 10 games don't really exist these days).  I'd be able to write articles for it too as easily as I'm writing a blog about it now.

 

Dammit.  Why didn't I think of this back then…

 

P.S.  The coworkers I spoke of earlier also said the song Smells Like Teen Spirit defined a generation.  I personally find that a little offensive.  Defined by popular music.  No way, not me.  That said, it would have been very nice if there WAS a game… any game… that everyone has played and that everyone loves and so everyone can talk about it.  There's something to be said for something… anything… that can unite a generation.  I still wouldn't want to be defined by it, though.

Tales from a Damage Dealer

It's been a while since my last blog, but things haven't been the same in Final Fantasy land.  Specifically, I haven't touched my Paladin class for, like, over a month now.  Instead, I'm mostly playing the opposite.  With my goal of getting all the advanced jobs, I've had to put aside my high lever classes in favor of finally starting to build up some of the others.  Amongst them is the archer, the thaumaturge and the arcanist.  Yes, all three are damage dealing classes!  So I've basically gone from tanking to it's polar opposite.  And I've learned a lot of lessons as a result.

 

No, these aren't the only damage classes I've had experience with.  My Dragoon and Monk are both DPSers at quite high levels, but playing as these three other classes are totally different.  For one, all three do damage from range.  Maybe I'm just playing Monks and Dragoons wrong.  It’s possible.  But I've never really done so much damage with them that I grab aggro from the tank.  But with the thau and the archer, it's a whole different story.  And I've seen yet another level of 'bad tanking' never experienced before. 

 

See, while Monks, Dragoons and Arcanists do damage, they mostly do damage to a single target at at time.  If you hit the same target the tank is currently attacking, the chance of pulling aggro is practically nil.  But not so for archers and thaumaturges, for they have abilities that hits whole groups of enemies, and hit them fast and hard.  I've lost count of how many times I used a single fire attack, hit three enemies, and immediately find myself beset by two of them.  Now I know why some tanks hate mages/archers who use area of effect attacks.  As a tank, I hated it too, until I managed to compensate for it.  But now, I finally know WHY it happens, and it's very simple to explain.

 

It's POWER.

 

You see, archers and thaus hit as hard as anyone else but being ranged attackers give them unprecedented consistancy in their damage dealing.  For one, they don't have to chase their enemies, they just stand and shoot.  Therefore, they are in the position to exert maximum force for maximum duration.  Blasting fools with fire or turning them into pincushions is a power trip.  It's positively intoxicating!  And their ability to hit multiple target only make abusing their power all the easier.  That is why they often pull aggro from tanks, or hit things they shouldn't.  Because they just can't help themselves!  If they are in the group to do damage, then by god that's exactly what they'll do.  No holding back.  Mwahahahahaha.  Now that I've experienced this power for myself, it's easy to understand why so many damage dealers find it difficult to let go and hold back.  And that's why a great tank is a godsend to these people.  Because they don't have to!

 

Alas, that's not always the case.  Focusing on my DPS classes, I've been disappointed many times.  Twice now, I've see tanks that didn't even bother tanking.  They just hit one enemy till it dies, regardless if there are any other enemies.  Even against just one foe a competent DPSer can easily strip aggro from these tanks.  The arcanist in one dungeon had to pull out gold Carbunkle to tank, and in another instance the healer tanked the trash mobs.  Other tanks are not so bad.  I was doing a dungeon with a friend of mine… I'll call her Rosana… with a tank that knew what to do, but just couldn't do it.  In other words, he knew that a tank is supposed to hold all the aggro but just didn't know quite how.  I don't actually hold anything against this guy.  I was once like that, so no judgements.  But, in a prime example from what I wrote about in my last Tales from a Tank entry, we had to compensate for him.  Basically, Rosana and I held back.  We COULD have gone nuts with a thousand arrorws of death raining from the sky and rings of fire but we didn't.  Well, mostly.  After we realize he couldn't handle it we just stopped.  It was sad.  Trigger finger was very itchy.  in the end, we successfully completed the dungeon anyway.

 

Now that I've had experience with all eight playable classes, my understanding of FF14's game mechanics have increased 10 fold.  It's really, really fun walking a mile in the shoes of some of these classes because at first glance it's easy to dismiss some of them as annoying.  I know a lot of tanks don't like archers and thaumaturges for their perceived recklessness but now, at the very least, I understand where that recklessness comes from and it's not always a bad thing.  Remember those two bad tanks I mentioned earlier?  Well, we ended up beating the dungeons but that's only because of the skill exhibited by the damage dealers.  If we weren't there, doing all that we can, no holds bared and no holding back, we might not have made it.

Bitcoins and the Value of Currency

If you've chanced upon the news today, you might have read something about how a company named Mt. Gox, an outfit based in Japan specializing in the exchange of Bitcoins, is going bankrupt.  Apparently, over $300 million worth of Bitcoins were stolen from the company over the past several years.  If you're scratching your head just reading this, that's normal.  I've barely heard of Bitcoins too before reading the news today.  So I looked it up.  Apparently, Bitcoins are virtual currency.

 

Yeah, that's it.  Virtual currency.  It acts the same way as most other currencies.  You go to an exchange (like the aforementioned Mt. Gox) and purchase using another currency any amount of Bitcoins you desire.  You can then spend those coins on a handful of organizations who accept these things for goods and services.  Also like any other currencies, the price for Bitcoins float according to speculation and demand.  Things were going pretty well for Bitcoins until today's headlines.  They were even going to put automated kiosks in the Vancouver areas so people can freely buy the coins.  But, by now, you're probably not exactly chomping at the bit to get some.  Never mind Mt. Gox.  Who would ever buy a currency that isn't backed by anything except maybe a handful of online retailers and currency speculators?

 

You'd be surprised.  In fact, there are other currencies not back by much of anything.  Want me to show you?  Okay.  Take out your wallet.  Look inside.  What do you see?  That's right, those $20 notes (polymer, if you are lucky) aren't backed by anything either.  Now you're probably saying that's not true. They are supported by the government.  And yes, that would be accurate.  Through monetary and other policies, goverments can control (barely) the value of the dollar.  However, the note isn't isn't backed by anything.  Nothing solid.  Did you know that money used to be linked to precious metals like gold or silver?  It wasn't very long ago (just in the last century, in fact) that you can literally exchange a dollar for a certain amount of gold or silver.  Not any more.  Now, whenever you work those over time hours to get those hard earned cash, there's not much to keep them floating other than a hope and a prayer.  And belief, of course.

 

Growing up in our Canadian society, it's easy to assume that paper currency has value.  Afterall, millions upon millions of people wake up and do this every day.  The either earn it or spend it, and this happens billions of times.  But other than belief of value, there isn't much else to back up the dollar.  This reminds me of a blog I wrote a long time ago on Gamespot in which I questioned the value of limited edition copies of video games that come with codes for downloadable content.  It's one thing to issue a collector's edition like Bravely Default's, where everything is tangible (a set of cards, an art book, a sound track and a collector's packaging) but it's questionable the value of editions typically issued by EA.  For instance, the Dragon Age collectors came with a tine box, a cloth map, and a slew of codes for various DLCs.  I wonder whether or not a 'collector's' edition should include things like DLCs.  Afterall, if it's not a physical object, what's there to collect?  The same goes for avatar items (whether it's Microsoft or Sony).  A real shirt I can understand, but a digital shirt with some designer logo on it I don't.  Not really.  Clearly, there are people paying for these things, and I think if you were to ask any of these folks (myself included) whether or not they see value in their digital purchases the answer would be yes. 

 

Which is why I'm not really surprised… well, not MUCH surprised… when I hear that at it's height, a single Bitcoin was being traded at over $1000.  Yeah, pretty insane, right?  But, given how much we associate value to other virtual goods, or paper money, it really isn't surprising.  Even after the Mt. Gox news, Bitcoins are still trading at $500 the last I heard.  Yeah, it got slashed by half, but half a grand is still nothing to sneeze at. 

 

Either way, you're probably thinking that Bitcoins are a lousy idea.  Virtual currency is untested.  It just doesn't feel safe, espeically after this Mt. Gox episode.  Sure, collector's edition DLCs and avatar items might not be 'real', but anyone see the value in a few extra levels, a few additional weapons, or even a virtual shirt with a virtual designer logo.  But a virtual currency?  Indeed, in its current state, Bitcoins are something only a trader or a speculator could love.  But what if I were to tell you that you're already engaging in a form of transaction very much like Bitcoins?  And likely, you've done so very recently.

 

Ever bought a gift certificate?

 

It's really not so different.  You give up some money in exchange for a medium (in this case, a card) worth the same amount.  Then you use the card to redeem for goods and services.  Unlike Bitcoins, the effect is much safer.  You know for sure, after giving up the money, that noone can steal it from you so long as you, or the person you give it to, holds on to the card.  You are also certain that, done correctly, the exchange of goods and services will work every time.  This is why I actually think Bitcoins are a good idea.  Imagine a world wide 'gift certificate' where you put in some money and you can redeem it for anything anywhere in the world.  In fact, proponents of Bitcoins say this very thing.  It's the most cost efficient way to transfer money because it's all peer to peer.  You don't have to go through a bank or credit card company to do so, and so your fees are minimal.  They just need to shape up the execution, make things safer and offer more stability.  Of course, the big difference here is that Bitcoins are designed to fluctuate in value, depending on the market conditions, while putting $20 into a gift card guarentees you $20 worth of goods.

 

With one exception.  Every shop on Steam?  The charge in USD.  Every bought a Steam Wallet card?  They take Canadian.  Buy a $50 Steam card and you get to use it for exactly $50 on Steam.  I'll let you make the connection.

Tales from a Tank: There's no Such thing as a Bad Party

This might be my last Tales of a Tank entry for a while, so I'll cap off this trilogy on a positive note.  Since I started playing Final Fantasy XIV AAR, I make regular stops on the game's message boards.  Mostly, I just want to keep up to date on other people's experiences and maybe learn something for myself.  Most times, the topics are what you would expect, but sometimes, there will be negative topics.  Things like Tank/DPS/Healer's stink type of topics.  Basically, a lot of horror stories.  I never understood this because for the longest time, I have only been in one bad group.  Surely not the world ending crisis some people make it out to be.  Granted, later on, as the dungeons get tougher, the wheat gets sorted from the chaff but all in all, there are faaaaaar more good groups than there are bad.  Which leads me to say…  there's no such thing as a bad group, only bad group dynamics.

 

To see what I mean from a Tank's perspective, I'd like to share with you something I heard from the top salesman of a sporting goods company.  He told me once, that what makes a professional athlete different from a mere athlete is the ability to compensate.  Whatever conditions are there out in the field, a true pro would use everything in his or her skillset to compensate for the negatives and lean on the positives.  And so it is with tanking.  A lot of these so called bad groups are simply a lack of compensation between one party member to another.  Tanking is hard, yes, but not because of the tools you are given.  In fact, what you are given as a Paladin or a Warrior is more than enough to do your job with.  The rest is all about how you use them.

 

I ran a dungeon once with a Black Mage who complemented me because I can hold aggro while he went on an AOE spree.  AOE stands for Area of Effect, and denotes skills which affect a wide area, and thus, can target multiple enemies.  Using AOEs present a danger to lesser tanks because it's possible to pull aggro away from the tank and onto yourself.  A good tank, however, can compensate for this with their own AOE moves (such as Flash or Overpower).  If a black mage or an archer or a healer spams AOE, simply use your own more often.  In fact, if you use Flash or Overpower at just the right intervals, the crazy AOE spamming DPS cannot, I repeat, cannot, take aggro away from you.  Ever.  I know because I did this.  The opposite is true also.  I was with a group involving two black mages.  I was healing and my buddy C-Rox was tank.  The mages put all the enemies to sleep except for one.  It was literally the most boring dungeon run of all time, as there was no way we'd ever die, but at the same time, the tank doesn't have to AOE as often, and can focus on dealing damage (such as it is). 

 

Though a tank has all the moves necessary to compensate for all sorts of situations, it's important for healers and DPS to realize that they aren't miracle workers.  Compensation works both ways.  If you find that the tank has trouble holding onto multiple targets, then stop doing your AOEs.  For healers, just try to focus on cure rather than cure 2 and for god's sake, don't use Medica if you don't have to.  The DPS can compensate for weaker tanks the same way a strong tank can compensate for all sorts of play styles.  Also, please try not to hit enemies out of order.  Always damage the tank's target.  When a tank is focused on one target, there isn't a hope in hell of anyone pulling that target away (believe me, I tried).  That said, tanks can even compensate for this, somewhat.  I notice that it takes a long time to pull out of order enemies away from a good tank (I know because I often hit enemies out of order if the tank doesn't mark them first).  Even if the tank isn't focused on that target, it still takes 2 or 3 combo cycles to transfer aggro on to you.  That's good news for small mistakes.  Even so, the tank can compensate for this by giving the target of the offending party member a quick savage blade or a skull splitter.  This can be hard to do in the middle of a hectic fight, however.  One of my favorite tactics when tanking just two enemies is to use (as Paladin) Fight or Flight (increase damage), then hit one enemy with fast blade/savage blade combo and then the second enemy with rage of halone, then repeat.  I find that no matter who hits what this tactic lets you keep aggro and do wicked damage.

 

This is why I say there are no bad groups, only bad group dynamics.  Confict usually occurs when someone is too set in their ways.  I've seen so many different fighting styles while doing dungeons but have almost always manage to complete the instance.  There really isn't much right or wrong in the game, just what works.  While a smooth group works best, a lacking group can also be successful provided that party members adjust their tactics accordingly.  Of course, not every problem can be solved in this way.  If someone is a jerk, there's not much you can do.  If someone doesn't know their role, all you can do is educate them.  But if you want to talk game mechanics, there's very, very little (outside of outright sabotage) to trip up a party where at least half the people know what they are doing.

 

So maybe, the next time you are in a 'bad group', the best thing to do isn't to rage quit or call people names, but rather, think about what it is you can do differently to make things work better.  Easier said than done, I know, but it can be done.