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This topic has moved here: Subject: Halo Fanfic: The End of a War
  • Subject: Halo Fanfic: The End of a War
Subject: Halo Fanfic: The End of a War

I shall cut into 343 Industries Headquarters, retrieve the Halo Bible and burn any 343 Industries employee that stands in my way.

Grand Hierarch of the Covenant Elite Community!

Camp B for me. I first had a PS1 (Camp A), but when i played Halo for the first time, i knew i had to get my hands on a Xbox. And now i don't want anything else.

  • 09.20.2005 2:26 AM PDT
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I will always place the mission first.
I will never accept defeat.
I will never quit.
I will never leave a fallen comrade.

I bought an Xbox just for Halo.

  • 09.20.2005 2:37 PM PDT
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I originally picked up on Xbox when Microsoft bought Rare after Nintendo dumped them. I was so worried I'd miss out on the new Perfect Dark that I just had to have it.

Of course looking back if I had known that I'd be waiting until the Xbox 360 for the new Perfect Dark I might have held off on splurging.

I'm sure you guys will notice that I haven't mentioned anything about Chapter 22 in awhile, and this is because I have severe writer's block. I've heard before that writer's block actually doesn't exist, and it can be attributed to a lack of ideas. I don't agree. What else can you call it when you have an entire chapter planned out but when you go to write all you can do is see what happens when you close your eyes and start mashing the keyboard with your fist?

  • 09.20.2005 3:06 PM PDT
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this prety much the wrong site to say this but what do you guys now about ps2 live becouse im thinking about getting it to play socoom on

  • 09.20.2005 6:00 PM PDT
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^^^^^^horible system. xbox live is waaaay better '

  • 09.20.2005 6:15 PM PDT
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Is this your own factuated opinion or is it just what the media has hammered into your brain. Don't be a drone.

Yes, I also agree that Xbox LIVE is a better way to play online, but I can also tell you that SOCOM is a much better online experience than any LIVE game I can think of besides Halo 2.

And don't call the PS2 a horrible system because it's not. The PS2 has the continuation of the Final Fantasy series. That in itself makes it a great system. I have 27 games for my PS2, 9 for my GameCube, and 3 for my Xbox. Care to know what the 3 are? One is Halo, the other is Halo 2, and the third is Ninja Gaiden. Those are the only games I considered worth buying for the Xbox.

Halo is what made the Xbox -- without it it just wouldn't have succeeded the way it did. We on this board are proof of that. Are you typing your pro-Xbox statements on an Xbox forum? No. You're on the Halo 2 forum at Bungie.net.

To me, the Xbox is a piece of -blam!-. The only reason I own one is because of Halo. I'm not even going to buy a 360 until an official announcement of Halo 3 is released.

This is my opinion, you are entitled to your own. Support the Xbox if you wish, all the power to you if you do. But to me, it's a worthless system.

  • 09.20.2005 8:22 PM PDT
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hey Mr. Clark replay your favorite video game that has the most indept story. FFX for example. Then play a first person shooter. Then a crossword puzzle. Gotta jumpstart your brain with fresh ideas.

  • 09.20.2005 8:22 PM PDT
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Posted by: Mr_Clark
What else can you call it when you have an entire chapter planned out but when you go to write all you can do is see what happens when you close your eyes and start mashing the keyboard with your fist?
... yeah... that sounds like writer's block to me.

I have one advice, assuming you want/need it: go outside and breathe the free air. That is... if you aren't struck by a tenacious cold and it's blizzard-free in Canada. I find fresh air and pure nature - sometimes the last one is misinterpreted by many, including myself - very helpful in the event of writer's block.

Just go and take a walk, lie down on a riverbed and listen to the sounds of the water flowing by, then go back into your room and find that the writer's block is gone.

  • 09.21.2005 4:46 AM PDT

He watches every Hodgetwin video they put up...on ALL their channels. He calls them the Hodge Triplets, and considers himself the 3rd triplet. He's started talking and acting like them now. Every other line out of his mouth "Thaaas some BULLLLLL**** maaayne" or "Gotta make dem gainzzzz". He calls his biceps "gains". When he eats post-workout, he talks to his biceps, "Don't worry gains, I'm feeding you. Daddys gonna feed you, gainz *kisses biceps*".

What Scorptank's got there sounds like a good idea! I haven't tried it for my current writer's block, but it sounds good. I find thinking about the fanfiction some and where you'd like to go with it and how cool the possibilities are when you're NOT writing to help. That way, you say to yourself, "dang, I really wanna write this scene, it'll be AWESOME!" then you'll make your way to your computer and write yourself a scene!

Simple, but it works for me sometimes...

  • 09.21.2005 5:30 AM PDT
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i say read some thing good take you mind off writing if thats all you need so be it i will say and o yeah do eny off you now how much ps2 live costs

  • 09.21.2005 6:30 PM PDT
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For those that are bored, here's the Lost Garden article. Read it. I'm not lying when I say you will come away enlightened about many things in the video game industry.

Read on....

Genre maturity leads to market consolidation
In past articles I’ve discussed two key concepts. The first is genre addiction and the second is the genre life cycle. These both have major market implications for both individual game developers, but also for the market as a whole.

To briefly recap, genre addiction is the process by which:

* Players become addicted to a specific set of game mechanics.
* This group of players has a strong homogenous preference for this genre of games, creating a well defined, easily serviceable market segment.
* Game developers who release games within a genre with a standardized set of play mechanics are most likely to capture the largest percentage of the pre-existing market.
* Over time, the game mechanics defining the genre becomes rigidly defined, the tastes of the genre addicts become highly sophisticated and innovation within the genre is generally punished by the market place.

Genre life cycle is the concept that game genres go through distinct stages of market status as they mature:

* Introduction: A new and addictive set of game mechanics are created.
* Growth: The game mechanics are experimented with and genre addiction begins to spread.
* Maturity: The game mechanics are standardized and genre addiction forms a strong market force. Product differentiation occurs primarily through higher layer design elements like plot, license, etc.
* Decline: The market consolidates around the winners of the king-of-the-genre battles that occurred during the Maturity phase. New games genres begin stealing away the customer base. With less financial reward, less games are released.
* Niche: A population of hardcore genre addicts provides both the development resources and audience for the continued development of games in the genre. Quality decreases.

What we see here is the consolidation of game designs over the life cycle of the genre. Early examples within a genre tend to have a wildly diverse spectrum of game mechanics that appeal to a broader spectrum of players. As the genre matures, the game mechanics become more standardized and the needs of the genre addicts more homogenized. As the market segment consolidates and standardizes, the majority of the players are well served. They get more polished games that have greater depth. Who could argue that a tightly polished game like Warcraft is a bad thing?

How maturity reduces the number of total game players
Goodbye people on the fringes: The people on the fringes, however, are left out. In the evolution of the RTS genre, there was an interesting offshoot in the form of the Ground Control games. These sported an interesting 3D perspective that was never truly adopted by the mainstream RTS producers. Most players within the identifiable RTS market segment did not enjoy these games and so it was not in the best interest of the game developers to include the innovative features in their designs.

However, some players enjoyed these titles quite a lot. As the mechanics for RTS games become highly standardized, these fringe players were alienated by games in the mature genre. A 2D Warcraft title just didn’t provide the same rewards that this fringe group was looking for.

Some of those gamers left gaming. It may take being alienated from several genres, but eventually a few decided that there were better activities to spend their time on. The market was simply not serving their needs. This shrinks the market.

Goodbye semi-hardcore: The mainstream group, however, fares only a little better. When you recycle the same standardized game mechanics, you put players at severe risk of burnout on a genre. There are only so many FPS many people can play before they don’t want to play them any more. This is less of a problem for the super hardcore players. However, it is a substantial problem for the less hardcore players.

As the less hardcore players burn out on the game mechanics of their favorite genres, they too are at risk of leaving the game market. The result is a steady erosion of the genre’s population.

What is left is a very peculiar group of highly purified hardcore players. They demand rigorous standardization of game mechanics and have highly refined criteria for judging the quality of their titles. With each generation of titles in the genre, they weed out a few more of the weaker players.

This is a completely self-supporting process with strong social forces at work. Players form communities around their hardcore nature. They happily eject those who do not fit the ideal player mold. They defend the validity of their lifestyle with a primitive tribal passion.

There is no internal force within a genre lifecycle that can break this cycle. Only external forces can do the trick. The question is, who would want to break this cycle and who wants to maintain it?

Who genre maturation is good for
Genre maturation is great for the very small minority of AAA developers that can serve the hardcore market. They release titles known as genre kings that are able to address the needs of a large percentage of an existing, well defined segment of genre addicts. Genre kings dominate a particular genre with impressive financial results. The amount of money genre kings such as Halo 2, Half Life, Warcraft, Grand Turismo and other rake in is an inspiration to both developers, gamers and publishers everywhere.

Hardcore genre addicts easily pay for themselves. On average they are willing to spend substantially more on games than the casual or the fringe gamer. When a genre becomes standardized, there is literally an explosion of revenue that comes from successfully tapping into a uniform set of needs. This scalability is a basic attribute of software and is a major mechanic behind hit making in the game industry.

As long as new genres are being created and money gained from better capturing homogenous segments genre addicts is high, the industry as a whole grows with a few fat king of the genre companies taking in the majority of the money.

Who consolidation is bad for
However, when the majority of money and effort is spent on capturing existing markets and not enough is spent on seeding new genres, the natural erosion of less hardcore players begins to decrease the overall market size.

It is easy to ignore this trend. Overall player numbers may decrease in certain genres, but remember that hardcore players spend more and flock to specific games in great numbers. So total revenues keep going up, and the revenues of hit titles keep going up. It seems silly to shout that the sky is falling when there are so many examples of over-the-top success. This is the current state of the American game market.

Only after the trend has been going on for some time does the erosion become too much to ignore. The substantial decreases in the overall revenue of the Japanese market place over the last five years provided a major warning signal. You could easily argue that similar erosion has occurred in the PC market.

People who are less likely to care:

* Sony and Microsoft have built strong brands around servicing the hardcore players of existing genres. To say that the sky is falling shows a lack of faith in the hardcore market - that could be very damaging.
* Major genre king developers like Blizzard, Valve, Epic and Square. Their bread is buttered. They own the mature genres and will milk them for many years to come.

People who are more likely to care

* Companies that serve a diverse user bases: Oddly enough, both EA and Nintendo are in this group. They are broadly diversified such that major trends in industry directly affect their bottom line. Sony is in a bit of a pickle since they fit this definition as well. (Hence they’ll release the Eye Toy, but keep their main controller for the PS/3 as standard as humanly possible)
* Companies that value brands over genres: People often look at Nintendo’s releases of a half dozen Mario games a year and assume that they are all clones. In fact, they are typically radically different games across a wide variety of genres. Nintendo gains their value from the Mario brand, not ownership of a specific genre. Brand-based companies rely on the creation of new genres since they can take that brand into the genre for a low risk profit opportunity.

Nintendo needs new genres
That last point about the strategies of brand-based publishers is an important one. Nintendo needs new genres to make money.

Nintendo makes the majority of their money by leveraging their brand recognition during the early to mid-stages of a genre’s life cycle. The power of the Mario character can establish a Nintendo game as an early genre king and help tap into a new market segment for great profit. However, as they get later into the life cycle, the standardization of the genre mechanics and the intense demands of the hardcore population reduces the power of the brand.

  • 09.21.2005 8:23 PM PDT
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A few major games will dominate the mature genre and it is unlikely that Nintendo’s will be one of them. Nintendo’s fixation on new genres and their unwillingness to pander completely and utterly to the existing hardcore audiences has made their name mud with many of the most vocal elite in the game industry.

Product innovation leads to increased profitability
C’est la vie. You can’t have it all. Focusing on product innovation at the expense of commodity markets is a classic business strategy that is used successfully in non-game companies around the world. Companies like 3M are required as part of their strategic plan to have 30% of their revenue come from new products. They are constantly exiting markets when strong competition emerges and constantly competing with themselves by offering new products that outdate their existing products. Nintendo releases new genres where other companies release new products, but the basics are the same.

The non-business person looks at this strategy with horror. Nintendo invented the 3D platformer, yet they have no major product in that niche at the moment. Surely this is the most obvious sort of stupidity. However, consider the following portfolio management issues:

* The likelihood of getting a genre king early on in a genre life cycle if you invented the genre is quite high. Competition is limited.
* The cost of creating a genre king early in the genre life cycle is low. You can rely on things like simplified graphics and limited amounts of content. The neo-retro graphics of most Nintendo games has a lower cost of production than the realistic look of many of its competitors.
* The cost of creating a genre king late in the genre life cycle is high. Customers demand realistic graphics, voiceovers, cut scenes, loads of extra content, etc.
* The risk of having your game not becoming king of the genre goes up. The competition is simply greatly increased. Mario is a great game, but would it own the entire genre if it were forced to compete against Jax and Daxter, Sly Cooper, Prince of Persia and others?

What you find is that selling innovative products early on can be dramatically more profitable and less risky than selling commodity products. The early market might not be as large, but the money is much better. You see this over and over again. Nintendo sells less but makes more money. Sony and Microsoft sell more, but make less profit.

Consider this tidbit. The Xbox, which focuses on highly mature genres catering to hardcore gamers has production costs of $1.82 million a title. The Gamecube costs half as much at $822,000 a title. The real kicker is that the Nintendo DS only costs $338, 286 a title to develop for, even less than the Gameboy. Some of these costs have to do with the hardware and development kits, but for the most part they are derived from the scope of the projects. Being able to develop successful titles at 1/5th the cost of your competitors is a major boost to your bottom line.

Thus, Nintendo’s profitability and need to innovate go hand in hand. They need those new genres because the old ones quickly become too competitive and too expensive.

New controller features as a source of Innovation
The new controller is best seen in light of this larger corporate strategy.

One of the easiest ways of creating a new genre is to invent a new series of verbs (or risk mechanics as I called them in my Genre Life Cycle articles). One of the easiest ways of inventing new verbs is to create new input opportunities. Nintendo controls their hardware and they leverage this control to suit their particular business model.

And this is exactly what Nintendo has done historically. The original Dpad, the analog stick, the shoulder buttons, the C-stick, the DS touch pad, link capabilities, the tilt controller, the bongo drums…the list goes on and on.

Each time, they also bundle the controller innovation with a series of attempts at creating new dominant genres. Not all attempts are successful, but a few of them are highly successful. The 2D platformer, the 3D platformer, the Pokemon-style RPG, and the virtual pet game all come to mind as successes. By seeding a genre and by owning the key hardware platform that the new genre lives on, Nintendo achieves a position of financial stability and security that is unheard of in the game industry.

As a side note, folks who argue Nintendo should just make games for other platforms are completely missing the point. Nintendo needs to control their hardware platform in order to force innovation to occur in the control mechanisms. Other console manufacturers who rely on the hardcore audiences and standardized genres don’t see this need. They would happily standardize the console platform and make it into a commodity. Microsoft has historically made major comments about having one universal development platform.

The moment Nintendo loses control over their hardware, they lose a major competitive advantage in terms of creating new genres.

The new controller
The new controller is yet another logical step along a path that Nintendo has been pursuing for many years. We are likely to see some very obvious patterns repeated.

* It allows for a wide variety of new verbs that are unique to Nintendo’s hardware platform
* There will be a number of genre-seeding attempts that take advantage of the new verbs that are available. With luck and a lot of skill, one or more of these will become a major new genre. New genres bring in new gamers who are loyal to Nintendo.
* Nintendo will leverage their powerful brand to encourage early adoption and dominance of this genre. I’ll make a bet that Mario, Pokemon or other major Nintendo brands will be a major element of their new genre attempts.
* As the years pass and the genre becomes mature, hard core gamers will consolidate within it and begin demanding more polished experiences. Craftsman-oriented companies will wrest control of the genre away from Nintendo.
* Nintendo will innovate once again in order to maintain higher profit margins.

Some predictions about the games
There are also some obvious predictions that we can make about the game designs based off the standard genre lifecycles.

* Early titles will be essentially technology demos that showcase a specific core mechanic. There will be one or two major titles such as Mario 64 of yore that are highly evolved, but these will be few and far between due to the cost associated with evolving an entirely new genre over the span of a single game.
* Most early titles will sell small numbers, but will end up being decently profitable due to their low cost. The example given of Brain Training on the DS, which was created in a mere 4 months comes to mind. Even though it isn’t selling what are typically considered ‘blockbuster’ numbers, it is an unqualified financial success. During this period a large number of new genre attempts will be successfully vetted.
* Only after a year or so will 2nd generation ‘polished’ games start to emerge. The cream of the core game mechanics tested in the first generation will be layered with all the traditional trappings of a modern video game.
* One or two ‘major new genres’ will emerge. These will be highly profitable and Nintendo will attempt to turn some of them into exclusive franchises. Mario Kart and Mario Party are good examples of this from previous generations.

So when games come out slowly and only appear to be technology demos, I wouldn’t worry too much. A ‘gimmicky game’ is really just another name for a new core game mechanic that hasn’t been polished. Donkey Kong is considered shallow and gimmicky by children playing it for the first time in this modern age. Yet it sported the same core game mechanics that eventually blossomed into an entire genre of highly polished 2D platformers.

In the past, Nintendo built these new genre attempts internally. They got to own the IP and enjoyed the resulting success that comes from being one of the few to understand the benefits of innovation. The result has been a focus on a small number of 1st party development efforts and a trickle of titles. Unfortunately for them there are other innovative people in the world. New genre successes such as GTA on other consoles provided substantial and painful competition.

I see this changing somewhat with the DS. We are starting to get some wacky ideas from smaller companies and Nintendo seems to be a bit more welcoming of others. Nintendo needs to pursue this path further by allowing new companies to join the experimentation stage.

Conclusions
Nintendo’s strategy of pursuing innovation benefits the entire industry. It brings in new audiences and creates new genres that provide innovative and exciting experiences. The radical new controller is a great example of this strategy in action.

Surprisingly, this also benefits Microsoft and it benefits Sony. As the years pass, the hard core publishers that serve mature genres will adopt previously innovative genres and commoditize them. Their profits will be less, but they’ll keep a lot of genre addicts very happy. Everybody wins when a game company successfully innovates.

I see both of these strategies as a necessary and expected part of a vibrant and growing industry. Industries need balance and Nintendo is a major force of much needed innovation that prevents industry erosion and decline.


Everything in the quoted article is from the Lost Garden article. Nothing is of my own creation, just thought you guys would like some light reading while I try to get Chapter 22 ready.

[Edited on 9/21/2005]

  • 09.21.2005 8:24 PM PDT
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That is an very interesting article you have there Mr Clark.

I previously thought that Nintendo ought to stick to making games, but if Nintendo's profits come from the creating of new genres then they would be crazy to only make games. They would no longer be able to control the development costs which is obviously vital to keep their business making money.

Good luck with chapter 22!!!

  • 09.21.2005 11:00 PM PDT
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Very interesting article. I think your going to have a hard time convincing some people though. Most will look at the article and just slip right to the end.

Maybe if you disguised it as your fanfiction the less errr...'intellectually inclined' might end up reading it.

  • 09.22.2005 1:42 PM PDT
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I feel insulted, yet gratified.

  • 09.22.2005 2:05 PM PDT

He watches every Hodgetwin video they put up...on ALL their channels. He calls them the Hodge Triplets, and considers himself the 3rd triplet. He's started talking and acting like them now. Every other line out of his mouth "Thaaas some BULLLLLL**** maaayne" or "Gotta make dem gainzzzz". He calls his biceps "gains". When he eats post-workout, he talks to his biceps, "Don't worry gains, I'm feeding you. Daddys gonna feed you, gainz *kisses biceps*".

Posted by: Serpensium_4
I feel insulted, yet gratified.


Though I did read a vast majority of the article, I'm still insulted by Konoka Chan's hopefully tongue in cheek comment...

  • 09.22.2005 3:37 PM PDT
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im confused thats all im going to say maby a pretty smart peron could put in lamens terms

  • 09.22.2005 5:52 PM PDT
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*sob*

Indigo Prophecy is sold out everywhere. I've had to resort to ordering it online. Now I just have to wait 8 years for it to pass through customs.

Ohhhh, this depresses me more than my failed attempts at jumpstarting my writing itch.

As for the article, its not necessarily a must-read (okay that's a lie, everyone needs to read it or angels will kill you).

What it is, is a very in-depth look at the stale game industry at the moment, and the reason why Nintendo does what it does, and why we're all benefiting from their actions, even if you never purchase a Nintendo game or console ever.

  • 09.23.2005 3:58 AM PDT
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I have Bought and Completed Farenheit( Europeian name for Indigo Prophecy)

It was A great game I hope you get it soon as I think that it is worth the money.

  • 09.23.2005 8:14 AM PDT
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I am incredibly jealous. I can't understand how this game could be sold out. Its supposed to be the "sleeper" hit of the year, emphasis on sleeper. Doesn't that mean nobody buys it?

Muhh, well anyways my imported copy of Advent Children arrived today, much to my great pleasure ( I tell ya, make friends with Japanese foreign exchange students, it'll benefit you for years to come). Watching this movie on an awesome television instead of a laptop makes a world of difference.

Its made me so nostalgic that I dug out my old Playstation and scrounged for my copy of Final Fantasy VII and started a new game. I figure I should have it done by the time Indigo Prophecy clears Canadian customs (notorious for holding anything game related for as long as possible).

How about you guys? Any fond memories of your gaming past? Anybody on this site that actually played FFVII aside from me and Konoka?

  • 09.23.2005 7:28 PM PDT

"It's like a cake filled with pies." -Pete "Mango" Parsons

Seventh Column Contests

wow, i finally got time to read the chapter and i absolutely loved it. keep it up man.

  • 09.23.2005 7:52 PM PDT
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Posted by: Mr_Clark
I am incredibly jealous. I can't understand how this game could be sold out. Its supposed to be the "sleeper" hit of the year, emphasis on sleeper. Doesn't that mean nobody buys it?

Muhh, well anyways my imported copy of Advent Children arrived today, much to my great pleasure ( I tell ya, make friends with Japanese foreign exchange students, it'll benefit you for years to come). Watching this movie on an awesome television instead of a laptop makes a world of difference.

Its made me so nostalgic that I dug out my old Playstation and scrounged for my copy of Final Fantasy VII and started a new game. I figure I should have it done by the time Indigo Prophecy clears Canadian customs (notorious for holding anything game related for as long as possible).

How about you guys? Any fond memories of your gaming past? Anybody on this site that actually played FFVII aside from me and Konoka?

Me. =)

I spent an incredibly abundant amount of time on that game. I have over 400 hours logged on my save file, with all characters level 99, all limit breaks unlocked, all final weapons unlocked, and basically anything else there is to unlock in the game.

It's so funny to kill Sephiroth in like 5 hits... gotta love that omnislash. =)

And hmm... a fond memory of my gaming past. I guess I'd have to say when I beat the chocobo race with 0 seconds. Oh god, that really was a great feeling.

Any good memories of FFVII from you Mr. Clark?

  • 09.24.2005 3:29 AM PDT
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When Final Fantasy VII first came out I was but a young 11 year old boy with nothing but sunshine and lollipops inside my dreams. After playing through the game I became a depressed emo who cut himself with flowers....

Okay that's a lie.

Actually my fondest memories of the game is pretty much the whole experience. My father was still in the army at the time, and my family kept moving around, but when I was in Edmonton I was just finishing up grade school and put up one hell of a fit so my parents relented and allowed me to stay with my cousins to finish up the school year.

Anyways, after a fluky coin toss I got to keep the Playstation and my brother got the Nintendo 64 (my cousins secretly had one so I didn't miss out on Mario 64 and all those other titles), and we parted ways, me staying in Edmonton while they got shipped off to Germany.

FFVII was released in September of '97, and I was one of those kids that camped outside the store waiting for it, both me and my cousin Patrick (back in the late 90's school didn't start till the second week of September). Actually I vaguely recall that we were the only kids there. Everyone else looked to be pretty old. Not surprisingly I was one of the few people there who could fondly recall playing FFVI (FFIII here in North America).

Patrick and I quickly came to the agreement that if we wanted to avoid any bloodshed over who got to play the game first, it would be best if we played through together. This decision soon led to many days seated on the couch in his basement as close to the television as humanly possible. I remember watching with rapt attention as the first FMV sequence played out, and uttering a phrase which shant be repeated here.

I'd have to say my fondest memory of the whole thing was the *SPOILER ALERT!* scene where Sephiroth kills Aerith. I was young and impressionable, and as such the heart-wrenching scene got to me. In a display of true male instinctiveness, both Patrick and I excused ourselves from each other and had to go sit in another room just to get ourselves under control lest the other person realize they were so close to blubbering like a baby.

I'm not sure why I put the spoiler alert in there. Anyone who is anyone knows about that scene, even if they never played the game.

As for the necessity of playing the game to watch and enjoy Advent Children, I wouldn't say its 100% necessary, but it certainly does help. Many of the scenes which I will not utter a word of here, are confusing to those that have not played the game. My mother somewhat foolishly sat in while I was watching the movie and I had to pause it quite often to launch into 20-minute speals about why Cloud is so moppy or why Kadaj has such silky hair.

I think the general audience can just sit back and admire the beautiful fight scenes, and when those few moments of tense dramatic conversation come up they can entertain themselves by trying to count the number of hairs on Cloud's eyebrow or something.

In other news I'm kinda-sorta-almost-but-not-really getting started on Chapter 22. The ideas are there, I think I'm going to have major problems trying to dictate scene direction and placement. This chapter could easily become a jumbled mess, and I'm going to need all of my crazy writing skills to pull it off. I figure this is going to be the chapter that this fanfic is known for, just like FFVII is known for the death sequence.

That is all....


Ohhh wait! Another joyful memory is finally getting that damned special Chocobo breed that let me retrieve the Knights of the Round Materia. Jeez, a week of breeding those damn things made me want to slaughter a flock of them in a wild frenzy of madness.

  • 09.24.2005 4:37 AM PDT