• 5Dec 07

  Sabbat year

  All wiccan references set aside, I have decided to take time off from GameSpot for an indefinite time. This involves me abandoning union officer positions, and also my position as a leader from The Team Ninja Clan union. I have transferred leadership for that union to HRDKyoSaNim. I ought to have hotlinked that, but it doesn't matter anymore now lol.

  People sometimes ask me: "flan, how can you suddenly leave certain things behind that you have worked so hard for, at the snap of a finger?". That's just one of those mysterious of life, isn't it? In reality it isn't. It's a decision building process that builds up, like drops slowly filling a bucket. For me, the decision making process is tied to the balance between effort and relaxation. Even the sharpest of blades will become dull if no time is taken off to keep it top notch. It's the exact same thing in a human life, where certain activities have to make room for others in other to improve the overall quality of life.

  When will I be back? I don't know. I have left other places for similar reasons in the past. Sometimes I do come back to them, but with a new identity, which can be quite rejunvenating. Time will tell. To all of my GameSpot friends that I have built a good relationship with: carpe diem.

  • Posted Dec 5, 2007 5:44 am PT
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• 14Nov 07

  No game/child love from parents

  This is interesting. According to this poll from Associated Press-AOL Games, 43% of the parents don't play video games with their kids. I was gobsmacked. I can relate to the fact that, as a parent, you're not interested in video games, but that should be no excuse to ignore your kid while he/she is playing them, especially with the added realism in video games nowadays.

  My parents never were pro video games. To them it was just a waste of time, and they only gave me access to them when I was 15. What I got was a NES with Mario, hardly the kind of game that can be perceived as threatening for moral values if you compare it with Manhunt for example. They probably still should have spent time with me as I was playing video games, especially after I got a hold of Doom, but at least they have the excuse of being part of the baby boom generation, where video games didn't exist yet in the childhood years.

  I wonder what would be the excuse now for parents to ignore their kids. Maybe they don't have the time, which is a valid excuse in these days of just-in-time management. If you don't have the time though, why even consider leaving your kid behind with some ultra-violent games, with the only message being that it's just a waste of time? That's hardly just-in-time.

  Of course, when something goes wrong later on, it's easy to blame the video game. After all, why blame yourself when you can blame digital media?
  

  Hey Jack, Hillary and company, how about aiming your arrows on this? Ah wait, I guess it's better for your own conservative popularity to blame a video game than it is to blame the parents, who are supposed to be the audience that you're serving.

  • Posted Nov 14, 2007 1:39 am PT
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• 12Nov 07

  More savegame corruption

  It's that time of the year again: my Ninja Gaiden Black savegames on my Xbox 360 have become corrupted again. This time it's worse because I had completed the game earlier this year, and all of that effort has gone to waste. I was planning on recording some of the movies in the theatre that you unlock after completing the game, but that's impossible now.

  I don't know what the cause is, but I assume it has something to do with either the BC file being updated, or you needing the original Xbox 360 that you saved the data with. I think it's the latter because my Dead or Alive Ultimate profile has become corrupted as well. I know Team Ninja is quite obsessed with gamers having to work their way through games fair and square, and this may be one of their protection measures kicking in. Encrypt data in such a way that it is tied to the original console it was saved with, and there you go. Of course, if that's true, it makes me a victim of circumstances.

  Possible solutions? I could have tried recording the videos in Ninja Gaiden Sigma on the PS3, but:
  1) I don't have the cable set for that;
  2) Sigma doesn't even unlock a movie theatre after completion.

  Conclusion? I guess the Ninja Gaiden Black videos will have to wait. Next time, I'll just play through the game on my old Xbox and record the videos from that system. My first and only Xbox has survived four 360 systems at this point. That's one sturdy black box. As for Team Ninja, if my assumption is true, maybe they shouldn't just think about people who try to cheat, but also about those who don't?

  • Posted Nov 12, 2007 2:15 am PT
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