I was having a conversation with, I think it was, three others when it was decided. This union right here will be reborn! Join if you want to be a part of the Fantasy Theorist Union. Maybe you can guess what it's about by the name. Most union revivals don't go anywhere, but I think that this one could be different.

Also, I have joined... that website... you must know the one I mean. My profile. And here is a list I am making on there about friends. Only one on there right now, though I'm about to write another.

Mario is a double agent!

Also...

The Ultimate Videogame Franchises Union

The union of Zeromus1337.

Gamers EXP Inc.

The union of ElPersonaVII.

The Domain of Demigods

My union.

I realised how boring it can be for me to just run around in a game, sometimes breaking up that almost-soporiferous activity with a few presses of the 'A' and 'Y' buttons on the Xbox 360 controller. Even then it's still too repetitious for most. The appeal of role playing games, for me, was in the quality of the story and the characters. I have, for most of my life been drawn towards games that seem to have colourful (but not too colourful, as it can ruin the effect when it becomes too rich), effervescent scenery; well-written dialogue, unique and memorable characters; an epic, even drawn out story; addictive gameplay; and at least one, just as with the gameplay, addictive mini-game.

The game that made me realise some negatives in the genre is Enchanted Arms, which I had bought for $45, if my mind isn't playing with me. By looking at the cover I could see that it is a colourful game, just as I would have hoped, though I could not be as sure as I would have liked to be (Black Stone: Magic & Steel lied to me). The game is satisfactorily vivid, so that's one thing out of the way, discounting the foreseeable barren areas, such as the caves.

I see it as being ironic that my favourite game, Final Fantasy VIII, has less colour than Enchanted Arms has. What I like about FFVIII is the atmosphere, the thing that makes all of the towns, forests, caves, etc. worth running through for hours and hours and, well, days. Also, to break up the monotony with more than just the simplistic pressing of two buttons regularly for a simplistic action, is the card game, which is also my favourite mini-game, Triple Triad. The game is highly addictive and throughout most of the game world I will have someone who I will want challenge to a game of it.

Something that I think would be very good is having at least one mini-game in the game that you are making, unless there is no way for a mini-game to fit in without it feeling intrusive to the experience. Another thing would be to have hundreds of people just sitting, standing, walking around the cities and towns. Though the people don't move around much (in comparison with other games) in Final Fantasy XII, they add immensely to the feel of everything, mostly because they work in accordance with the audio, making you feel as though you are there among the people who occupied the streets.

Running around in an RPG, fighting randomly appearing monsters can be very boring if that is all that there is to do, but it can all be vastly improved if the need is felt to improve it (which it should be). Just some people well-distributed around the world with an above-average audio track to accompany them, a mini-game or two that is/are easy and addictive to play, interesting and colourful scenery to make any game world feel more vibrant, and a battle system that keeps you involved and thinking about strategic opportunities.

I could definitely keep going on about numerous subtleties that can add so much to a game, specifically an RPG, but this could begin to get overlong (I had to restrain myself from making the previous paragraph just that).

Do you have any favourite subtlety that improves a game in a huge way?

I do not go to school, but I am learning more now than I did when I did go to school. I was below-average in most of my school years. If I could rate each year out of five this is how it would be:

Year 1 - primary school - 1996 - 3/5
Year 2 - primary school - 1997 - 3/5
Year 3 - primary school - 1998 - 3/5
Year 4 - primary school - 1999 - 1/5
Year 5 - primary school - 2000 - 2/5
Year 6 - primary school - 2001 - 2/5
Year 7 - intermediate school - 2002 - 2/5
Year 8 - intermediate school - 2003 - 2/5
Year 9 - high school (correspondence school) - 2004 - 5/5 (even got $150 for doing so well)
Year 10 - high school (CS) - 2005 - 3/5
Year 11 - high school (CS) - 2006 - 2/5

I didn't do my home work from 2001 to 2003, and I absolutely never talked to the teacher I had in 2003. I have changed now, but that's how I was back then. In 1999 I mostly read books in a corner.

I was always best at reading, writing, and spelling; maths was my best in 2004, 2005, and 2006.

Did you do well in school?
or
Are you doing well in school?

I would have written something here about how I was going to be away from the internet for a few days, but the internet at the house I'm normally at disappeared, probably because of the dogs getting under the house. I don't know what is under the house that allows the internet to work, but that is what I have heard.

On Saturday I rented six movies because I had nothing better to do. They were:

All Quiet on the Western Front
I rented this because I had read a five star review of it back in 2007. This has a different feel when compared to more recent war movies, which, for me, is a good thing. My opinion of it makes me choose to give it an 8 out of 10.

Angels with Dirty Faces
I saw a review of this and other movies which have James Cagney in them (mostly gangster movies). I tried to remember which of them got the better reviews, but I couldn't and just decided to go with this one. It kept my attention more than White Heat did, so that's good. 8/10.

Clerks II
My least favourite of the movies that I had rented. There are some scenes that I really like in it, but it's too inconsistent in showing the kind of thing that I want to see. 7/10.

Pan's Labyrinth
This could be my favourite of the movies that I had rented. There was never a scene to bore me, and I liked to watch/heard that... faun-like thing walk and talk. 9/10.

Reservoir Dogs
I liked this movie, but I don't know if I liked to watch it. That seems to make no sense, but that's how I feel about it. It is very violent (though I don't think it is as violent as Pan's Labyrinth). It was not the violence that made it kind of hard to watch, it was the feel of it.
Anyway... 8/10.

Rocky Balboa
Another one of my favourites of the ones that I had rented. Like with Pan's Labyrinth, there was never a scene to bore me. My favourite scene, as it should be, is the boxing match right around the end. I have watched every Rocky movie, this has become one of my three favourites in the series.

I also bought The Texas Chain Saw Massacre on DVD. It was the "deluxe edition" and it was only $15 (about 11.50 USD). I first watched it when I was 13 or 14. I have watched the remake more than I have watched the original, but watching the original has reminded me that I definitely do like this version most.

And...
It is highly likely that I will buy Fable II when it is released.

I was away and I have my reasons. I have so much to go through right now (on GS), so I'll write more about what I did... later... whenever I feel like doing that writing.

And... I have my Xbox 360 back after being without it for Xbox 360 (not because of any problems with it, just some extended borrowing by someone).

Here I am, once more with little to tell (unless I begin to spiral into a marathon of typing up my day-to-day adventures involving much repetition, learning, repetition, learning, repetition, and laughing maniacally at the face of all the ones who I laugh maniacally at, who are actually not people, which makes the "face" thing invalid as a literal statement, and killing of any chance of "who" now making any sense). Speaking (typing) of (through) nearly impossible-to-be-understood things (one thing, if I am not mistaken), I changed something in the "About Me" section of my profile. Check it if you desire an implosion of your whole frame.

Now, like I planned to do at the beginning of the week, I will play Shenmue II... if I can find the controller for my Xbox.
And here's a question for you (if you are able to catch it):

When was the last time you challenged someone to a race of any kind?