skrotkanon

What I know of the DSM-IV is what I've gathered from reading, but I think you really need to have a degree in psychology to actually have access to it. Even then, many will tell you that it's dangerous to try to put people into too neat little boxes, because people are people, not the illness they are diagnosed with.

Of course, hero's journey is still genre specific and I'm not saying that a different narrative might yield a different conclusion. However, even so, it is striking how common the structure is. Let's take an anime such as Monster for example, that I think most people would argue has a deep characterization and does not follow a typical problem-solving plot. Yet I recognize a lot of elements from hero's journey in Monster. I'm not saying that because I think any story that has a structure similar to hero's journey is bad. I just think that there is perhaps something genuinely profound in humanity that makes us repeating this same pattern in our storytelling across cultures that says a lot about ourselves and our role in the world.

No, I have never played Vagrant Story and I just recently found out it was actually connected to the FFverse. I didn't know that it was a part of the project that includes Tactics. I agree with you that it requires a good writer to make a story work, but I'd argue that this is true regardless of the genre we speak of. To me it sounds like you've just outgrown fantasy and the generic narrative that is used when the art is not pushed beyond its genre conventions :) I pretty much feel the same about shonen now, which is why the only shonen I still follow is Bleach because I think Bleach has kept pushing the boundaries of shonen for years now and ventured into seinen-territory years ago. I'm just tired of shonen that are generically written shonen, including the dumb main protagonist who's all brawns but no brains, the nakama concept and so on and so forth. And don't get me started on the nosebleeding jokes. I like the violence of shonen, but I just don't like the narrative and the way the story is being told anymore, while I would've appreciated it when I was younger.

I crush very easily on moody guys for some reason, especially those who do the "I'm so tough on the outside but I'm very sensitive on the inside". What can I say? I like sensitive men. <.<

I think you misunderstand a bit about Joseph Campbell :) I don't mean that it's not possible to write a good clichéd story, I mean that the basic formula is always the same.This is a good video to illustrate my point:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB_Q1gFsvIw

All of these stories are very different and belong to different genres, but the structure the way the plot is laid out is essentially the same.

I like mentally unstable people so that's why I like it <.< The more mentally unstable the main protagonist, the more enjoyment I get. I guess I'm just a sadist. I also don't mind having the main protagonist undergo torture etc. I was shocked, pleased and surprised when Richard got tortured in Sword of Truth.

I am not surprised that it has been hard to evolve the combat system in SO2. It worked but it wasn't fantastic either. As I wrote, I haven't played anything post FFVII :( Although since it seems PS2 emulators are kind of well-developed now and a lot of games can run at full speed I might as well try some out that way.

Gott nytt år! :)

I like Nicholson overall as an actor, although I admit he got the looks going for him. It's hard to not take him as some evil crazy guy with those eyebrows lulz. Even in the roles where he is supposed to be sympathetic I can't help but to think of The Shining in the end. Can't undo those eyebrows!

I usually check stuff out because of hype and I don't even read newspapers much or anything. Somehow it just reaches me anyway. Meh, I guess maybe I could appreciate DK if I actually felt anything for Bale as an actor. If had been fine if he wasn't the main character but he is. It was impossible for me to even get into DK since I can't feel anything for his character and since it's the main character it becomes fucked right there. I felt DK was very slick but that was unfortunately the only thing I felt. That goes for every movie I've seen Bale in except that one where he co-starred against Depp (I even forgot the name, it wasn't that memorable even though I'm a huge Depp fan). At the end I felt something about Bale's character but that was it. I wish I could at least hate the guy for his acting but it's hard to do that even when you don't feel a thing :/

Well, I think the issue with Square is that they just fail to write a story for a more mature demographic. It's very hard when you work with fantasy at its core unless you start diverging into urban fantasy. The problem with fantasy as a genre is that it follows a very obvious laid out formula of main protagonist in his/her teens who has to overcome a great adversary to save the world where the whole saving the world part becomes a symbol for coming of age. No idea if you've familiar with Joseph Campbell and the concept hero's journey, but every FF game is like that pretty much. No exceptions.

I haven't played the latest FF games at all past PS1 because I've never owned a PS2 console and I just had my hands on a PS1 briefly because my brother owned one. I did download a PS1 emulator but I just can't find motivation to play FFVII and VIII. VII is so start during the first disc. I guess I am just one of those people who like reading the story rather than playing the story. I don't even understand how I can be a Cloud fangirl :/ Oh well, I blame Japanese and their beauty aesthetics. I am a complete sucker when it comes to Japanese male fashion. I wish people would be more inclined to copy it in the West, but I guess people would just end up looking retarded in the end because of facial structure differences alone.

Well, I like realism though. I just wish there was as much thought about alternative outfits. I am seriously annoyed over how every anime and manga characters besides a few examples wear the same freaking clothes throughout the whole series. I'm pretty sure I've ranted about this somewhere but I can't remember if I did it to you already. If I did, I'm sorry, but it does really really annoy me <.< If you are so freaking incapable to design a character to not be recognizable in a different haircut and/or outfit because the facial design is so freaking generic you probably aren't that good a designer anyway and you should go die in a fire. Really. It's ART, not "hey let's mass produce anime on a line!" kind of deal. Designing a person aesthetically is just as important as it is to develop its personality. That goes to FF too by the way. There is a tendency to make characters into style but no substance, as you pointed out.

As I said, I can't unfortunately comment specifically on FFXIII. I guess you aren't too happy to know that FFXIII-2 is in development? :P

Anyway, I'm having my hopes up for FF Versus XIII. The design is indeed toned down quite a lot I think and I like the idea of it being very similar to our universe and the gameplay looks sick and daring for an FF game. I'm pretty sure I mentioned it in my previous post but I am happy they are finally removing the old combat system. It was starting to get boring. I understand that they had to have something like that for older consoles because more complex systems that were realistic were hard to design because of system limitations. There were real time systems like Secrets of Mana that they also later used in Star Ocean 2, but it never really feels quite epic as I think it should, if you get my drift. Anyway, a bit back on the topic, I also get a heavy urban fantasy feeling, so I hope they don't overfocus on the areas that are supposedly technologically underdeveloped to return to a more typical fantasy setting.

Man how I am tired of fantasy RPGs who focus so much on sword and sorcery. I guess one reason why I prefer urban now is because I've gotten so into cyberpunk for the past years, and urban fantasy is much more closely related to cyberpunk.

Oh yes for Dissidia's writing being cringeworthy XD Which version did you play? Got to love the English voice over narrator whenever you started a new story. I can still hear it in my head: "The burden weighs heavily on Cloud's giant sword" oh lulz! I mean, you shouldn't do stuff like that, with a male VO who sounds uberserious for lines that are so corny they can't be serious for 5 öre. Anyway, I found it highly amusing when I noticed they did the same thing for the Bleach game they recently released for PS3. Why do game designers do that? XD Don't they realize how corny it is?

But that aside, Dissidia has great gameplay. Not superdeep for a combat game, but it definitely works. I don't play Dissidia for the story obviously :P It doesn't make a lot of sense either way. Also, the Japanese VA for Dissidia is golden. I wish translators would figure out already that most fans of Japanese games actually prefer the original VA if we get the option to have it. It's not that I think English VA is bad by default (the DMC franchise is a good example of what I mean, again with the corny male VO XD), but Japanese just sounds so much more authentic to me. I guess it helps that I've watched so much anime now over the years that I do recognize the most common phrases and I know what they mean literarily without having a translation for them.

No, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory isn't nearly as bad as Alice in Wonderland :P Close tie though. Now, if they've just made a film out of Alice Madness...!

Also, god jul :)

I remember I had some discussion about them with another friend of mine. Don't they derive from Judas though?I just don't see why they have to be tied to the Christian mythos...

I see. Well, I will probably read Jane Austen at some point anyway for the mere fact that her books are classics.

The PS3 is incoming at some point! I am going to trade in my Wii once I've bought Skyward Sword and played it through to satisfaction for a PS3. I really want Final Fantasy Versus XIII, that game looks sick and I'm a huge FF fan since III/VI. I love the direction they're heading with the gameplay, as I've grown bored with their old action design in particular. I like how they are attempting to make it more interactive and action-oriented similar to Dissidia. Further, it will look amazing. They aren't going to use any pre-rendered scenes but everything will be used by the original engine. It will be like playing Advent Children ^_^

Meh, I know people keep saying that but I honestly don't get it. I don't find him that creepy/scary/whatever you want to describe him. I guess I just expected too much as usual when something is hyped like that. I never get hyped stuff. Ok, Bleach maybe, but I don't like it because it's hyped (and you certainly can't say it is now).

As for Tim Burton, they're in their own league :P My biggest issue with Burton is that he has a tendency to make things too childish. When stuff he makes really works out like Edward Scissorhands, it has this odd naive childish feeling to it even when dealing with mature themes and the effect becomes kind of emphasized like wow, that is really, really rotten. Sometimes this kind of gets in the way though, when it actually has to be really dark. That's how I feel with his Batman movies. Not that I am trying to defend them in any way, they are kind of bad >.< I do like some of Burton's works though, especially the earlier ones. I absolutely adore his first stop motion called Vincent. I've always liked classic horror so I guess that's one reason why. It also has a decent level of mindfuck in it similar to the romantic horror portrayed by authors like Lovecraft.

Well, "goth" is English för "göte", so it has the same origin at least :)

Tabletop is "bordsspel" (no idea if that is a good translation) and pen and paper is just that, a pen and a paper. You can of course also use pen and paper when playing tabletop.

I haven't actually played anything related to Vampire: M and tR, the only roleplaying game outside the video game world is Eon, mostly because I've lacked the network. There were a bunch of people in my school when I was younger who played DnD but I shy that kind of roleplaying. I don't think levels belong in an actual roleplaying setting. The strength of a monster or a character should be shown through skills, not the amount of level you possess.

My biggest issue with Eon is how easily you died. I think I made a gazillion of characters when I used to play, and it died in every godamn campaign except when my brother who was GM (SL) had to god emote and ress me. Should add that he didn't take his role as GM that seriously, he had a lot of godmod characters. I kind of agree with that the game was unintentionally funny. I mean, a random dice roll made one of my characters slip in a bath tub, break her neck and die. In the same campaign another guy also managed to completely miss what would've been a fatal wound due to a dice roll even though he was in close range and hit the ear instead, even though the character was on top of the enemy and the enemy didn't dodge.

I also agree with you that I am not too fond of too descriptive language. My main issue is that I am not a very visual person though, so I have serious issues actually imagining what is being described. When I write (I have some stuff uploaded on my DA page: http://leatelamon.deviantart.com/) I tend to shy descriptive langauge as well. I rather focus on dialogue and the actions of the characters as I think that says a lot more about them than describing them. If you want to read anything of the crappy stuff I've written at all, I guess I can recommend my latest work called Void.

As for Jane Austen, I haven't read anything about her, although I am curious to check out the crossworks done with her works that plays with various monsters. A bit more to what I like rather than reading some murky plots of how to not get married or to get married :P Romance isn't really my cup of tea generally speaking. The only real exception are good drama romances. Despite being a guy movie (in theory, at least), I love Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It makes me cry every time, it's really silly. I cry too easily.

Interesting about Dark Souls. I definitely like how Japanese games focus so much more on atmosphere and the aesthetics of the environment. Good Western games do that too, but I find that to be much more uncommon. Japanese fiction in general, especially when leaned towards horror, just uses atmosphere so effectively in building a mood that I honestly lack in Western media. I also like that it sounds really difficult, although I suspect I might just start crying manically if it turns out to be too hard and I know it is hard :P It's so funny to read how most gamers' nerdrage level rises so much when they die because something is difficult but I don't, I just laugh XD

I haven't tried the Batman series at all actually, because I really am not that fond of Batman as a franchise. I also thought the latest movies directed by Nolan sucked assy pants and I really don't see what is so amazing about them. Christian Bale does nothing to me like always when I see him on the big screen. It's really odd because I don't dislike him as an actor since he's not obviously bad, I just don't feel anything when I watch him act. If he was bad I would at least cringe over how bad he is.

Aww, I didn't get a beta invite at all :( Well, the game is released in a few more months.

No, I am pretty new to Göteborg too, if you push the idea of new a bit. Lived here for about 5 and a half year now, but I am not that well versed with the alternative scene or whats-you-call-it, mostly because I am not that rich being a student and all. I can barely afford buying manga tankubons (not that I have the space for them, but still).