RPGs

There was a story on Destructoid about comments one of the co-founders of Bioware had made on Japanese Role Playing Games in contrast to American ones.

Click here to view the article.

I originally was going to agree that he makes a valid point that RPGs haven't really been progressing in Japan as of lately compared to the American ones. Then I really started thinking about it. FFXIII is pushing for a more constant, active battle system. The World Ends With You had some interesting new gameplay features. I wouldn't classify any of these games as just like their predecessors.

Why did I think this guy was right? It's because there's a lot more JRPGs out there than American RPGS. There's going to be more generic copies than original, innovative titles. When I was first thinking about it, I thought of all of the titles that can be considered fairly similar. American RPGs usually aren't as successful. Thus companies won't invest in them and less appear in the market. The ones that do get invested in usually turn out badly for lack of funding or great because they took the time to make them new and innovative.

What is and what isn't an RPG? I'm a little bit confused now because my impressions of Mass Effect was that it was a shooter. Looking at the details of the game it appears to have some RPG aspects to it. As someone who is awful at shooters and specifically avoids them, I wouldn't consider it an RPG. Someone who just plays run of the mill shooter games would probably consider it an RPG. When you have racing that games that you create a car, gain levels, and increase stats wouldn't that be considered an RPG too? Does that not count because it's a car and not a human? Would it not count because there's not a deep storyline to most of them? As games advance, the lines of each genre gets blurred.

Japanese VS. American RPGS. The two types are pretty different. American RPGs tend to go back to the traditional sense of what an RPG is. That means the player creates their own character and has control over what the character does. Japanese RPGs usually give you a pre-made character with a story and specific personality. There's good and bad things about both of these. You can create a character that you can relate to or that you want to be in the American ones, as opposed to being a character that you may or may not like in the Japanese ones. In the Americans RPGS, when you do have the ability to create your own character you don't get a sense of who the character is, you must create it. This can be good, if the game has enough options that your character acts the way you see it in your head. Unfortunately the possibilities of what you want for a character are endless and games must have some limitations. Generally what happens is the character stays in your head. Only so much can be played out on-screen. Since JRPGs are pre-made characters you see a deeper character on-screen with a solid background and actions that make sense. JRPGs focus on a deep storyline, that is more like watching a movie than playing a game. ARPGS have some sort of storyline that you either can get into or you can't. The difference between the two stories is like watching anime vs. watching American SciFi. Everyone has different tastes.

I, of course, prefer JRPGs. The RPGs based on the traditional roots don't offer enough options for me yet. They also are still too male oriented(lack of options for females, the females look too oversexualized, the story are leaning towards a male main character). There's a lack of depth in the stories for me. JRPGs tend to have a sense of 'zen' in them. There's a spiritual thing, without being religious. There's usually a good love story. The characters all have a realistic depth and tend be interesting. I prefer the character designs in JRPGs and art in JRPGs. I'm willing to try any American RPG. I would love to see one that could truly put a Japanese one to shame. Eventually one day there will be a game that has enough options and story, yet give you the ability to be whoever you want to be and be able to take your own actions.

Home Mortgage Crisis

I'm not talking about games again. I read another article on the mortgage crisis and still don't feel all that sympathetic to those who got in over their heads. I do feel sorry for those who bought a home that they could afford when they had a stable job, but then lost their jobs due to the economic conditions, couldn't find a new one, and can no longer afford their home. I don't feel sorry for those who had a job in unstable industries. I don't feel sorry for those who bought into adjustable loans. I don't feel sorry for anyone who bought a home that wasn't worth the asking price.

One major problem were those who got into terrible loans. If I was getting any type of loan, I would make sure I read and understood all of the paperwork before I signed it. It only makes it even more important when the loan is for the place you will be living. It baffles me why you would jump so quickly into getting a loan for $200,000+ without reading the fine lines. Maybe the people giving them the loans are giving them speculative information about the loan or assuring them that it's a great deal and also pushing them to get the loan so that they can get the commission. That's still not an excuse to jump the gun. When it is such a big investment, you shouldn't fall into these kinds of traps. Most people are weary of salesmen in stores or on car lots. They should also be weary of people who handle loans.

Those who bought over-priced homes were another problem. In Los Angeles homes are expensive. During the housing boom, homes were ridiculously over-priced. Homes kept inching higher and higher. More homes kept being built. I was surprised why people kept buying them up. Maybe it's just the hype. You have to buy a home before they get too expensive or until there are none left. I, on the other hand, didn't buy into it. Eventually it will hit a wall and prices would have to come down. Maybe this was naive thinking at the time. I didn't consider that low interest rates might balance out the cost of the home. In the end I was right and now homes are going down to affordable levels. (Unfortunately there aren't enough people out there with jobs that can afford them.)

I'm sorry for rambling about this. It's been talked about so much. I don't wish for anyone to lose their homes. I can imagine it's an awful thing to go through. Hopefully the economy will clean up soon.

Sony Ericsson X10 and Mobile in General

Sony is officially releasing the info on the X10 phone. Before I get into my thoughts on the phone and SE I must explain some things. I've been a little bit out of the loop on phones lately. A combination of no longer working in the mobile industry(not by choice) and the change the iPhone has made to the industry has made me feel less inclined to follow it frequently.

After the iPhone was announced there was a flood of touch phones into the market. Unfortunately most of the early phones were nowhere as capable as the iPhone, but incorporated some sort of touch feature to capitalize of the hype of a touch screen phone. Personally I'm not very keen on touch screens. I know my hands will end up smudging something on the screen and it would probably drive me crazy until the 'new' feeling wore off. It was also pointed out to me that my nails are in the way. Now I don't have some massive fake nails on my fingers. They are long enough that affects the way my fingers touch a screen. I don't want my nails scratching the screen so I have to adjust their placement. I always get frustrated in typing with an iPhone because it always hits the wrong letters. I suppose after time I would adjust to it and not have as many problems, but that's not my only reason for not getting an iPhone. Aside from the touch screen the iPhone had offered many features that weren't available on most US phones. They also offered (for the most part) a fully functional web browser. Soon enough a huge app store. I do wonder that if the iPhone wasn't released by Apple, but say by some unknown company if the device would have been as successful. They were many great phones out before the iPhone came out that were barely recognized by the mainstream. With a current name like Apple the result was amazing. Apple wasn't the only group to bring a change to the mobile industry. Google's Android OS came into play. Once again it gained everyone's attention. Now there's a wider audience to phones that are more and more like small computers.

I've been a Sony Ericsson fan for the past 5-6 years. I currently own a SE K850i. It is a small candy bar phone with a 5 megapixel camera, bluetooth support(for headphones and file transfer, sorry I don't know the technical term for that support), quadband, 3G, and some other features. There are some things I wish it could do, but I refuse to dump it for a phone that doesn't at least have the features I describe above (aside from the size). When I started seeing the X1 pop up I was excited, but unfortunately the phone didn't meet my requirements. Since then I've paid very little attention to new phones. I also get very impatient about phone releases. First you get some leaked photos or prototypes of a phone. Then you'll get the full press release which more than half of the time turns out to be a disappoint(they end up being a low end phone or one that's comparable to current models). When you do hear about a good phone it takes forever to come out. In the case of SE there is usually a delay between the release overseas and the release here. It's torture to sit there and think about buying one from abroad or waiting to get it cheaper when it's available locally. I really like SE Saito, but unfortunately I'm not too excited about the symbian OS. It appears that concerns seem justified because the reviews I've read all point out the OS as the biggest flaw. That's quite a shame.

With my love for SE and the previous requirements is the X10 really my next phone? I highly doubt it. I'm concerned about the actual camera quality. Once again the issue of the touch screen also comes into play. There are some cool things that I do like about the phone. I like the nice, big screen and nice, fast processor specifically. I guess I'll hold my true judgment until I see what people have to say about the phone. My other concern is who is manufacturing the phone. I don't really know if I would want a SE phone that isn't actually manufactured by SE. Did SE really need to go to others to manufacter phones? (I know they had financial issues and had big layoffs. I guess that's resulting in the need to depend on others) I'm not trying to saying that the other companies like HTC are bad, but I worry about SE products losing the reasons why I loved them.

Sorry if I've rambled on too much here. It's getting late and it's been so long since I've talked about mobile. I do think that I'm going to start searching into Japanese phones. It would be great if they would release world phones.