birth

HEY EVERYONE FOR THOSE COMING ON THE PROMISE OF PROJECTS CHECK THE ENDING OF THIS POST

I'm honestly not going to write a blog post on as much as I did last time, but I want to say Courtney Svatek (@Altermentality on Twitter) inspired this one.

Before I turned 21, I use to think a lot on where a lot of my time was allocated and how much of it was wasted. I always try to either do one of the following things

A. Justify it (Ex. "If I didn't do this, maybe THIS wouldn't have happened and that sucks")
B. Mope over it (Ex. "If I took this opportunity instead of sitting around maybe I would be where I want")

But now, I see no use in that. I don't see a need to justify the past. We all waste time, don't we? Sometimes letting go is the best way to move forward (i am letting all you horses go). Sometimes letting loose is good. Sometimes days dedicated to nothing in particular are wonderful. Those are the best feelings. Usually, if it frustrates it's because you're forced to do it, so why not cure that with the opposite?

Thanks to everyone who's been on my journey of 22. It's been really difficult, and I've got a lot I've had to cope with while moving. Anyone who knows me has seen how selfless (not to brag, for sure) I've been and how much I've had to deal with. The scary part? Even I don't feel like I know my full story of being here.

I didn't thank specific people last time, but I think I more than owe it with all the moves I've had to do and all. Shout-outs to Billy/Ray (even though it's been him and I on a lot of this journey), DragonLX/Zinfogel/David/Whatever he changes his avatar to in 24 hours, Mack (who's now a teacher), Ash, Divy, Ridleywolf, Lamarthefrog, Altermentality, Red Ryu, KumaOso, "Basically anyone doing narration on WIA", Othin, Destiny Smasher, Axelayer, Jordaan Mason / CarboHydroM (so special that they deserve a duo mention), FireFlinger, Zeldaru, Rallex, TBG, Deadly... this post makes me realize i have a lot of friends and this is not a bad thing

so thanks even if you've been there whether you've known me for years and years like many of you have or just met me. my promise to myself is wasting more time on myself because i am worth wasting time on to me

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So, I'm not going to make any huge promises but

-This blog will at least be used soon to talk about the Sound Design on Infusion. Yes, we're quiet, but with two out of five of us out of commission and the rest of us swamped with work, we're on a bit of a hiatus. Yes, Infusion is on schedule. Yes, it's a game project I'm in. Yes, you will hear more than this.
-Demo Disease has a lot of stuff coming up. Billy and I now have two other musicians that are a bit honorary that we use sometimes for live shows. If you're in WA, keep on the lookout! We're looking to do 3-5~ shows this year? There's a lot more under the belt in the works. Prepare to hear awesome Folk/Jazz nerdy and/or empowering songs.
-I've got a huge YT collaboration with two musicians that will be out by the end of the year.
-I've got a few other things in the works. There's one announcement I've been itching to make on what I would consider to be "My wannabe but will probably never happen" Magnum Opus.

so that's what's going on with me that isn't work stuff. using the game of mystery here but i may have been a bit too mysterious
Keep in touch and I hope the next few months will be as interesting for you as they are for me!

Some general thoughts, Backlog update, and a mini-rant on Localizations?

Hi, article split into three tonight for my own blog. I've got a bit of a headache tonight. It's actually not from hangover; I've just had bad eating habits for the past few days. Okay, maybe it is a little bit of something weird.

Anyways...

My backlog update and my general updates are down there. I want to get this rant on-board first.

This is only a mini-rant established for now just to get this thought out, but lately I'm really sick of this idea that we have to limited run printed copies of localization. I'm fine with limited print, but don't be against restocking them.

The entire point (and what Iwata, among many other Industry vets, some now dead and some still standing) of localizing a game is for everyone to play them. Frankly, every game should be available to every player everywhere - I'm a firm believer of this. Of course, that only works in a perfect world, so getting as close as possible is also acceptable

But, when this stuff is basically cash fishing only at the hardcore fans, that to me screams of a business strategy of "Let's go just for the niche fans with no expectations of sales" aka, "No pain, short term gain."

If you go with the short term pain option to try for a long term gain, a bigger fanbase, the results can be highly rewarding. Just look at Atlus! Actually, wait, maybe being bought by SEGA isn't a wonderful fate for translation companies. Never mind.

Want to know some ridiculous prices still? Ar Nosurge on Vita. 70. SolaToRobo on DS with box. 120. Localized games should be cherished, not for scalpers to play the resell game.

So for any that love localization of games, before we see this inevitably become a bigger and bigger problem, I think it's good to voice to localization companies now. I'm not telling you to boycott, but just a nice email is always good. It sure won't kill them and can only make things better. Even if you don't entirely agree, think about the long term, people.

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So a lot of general doubt has passed through my head lately. I don't know what it was that hit so hard. Heck, I kind of don't know what I'm doing anymore. I have a lot of doubt placed into myself lately. I mean, okay, maybe I don't, and I don't know where I'm going with this

But then I remember Iwata, and the stuff I checked on him to remind myself of some of his many great accomplishments.

You know, about 20 years ago, he was in a rock and a hard place. HAL unwilling to budge to stop working on Alcahest, and Square unwilling to allow them to localize it. Not being paid that much, even as the president of a company (and more like backbone president, up until some events that transpired) - It seriously makes you wonder. Yet, even in that positions, at an age significantly older than I am, (I'm in my early 20's, he was in his early 30's), he still fought for a localization. There was probably some doubt in his mind, but with that came confidence.

I guess probably the number one start to my composition is not browsing forum posts too much. Hearing the stuff like "I went for a degree in composition... and now I'm homeless" or the negativity of Game Audio can be humorous sometimes (there's more context than you would think) but... it just eventually hurts.

I can't surround myself with oblivious positive thoughts 24/7 though. I'm already use to telling a dozen people to whip back to reality. If there's one thing Iwata fought for in his mid-career, it was not playing by the regular rulebook

And that's what I need to do.

So, expect a lot of updates on my projects soon. I fixed the mac, so I'm doing something right.

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So I finished Tales of Hearts R but I'll do my episodic "The hell was this?" later. I also finished Mario Sports Mix (loosest form of "Finished") and I'm starting to knock down the Backlog through bits and pieces. The "This only takes a few hours at most!" section is harder than I thought. I need to really set aside a day but I think I can knock down a good 20-30~

As I said before, I pretty much have to play through at least one RPG. I'm right now sticking on Code Name S.T.E.A.M. and The Walking Dead Season 2. I'm pretty confident I'll beat Code Name S.T.E.A.M. before the end of the month... or close to.

I also plan on starting back up everyone's favorite PS2 RPG's. Shadow Hearts, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, and Nocturne. One of these things is not like the other.

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Lot's to do lately, little time, and I keep running every day into overtime. I'll manage, though. This week feels like things are finally cooling down to a somewhat realistic schedule. Sort-of. Maybe. At least some of you read this column, right? Or blog? It's something.

Changing the Backlog: Unexplored Series (Reason 1)

So what is a good reason to scavenge through the backlog?

To those that didn't read, go here,
http://thirdkoopa.blogspot.com/
I'm also lazy, so that's your link. Sorry. Zelda isn't included either. I also will be structuring these differently, so I hope people like the new structure?

You can find gems everywhere. Gems galore. People say when they scavenge through their backlogs, they find garbage, but frankly? I disagree. Scavenging the backlog has been the number #1 way I've found series that I've been missing out. I literally kid you not.

"But how can that be?!" one might ask. It's ten times easier to binge buy all of the Ty games and Half-Life games than actually *playing* them all. How else will I get around to series like this and discover them? Waiting for people to recommend me it? Not going to happen. Waiting to play them at a friend's house? There's so many multiplayer games that that doesn't happen. Wait to meet a fanatic? Yeah, maybe I am better off purchasing.

It brings me to my first victim of the backlog. Tales of Hearts R.

Tales of Hearts R was recent, but the Tales Of games have existed in my backlog and my to-buy list for an atrocious amount of time. What's my excuse every time? "Well, I'll play them with others!" - It's a valid point for someone like me, I mean, they're lengthy games. Tales of Vesperia still (which I did do co-op tho, but wasn't there for all of), Tales of Xillia 2, Tales of Hearts R. It keeps going.

Really, one of the reasons that sold me on doing this whole idea* was the prospect of actually getting around to series I've been missing out on. I won't cheat and list directors, but just to name a few big offenders: Mass Effect, Ty, Half-Life, Devil May Cry, Uncharted, Dead Space, Fable, Prince of Persia, the Department. of Heaven series, Phoenix Wright.

* = and making terrible blog posts at 1 AM

Okay, wow, that's a lot. For a disclaimer, I've played through most of these, just never finished. Some I don't even have data anymore for! That's tragic.

I have a few series that are strange to handle as well. Horror games such as Silent Hill and Fatal Frame have been a big miss on my plays of game series (in-which I've finished most prominent stuff out there. *most*. Keyword on that is still finished.) and Gears of War I've been planning on playing it with my best friend that "I don't need to mention because he'll be mentioned later in this not witty blog".

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Backlog Actual Progress:

Tales of Hearts R.

Literally the only game I touched all this week. I mean, yeah, I grinded in Dust some, but Dust has just demotivated me. So Tales of Hearts R...

I jumped from like, level 15ish range to the level 40ish range. What the heck is going on? Bus time and other various sources of time has given me time to actually play through this, but that's all I had.

Portable is definitely great still, and it'll be pleasant to get a 40 hour game off. It's honestly really enjoyable, and to some degree, I'm taking my time with it.

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I did think a little bit more of how to tackle it, though

I think the summer is meant to get all of the short games out and clean up the trash along with cleaning out what I've really wanted to play. I'm going to clean out the Vita and 3DS library still along with a few others that leave themselves open. I only need to finish one SNES and Wii U game, 4 GBC games, and 8 GBA games to complete all I currently own, so that's actually cool.

To be honest, it's actually not that bad. The only one that circulates triple digits of uncompleted is PS2 (Technically, not even my Steam Library does, but I'm sure I'll have a blog post counting that later). Many beyond that land closer to single digits, or at least on a more manageable scale. I was even shocked to see that the GCN only hit to 43. What? I have 118 games for that thing!

Yeah, that's what I'll do. After that, I'll hope that the long games get me through this year. I am going to make it through even if it kills me.

NEXT WEEK: Depending on what happens with the backlog, next posts could get highly entertaining. Stick around! I'll be talking about Reason #2 as well, "The Game within a Game", or something.

It's time to change the Backlog

warning note: i am still not use to blogging so i hope i have kept attention span and not made this too long

I'm going to attempt the impossible.

I'm going to do this.

I'm going to cure cancer.

...

Okay, maybe not as important, but I'm going to cure my cancer, which is apparently this [url=this thing called a backlog]thing called a backlog[/url] and I also seem to have some sloppy seconds over here. Some guy that I totally don't know told me I should write more as well. Or something. So here it is.

This whole backlog has been kind-of crazy and kind-of on it's own level. I mean, how did this happen? As someone who directs games (the plural may be a bit too kind) and works on music for games, I always expected to have some sizable backlog. Ever since the release of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door I always expected backlog to play a part in my life.

But... Somewhere down the line it just got not manageable at all. I have an entire FILE just for all of my games split up into separate categories. These categories are kind-of absurd to, ranging with...

-Soon to Beat (haha... haha... haha), Not Even Time Needed, Co-Op with a friend of mine/other possible people, Sub 5 hours, Sub 10 hours, 10-15, 16-20 (seriously, why is this section a thing), 21-25, 26-30, 31-40, 41-50, 51-60, 61-100, and one game that ranks 100+ hours (what am I doing with my life)

And... it gets worse. I've been ignoring digital games or something in that which is a shame because of the amount of titles I've missed. Seriously, what? My two top games at least of last year were both Digital releases (Child of Light and Transistor). It gets worse still. Steam just piled up. The deepest irony? Of my backlogs, it probably takes the least time. What the heck is happening.

But, why is this whole backlog thing so important? I mean, it's obvious I'm never going to be back up at my old speed given all my commitments, and that's probably for the better. Honestly? I don't have a good answer for that. What I do have a good answer for, is other things that have seemed to disinterest me in the process of this.

This is Child of Light. AKA: I stop making excuses to myself and play a video game. I've seriously come up with so many excuses at this point. "But I'll play it with my best friend" "I'll wait for a Steam Sale" "I'll get it when I'm closer on my backlog" "I'll get it when I feel like playing" etc.

I did it though. I went out and got it along with a few other Vita games because I was tired of making these excuses. Guess what? I loved it. It motivated me to write about Video Games.

The excuses have seemed to generally roll in into other responsibilities of my life and I don't like that tenancy it's creating. I have writing projects I "owe" sites and not just a petty explanation (I've definitely been writing, I've just been bad about posting, for any site administrators reading on this). It's actually kind-of amusing to me that Racketboy, a site I was excited to be a part of (and still am) took me six months to go through.

Again, priorities take place. It's good that I have them, but before I stumble into rant mode, my reason to stop putting excuses for at least 30 minutes to an hour a day into it is because exploring new things is good for new inspiration so I stop making these excuses. Letting excuses roll into the rest of my life isn't good, or something.

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So this whole thing is kind-of incoherent but I have red eyes at the moment. Basically, I'm going to begin posts on tackling the backlog on here.

But "Why blogspot" to those wondering? Well, I'll still definitely have pieces for other sites in the works until I inevitably get bused so hard that no one even notices. Here is just a good place to write whatever. It's similar to my soundcloud - I can put whatever the hell I want and chances are nobody will complain about it.

Up on next week: Complaints about how lazy I am with Half-Life, Devil May Cry, and other series. Stay tuned for more entertainment with no wit!