The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

Welcome to Linkuary, where I will provide you with links every day for a month!
…okay, yeah, that would be completely lame.

Still, my browsers are completely full of tabs that I’m keeping open for another one of these posts, so let’s empty them out and give you something else to do other than reading this bloeg, eh?

First off, on the Youtube front, here is something my mother called an educational video about how to present a news story. It’s pretty damn funny, and painfully accurate.

Speaking of actually educational, though, Brer shared with me this intense rap about Economic theory. Learn yourself.

On a more visual side, shivam tweeted this awhile back, and it’s still completely amazing. I don’t care how many times I see it, but when you successfully switch art styles on a property, some really cool stuff happens. This is some of the best Pokemon fan art I’ve seen in awhile.

Also, man, I guess I’m easily entertained, but this has, by far, been my favorite Chainsawsuit in awhile. So true to how furries actually work, with the punchline not being an insult, so much. I just kind of love it.

There’s a few little things for you, hm? Anyway, I’m going to get back to Mass Effect 2. (Yes, this lazy post was just an excuse to play more Mass Effect.)

When the big snow storm of winter comes, what does someone do?

Buy a TV. Obviously.

Mass Effect 2 was pissing me off. Why? It was so good, but I couldn’t read a damn thing in it. It had HD Tiny Text EVERYWHERE. I couldn’t level up because I couldn’t read what skills did. I couldn’t read tutorials. It was awful, and I was very frustrated.

It was the last straw.

I’ve been constantly looking for something to buy lately. I don’t know why. I feel like I have a lot of savings, and I’m handling paying for my therapy with absolutely no hitches. Maybe Gamefly really is saving me that much money. I’ve been working hard, and I knew it was only going to get harder. There’s so much to do. So why not get something nice? I deserve it, right?
I kept looking at laptops. I don’t really know why. As cool as a laptop is, I don’t see a need for it, really. I know I don’t. It’s just a neat idea. I kept going back and forth with buying one, always ending up backing out.

Then this HD TV idea got into my head.
Similar cost, but here is something that I would, literally, every single day. Giving that extra bit of quality to my gaming, but also letting me do things like read the stupid text in all these games that seems to constantly elude me. This would be a lot of money, but it wouldn’t be wasted. Plus, I’m an adult now, with magic fake money. I could finance it, and continue building my credit.

I spent most of my afternoon looking for a TV, and I ended up buying this 32″ LG LCD television. I’ve been playing Mass Effect 2 on it since I got it set up. And now I can read things.
Yeah, I think I made a good decision here.

I… think I just don’t get this month’s Twilight Heroes IoTM. I mean, okay, it’s obvious that the Stainless Steelbreaker has some good stats. The Weakens Opponents is really useful, especially if you’re doing the crazy high level stuff.

But man, I don’t know.

There’s just nothing really thematically interesting, to me anyway, about an offhand dueling knife. I’m really more of a shield person, myself. It’s got a nice little bit of story in the description, of course, but if I equipped it, it just wouldn’t stimulate the silly part of my brain that kind of roleplays while I do such things.
It is also just one of those items that is only good stat-wise. There’s nothing mechanically new about this item. It doesn’t spring up any interesting effects during combat or anything. It’s just a really good offhand item, a slot which I already have a much more fun item for, Zorromir’s Double Tower Shield. Am I going to give up my battlecry, SMILES GO FOR MILES, just for slightly better defense and chance of enemy fumbles? Eh, probably not.

This is pretty well the first TH item I haven’t picked up in a long time. I’m sure it has its place, and I’m sure there are some people who just much optimize and have it. But much like the VR Helmet, it just does nothing for me, and I’ll save my money. I already gave Ryme a bunch of extra for all the new yearly Talismans! Hopefully he won’t starve this month because of that. Heh. (And thank you for the event, by the way, Ryme! I’m glad I noticed it in my busy-ness before it totally disappeared.)

I have played some Split-Screen 360 Borderlands!
It leaves something to be desired.

For one, you can’t do system link split-screen or online split-screen, so my dreams of buying a second copy and setting two people up in Spants’ room and two up in Jonathan’s were dashed. Still, I’m glad I found that out before I wasted the money on it.

Secondly, the split-screen is really oddly implemented. Basically, it doesn’t resize the menus for you having half the screen. They’re the same size, and you basically have to move the camera around to look at the whole menu with the right stick. It’s kind of the experience of using Mobile Safari while you’re really zoomed in. It’s incredibly sub-par. I mean, it works, but it feels so very, very pasted on. You often can’t see what item your cursor is on or near because you had to move your camera down to where the item information box is. It’s really weird.

Still, it luckily doesn’t hinder one of the very best games of last year enough for anyone to care. It’s still a ton of fun in Co-op. I’ve only really played a Soldier, so I rolled a Hunter this time, since I sniped so damn much as a Soldier anyway, while my brother rolled a Siren. We both ended up really liking what we were doing. Jonathan enjoyed the Shadowwalking or whatever the Siren ability is called… internet search says it’s “Phasewalk.” Okay then. Phasewalk. Jonathan was really digging that, and he was murdering everything with shotguns.

Me? Well, I had heard a lot of questionable things about Bloodwing, the birdie that the hunter throws out as his ability. So, of course, I was dedicated to using the “Rogue” tree, since Pandora apparently exists in an alternate world where “Rogue” means “Bird-trainer.” Luckily, though, I ended up really liking the skill. Swipe is really quite awesome, I’m going to love when he steals health starting next level, and I enjoy the fact that it recharges amazingly fast. At least compared to the Soldier skill, anyway, which took a very, very long time to get up and running. With the Hunter, I can start any combat by critting someone with my sniper rifle, and then throwing out Bloodwing to take out a guy running for me while I snipe the other one. Plus, constantly using abilities is just a nice change of pace, since I’ve obviously shot all the guns in the game a ton when I was beating the game on PC.

But yeah, Borderlands: Still fucking awesome. I’m so fucking busy, I don’t know when I’ll get in another session with Jonathan, but I do hope we make it happen. It’s good times.

Before my session today, I had homework to do. I had to write a script about how I was going to talk to my parents about the whole gender identity thing. This seemed like a great idea. I mean, I’m a writer. I write from time to time. Some people might even say I write every day on some sort of “bloeg.” Surely I could come up with something effective, especially since I was prepped on a good method of doing such a speech, and it seemed completely logical and effective to me.

I then went about putting off writing this script for the entire week, and wrote it at something approximating the last minute. I just finished it a second ago.

And now I kind of feel like I’m falling apart.

In some ways, I almost wish I didn’t have a good relationship with my parents. I almost wish I didn’t give a shit about what they think. But I do. I really do. And I feel like they’re the biggest obstacle I have. Just attempting to write something that explained my situation to them, and how I love them, this isn’t a personal attack, and I can’t help it, and I have to do something about it. Dammit, just doing that put me on the verge of tears.

How the hell am I going to talk to them?

I know I’ll do it. I know I’ll move on afterwards. I know my parents are completely awesome, and they will, eventually come around once they understand. It just… the idea of fighting with them over this again makes me want to hide under the covers all day.

I mean, nobody, least of all me, said this would be easy.

Shockingly, I ended up watching the last episode of The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien. How did this happen? Well, you know, friends pull me places and I watch things. I wouldn’t have watched it by myself, but I was pretty glad I got to. I dunno, Conan is a damn funny guy, and he was definitely getting jerked around by higher-ups in a company that obviously does not really know what it is doing. He does not come off completely like roses, but I think he definitely won this fight, completely, in the eyes of everyone. My parents are glad to have Leno back, but I think they have to admit that Conan was getting screwed over, to some extent. He won.

Still, it’s interesting that, like anything, the whole situation is starting to draw some backlash. The argument tends to go “look at all the energy people are putting into such a stupid thing. Why does Conan need all that support? Why can’t they use their energy for something that’s actually good? Like, I dunno, I heard there was something in Haiti.” The argument rather frustrates me, though if you’d like to read a intelligently-created version of it, instead of my mocking synopsis, Michael Ian Black wrote something pretty good over here.
I can’t disagree that, to an extent, these people saying this have a point. There are way, way more important things to rally behind. Say, getting equal rights for gays and getting gay marriage accepted, if you want to pick something that I care about. But hell, pick whatever you want. There has to be something you support that could use your help more than Conan, who is a fairly rich and successful guy, and can handle himself. He’ll survive, and whatever he does in the future will probably be awesome. No doubt about it. He’s fine.

Still, though. Don’t complain about people following their passions. Whether they are genuinely upset and want change, or they just think having a pro-Conan party would be a lot of fun, which it probably would, they aren’t doing the wrong thing. They were putting out energy for something they were passionate about, and if they had fun at it, then hell, they made the right choice. If it banded some people together for a bit, that’s the right choice. The fact that it was so successful does not mean that the effort was wasted.
It’s not like it would be a one-for-one thing anyway. If you could scientifically spend the same amount of effort planning some sort of “Conan Rally,” or this wonderful day I heard of where everyone rides mass transit without pants on, and then spend an equal amount of time working to, I dunno, get people to overturn a law or give more blood, which do you think would be more successful? I put forward it would be the “fun” option, every time.
Rallying for Conan creates a party. Riding in a subway without pants creates an awesome story for you to tell. These activities put a smile on your face, and while they can be hard to organize, like anything can be hard to organize, they’re successful because they are fun. Blood drives, charity donations, and writing your congressperson just don’t do this. They are serious, and because they are not fun, they feel like work. At the same time, neither group of activities has a good chance of creating a change that you can actually experience. If I call up the office of one of my government representatives and voice a complaint, it’s not completely impossible that it might do something, but it’s unlikely. If nothing else, whatever I want happening happening will not feel like something I had a hand in. At the same time, a pro-Conan rally had little chance of affecting the outcome of what was happening, but in that situation I don’t need that to make it feel like a worthwhile experience, because it was fun to begin with. Doing it was already a reward.

There’s nothing wrong with having fun. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with doing something productive or useful, either. In fact, if those people involved in the sort of things I am talking about here were not doing anything useful, then yes, perhaps they deserve to be berated. But I would bet that’s not the case for a huge majority of them. They have jobs. They do the useful things they do, and then they want to have fun afterward. Let them have fun.
Let’s all have fun.

I don’t claim to have always been a rock, someone who has no issues and who doesn’t break. Far from it. But after the past few years, I’ve gotten my confidence back, and I got to a point where I felt like I wasn’t going to fall apart every day, and where I wasn’t going to have panic attacks time and again. I got to a point where I was working and I was accomplishing things.
Now I’ve moved to accomplish so much more. And it’s brought it all back up.

Starting to deal with my gender issues is bringing so much depressive ammo to the forefront of my mind, and my mind, being the dick it is, is restarting with making me feel nervous and bad about it. Things I haven’t worried about for years and years are coming back.
It’s frustrating, but I know it’s a good thing.
This is all stuff that I’ve repressed for so long just to survive, and get by. It’s not like they were gone, and they magically reappeared, although it feels somewhat like that. It’s just that all the little demons in my head that were always constantly draining me quietly from the background, that I had bottled up, are out in full force. They have to be, or I won’t be able to fight them.
It’s the first step in stopping all this shit and being genuinely happy once and for all.

It’s just so scary, though. I have complete confidence in myself. But the voice in my head sure doesn’t. I know I’m strong enough for this. I’ve been waiting for it for years. I know I can pull this off. But it’s not going to be the easiest thing. I know that. And my head knows that. And is really trying to use it against me.

But I’ve got forward momentum now. That’s something I’ve wanted for such a long time. I have forward momentum, and no amount of “sick to my stomach” nervousness is going to deter me. Because I am fucking going to take control of my life, be who I am, and love myself for the first time. I am going to make things happen.

I can make things happen.
I can.

I read that let’s play on Red Rescue Team, and then I got all lame and bought Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky, because I was really in the mood for it and you can play as a Vulpix in that one. All that is kind of lame, but I did it anyway, and you couldn’t stop me, so ha. I’m going to play it anyway, bitches. And Smiles Go For Miles.

Anyway, I was going over the new features and amazing benefits I have received by buying the “Pokemon Yellow” of the second group of Pokemon Mystery Dungeons. These features include faux items that are out to trick you into using bad items on yourself (Wait, this isn’t a Reviver Seed! This is a Reviser Seed! Oh game, you almost caught me there!), special campaigns outside of the main campaign that you can access from the main menu, and Spinda Cafe, a place to sink items in a way that gets you rare items or stat boosts. Plus, you get to watch the adorable little mixing animation of the Spinda when he makes you a drink that I wish I had an animated gif of. (I don’t suggest watching that whole video, though. I dunno, that guy’s voice creeps me out.)

All these features make the game more hardcore.

Now, the mainline Pokemon games are for kids, and they are simple in that way. With perseverance, you can beat anyone in the main storyline with just about any shitty party you’d like. Sure, there is a second level of strategy that I have never not used that is involved with building a well-rounded party, picking the most effective moves, and constantly preying on type weaknesses. This, however, is only one chart worth of complicated, and kids can easily pick that up, too. Or at least notice the game spits out “Super Effective!” whenever they attack a bird with their beloved Pikachu. Of course, there’s a third level of strategy that only insane people engage in that involves hidden stats and other such bullshit, but we will ignore that, as everyone should. Anyway, the point is that most of the more complex systems in Pokemon can be used or not used, depending on your level of competency and how much time you want to put in the game. It’s a sliding scale, but at the bottom of this scale is an RPG that anyone can play and be successful at.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon just simply does not work like this, as much as the developers would like to.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is the babiest of all roguelikes I’ve played, this is true. There are no unknown items, and you can outlevel your foes if you’d like. You can always bring items into dungeons, except late game challenge ones, and you constantly have a collection of power moves to take out foes, instead of having to rely on a questionable basic attack. All these are features, not flaws: they’re trying to appeal to the same crowd who plays Pokemon. The same sort of crowd that is all over that sliding scale.
However, I doubt they’re getting anyone but the more hardcore, higher up people in that group. Even toned-down Mystery Dungeon rules are still a very large ruleset. Moving, searching, dealing with hunger effectively, and controlling your party are not simple button presses. Many common actions require you to hold combination of buttons down, but only if you set the moves up beforehand. If you didn’t do that, they’re buried under several levels of menus. The moves and creatures are fairly obviously familiar, but moves do different things. Important status effects like “slow” and “haste” just don’t actually exist in Mainline Pokemon, and leveling up the new stat of IQ through Gummis is, while not that hard, still a completely new concept. Basically, someone who likes Pokemon cannot just jump into these games and be successful. It will take a bunch of failure, and some practice. Granted, the game has a decent tutorial, but still: I could see how it would frustrate a very casual player.
Add to that fact that the features added in this expansionish game. You’ve got inscrutable systems of getting new items and boosts from the Spinda cafe to spade out. You’ve got the Faux items, which are attempting to replicate the “need to be tested and identified” items from normal roguelikes without actually adding that feature. It’s all additional added complexity and challenge. This game is simply less accessible than Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness. While most “third” entries in the mainline Pokemon games often do add more hardcore options (a Battle Tower, or some extreme challenge after the credits roll) these are, once again, optional. Nothing of the new stuff added in this game is that way. You’re getting faux items, no matter what. Gathering your party is moved to this Spinda Cafe, and you get a tour through the course of the story, so you can’t think it isn’t there to be used.

I guess what all this is working towards is that this game is really aimed towards me, but it’s still fairly childish in presentation and story. Which, of course, ALSO aims it towards me. But I’m weird, and it’s hitting a really weird niche of people who like cute, but hardcore, but not TOO hardcore or else it would be frustrating, games. Is there really a market out there? Does the game sell exclusively to furries and pokemorphs? Or is it something that everyone who grew up with Pokemon has graduated to, because they wanted a change in the formula of the original, seeing as they’ve just reproduced it like 5 times?
I really don’t know. You tell me.

Gamefly is currently sending me John Woo Presents: Stranglehold.
I’m excited.

I mean, I don’t have any good reason to be. The game was, at best, a competent but not all that wonderful shooter. I’m sure there will be bad guys, and I’m sure I will use a variety of guns and bullet-time (excuse me, Tequila-time) effects to kill them again and again. And you know what? That’s great.

Buying these sorts of shooters always seems like a bad value proposition. To make them last long, you have to play them at a high difficulty, which I’m just not willing to do anymore. Frustration will make me drop a game. If you play them on the easier settings, they don’t take very long. Often, there just isn’t much gameplay there. If there IS a long campaign, it probably gets boring near the end, and was probably padded. Thus, I never really buy many, if any, of the zillions of shooters that come out on the 360 every year. Sure, there might be a few gems, and they might be fun, but it just feels so wrong to buy them.

Gamefly has opened all of those games up to me. Suddenly, they’re a joy. I can blaze through them in a weekend on “Easy” or “Casual,” get some nerdpoints to increase my electronic penis, and feel no remorse. Sure, often they’re nothing special, but I get a feeling of accomplishment for actually beating a game, and it’s a good use of my time, and my rental. Plus, sometimes I find a shockingly good game, like Bound in Blood, and then I get to be pleased.

I guess what I am saying, in one line, is that renting games makes mediocre games worth it, and mediocre games on the 360 are, for the most part, shooters. I like playing through a lot of games. I like being knowledgable. I like beating things. I like this setup I’ve got going.
So bring on the Strangleholds and the Army of Twos and the Wets. I’ll play them until I get bored or beat them, and then send them back. It will be delicious.

Also, as a completely unrelated side note, Happy Birthday, Jonathan. Cause, you know, that’s today and all.

Okay, so at this point, school has started back up again, but dammit, I read like a million let’s plays over break, and they’re all fun, so I wanted to share them all. So here’s two more to read if you’re bored.

This is the sort of Let’s Play I’d love to write. I love the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series, probably more than I should, because I love the silly little stories and the roguelike gameplay. This is exactly the sort of Let’s Play I would have loved to do of the first game. It takes the rather childish subject matter seriously. It has some amazing fanart. It’s just… I found it really fun to read. Maybe it isn’t your thing? But man, it was my thing.

Now this, this can be everyone’s thing. The Dark Id, who did many wonderful Let’s Plays of the Resident Evil series which I also really enjoyed, did this Let’s Play of the amazingly nonsensical Clock Tower 3 for the Playedstation 2 Console. It, much like his previous outings, is a great read, and a great trip that makes every single ridiculous plot hole extremely clear. I like it. Give it a go. And while you’re at it, why not try his Dead Aim Let’s Play! Now there’s a game that’s just mind-blowingly awful.

Okay, that’s the last of them, I swear. Not going to have any time to actually read anything for months, so you don’t have to worry about more of these posts! Really. Promise.