Console Exclusives: When is it okay to release on only one console.

UPDATE

It has been confirmed that the console exclusivity for Rise of the Tomb Raider is temporary and the game will come out for the PS3 and PS4 at a later date. That date has not been announced yet though. 

In case you haven't heard, a lot of people are rather angry at Square Enix, this time due to a controversial announcement at this years Gamescon. Specifically to make the sequel to the relaunch of Tomb Raider to be Xbox One exclusive. The previous game was launched on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. A "Definitive Edition" was released later on for the PS4 and the Xbox One.

Now I'm not going to sit here and claim that every game should release on every console. In fact many console exclusives are what saved previous consoles from being completely ignored. I'm also not going to say that we should only have one console choice. Not only would that be outright illegal in most countries, due to anti-monopoly laws, but it would also hurt the gaming industry as a whole since there would no longer be any reason to improve the product. If you're the only person out there making games, you have no one to compete with so why bother. Instead I'm going to be focusing on why people are angry and when it's a good idea to be console exclusive.

WHY ALL THE DRAMA?

I would say the number one reason why people are angry is the fact that the previous Tomb Raider game came out for all consoles (except the Wii U which probably wouldn't have had the processing power to run the game). Most people can't afford to own both the Xbox One and the PS4. Some can't even afford one or the other. *cough cough me cough cough* Because of this, a lot of PlayStation owners are feeling a bit left out. Not to mention that before the Xbox line of consoles even existed, Tomb Raider was primarily a PlayStation game. 

Another big reason is that the logic behind it doesn't make a lot of sense. Square Enix has said that it was disappointing with the sales numbers for Tomb Raider. Going console exlusive in that respect makes no sense since it will limit the amount of people who can buy it by more than half. (The most recent sales numbers show that the PS4 is ahead in console sales). Not only that, people who prefer playing with a mouse and keyboard are left out to. 

Finally, many people smell the stench of money behind this, specifically Microsoft's money. I haven't dug too far into this so take this as a rumor (unless otherwise revealed to be true later) that Microsoft paid Square Enix quite a bit of money for this exclusive deal. Something that Microsoft has been known for doing in the past, most specifically the DLC Map Packs for the Call of Duty line of games. 

SHOULD I BE MAD TO?

I don't know, do you like Tomb Raider? 

WHEN IS IT A GOOD IDEA TO GO EXCLUSIVE?

I believe there are a few rules when it comes to deciding whether a game should be exclusive or not. If the Intelectual Property is owned by that console maker, like Mario or Master Chief, then it makes sense that the game will be exclusive to that console. Another reason is if the console manufacturer specifically came to you asking you to make a game for their system. This will usually happen when they hand an IP over to a 3rd party developer for a one game contract. Or in some cases a multi game contract. Metroid Other M is the only one I can think of off the top of my head that fits that description.

There is also the idea that maybe the game will only WORK on one of the consoles. Usually these instances will fall to motion games. I can't imagine a game like Bomb Blocks working on the Xbox 360. Maybe on the PS3 with the move controller but it probably wouldn't sell.  

WHEN IS IT A BAD IDEA?

Really any other time it would be a terrible idea to go console exclusive. It limits your audience as well as revenue stream. Maybe if you were a small indie developer and could only afford the developers kit for one system. Most of those types of games are released on the PC first for that exact reason. No cost unless you're using someone else game engine. 

Now of course there are a variety of other reasons why a company may decide to go exclusive vs not. Maybe there is some bad blood between the two companies. Maybe you don't want people to have to pay for Xbox Live or PlayStation Plus in order to play your game. But those seem to be the most common. Anyway, I highly doubt that the Tomb Raider sequel will stay "exclusive" for long. The only question is will people still buy it at that point. 

Breaking the MMO, why World of Warcraft will soon be unplayable.

So many of you have already heard about the new service to boost your character right to level 90 that Blizzard will be offering in their MMO titan, World of Warcraft. This boost will cost the player $60 in the US (apparently Blizzard calculated out how much time people usually take getting to level 90 and based the amount you pay on that). I recently read an article on PC Gamer about the new service and I have to say, the level boost experience is as bleak as I expected.

HOW IT WORKED BEFORE.

The basic premises of any level system is very simple, it reflects the in player's experience. But at another level, it also helps to ease the player into the mechanics. In a sense, the experience bar also reflects the player's ability to control the character. When you start a level 1 character in an MMO, you have 1 ability. That one ability is your bread and butter and is usually the core ability to your class. I haven't played WoW since I quit Mists of Pandara and started playing Final Fantasy 14, so in this instance, I'll use the Lancer/Dragoon class to teach you about what I mean. 

A level one lancer starts with one ability, True Thrust. It is a very simple ability, it allows you to do an attack worth 150% of your base attack and can be used once every 2.5 seconds. This helps get you into the groove of your abilities, as all of them for the Lancer are spaced about by 2.5 seconds. It helps you to build a rhythm that you will be using all the way to the high end raid bosses. 

At level 2, you get your first new ability, Feint. In truth, this one won't be used as much later in the game but it basically slows down your enemy a bit, increasing your survival rate in certain fights. This fate does give you a glimpse into the other abilities you will be using late on, specifically abilities that put a DOT on the enemy. Te be more specific, putting damage over time affects on your enemies and keeping them up when they run out. 

At level 4, you get the biggest and probably the most important addition to your arsenal. Vorpal Thrust. On its own, this technique is not anything special. It does an attack that hits for as much as your normal attacks do. Pretty useless. However if you read the text on the ability, you will learn something very special. If you use True Thrust first, you remember that one from way back in level 1, it will place a little dotted lining around the icon for Vorpal Thrust. If you use Vorpal Thrust next, you will then deal 150% of your normal damage. This is called a combo and is the main way that the Lancer will do his/her damage. This extends even further with an ability that you gain at level 26 called Full Thrust. On it's own, it only does normal damage but if added onto our 1, 2 combo we just used above, it will do a whopping 330% damage. 1, 2, 3 POW!

All of this is learned just by leveling your character which prepares you for the real game, post level 50 content. I use about 15 different abilities during my rotation. Almost all of them are a part of a similar combo structure. Now what do you think would happen if I dropped someone in front of my keyboard and said, "There you go, have fun!"

THE STORM.

Blizzard has stated that they will eventually have players who pay for level 90 to go through an hour to two hour quest to teach players how to play the class they just paid for. A sort of crash course in being bad ass if you will. While that will help alleviate some of the problem that occurs when sticking someone with a character they have NO idea how to play, it's not actually out yet. At this moment, if you buy a level 90 character, you are simply dropped into the appropriate capital city on the continent of Pandaria. There is no indication where the player should go, no explanations of what these buttons do and little regard for making sure that this wild child is up to speed. 

From what I am to understand, this has become a major problem in the game's matchmaking system, Looking for Group, since a large majority of people who join have no idea how to play their class. This is especially bad if you choose a Tank or Healer role since skill is a major part of those two roles. It's very easy for an inexperienced player to ruin the fun for everyone in the dungeon or raid. 

WHY DID THEY DO THIS?

There are a few reasons why Blizzard decided to implement this feature. The biggest one in my opinion is the fact that the amount of "new" players, specifically those who have never played WoW and sign up for an account, are very low. In fact, I can guarantee that a majority of those "new" players are gold sellers who need to get there presence back into there game after being banned for advertising illegal real money transactions. 

There is also apparently the push to make it so people can play the newest expansion NOW. A friend of mine explained it as, "you bought it, why shouldn't you get to play it now." That is not an exact quote by the way. While I like the idea of getting players into new content right away, just selling them a level 90 character comes with a ton of problems of it's own that the developers are going to have to fix. Not quite the most elegant of solutions. 

HOW WILL THIS AFFECT NEW PLAYERS?

The biggest way this will affect new players has already been explained above. Another one that I feel a lot of people are going to experience is an inflated sense of how much this game is going to cost. While you do get a free upgrade with your purchase of Warlords of Draenor, the new expansion coming out god knows when, any future characters must be leveled up the old fashioned way or pay $60 for another level 90. That's already on top of the $19.99 you will need to pay for the base game which now comes with the first 3 expansions it seems, $19.99 for Mists of Pandara and $49.99 for the new expansion pack. To a person looking out from the inside, just to enter the game costs $89.97. That doesn't include the monthly fees you will be paying after your first month of play. That is a steep asking price.

In truth, they don't really NEED to charge that much for the expansions. The majority of money that WoW makes is from there monthly subscriptions. Just one year of the monthly fee on a month by month basis DOUBLES what they make on buying the base game and expansions. $179.88 to be exact. If you compare that to the entry fee of other MMO's, it seems abysmal.

Final Fantasy XIV

Price of entry: $39.99
Monthly Fee: $12.99 for entry level (1 character per server, 8 characters total)
$14.99 for Standard (8 characters per server, 40 in total)
Additional Content: Character Transfer to another server $18
                               Changing your characters appearance $10
                               Veteran Rewards are provided free depending on how long you have been subscribing.
                               Additional Retainers are $2 per month.

DC Universe Online

Price of entry: Free
Monthly fee: not necessary but can get an all access membership for $14.99 a month. Players will have access to all DLC content.
Additional Content: $9.99 per expansion pack. Various ascetic items available for sale as well.

Guild Wars 2

Price of entry: $49.99
Monthly fee: none
Additional content: Can purchase gems which can then be used to purchase in game content. Players can gain these gems on there own at a slightly lower rate.

SO WHAT CAN BLIZZARD DO?

Well for starters, Blizzard can stop insulting its own product. The first thing you learn about public speaking is to not undermine yourself. To do so is to take away your credibility. You need to have confidence in what you are doing. That's not say you can't admit when something went wrong, like when the PSN was hacked. This is not one of those situations though. Instead of harping on the old team so much, they could have simply announced that they would be returning to the basics. It excites the player base without undermining your ability to still make the A plus content you are known for.

The second way would be to reduce the cost of entry. I would do away with charging for the expansion packs personally and just sell WoW as a base game. This is the way that Final Fantasy 11 and the original EverQuest are running there services now and it seems to work pretty well. It keeps the point of entry cheap so that the consumer doesn't feel like they blew a bunch of money away. It's true that it might be a gamble and would take a bit of revenue away from the company, but it would also show that you are trying to make the game open for new players. They could also remove or reduce the monthly fee so that players new and old can continue playing without having to worry about next months subscription. You could even take a queue from the cell phone companies and offer family subscriptions. This way, the whole family can enjoy the game without having to buy each person there own personal copy. While it's true that you could just share an account, they still wouldn't be able to play together so this would go a long way in trying to show that you want to give the family a gaming experience they can enjoy at a fair price.

Finally, get rid of the insta level 90. The hours spent leveling a character are pivital to teaching a person how to play the game. For some people, even that isn't enough. A 1 hour quest is going to make people feel overwhelmed and will put a pressure on the community that just isn't worth it. If you really want to get people to level 90 faster, start offering heirloom gear to people who haven't reached level 90 yet. Or reduce the amount of experience needed to get to level 90...again.

Sins of an MMO player.

It is incredibly frustrating when playing an MMO sometimes. Sometimes this can be due to poor mechanics like repetitive grinding for loot, poor balancing of characters or bugs that really should have been found and exterminated in bug testing. Sometimes though, its not the developers fault, sometimes it's the fault of your fellow players. Here are the 5 deadly sins of MMO players.

1. Lust for gear. 

I won't lie, epic gear is awesome. Part of the reason we like MMO's so much is for the gaining and then showing off of epic epic loot. But there is a point where you need to stop and realize, "You know what, maybe I shouldn't role need on this piece. I mean, I already have a higher level piece so what's the point. Maybe I should let this other guy have it since clearly he needs a replacement pare of pants." This isn't so much a problem very often but when it does show it's ugly head, it's a huge pain in the ass. Another version of this would be taking advantage of your other players time, asking for assistance with something but offering no assistance in return. I'm under the opinion that you get as much as you give and if you give your time to a guild, then you will benefit as well. 

2. Hatred against your  fellow player.

If any of you have played Call of Duty, you are already aware of the amount of homophobic, racist and sexist comments people are capable of uttering. This is the same in MMO's. There is a reason that the ESRB or its foreign counterparts don't claim to rate online interaction. But it needs to stop. There is no reason to talk to someone in the way some people do for the littlest things. However, you should not respond to hate with hate. It only feeds them and justifies them. I prefer to just report them. If a game developer is on top of things, they'll know that they loose more players then they gain by letting these players run free. If a player is suspended or banned, they learn that there actions have consequences. Or at least they should. From my experience in customer service, they will more likely paint themselves as a victim and then never return. It's a win win either way though for both the player and the game maker. The players have one less abusive person to deal with and those abusive players aren't driving people away from the game makers product. 

Oh and for those of you who claim that they were banned unfairly, well guess what.

YOU'RE LYING!

Companies like Blizzard, Sony, Microsoft, Square Enix, Activision or whoevers servers your playing on won't ban someone without proof. And being banned is basically the same as being denied service in real life. AKA, they don't want your money anymore. You have proven to be a vial human being and accepting your business is actually hurting there bottom line.  

3. Using pay for service (that aren't already apart of the game.)

A games economy, just like in real life, is incredibly difficult to balance. You have to make sure that higher end mats are harder to get, and therefore more valuable. That way there is an actual value to them as well as your currency. Part of that challenge is how repetitive it can be, or the fact that  you can only get a mat at a slower pace. But this is very quickly ruined with bots. It's apparently very easy to program a bot to do a repetitive task so that you don't have to and even giving you the ability to "play" for longer then the designer intended. In short, it gets you a bunch of shiny stuff without you having to do any work. And then what do people do? They offer those mats or gold or leveling services for real life money. Very quickly this will have an adverse affect on the games market, deflating the prices of high quality mats and taking some of the enjoyment out of the game for those who are gaining those mats legitimately. Thanks a lot CHINA!

4. Picking on the "newb/noob".

One of the biggest problems well established MMO's have is getting new players to join. This can be attributed for a few things. No problem is simple after all. One of the reasons is the griefing of new players. I never experienced griefing on my own when playing MMO's but I did experience it once over a forum, apparently my avatar didn't have enough fancy clothes to have a valid opinion. 

Screw you!

I never returned to that website. I didn't want to get involved with a community that put so much emphasis on buying drawings of clothes for my avatar. This same thing happens in MMO's. But here's the wonderful thing about being a new player, they can only get better. New players means new untapped talent and more revenue for the people who make your favorite online game which means more content for you. There is no reason to force new players away and that elite view is foolish at best and downright stupid at worst. 

5. Wasting other players time. 

This one is a big pet peeve for me. If you have a scheduled raid, don't wait until 5 minutes before to log on and get all your stuff ready. If I'm paying $15 a month to play this game, I want to play, not sit around and wait for you to get yourself ready. You aren't just wasting my time, your wasting my money. While I'm not against giving a dollar to a homeless person, throwing my money away is just wasteful. If you can't make an appointment, let someone know in advanced or don't agree to come to begin with. If you're not the type of person to do a weekly raid, then don't agree to do it. Is it really that hard. 

Streaming announcement.

For those of you interested. 

I will be streaming on my twitch channel every Monday from 8-10 mountain time. 

Go to my channel now and follow now!

Anime to watch update 2.

The more of the new anime I watch, the more I realize that just like Western television, anime seasons will present a slew of new and continuing shows and only 1 out of maybe 10 will be good. Quite a few more cuts from the list, if you don't see me talk about an anime then it's safe to assume that I'm probably not watching it anymore.

Tokyo Ghoul

Status: 

I think more than anything, this series has surprised me. It's not often that we deal with the idea of people getting eaten....well we used to not have to think about that until Attack on Titan came around. Not only that but it promises to have some very awesome fight scenes. Really hope this one is around for a while. 

Tokyo ESP

Status: Has no good images for me to use as a status picture! Still good though. 

This one I'm still on the fence, mainly due to the fact that it feels like we have two first episodes. Official episode 1 shows us a terrorist attack on Christmas and episode 2 shows us when the main character gets her powers. A lot has yet to be established so I'm still trying to figure out what type of show this one is going to be. Looking forward to it though. 

Argevollen

Status: 

I made it through three episodes of this show and I can safely say that I will not be watching this one any more. There where three things about this show that made me dislike it. 
1. Cliche Main Character
       If you've watched any TV during the last 10 years, you already know the main character of this anime. He's the green soldier who doesn't understand war and goes out of his way to try to save everyone. Been there. Done that. Boring.
2. My robot connects to my mind!
       Again, another major plot point that we've seen a million times before. NEXT!
3. WHY DO THESE PEOPLE NEVER FACE ANY CONSEQUENCES!
       Tokimune, the main character, disobeys direct orders so often, I often wonder how this army stayed together in the first place. I've never been in the army myself but even I know that if you disobey a direct order, that's grounds for court martial. But it NEVER HAPPENS! If these characters can get away with so much, what's the point of these laws anyway. 

Anime to watch update.

So recently, I did a "What to watch" list of anime I was planning on checking out. I'm running a little bit behind on that but I can at least give you an update on two of them. By the way, read the original here.

Momo Kyun Sword

Status: DROPPED FROM QUEUE!

I didn't even make it through the first episode. The amount of crappy boob jokes far out balanced the amount of man orc. I wouldn't even recommend this for horny straight people. I honestly would worry about someone who had breasts that bounced like that. I would be afraid they were mutating from some weird breast cancer or something.

Sword Art Online II

Status: Looking Damn Fine!

I am a big fan of the first season of Sword Art, even though a lot of people didn't like the second part of season 1. So far from what I'm seeing from the second season though, it's different but in a good game. Since this season's game is a western release, it makes sense that it's a gun heavy game.

We really like guns. 

Anyway, I'm still making my way through my list but you can also assuming that if it's the second season of an anime and I haven't already watched it yet, it probably won't get watched. At least not until I can marathon it. 

I'm really bad at streaming: my review of Coming Out Simulator 2014

So I was planning on doing my first stream ever today. That didn't go so well. I made a few mistakes setting up the video so the recording only takes up a portion of the screen. But hey, I learned something so it wasn't a COMPLETE failure. Anyway, the game I was playing was one that I became aware of through a gaming site. Coming Out Simulator 2014. I thought, "Hey, I'm gay. Why not give it a try!"

This is a very short game so I'm going to keep the review brief. My biggest recommendation though would be to play it for yourself.

First Impressions

The first thing I noticed about the game was the art style. 

Very minimalist but gets the job done. The blank faces are nice because they let you insert yourself into the narrative. The game keeps this layout throughout and you usually only have 2-3 options in order to proceed with the narrative. Speaking of...

The Narrative

I would like to start off by sharing my own coming out story. My sister guessed I was gay and my mom found out later that day. HOLLYWOOD GIVE ME A CALL! 

I hope Anne will play me in the Hollywood version!

Yeah, my coming out was very quick, not anything like the things we experience here. I won't spoil it for you but there are definitely moments where you feel very uncomfortable. There is an attempt to play it off as comedy towards the end that I felt was a  bit jarring though, so prepare for that. 

Replay?

It's a very short game and the branching dialogue trees might be fun to play around a bit with. I personally would rather have my friends play it and then talk about what decisions they made in the game. I made the mom throw up. Did you? 

You can play the game here, and send a tweet to the creator here. 

Journalism in Gaming and how we can improve it.

For those of you who don't know, I did a little bit of journalism in High School. I liked it a lot but at the time, I wasn't very focused so I didn't stay too long. Then again, what high schooler doesn't lack focus. A large part of me doing this blog is trying to get back into that journalist sense. However, I am not a traditional Journalist mainly due to the fact that I'm not here to report the news. I don't have the time nor the access to be a game news reporter, however much I would lost to be one. Journalism used to entail telling the news in as fast a way as possible with as little bias as possible. In the past few years, gaming journals and journalism at large has changed.

A bit of a touchy subject in journalism is the advent of the 24 hour news network. If there is one that is picked apart the most, at least here in the States, it would be Fox News. The channel has faces allegations of fudging the news, leaving out improtant details in order to lead the viewer to a certain opinion. I don't watch Fox News myself but let's just say I'm not the biggest fan of the O'Reily Factor.

I consider myself a frequenter of Kotaku.com, mainly because it gets the news the fastest. The only problem is that this news is filled with swearing, personal comments and loads of controversy which has tarnished its reputation. In fact, most gaming news sights suffer from this. This is an issue with many other websites as well. I remember one time, Destructoid used a picture of Link and Sonic during coitus as one of there header pictures to a post. This post to be exact.

While I'm not against fan art or pornography in general, I feel like there is a time and a place and this just felt incredibly inappropriate. I feel that the gaming community at large would benefit greatly with a return to more traditional journalism. That's not to say we should give up on the culture that we have grown together as gamers. There is still a place for those wacky posts. But it wouldn't hurt to have a journalist outlet for games that tells the facts and just the facts, leaving the decision of who is the good guy and bad guy up to the most important person of all, the reader.

As always, please leave a comment below. If you find a spelling or grammatical error I missed in editing, please email it to andrewwalters6@hotmail.com and I'll fix it ASAP. For further updates, follow me over my Google + or Twitter account and remember to use those share buttons. :)

Anime to watch summer 2014

If you're even remotely interested in Anime, it can be hard to decide what to watch. I'll give you a quick guide to the anime I'll be watching this summer.

Momo Kyun Sword

For those of you who don't know the story of Momotaros, I'll give a quick run down. Momotaros is a boy born from a Peach that flows down river. The boy grows up to become a famous swordsman. Normally, Momo is portrayed as a man but this anime decides to portray Momo as a girl. That part was the first to make me interested in this anime. The second was the high abundance of hot shirtless ogre men.

Yum!

Finally, this anime just looks cute. One thing that did make me laugh was the oddly peach shaped size of Momo's breasts.

Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2wei!

This one is quite the mouthful but it's the second season of a show I have yet to watch, so technically I'll be watching the first season. This is a sort of an alternate reality to Fate/Stay Night, another anime I need to catch up on, that puts the characters as Magical Girls. I figured I should give this one a try since the only magical girl anime I watch is Sailor Moon....speaking of.

Sailor Moon Crystal

Yeah, anybody who has been reading my blog knew this was coming. NEXT!

Argevollen

From what I see, it looks like a pretty typical robot anime but I'm trying to watch more of this genra. Which reminds me, I need to catch up on Captain Earth.

Aldnoah.Zero

Unfortunately no video for this one but it's about martians vs humans so that's always fun. 

Rail Wars
Trains are huuuuuge in Japan. Like super huge. I mean, the newest Super Sentai is Train themed.

This one is about a security guard on a railway system that was never privatized. I like the animation so I'll give it a shot.

Akame Ga Kill!

This one is about awesome people with awesome hair doing awesome things. Well okay, there is also something about becoming an assassin and taking down the evil empire.

Sword Art Online II

If you haven't seen the first season of Sword Art Online, you need to go watch it. No seriously, go watch it. Like now. Minimize this window and go over to Hulu or Crunchy Roll. Watch Acell World to while your at it. They take place in the same universe.......seriously, go do it now. 

DRAMAtical Murder
This one is about a boy who gets forced into some online battle. Normally that alone would be kind par for the cource for me but when I saw that it was also classified under yaoi, I was intrigued.

Terror in Resonance
This one I'm a little bit on the fence on. Something about a terrorist attack and these two kids that are going to release there evil plans or something.

Tokyo Ghoul

Blood. Lots and lots of blood. The basic premises here is that a boy who nearly gets killed gets an organ transplant. Apparently that organ belonged to a supernatural creature that eats humans though. Fun for the whole family.

Black Butler: Book of Circus

If you haven't watched the original Black Butler, I highly recommend it. In the shadow of FullMetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, this series is supposed to more closely follow the manga. 

Yamishibai 2

Would have to watch the first season of this one to but it looks interesting. Tells the story of Japanese folklore using cut away animation style.

Persona 4: The Golden Animation

Based on the Vita version of Persona 4. If you haven't seen the original anime, I highly recommend checking it out on Hulu. 

Re:_Hamatora Yet another I'll need to go watch the original season. Apparently its like X-men meets a detective agency.

Now of course there are a lot more out there that I didn't mention. If your interested in looking at more, I'll post a link to a few sites with more info. As always, please leave a comment about what series you are excited for or what series you think I should be watching. Also make sure to hit the share button. It really helps. Also make sure to follow me on Twitter or Google + for future updates as they happen as well as random bits of whit.

Kotaku Complete Summer List
Funimation Summer Simlecast Schedule
CrunchyRoll Summer Lineup

Anime Review: No Game No Life

Here's the thing when it comes to my boyfriend and I. We're much better at finishing an anime series if we're watching it separately. My boyfriend has a lot of free time when he's at work so he spends a lot of it watching Crunchy Roll, Netflix or Hulu on his Ipad. When he isn't here, I'll fill my time by watching anime. When we're together, we're often playing video games together. You can see why I haven't gotten very far in YuYu Hakusho since it's the anime we said we would watch together.

Anyway, my boyfriend told me to start watching a show he had binge watched called No Game No Life. I had heard of it from a Kotaku article but I never actually went out of my way to watch it. Since I was finished with Black Bullet and my interest with Captain Earth had tapered off a bit, I decided to give it a go.

The Good!

Animation

Right off the bat, the first thing that got my attention was the animation style. It's fast moving, intricate and downright fun. I'll go ahead and post the intro for those who are looking for a sneak peak.
I almost want to compare it FLCL, that is if there was a Diet version of that show and all its insanity. It's also just so intricate that you often worry your going to miss something. Makes me want to watch threw it again just to make sure I didn't miss anything.

The Story

A lot of shows I've been watching lately take way too long in order to get to the main story. One show like this would be the newest iteration of Kamen Rider, Kamen Rider Gaim. Don't get me wrong, I love Gaim. The only problem is that it took somewhere along the lines of 20+ episodes to finally figure out who the bad guy is and even then we're not quite sure just how bad they really are. Some shows can pull this off. Not a show like this. No Game No Life is very quick to set up what type of show it is and you have the full idea of what the characters goals are going to be from episode 3 on. I won't spoil it here since it's kind of fun to figure it out and since it only takes 3 episodes, it won't hurt you just to watch and find out.

The Bad

The Batman Syndrome

A big complaint about Batman is that he is always too prepared. He is always at least 13 steps ahead of everyone else in the DC universe. If I had to give one major complaint into the series, its that the brother/sister duo are able to plan WAY far in advance despite the fact that even they admit that a lot of times, they are blissfully unaware of all the facts. This could very easily be rectified later on but we will have to wait and see. 

Cliche Characters

The characters can act just smidgen cliche at times. Not by a large amount but it is noticeable if you watch a lot of anime. I wouldn't consider this a bad thing though. 

The Ugly

The Cliffhanger!

This series is based off a popular light novel series, something that is becoming incredibly popular lately. The first season is only 12 episodes long and the last episode only gives us a taste of what's more to come. The only problem is that I can't find any information out there in regards to weather or not there will be a second season or not. This is quite literally killing me. I want so bad to see what happens next and I don't see anything regarding a Season 2 announcement. I'm sending them a message letting them know I would watch a season 2. If you're interested, there twitter is @Madhouse_News . Granted it's all in Japanese but that's what Google translate is for.

Why there needs to be a new Harry Potter novel (and why the new antagonist needs to be an anti-magic muggle army!)

I'm about to piss a loooooot of people off. 

So in case you haven't heard, J.K. Rowling has released a new short story taking place after the original Harry Potter novels. I have yet to have a chance to read it. From what I understand though, it takes place from the perspective of Reeta Skeeter and talks a bit about what some of the characters are doing. That's fine and all, I would be okay knowing what some of the Potter gang is up to a few years later. Here is the thing though, there was a LOT in the Potter books that left me a little bit frustrated after book 7 was finished. I'll go ahead and list some of the bigger ones for you. 

1. Was Voldemort really the only dark wizard worth mentioning? 

So I will fully admit, Voldemort was one bad mofo. Guy split his soul a bunch of times at a crack at immortality, went attacking a newborn and just about brought both the wizarding world as well as the muggle world down on its knees. But lets look at the real world for a minute, specifically the Nazi party. One of the biggest reasons we like World War II so much is because we had a bad guy that pretty much everybody can hate and Hitler was the incarnation of that evil. When we killed off Hitler though, did that get rid of all the other bad guys? Hell no it didn't! Now we have terrorists and cyber criminals and Wall Street and whoever it is you want to claim is the current evil overlord. Let's also look at another fiction series, one with a lot of similarities to the Harry Potter universe. Star Wars. When they killed the emperor, did that stop the empire? No, it kept chugging. Pretty sure Harry has got a few Death Eaters to clean up. Let’s not forget there are probably massive amounts of cults now worshiping Voldemort and trying all sorts of weird magic to bring him back. 

There is also the possibility of completely different factions coming out of nowhere. Who's to say it has to even be a dark wizard, it could just be a very smart wizard dedicated to stealing priceless artifacts. There are a ton of possibilities, one of which I will get to later. 

2. Draco's character arc was completely cut off at the best part!

Let me start by saying that I am not a huge Draco Malfoy fan boy. I don't write fan fiction about him and Harry. I don't have a huge slew of shirts dedicated to his image. (I don't think I have ANY Harry Potter merchandise now that I think of it.) I don't swear my allegiance to Slytherin. In fact, I'm pretty sure I would be in Hufflepuff. But Draco was starting to become one of the more interesting characters in the series. The specific point I remember being the scene in the bathroom. If you don't remember the scene, I think it was in book 6, Harry stumbles upon Draco crying to the ghost Moaning Myrtle. This is the first time we see Draco as something more than just a spoiled brat. We see him as someone who puts up a facade to hide his true anxiety from the world. And let’s face it, being asked to murder Dumbledore would be a daunting task for anybody, let alone someone who isn't even old enough to drink yet. 

In literature, you never mention something unless it's important to the story right then and there or if it will become important later on. This scene was setting Draco up to become a more central character, something deeper than just the rival. And what was that pay off? 

JACK SHIT!

We see Draco running away and then the fantastic trio saves him. That's it. No big coming of age or realizing that he can be more. He simply falls back into his comfortable stereotype. That made me nearly rip my hair out. In the epilogue, it was even worse. He simply nods towards Harry as if they now have some weird bond between them. Like not friends but not enemies. Well guess what, NOTHING HAPPENED THAT BROUGHT THAT ABOUT! If anything, I would still see Draco as they guy who was on the other side of the battle. The only reason no charges were brought up against him was because he was a minor. 

A new book series would go a long way in giving Draco what he deserves, a fully completed character arc. I'm thinking having to overcome alcoholism while explaining to his son his past as part of the wizarding Nazi party. 

3. Wand law made absolutely no sense. 

This one is a pretty common complaint about the 7th book. Specifically that there is absolutely no mention of want law before book 7. This is the exact reason you need to explain rules for your universe way before they take effect. Because otherwise it becomes a Deus Ex Machina. In case you don't know what that is, it's Latin for "god from the machine." It's a plot device that comes out of nowhere to save the day at the last minute. If Rowling had mentioned and followed the rules of wand law from the beginning, like when wands are being explained or when they have a dueling club in book 2, then this wouldn't have been such a big deal. However it comes from nowhere and it's a pretty big sin for a writer. 

Now that we've explained why I believe there could be a new book in the series, let me explain why the conflict should be between magical and non-magical people. Again I break this down into a list format. 

Wizards are afraid of muggles.

In the books, wizards and witches are portrayed as thinking of muggles as quaint magic less creatures. Often times saying how they wonder how they live without magic. This is very much a sentiment pushed on the people by the government. For starters, which has been restricting wizards and witches from revealing themselves to the muggles for a very long time. And why is that. The ministry of magic would have you believe that muggles are simply an annoyance. At one point in there learning, the gang is taught about a witch that would cast a spell on herself so that the fire from being burned at the stake wouldn't hurt, but would feel like a tickle. The wizard government would claim they hid away from muggles because they were a daily annoyance, like a fly or something. Here's the thing though, you don't take an entire society into hiding because you’re annoyed.

You do it because you’re afraid. 

Let’s also face it, the wizard government was corrupted, and what does a corrupt government do? Try to control the people. It's a lot easier to control a complacent herd then it is a bunch of fearful mice hiding between the cracks of society. So you promote being ignorant, making fun of those who are interested in the muggles and portraying them as simpletons not worthy of a threat. 

But if any wizard were to become steeped in real muggle culture for very long, they would learn that humans are dangerous beasts. We don't need a wand and a magic word to kill you. We have guns, which would be unaffected by magic's effect on technology. Most guns don't have electronics in them, they are elaborate machines that trigger a basic chemical reaction that launches bits of metal at lethal speeds. Unless a wizard or witch had a chance to put up a barrier, a stealth attack would be very effective. I also highly doubt that anybody has had a chance to research a spell on cleaning up nuclear fallout, making an atomic bomb very effective if you couldn't find your exact target. Hogwarts anyone?

It only takes one organization.

The wonderful thing about humans is that there are so many of us and we have so many different ideas and beliefs about the world. Quite a few people would find the idea of wizards and witches hiding among us as kind of cool and fascinating. But what if your, let’s say, a religious leader. It's no small secret that quite a few fundamentalist groups still see which craft as the devils work. In fact, many families band the famous Harry Potter books from there house for fear it would change their Children into devil worshipers. 

It's a well-known fact that the Ministry of Magic would communicate with the prime minister of Britain. That same could probably be said about the US, Canada, Australia, anywhere where wizards are gathered. But what if Wizards revealed themselves to the wrong person. There are a ton of crazy dictators out there and not all politicians are as they seem. If you ask a conspiracy theorist, there are tons of shadow armies ran by the government that we citizens aren't aware of. It would not be hard to fight a secret war. It would also be easy to hide the expenses. Simply claim that all the money is going to anti-terrorist programs. If anybody asks anymore, just say it's classified. 

It would make for some awesome scenes.

This is my weakest argument, I will fully admit it. But I want to paint a picture for you. Imagine the dining hall at Hogwarts. All the children of the characters from the first series are enjoying a grand feast, let’s say for Halloween. Everyone is gathered in one spot, oblivious to the world around them. Moments later, a small object flies through one of the windows, trailing a grey mist from behind. Many more follow through the other windows. The smoke begins to build up as the teachers tell the children to make their way out of the hall. However the doors are stuck and cannot be opened by any force. People are reaching for their wands to blow it open, but they can't utter the enchantment due to the smoke now filling their lungs. Within moments, men in black repel down from the ceiling wearing gas masks, brandishing silenced pistols they use to quickly take out the adults. Throughout the rest of the school, the same paramilitary men sweep for any that were not present at the feast. Within moments, Hogwarts is under the control of an organization hell bent on eradicating the magic menace. 

Who is the wizarding world going to turn to? I'll tell you who. The man who defeated the greatest dark wizard ever, the man who eradicated the corruption in the governments police force and one of the most famous wizards of all time, Harry Potter. 

If this sounds like a bad spy movie, that's because it is. But it can work. It could also give Rowling a chance to complete unfinished story arcs *cough cough Draco* as well as give characters whole new ones. Maybe Harry isn't always the best father. He didn't have the best father figures growing up. What if one of his sons did end up in Slytherin like his one son was afraid of. Saying you’re okay with something and actually being okay with it is two entirely separate things and could lead to some very interesting family drama. 

It would also give Rowling a chance to explore themes not explored in the previous books. Maybe muggle isn't the best term to call a non-magic person. I've always thought of it as sounding offence at least. We could also see some of the trauma the wizarding world has faced since Voldemort’s reins. Perhaps Harry's popularity has dropped since then thanks to some unpopular decisions in order to clean up the Aurors department. There are all kinds of possibilities that would lead to some amazing set pieces as well as honest to god drama that goes deeper than the first series could ever HOPE to reach. 

But hey, that's just my tiny opinion. Do you think there is a better villain for the sequel series? Do you even think there SHOULD be a sequel series? Leave your theories and thoughts in the comments. I would love to see some of them. 

Impressions: Sailor Moon Crystal Episode 1

So I finally got a chance to sit down and watch the new Sailor Moon Crystal. I also recently started re reading the manga. Since the whole point of this project was to make an Anime that was closer to the manga, I decided to judge it based on how close they got it. Since the new show literally rips some angels straight from the manga, I would say they definitely hit that mark. It seems though that the show is going to follow the manga so closely, that each act of the manga will be an episode of the show. If that's the case then this will be a short lived series, clocking in at 52 episodes. Compare that to the 165 episodes of the original anime, I won't be surprised if some older fans experience a bit of whiplash.

However, anime has been making a move towards shorter show runs lately. Most anime's will have about 13 episodes and will usually be self contained pieces. Or course there are some notable exceptions, for example Naruto is currently clocking in at 477 episodes at the time of writing this. (That combines both the original show and Shippuden)

I think though that if people want a lenghtier show, there is nothing wrong with the old anime. It may have deviated quite a bit from the manga, but there were a few things in the anime that I liked a bit better. For example, the fact that the Spectre Sisters decided to live normal lives as humans in the anime after their defeat. Compare that to the manga where they get blown away by sailor moon in 1 hit.

Although just as there are things I liked better in the anime, there are things I like better in the manga as well. For example, does anybody remember the Amazoness Quartet of the Dead Moon Circus? They were the girls who shot billiard balls into people. 

In the anime, after they are betrayed and join the good guys, they simple leave. In the manga, it turns out they were actually the girls destined to be Sailor Chibi Moons guardians and made up the faction known as the Sailor Quartet who were each named as an asteroid previously thought to be a planet. 

Pictures here.

Damn it, I got side tracked with even more Sailor Moon trivia.

Anyway, I liked the first episode and I can't wait to see how the series goes. I do get a little peeved though when people start talking about things like "but that's not how it was done originally." Actually, that's exactly how they did it originally. They changed it for the anime. Do your research you twank. (I have no idea what that word means.)

As always, feel free to leave a comment. Make sure to follow me over Google + or Twitter  and email all your love and hate to alternatetrigger@gmail.com.

Happy Independence Day!

This may come as a surprise to the high amount of Russian viewers I have but I'm actually American. A friend of mine pointed out that red state only means Republican controlled state in the US. Everywhere else, it means communist state. Sorry if I was a bit misleading. If I remember next June 12th though, I make sure to wish you all a happy Russia Day!

I'm from this red state to be precise. 

Sailor Moon factoids!

For those of you not aware, Sailor Moon Crystal will be premiering this Friday, July 5th. Most of you will probably remember the anime from when they were kids and quite a few of you already know the trivia behind the show but there are a few things for those of you who haven't really done there research.

In the original manga/anime, Sailor Moon's civilian name is Usagi. 

It was pretty common to change the names of anime characters in the 90's when they were being localized. I can't be too picky about this though since Anime culture was just starting in the US and the localization team thought that kids wouldn't understand the cultural differences. Originally her name was Usagi, which literally translated from Japanese means bunny. She was named this because of her double pig tails. Fun fact, two of my favorite fictional characters are named Usagi. 

Although this Usagi is a little more bad ass. 

The original leader of the Sailor Scouts was Sailor Venus

One of the common themes of the Sailor Moon franchise was reincarnation. All of the planetary sailor scouts were actually reincarnated from a previous life. In fact, most of them already had there sailor powers in there past life. That is except for Sailor Moon. You see, Usagi was never meant to be a sailor scout, she was meant to be the future queen of the Moon Kingdom. Sailor Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Venus were tasked with being the princesses body guards and Sailor Venus was the head commander. 

In fact, she kind of still is in the Manga. While technically the team answers to Sailor Moon, when she's gone or has gone bonkers for her man, it's Sailor Venus who steps up and gives the orders. She was even the one to kill Queen Beryl. 

Sailor Neptune and Uranus were lesbians in the original version of the story. 

If you didn't know about this one, then you've been living under a rock. 

Sailor Saturn never had a transformation sequence in the anime!

As a person who loves transformation sequences, I was super pissed about this. If they were to fix one thing in Crystal, it has to be this. The closest we got was one that was featured in the video games and it sucked. It's not even worth putting it up. 

Season 5 of the anime was never originally translated

Season 5 was actually a little weird in that it flipped the Sailor Moon universe on its head. This season introduced a bunch of new sailor scouts. The three big ones were the Sailor Starlights. In the manga, they posed as a male pop group. In the anime though, they weren't just cross dressing. They literally swapped parts when they transformed. 

THEY'RE JUST SO DAMN SASSY!

This season also introduced the idea of Sailor Scouts as the enemy. Below you can see some of the major villains.

Iron Mouse

Tin Nyanko

Lead Crow

Aluminum Siren

And the Queen bitch Galaxia

The anime went a little crazy with it though, each time the enemy stole a star seed from a human, I'm not going to explain what a star seed is here, they would transform into a sailor scout monster. My favorite was Sailor Guts.

His attacks were all sweat based.

Final thoughts

I have always been a huge fan of Sailor Moon so I hope this gets you excited for the new show coming out. For those of you who don't know, the manga have been re released and you can buy them here and here. They are also streaming the original anime on Hulu and there are even plans to redub the original series to closer resemble the original language. With that, I leave you with one last video, a compilation of all the anime transformation sequences.

There is still a lot I didn't mention. If you have a factoid you would like to share, please leave it in the comments and as always, share with your friends.