Reon

D'awww!

....Yeah, you put a fine point. Which is exactly the problem too. One thought knowing one aspect is enough, then another thought it isn't, then another believes it's a waste of time to know about that matter at all. But then, defining them would cause similar (or different, depending on how you look at it) problems... It's quite difficult, I guess. And good point about connotation and denotation too! Well..I guess if you put everything into denotation-type phrases (aka defining them to hell and back) there's bound to be disappointed people.

Agreed, it'd be an entirely different thing between building knowledge about a culture and building the culture themselves. I'd done a similar thing (only concerning Japan) and I found myself...baffled, because of the clash between the culture people presented-- a mere observation in shape-- and what I'd known, and then the rest were horrible 'fill-in-the-blanks'. Knowing about a culture, in this case, would be in an entirely different level compared to understanding it. I would say even a slight change of perspective would cause a difference in perception and giving values to each culture. :|

I agreed about the bigotry part. Not the same concept but definitely related.

Aaah. I see. =) I often find myself only playing once, going towards -the- perfect ending. XO Multiple endings interests me though, especially one that has buildups and different 'ways', not merely depending on one final choice in one perfect moment. For instance, when you had to choose a side. (Soul Nomad and the World Eaters had this choice presented at the beginning of the game, when you can go and becoming the villain for teh lulz.) Regarding for your character's proper motivation...yeah, I can see how it'd be somewhat senseless (kinda numb to it myself, I guess.) It must have been very hard to drill in that case. D:

Ah, yep; it definitely has some similarities with Trance. Of course, the annoying thing is they set it on a loop....so you kinda get used to listening to them-- then fade! WHAT! It didn't happen in the game! What game soundtracks do you usually listen?

Aaah. Shinra building (and the world map..part..) is a bit, well, disconcerting indeed.

Defining those by themselves would cause differences in definition, I would say. (Not that it's -bad- per se; I agreed with your philosophy). But yeah....standards offer more failure than successes. But agreed; when one don't have enough, they usually realize it by themselves...or the world made them realize.

Well depending on which perspective, and under which aspect. On the perspective of the People In Power™, under the aspect of nation building, sure. But using the perspective of world building.....the flaws are showing. The adherence is rather bad for certain kind of growth, no?

Wow, is Chrono Cross that long already? O_O; It's been a long time...:| What about Wild Arms? XD;
How senseless would it be for you to stop caring? Any example you can remember of? The ones I hate are.....99% of Online game quests (Kill X amount of X to proceed to Kill X amount of X!)
Yeah, the video game soundtracks are definitely interesting and more entertaining. I guess classical music and symphonic music often has the...buildup, which is less interesting than the main point. While most videogame soundtracks are...straight to the point, if you get what I mean? Final Fantasy series are often very guilty on this. (And then they're done in actual orchestra mode. Yay)

But then, it depends on how would one define knowledgeable, no? To what degree should one know about something to be called knowledgeable? I would agree that it's almost impossible (not to mention perhaps overkill, but that's entering another realm of to which point knowledge is deemed useful) to completely understand their culture, nooks and corners. But, some people were too quick; too willing to stop, and feeling like "aah, I know enough. I should be knowledgeable". I've seen and fallen into both side, and I can't say which is worse.

Well, I personally believe we need both people who're hard to fall in line and people who are easy to, just one couldn't exist without the other. But I agreed with what you say. Understanding how our nation works is helpful in so many ways (albeit it can be just as obstructive as it is constructive, lol)

OTOH, the endings are quite interesting? Really? O_O (Granted that I was small when I played Chrono Cross, so...) I'm the exact opposite of you then xD I always played and attempted to reach 100% completion, soon it tires me and then I stopped somewhere in the middle. Or I'm just getting distracted. *Looks at Wild Arms*

One thing I've been somewhat missing are the soundtracks. xD a lot of old games have great soundtracks...like Chrono Cross' opening (I got the mp3), or Wild Arms 1's. Recently it's been somewhat blurring...like pop music. :|

Agreed. I get a feeling knowing your own culture is...to be expected, like, that's within the range of 'nationalism', rather than 'knowledgeable', if you get what I mean. People tend to be expected to be nationalist first, knowledgeable second (I personally think it's a load of bull tho).

Yeah, I understand how important videogames (or any mass media, really.) in spreading of cultures, or knowledge of cultures. since a big part of my childhood growth..... And to a lesser extent, my current growth also come from video games and anime. So I can't really complain about the depth of the inclusion. Besides, from a technical standpoint it would be..making entire culture is hard enough, and would unconsciously do the same anyway. (So in a way, Square Enix is admirable for taking lots of creative freedom with their culture-making, which could be industrial if done wrongly, but were still able to achieve high level of popularity.

Aaah, Chrono Cross. I didn't get the perfect ending, to the ending makes complete...nonsense. ; Isn't the main villain Lavos?
Hehe, I used to watch and play a lot of those games (well...keyword being play. Some I didn't get to finish, some I skipped entirely, and some that I watched, I didn't watch completely). I used to like .hack and Xenosaga (ohgawdShion'sMWS) very much, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Suikoden 2 and 3 during its time.

Right now I'm the same with you.

Hmm. so worldly world means being knowledgeable about the world outside of one's...habitat? (in the right ways)

Yeah, it's there. I agreed, it's interesting to note how much part of a culture is spread by another. Just as video games draws a lot of influences from another culture, it's interesting how they spread the influences of them to a lot of people. Or like how some Japanese video games uses Gothic Lolita subculture, which draws its influence from Victorian England, which draws some of its influence from earlier cultures again...it makes an interesting chain. I believe pop culture also does that in a lesser extent.

Of course, there's the matter of whether it's influenced...properly or not, but I guess that's a different point. For example, one part that FF series does wrong is to declare Shiva as female. But Square(soft) is one company which 'outsourced' its culture from another, and that itself is another milestone.

What's the game you're talking about? Do you like to play JRPG?

Yep, catchy music is catchy.

Hmm, how do you measure a worldly world?

/speechless.

Oh well. Korean wave. *glances aside* I have mixed feelings about that. I mean, Korea had mastered the art of polishing their pop stars and their works to be as..presentable as possible, and that's....good. But on the other hand, that's...well, shallow, IMO. :|

anyway.

2pm the korean boyband?

Long time no see my friend! Is there still a tinychat room that members frequent. I can't seem to access the old one anymore.

Good for you. =)

I'm only aware of the program that I've been accepted into, which is liberal arts. Not choosing courses yet.

Arts.

yes

sounds good. what are you taking in college?

I'm living life lol. Enjoying the whole college thing.

not bad
et tu?

hai der!

because I say so

yeah, people really do try to pull some crazy shit, and I've spent a lot of time contemplating on how much of that shit was intentional. I'm sometimes amazed when people who know what kind of memory I have start telling me something that has nothing to do with things they said previously. You just cannot wonder are they testing you or just bs big time. But ultimately it's a blessing, you see bs from a mile away.