fuchikoma

this > (this > that) >= that < ((that)(this)) ^ 2 ...solve for "this?"

I found another article linked from the international site's comments: The Science of Gawker's Nerd-Baiting [Forbes]

Please, feel free to drop into the tunes thread any time! I loved the "What are you listening to?" threads you and Bouzi would start.

Wow... That just seals the opinion in me that Joel Johnson is a self-important tech-blog hipster who simply can't see any fault in himself because he has an ego the size of Texas. I was kind of getting that from the way he didn't address any criticism of his Razer article, but just insulted the readers directly when they tried to discuss it - I really think that now that he's on top of Kotaku, he believes he can't be wrong. I'm glad to have an alternative to that site now because with him at the helm, it was damaging my (modest) reputation being active there... Not that I expect I'm well known off the site (or reputable... muheheh...) But anyway, I want to keep my hatin' short here - I already feel that by discussing him this much I've given him too much validation/mindshare. It'd only satisfy him to see us get bent out of shape over it. Mostly though I'm not mad at him because he is what he is, but because of what happened to such a great website - and to be fair, it was kind of skewing that way already back when he was still trolling for Gizmodo.

Tachikomas > Fuchikomas. ^.^ Again with the vicious slander! I'm going to go drown my sorrows in a can of motor oil... [Q:]

Touhou is not free, though it's traded like it is. Torrents are pretty available. There are free translations for pretty much every game though. I buy mine at Paletweb. They're around $20-30 each which would buy you up to half of a Cave shooter if we're talking about discs. Genetos on the other hand, is totally free and there's an official English version. It's even a good primer for bullet hell games since it's so forgiving.

You could be right... I have great nostalgia for the SNES, but the PS2 was (is?) an amazing system. Though on hardware reliability SNES is the clear winner. Still, I had way more original experiences on the PS2! Anyway: > > =

Fuchikomas are versatile little tanks with AI from the Ghost in the Shell manga. They weren't in the movie or TV series, so the name's usually not taken. I always liked them because while they're effective combat machines on the job, out of use, they're silly and childlike and sometimes ramble on philosophically from a uniquely synthetic POV... I never capitalize it if it's not at the start of a sentence because as far as I know it's just a noun - like hammer, table, etc. There's a bunch of them and they're all called "fuchikoma" (and sync up to pool their experiences regularly so they're all the same one really.) They WERE also featured in the Ghost in the Shell PSX game, which I had a ton of fun with back when I was in high school - I picked the name then. My other one for PSN, XBL, Raptr, OpenFeint, Game Center, etc is "DojoMojoMofo." It was originally a battle acolyte I was making in Ragnarok Online, but I liked the name - it suggests a guy who's into... I don't know... The sort of style and feeling you'd find in a dojo? Maybe even someone who can use martial arts magic? I also really like it because I'm a language geek, and it has a bunch of weird rules to it - every other letter is 'o', it's 3 sections of 4 letters, and each section only changes one letter from the last. Yeah, I'm a nerd...

I loved Higurashi, or "When They Cry." I don't think I'll bother with the newest since it sounds like it'll just be fanservice fluff, but the first season, Kai, and Rei were amazing. I haven't seen much genuinely scary and disturbing horror, and this was not only that, but the way the story was told kept me mesmerized and thinking about the plot right until it was all finished and explained. The fluff/shock balance was really good at getting me interested in the characters as people - not victims, and getting used to everyday life before anything weird happened. I was rooting for them so hard by the end of the series as the pieces came together and I saw what was happening. (Have to be super vague with this show, lol) Natsume Yujin Cho was great too. Very mellow most of the time, and usually touching - at least for me, and I tend to be thick skinned for overly sentimental stuff. Panty and Stocking raised the bar for rudeness and irreverence, at least in the "mainstream." Not entirely shocking though, because I watched Ebichu earlier... Gainax... you're out of your minds. Don't ever change, haha Detroit Metal City... is just hilarious. So awesome. I need to finish watching it. I really enjoyed A Certain Scientific Railgun. Index and Index II were also pretty good. None of them are especially groundbreaking, but it's close enough to original to just enjoy without nitpicking these days. I like the style of those shows and the use of psychic powers and spells is creative and interesting. Lately I'm watching Shakugan no Shana II. It seems really formulaic, but for me it doesn't trip the cliche sensor too badly. I really like that nighttime/urban/mechanica/magical aesthetic that permeates it. It's also nice that given the characters, they don't constantly shove fanservice in your face - not to imply it doesn't clearly use it. I've also been watching Ergo Proxy, which is an interesting sci-fi series that so far hasn't incorporated any really new concepts, but it's presented the ones it uses in a serious and interesting way. I just keep stalling on this series because it's always so bleak and grim. I'm all for thought provoking but depressing stuff, but this isn't that thought provoking, so it just brings me down... So, that kind of skims across the spectrum a bit...

I'm no true FF fan, so call me a bandwagoner if you like. I only got into FFVII. I liked the industrial futuristic style of Midgar, and how it mixed in with the rest of the world design. The Materia system was also great - simple but effective. Same for Limit Breaks. The plot... got a bit angsty at times, but overall I stayed interested to the last, and really liked the characters. After that, I tried FF 6, 5, 1, 8, Crystal Chronicles and SaGa II, which was branded FF Legend II in English. None of them hooked me though. I always inevitably ended up putting them down within the first several hours and leaving them alone after that... I'm about a decade out from having tried most of them, but if I had to pick one to return to, I might do 5... or 6 of course. After 7, only 9 even caught my eye. The aesthetic of the others repelled me more than attracted. The realistic characters look like pop stars to me. *ducks behind a cactuar, shielding half of one foot perfectly*

It is now! I always disliked 2D shoot em' ups, but Touhou got me hooked. Before that, I figured bullet hell was just for maniacs who could juggle 20 balls while riding a unicycle through a bike trials course while dodging arrows, etc. I'm one of the ones who found it via "Marisa Stole the Precious Thing" and was so confused I needed answers... then I started noticing Touhou fans popping up all over the place and figured "well, I don't like any games like this so far, but it can't hurt to TRY them..." So while I'm not good at them (got a few easy mode 1ccs... no normal mode completions, dammit!) I love the Windows Touhou games, though I rarely play PoFV, UFO, STB, or DS. Having a great time with Fairy Wars and Ten Desires though! My faves are SA and MoF with their "so what, you died. Continue, but do it from the start of the stage!" system. It also thrills the Pokemon centers of my brain trying to memorize and correlate character songs and titles to names, appearances, profiles, and which part of which game they appear in. I pity the newest fans coming in fresh! I'm pretty good at it now though, with the exception of ones from PoFV, IaMP, SWR, and other odd offshoots. Branching from Touhou, I've gotten into rRootage - mostly on iOS. Also on iOS, Espgaluda II, Dodonpachi Resurrection, Mushihimesama Bug Panic, Danmaku Unlimited, It Shoots You Dodge, and Space Invaders Infinity Gene... I have a danmaku folder on my iPhone now. On the PC, I also enjoyed Genetos, and Warning Forever. I've thought about trying the Seihou games, but haven't really felt the need. Tumiki Fighters was neat, but I didn't get far. I also grabbed Castle Shikigami II after seeing the AMAZING dubbed PS2 version. That is truly one of the worst dubs ever - they read their directions aloud, read each others' lines - the works. On PS3, I liked Everyday Shooter - very nice and original, but also very hard sometimes - and PixelJunk Shooter - very easy but lots of fun. I started PixelJunk Shooter 2 and it tried to murder my wrists so I stopped... and got Gundemonium Recollection. On the 360, I have the DeathSmiles LE box (actually two, by a weird miscommunication. I'll sell one much later when it's rare I guess!) It's a fun little bullet hell romp that doesn't overwhelm unless you ask it to. It makes me think of Touhou + Castlevania (if it had gone the opposite way from and didn't really bother with spell cards...)Triggerheart Exelica was short, cute, fun, and had a cool mechanic with grappling, swinging and flinging enemies around. I got Ikaruga. Damn. That game is just flat out impossible. (Why have a cramped box maze on level TWO??? It killed the fun for me, sadly. It reminded me of the cramped stage in Castle Shikigami II, but 10x harder. I guess it's for people who 1cc everything else on the first try? For me it's just beating my head against a wall.) I also picked up Shoot 1UP which was an interesting variation on the genre, and You Will Die - which is a harder clone of Warning Forever. Finally, I have Space Invaders Extreme, which isn't bullet hell, but it is a shmup. Great game. I actually had it on PSP already, but wanted it on the big screen at a decent resolution. I really want it on disc 10x more, but this winter I'll probably Cave (ha!) and buy DeathSmiles II on XBLA. Oh, and I also liked Ketsui Death Label for DS, yet another Cave game. No stages, but it was a nice boss challenge game before iOS got a decent library of bullet hell on it. Very accessible, actually and crammed with tips and features. But apart from an occasional infatuation with Galaga, I owe this all to ZUN's Touhou series. Thanks ZUN, for getting me hooked on a whole genre I missed, and for showing me some of the craziest music I've ever heard!

Some import games, but no import systems - all US/Canada: Intellivision (acquired after SNES) XT PC with CGA display and 40 MB HDD - very good condition, loaded with old games Modern dual-core PC with a CUDA card. (Stats don't matter much - I prefer indies/doujin games); some laptops NES SNES PSX (1994, SCPH-1001 I think. PIC12C508 modchip with unknown non-stealth program) PS2 (fat, SCPH-50001. DMS4 chip, HDLoader 0.6c); Dreamcast (US, White); Dreamcast (US, Sega Sports Black) PS3, Cell, no EE, 4 USB, flash slots (CBEH1000); XBox 360 Elite; Wii from around launch-era Barcode Battl- never mind, that thing was crap... GameBoy GameBoy Color GBA + Afterburner GBA SP (classic NES version) DS Lite (black, flaky, in pieces.), DS Lite (red/black, just a little flaky) PSP-1001, PSP-2001 iPhone 3GS 3DS VMU Sony PocketStation

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Thanks guys. I remember some other Kotaku disaspora sites like Kotakuites at Ning - wasn't that one of yours at first, Dean? Anyway, I'm sure the site is in good hands here!

Wait, what? Is it the accusation of free will that upset him, or the implication that he has a salary? I could be reading too much into it, but I got the same response and thought it was conflicted, if honest. I took it to mean "I can't deny what you're saying, but I can't admit it because of my contract with Razer..." There are far too many NDAs woven into things these days; it breeds suspicion. It's the norm now too - you can't talk about some games before the embargo date is lifted, and sometimes you can't even talk about the fact you're not allowed to talk about them! In his defense, he said it was too expensive, and that the brand image was kind of silly, but then neither of those things would take from the hypothetical "gotta have this thing" message that was written all over his article.

Lately, I can't get enough Shibayan. It's like Touhou Project with elements of Justice and awesome vocalists like Mei Ayakura and 3L! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCi3iBlcljk (Edit: Translated version!)

Hi guys! Thanks to MasterDex, I've finally found the Valhalla for fallen Kotaku stars, it seems! MasterDex, DeanB, Slagathorian... just in the last pages of this thread - I'm sure to see many more when I look around. Awesome! Oh uh, right... I'm fuchikoma - a geek of all trades in Western Canada who likes to play on any and all systems I can. I have preferences, but everything has ups and downs. I think some technical points are clear, but the broader your scope, the greyer the picture you get. (So a system may have a strength or a weakness, but it's really hard to make a purely good or bad product! Talking software... it's a qualia. You like what you like.) I've been addicted to Kotaku for around 5 years, but had a recent falling out with one of the new editors, so I'm sort of free from my "responsibilities" as a star there now. I'd been meaning to leave earlier when they forced the new layout, but while VG247 and GiantBomb are great, they didn't quite fill the niche for me so I came back. Skimming the member list here, this looks like home! I tend to write walls of text, so I'll try to keep this short. I like to editorialize and debate, but it's never personal - attack the argument, not the opponent (that said, I have a habit of matching politeness levels with my partner... *cough*) I love video games, but you could get me talking about most geeky pursuits - I've got a thing for studying languages for fun, so I'm not trying to sound pretentious when I write - I've just crammed a lot of vocab in there. I'm an autodidact, so I'm happy just learning something new and interesting in general. Anyway, I bet many of you have seen me around Kotaku so you'd kind of know me already if I'm not forgotten... I'm looking forward to catching up with you on here and meeting the ones I don't know! (edit: linked to "my" profile, not the one for my account... derp)