themblan's blog

I used to have a female shih-tzu companion named Pinky. She died in 2013 while I was away at law-school. Prior to that, she saved my life in the year 2000, but that's another story. She changed not only my life, but my family's, for the better. However, the first dog we had, wasn't quite the ideal story. It was 1995 and I was in seventh grade when we got our first dog: a Jindo/German Shepherd puppy that we named Teddy. It was very cute, but we had never taken care of a dog before, so we weren't very nice to it. Thinking back on it, it breaks my heart. We used to keep him all alone in the garage in the dark, unless we were feeding him or taking him out for a walk. I remember how we would get bored of playing with him and to get him away from the door that we needed to close, we would throw a toy far into the garage for him to catch so that we could safely close the door behind him. I only remember him coming into the house one time, when my mother brought home grocerie...

I understand why Capcom chose to design Street Fighter V the way it did. They saw the success of League of Legends and wanted to replicate it with a fighting-game. The main reason it has not blown up like League of Legends, however, is that unlike League of Legends, Street Fighter V is not free-to-play. I'm not saying that a free-to-play model would have guaranteed Street Fighter V astronomical success, just like League of Legends, but I'm saying that it would have garnered Street Fighter V more success than it currently has achieved. It's really unfortunate how stubborn Capcom is regarding its pricing, and they almost have to be. It's a paradox. They promised something from the beginning, and by selling the game for money from the beginning, they think that they can't suddenly make it free-to-play, because that would upset their existing fans. It might upset many fans, but I think they should abandon the paid model and go to free-to-play as soon as possible. They...

It's really sad how people buy the new Mario-cereal, just to collect it. Back in the '80s, there was a Nintendo-branded cereal that was half-Mario, and half-Zelda. I have never checked, but unopened and even opened boxes of these with just the cardboard probably go for a lot of money on ebay. It's sad how collectors want to replicate this madness in the future. Thirty years later, these people are hoping that this new cereal, released in 2017, will sell for a lot of money. This is pathetic. Not that I would want any human being to eat this cereal, but these collectors won't ever eat it, which is the primary purpose of this product. It is food; it was designed to be ingested. Think of the children. What if a child really wants to buy and eat this cereal? You collectors are depriving them of this pleasure, for your sick, insecure need to collect things and feel better about yourself through the possession of things that are valuated highly in the free, capitalistic e...

North American Chrono Trigger on a Super Nintendo Entertainment System with a Super Famicom controller.

When people are surprised that Doom, "a game like Doom," or a game with good graphics like Doom, runs on NS, it's really telling how they associate Nintendo only with simple, bright, and colorful graphics. It's a backhanded compliment - as if Nintendo-systems are not capable of stuff like this, or are not supposed to be capable of stuff like this. It's like when someone says you are "blank," for a "blank" person, as if you are not supposed to be "blank," because you are this race, that gender, or whatever sexual orientation you are. That is also surreptitiously implying that even though you are "blank," you can never be as good at that "blank" as someone of another race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. You, who spout such sayings like "Wow. I'm so surprised that Doom runs on NS," are part of the problem, or are simply indicative of the general perception of Nintendo by the populace at large. You d...

Have you ever noticed that when people complain about ports on Nintendo Switch, there are always a few smug people saying to just not buy them. Oh really? I didn't think that was possible! Thank you for educating me on that possibility! We all know that we do not have to buy the ports. That is not the point of all the complaining. The point of the complaining is to ruminate about whether these ports are the correct thing to develop and publish, not just for us hardcore gamers, but for Nintendo in general. Are all these ports sending the right message to consumers about the NS's library? How long can the NS subsist on ports alone, before people start to realize that the library is 99% ports? My retort, to those smug people who brilliantly tell us to not buy the ports, is to buy a Wii U. Yeah, that's right. If you want to play those games, just buy a Wii U. Want Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze? Just buy a Wii U. So simple.

There is constantly "new" content still coming out for Splatoon 2 and it pisses me off. Why? Because it's old content. These are old maps and weapons from Splatoon 1. I don't think these maps are bad. No. In fact, these maps are far better than the new ones in Splatoon 2. I'm mad because if you're an old player of Splatoon 1, you are constantly getting disappointed. I remember in Splatoon 1, new maps were actually new. New weapons were actually new. Updates were events to be celebrated. I loved playing new maps when they came out. I loved seeing everyone in Turf War trying out the new weapon together. It was so much fun, and there was a fun-loving sense of community there. Everyone was in the same boat together. Splatoon 1, and all its maps and weapons, were new to everyone. The only people that care about these old maps and weapons coming to Splatoon 2 are the new players who never played Splatoon 1, old players with bad memories, players who sold...

I have been playing Monster Hunter: World by Capcom for three weeks now, and I enjoy it. The biggest change that I like is that once you get onto a map, there are no loading-times between areas. This is not an open-world game, although you could be forgiven for assuming so, with the word World in the title. So what did Capcom intend with the word World in the title if they weren't trying to make the game open-world? Perhaps they were declaring that this game was going to appeal to the entire world, and not just Japan. The second biggest addition that I like are the Scoutflies, which are very helpful, from finding gatherable materials, to tracking monsters. No longer do you need to use Paintballs on monsters. I would argue that Capcom has made this game more accessible without making it easier. The changes they have made, like being able to move while drinking a potion or eating a ration, make the game better and more logical. They do make the game easier, but it's a logica...

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, is a great game, but it's not as good as it could have been. It was initially designed for the Wii U in mind, taking advantage of many features of the GamePad. This is evident by many things: the fact that it was first shown at E3 in 2014, the fact that the Sheikah Slate is an analogue to the GamePad itself, and the fact that many of the Sheikah Slate's features, in-game, are things that the GamePad could have pulled off. Taking pictures with the camera was probably done with the GamePad's gyroscope in mind. Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water, used the GamePad's gyroscope to allow players to take pictures like they were taking pictures in real life: physically moving the controller around. Having a map ready for view without having to press a button, was always a good thing on games on the Wii U. On other systems, after viewing maps, you always have to exit out with another press of a button, and that is annoying; all the w...

The title of this blog-post is logical and seems obvious, but most people don't follow its principles. I was watching Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer, and one of the points he brings up in every episode is for the human to be the pack-leader of his or her dogs. Applying that to the human world, if all you do is follow other people, you can not be a pack-leader. This applies to competitive videogames. If you are just a nerd and only copy the top players, and scrounge around for information, you will never be the best. You have to be calm and assertive. A nerd who is anxious for information all the time, and worried that he or she doesn't know the latest techniques, or is on top of the "metagame," can never beat someone who is calm and assertive. There have been many examples of calm and assertive leaders in the world of competitive videogames. If you watch the documentary "The Smash Brothers," you will know that Ken did not know all the advanced...

A few weeks ago, I was really into videos about dogs on YouTube, and I eventually found some videos on pit bulls. There is an alarming preponderance of evidence on their danger, but there is an equal and greater movement on their defense. I was watching this documentary, and in it was a lawyer who said one of the most illogical things. The narrator/documentarian told her about a pit bull attacking a baby, and one of the first things she asked was, "Was the baby crying?" Does she realize how illogical that question was? She was basically implying that it if the baby was crying, it was logical or okay for the pit bull, or any dog for that matter, to attack the baby. The hyperbolic fervor that people display about defending pit bulls is really disturbing and pathetic. It is similar to how nerds get so angry about tiny little details that are wrong in movies. Why don't they put their emotional passion toward something more meaningful and beneficial to humanity? Tha...

If you don't win, you're considered a "loser," but is that fair? Is that the right message to send to people - winning at all cost? If you rank winning as the most important thing, there are things you will rate below winning, like being nice to people. This is the wrong message to send, especially to children, who end growing up with this competitive mentality that damages their relationships as well as their perspectives on life in general. Daigo Umehara is the best fighting-game player of all-time, but he didn't always play to win. He would win so much at the arcade, that eventually he didn't try as hard, so that the arcade became a more inclusive and welcoming environment to other people. He is a true champion. He also played not just to win, but to improve, and learn the game more fully. Infiltration said something that I will paraphrase, in that the shortcut to winning is using one character exclusively, but eventually, you start to lose because y...

I hate the word 'elitist' because it has the word 'elite' in it, when the existence of the word 'elite' is just ironic. Everyone is equal. There's no person that's better than another person. Everyone has different skills and gifts. People who like to call themselves 'elitists," however, love that word. They actually believe that they're better than others. It is quite disgusting. This is what leads to genocide, taxes, and government. Let us create a new word for the new generation: equalist.

Electronic sports are fast-becoming a lucrative business, but amid the short-term glitz and glamour, it is best not to put all our eggs into this one basket. On one hand, e-sports has brought more awareness to videogames, and with more awareness comes more revenue. But it begs the question, has e-sports become popular because the gamers were there to begin with, or did it attract a new group of people that like to watch, but not play videogames? How much has e-sports increased the audience of money-paying gamers? E-sports encourages people to play and pay, but it also puts an invisible barrier upon entry. Kids or newcomers may watch professional gamers and be intimidated, and thus never play the game to begin with. Some people watch professional athletes play a sport, and then when they're outside, try to emulate them, but others don't even bother because they have low self-esteems and don't think it's possible. Are competitive communities around games more hurtf...

I had been using a makeshift-trivet with envelope-mailers, and I was sick of it. They were unbalanced and dirty. I decided to finally get trivets for myself, and these are the first trivets I have ever purchased, and I adore them. They look thin, light, and weak, but they're not. I was surprised at how heavy they were. Combined, they are 1.1 pounds, so I could tell that they were not cheap pieces of cardboard. They are made with three layers of bamboo stuck together. I'm confident that I could put a hot, boiling pot on it and the table underneath will be fine. I picked these because they didn't have holes or openings on the bottom. I always found it pointless when trivets had holes or big openings for heat to escape to. There is a lot of heat that escapes and hits the table when trivets are designed this way. They also have nice rubber "feet" on the bottom that will not scratch any surface you place them on. The picture above is the trivets themselves o...

Last week , I shared my experience with the "Nintendo Switch Zelda Breath of the Wild Starter Kit with Travel Case, Screen Protector, Joy Con Guards and Earbuds" by PDP. I liked the way it looked, and it offered good protection, but it got dirty very quickly, and its beauty was lost. It can be cleaned, somewhat, with plain water, but it will take a lot of time for its beauty to be restored. Enter the " The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Multi Pouch ": It's a more simple case in that it is just a pouch with no compartments for accessories. This is exactly what I wanted instead of a huge, bulky case. Here is the back of the box: The side of the box has colored artwork, which is a nice contrast to the grayscale-art that is featured on the case:  Here is the case itself. I honestly don't know which side is the front or back, not that it matters. Here is the gorgeous Sheikah Slate zipper-slider. Most zipper-sliders are...

Nintendo has its name on and uses its name to market its devices all the time. Nintendo Entertainment System. Super Nintendo. Nintendo 64. Nintendo Gamecube. At least in North America, they really made it a point of sticking that "Nintendo" in front of Gamecube, because they knew that "Gamecube" was not a marketable name. Nintendo DS and 3DS were known more without "Nintendo," as well as the Wii and Wii U, but they have brought it back with Nintendo Switch. Just calling it the Switch would be very ambiguous. Is it a good idea, though? As much as the word "Nintendo" garners respect and nostalgia, it garners shame and ridicule as well. Nintendo is known as the kiddy company, like Disney, or McDonald's. It is a double-edged sword, but sometimes the edge that faces them is more powerful, or cuts deeper. If you try to sell a mature-rated game like Doom on Nintendo Switch, it is not going to sell as well because the console is not associated wi...

As a Nintendo-fan, Nintendo Directs are fun for me, as well as other fans, but I don't think they serve Nintendo themselves very well. Nintendo Directs are like sermons to the choir. The choir will always be fewer in number than the general congregation. Instead of preaching to the choir only, Nintendo needs to attract a wider audience and find a more efficient way to reach them. In the best-case scenario, a Nintendo Direct will advertise to its most hardcore fans, and then it's up to those same hardcore fans to evangelize Nintendo to the masses. That is sick of them to expect us to do their advertising for them. Stop being stupid and lazy, and do your own advertising, Nintendo.

I don't see the point. Someone sneezes. You say "Bless you." What's the point? Are your words blessing the sneezer? Of course not. Are you saying that the sneezer needs to be blessed because he or she is sneezing, implying that he or she is in critical health? That is absurd as well. The main problem of saying "Bless you" comes when someone is constantly sneezing without end. The sneezer is usually allergic to something. Do you stick to your dogmatic practice of saying "Bless you" after every sneeze? If it's a public forum, the act of saying "Bless you" further adds to the unwanted noise-level of the environment. This brings me to my next point. Saying "Bless you" often feels like a nice way of saying "Shut the fuck up" to the sneezer. Every time someone sneezes, the blesser gets louder and angrier with each "Bless you." Have you ever noticed that? Let us stop this pointless practice of saying ...

The raw vegan diet emerged as a overreaction to the Standard American Diet of processed omnivorism, as well as animal-cruelty videos. It is a diet that only works in theory, but fails in actual science and practice. Now I'm not an expert on the science of food, but the paleo-diet has a far sounder basis in science, based on my own research. Teal Swan says that the raw vegan diet is the best for spirituality and raising one's frequency. She may be right. The raw vegan diet may be the best for the spirit, but I believe that the paleo-diet is the best diet for the body and brain. I have tried to eat raw vegan or even cooked vegan foods, but I have so much trouble, discomfort, and pain trying to digest it. It's ironic, isn't it? The common misconception out there is that omnivorism is harder to digest. "Raw plants have enzymes that help you digest food," the raw vegan evangelists always say. They also fail to say or know that they have inhibitors and defense...

As gamers and purchasers of videogames, both old and new, we are constantly focusing on the lack of something or somethings, and that cannot be very happiness-inducing. If you are a collector of old games, you may look at your library and want to have a complete set of a particular system, or a series of games. It is exhausting, and makes you feel inadequate, until you finally accomplish your goal. You can focus on lack as a purchaser of new games as well. We are constantly looking for news about new titles in development. If we hear about something we like, we get excited, and wait for that title. This is not necessarily good. This takes away from our appreciation of the games we already have. That excitement, anticipation, and hope we feel for upcoming games is kind of like a "high." That feeling we get is more addictive than the feeling we get from actually playing the games we already have. This is very dangerous. We must stop looking toward the future so much, and ...