Piracy, and what should be done about it?

Piracy is a tough subject to talk about with people because nobody truly cares because nobody really sees the damage being done, or they actually think they're doing the right thing. When studios or whoever, go about putting grandma's and little girls on trial over the download of the latest Britney Spears song, it doesn't put them in them best light either.

The entertainment industry as a whole is going through changes. Whether it be videogames, movies, music, anything can now be found on the internet and downloaded illegally, and I totally disapprove. People work hard on their craft, and while piracy has been cited as one of the ways to put work out there (which even helped famous bands like Metallica become popular in the early days through copied tapes) there has to be a better way of discovering new media.

Here's the dilemma though. If you want the best quality, you usually have to go with the most expensive option. For movies, that's Blu-ray. For music, that's CD's (or vinyl, DVD audio or Super Audio CD for the audiophile among us). For videogames, well, it really depends, but you get what I mean. If you want the best quality, it usually comes from a physical piece of media mastered by the studio and if you want it cheap and fast, you usually to download it off iTunes or Amazon, maybe it stream it from Netflix, or worse, download a shaky-cam version of your favorite movie.

Lossless codecs are starting to become more and more mainstream but iTunes does not provide them for music, and HD codecs such as VC-1 are incredibly effective at keeping detail intact on Blu-rays but once again, Netflix streams everything in lesser quality, even when it's in HD. I get why they do this, after all, bandwidth is still restricted and limited, despite how far we've come. Besides quality, the lack of portability or allowing people to borrow media. For example, buy a Blu-ray and lend it to a friend and it'll play in his Blu-ray player. Try and give him a legally downloaded iTunes file, and good luck trying to watch it.

Apple, in particular, has this idea of a walled-garden. You can have almost anything you want within that garden, but God forbid you try and take it somewhere else, or there's something beyond the wall that you may want.

iTunes is a beautiful program, that syncs media and apps between multiple computers and other Apple branded devices...but what if you want to watch it on your TV? Buy an AppleTV and it'll sync up perfectly...but the AppleTV is a lowly product. I have a 360, a PS3, hell even my Wii can handle media better than the AppleTV, but I can't sync my iTunes library with them. I also have a couple of bits of media on my Xbox through Zune, and even more media on my PS3 that can't sync or cross borders. Every system is locked down, leaving a library of stuff dedicated to each machine. Why can't I have all my media just play on anything I want? Whether it be a computer, a DVD player, or my toaster, let me pick where I want to experience it.

Netflix is really the only place where I can watch media almost anywhere, but again, I'm limited to the material they have making ownership impossible. If more companies were to follow Netflix's example, I think we can curb piracy, and not treat the customer like second rate citizens. Hopefully, we'll have this all sorted out before physical media bites the dust eventually.

Intellectual romance is an oxymoron...

Here from behind my sight, my thoughts my mind
Show from the light
The time is right
And from the depth within show the balance
Of outer and inner harmony
Mind and heart, soul and spirit undivided
Here's where teh true strength and beauty lies
We'll see this before us with our own eyes
We'll see, with our own eyes... LOVE

-Lyrics from Living in the Shell

Living in the Shell is one of my favorite songs of all time, the stength of Steve Conte's voice pulled back into a rather sweet song about imagination, discovering one's self through dreams and passing thoughts, and being excited and unclear of what this all means (at least, that's my interpretation of the song, feel free to disagree.)

The chorus changes the viewpoint of the singer a couple of times, almost as if he is talking to his past self, and something has caused him to feel called and given him a purpose.

Towards the end of the song, Shanti Synder recites that poem (note, it's not sung, it's spoken, which amplifies it's effect).

The male has been called away from his "shell" to this woman because he has fallen for this woman and is unsure of his feelings towards her.. He is preparing to venture out of his "shell" to find out.

FULL DISCLOSURE: Living in the Shell is off the Ghost in the Shell soundtrack, hence the "shell" so the song also probably deals with cybernetics, but I don't believe this is a major point in the song, but again this is just my personal interpretation of the song, feel free to disagree.

Ok, so what does this have to do with the title of this post? Some of you might think:

"Didn't you just totally disprove that romance can't be viewed from an intellectual stand-point? You just did it with a song off an anime soundtrak that may or may-have nothing to do with romance."

Think again, and watch as I destory everything I just said from an overanalytical stand point!

The man in this song apparently has never talked back to this calling, he doesn't know who this is. You remember when you were young, and someone you didn't know called for you? Did you ever go to that person?

No, because as a child you shouldn't approach strangers. Let's strip the spirituality out of the song for a minute. In fact, let's put these two characters in the song in an environment that might make sense.

You're a guy, with an appreciation for the arts (rare thing, I know) and instead of going out with the guys to drink beers, butt heads over simple opinions, stating their opinions as fact, and of course, measuring things. You know, stereotypical guy things. Our male character in our little scenario is similar to his friends but just didn't feel like doing that, and went to a poetry night for some out of character reason.

Upon the stage he is continually unimpressed by the so-called nonsensical words that pass for poetry nowadays.

Suddenly, a beautiful woman, steps into the spotlight. She pulls out the paper with her delicate hands, slightly trembling at all the people watching her every move, her stance on stage is not as confident as the other so-called poets, but her small voice, carrying the most magnificent words with meaning behind them, and it seems like as she goes on, her confidence improves because it seems that she has been talking to him the whole time, and he's seemingly made eye contact with her. His heart is outracing the fastest drag car in the world, and all he can for her is stare.

Pray tell, what did he fall in love with? Her beauty? Her shyness at the beginning? Her confidence at the end? The eye contact that was possibly was made? The words she spoke? The whole package?

I know most of you are saying the whole thing, but I'll kill that one right now, while destroying the rest of those details.

What just happened was a moment in time, not a bad moment, mind you, but a moment never to be repeated again. Nothing in life is ever exactly the same. Hell, that goes for everything, you can watch a movie twice and have a completely different experience and opinion of it each time (I'm looking at you Stanley Kubrick), your daily routine is always slightly different, even if it feels like the same mundane thing, and even if you recorded that moment on camera and showed it to our male character, even his experience would be different. Moments are lost like tears in rain to paraphrase a quote from Blade Runner. The trick is to continue feeling the way you did during that moment. So what if he actually just fell in love with that moment but can never recall those feelings ever again?

So maybe he fell in love with her beauty, but now she's out of the stage light and you realize she isn't as beautiful as she was onstage. However, that's shallow of him, so let's go for the shyness. She really never opens up to him now, and is so paralyzed by this trait that conversation is almost impossible, and he's probably going to get nowhere with that, so let's try her confidence that she showed, and let's say the shyness thing was an act. Her confidence has now made him timid and he is afraid of her being overpowering. Ok, so the eye contact! Turns out she was looking above everyone and never down at the audience to keep her concentration intact (as a good performer should do) it just appeared like she looked at him.

Her words! There's truth to her words! Even if she know doesn't him, he was entranced by the words she spoke. Nothing more beautiful and honest in this world than those words to him at this moment, and he wants to dig this person's brain to see if there are more words to match his own and finally see if there's someone on this planet that understands him like he seems to understand her.

Turns out, she didn't even write it.

She was just reading it for her friend who was too shy to come up onstage. Did I just break your heart? He possibly would have been better off never talking to her.

Now what is the point of all this? There are some things that we become attached to and we can even describe why, but I don't believe that love is one of them. The couple that seemed so lovey-dovey with each other but splits up only 5 weeks in to their relationship, while the couple who have pulled knives on each other but has been together for 45 years, and will continue to be that way until death do them part. Neither makes sense to really anyone. I don't even believe the people in those relationships could ever explain it.

There's no logic, no rhyme, no reason, no single iota of thought behind love. It can drive you mad, it can drive other people to kill you, and it can drive your car off a bridge to prove a point. More than war, harmful substances, and just plain old accidents, I believe love will be the end all be all of your life. Women and men are made for each other biologically, but intellectually we're both different, both sides viewing the other as crazy. If your gay, then you have even less of a reason to love, because you aren't made for each other biologically, and even the same sex couples will see things differently over the other. So other than the continued survival of our species (yet, humanity is the only creature capable of self-loathing, think about it for a while) why would we subject ourselves to embarrassment and danger that is love?

Because as much as love can kill us, we'll simply die without it. Something we can't live without as a species, and something that could potentially kill off our species is something that is completely illogical, and throwing the words "intellectual romance" together causes a the rarest of morons to be formed, the one made out of oxygen, the illusive, oxymoron.

Love is a threat, love is a enabler. Won't live very long with it, and won't live at all without it.

And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Why art style matters in video games.

As consoles get more powerful and graphics get closer and closer to photorealism gamers need to remember that better graphics do not make a better game. A shit game that looks amazingly cool, will still play like shit, and while having a nice presentation can definitely help a game, it will never be the end all be all solution. After all, unlike movies, you don't play videogames to marvel at the visuals, you play them to have fun. Having something cool to look at doesn't hurt though.

Photorealism can help a game. I believe the Mass Effect series benefits from this, despite it's sci-fi setting, using it to ground it's cast of characters. Another game, like Zelda uses a variety of art styles between games to keep it fresh and unique within each game.

Art style can make a game way more appealing to people who might have never played that genre of games, but I feel that developers are still playing it too safe. Survival horror for example hasn't strayed far from it's "realistic" roots, and many of the games in the genre just cover the place in darkness. While this is definitely an effective way of getting a mood across but I would love to see a survival horror game, or just a horror game in general that is just covered in bright colors.

I would love to go on and name a bunch of examples, but in truth, I can only trust that developers put enough care into the art style of the game, and not depend on the photorealism or some of the gunmetal grey's and dirty brown colors and experiment with making the game look unique. Red Steel looks like a typical shooter, while Red Steel 2 looks a hell of a lot better with it's new style, and it took the shooter to new heights and highlighted it's new gameplay mechanics. If it just used the same style, I think the game would have honestly failed.

Developers, please experiment, and have fun. After all, if you have fun developing the game, chances are, we'll have fun playing it. Of course, you probably didn't need me to tell you that.

Undefined Gamer will be back next week.

Just so you know, we at Undefined Gamer were on vacation, but we'll be getting back into the swing of things next week. In the meantime, enjoy this small blog entry.

My "Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins Of The Moon" Review

The following is reprinted from my original review from GameFAQs. You may read the original here.


"There's no other experience like this out there, and one that is unlikely to be repeated."

Metal Gear couldn't do it, Final Fantasy couldn't do it, Heavy Rain couldn't do it...

It might seem weird that I mentioned those other games but I'll get to those in a second. Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins Of The Moon is a hard game to categorize. It's not survival horror, despite the long time spent among ghosts, monsters and other creatures, as well as haunting locations. It's not a RPG, despite the leveling up involved, and the RPG elements in the game. It's not an action game, the game will often go for a whole half-hour before anything pops out to attack you, and even then it's easy to just avoid combat most of the time. I guess it could be considered an adventure game, as that is what it most closely resembles, but I don't even consider it that either. It really takes elements from a lot of genres to create an experience that is so well-crafted that is really rare in gaming. In an art-form seemingly bursting at the seams with space soldiers, whimsical cartoon characters, overly-complex and convoluted stories designed to insure that they can make sequel after sequel, and the games simply there to relax and party, it is very nice to see a simple story with well-rounded characters kept together for the most part engaging gameplay. Tri-Cresendo took a risk on the Wii and it pays off for the few who will play this game. It really isn't a game for everyone, but it saddens me that this game isn't for everyone, simply because it's different from other games out there. With such simple story, but with so much care put into it this game will be a cult classic for the Wii, and I really hope this game does get more playtime. However, if a sequel never comes out for this game, I would be happy, in fact, ecstatic, because it wraps up nicely and doesn't need to continue, similar to the way I felt about BioShock. I was happy the game did well, but honestly, I felt the game didn't need a sequel. Anyways, I'm rambling a bit, but that's because this game really touched me in a way that no other game could quite get.

Back to the games I mentioned at the top of this review, I mentioned them because many times, you could tell that those games really went out of their way to get an emotional reaction out of you. The one emotion all those games have tried at some point is sadness, and to try and make the player cry. While I did feel emotion during those games, and genuinely thought they were good, they never made me cry, something which is extremely rare for me. I'm not trying to say I'm some macho-guy, but there's only a handful of movies that have ever moved me to tears, and no video game has ever done that...

...until I played Fragile. Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins Of The Moon moved me to tears.

Graphics 8.5/10

There is some really strong tech here on display. Now, Wii is not a powerhouse of a console, when it comes to graphics, but this game makes the best of it. The character designs are not really realistic, which help the graphics out. The textures are very sharp in most environments, and the lighting effects are actually some of the best on the console. Characters are detailed and for the most part the game looks beautiful. The ghosts deserve special mention, because not only are they detailed but are actually somewhat translucent giving them this eerie look to them that really adds to the graphics. This game is one of the best looking games on the console, and while it's not perfect, this game shows that with some attention payed to the hardware you can get your game to look great on a non-HD console.

I have to touch base on the lighting again. See, in this game you have a flashlight and wander around in dark environments (mostly). Obviously since one of the central gameplay mechanics revolves around light, they payed close attention to this. The light controls and behaves very realistically in this game. It's one of the best games I've ever seen to make such good use of light, and while it's not the best (Silent Hill: Shattered Memories on the Wii alone, takes that title away, not including anything on the HD consoles) the effort was put forward and it shows.

However, there are still flaws. Occasionally, you'll come across a blurry texture, and some of the finer details don't come out as clearly as some other Wii games. Also, when you're at the hotel (which is the biggest environment in the game) the framerate will slowdown noticeably, and some times when it gets a little too busy, it will slow down. Even with these flaws, the rest of the game is so strong graphically that anything you find to be off is quickly forgotten as you look towards the dawn slowly rising beyond the horizon or walking down a corridor in an abandoned underground mall.

Sound 10/10

If there's something they payed more attention to than the graphics, it's definitely the sound of the game. Easily the strongest quality of the game, it holds it's head up high among games like Resident Evil 4, or anything from Silent Hill. Now, it's actually really hard to compare this game sound-wise to any other game that really does sound well, such as Modern Warfare 2 (which is one of best sounding games out there), because unlike a game like that, this game is really quiet. Hell, I even have reservations about comparing it to Resident Evil 4 or the Silent Hill series because even those games are loud compared to this one. This game uses music very minimally, but when it does, every theme is memorable and enjoyable (which, thank God, I got the soundtrack for this) and it helps the mood. Most of the time all you hear is the lonely footsteps of you walking along these abandoned places where people used to roam. The sound truly makes you feel isolated and alone, and when any enemy comes by, they sound threatening. The enemies don't exactly roar or snare at you, some cry, some laugh, and some really don't make noise at all. It's truly unsettling and will get to you.

Going back to the music, I want to make a special mention about the opening (Hikari) and closing (Tsuki No Nukumori) songs as being two of the most fitting songs for a videogame ever.

Anyways, the game includes a brand new English dub as well as the original Japanese voices. There is a lot of voice acting in this game, with very talented voice actors to give off great performances. To be quite honest, you really should listen to it in Japanese. The English dub isn't bad, and it's actually one of the higher quality dubs out there for a game, but trust me on this one, the Japanese voice actors really give stand-out performances that overshadow the quality English dub by a long shot. I'm just happy that they included the option, and thankfully there are subtitles. Unfortunately, the subtitles are dubtitles (meaning they just took the dub's script and placed them as the subtitles, which is not as accurate as a direct translation) however, the script is extremely faithful and close enough to the original that it really won't bother you. If you know Japanese, you'll notice that there is a more accurate way of translating the dialogue, but if you know Japanese, you'll probably just turn the subtitles off. However, the script has only a couple of extremely minor differences so it won't really make a huge difference and you'll get the story.

Story 9/10

Seto is a 15 year old boy, and seemingly the last human being in the world. After living with an old man for a long time, that old man died leaving Seto completely alone. The old man leaves behind a note telling Seto to go to a red tower to find other survivors. The world is barren and empty, lacking any sort of life. Plant-life has taken over the cement jungles of Tokyo, and memories of people are left behind in artifacts of the world.

In his journey to find other people, he comes across a silver-haired girl. The first sign of life he's seen ever since leaving on this journey has run off. He is on a quest to find her, and hopefully share his thoughts, his feelings, and live out the rest of his days searching for a meaning to all this, with her.

There's more to this game, but the less you know the better. The story is extremely well-crafted and while the pacing of the game is very slow, it matches the tone of the story. Most of the game unfolds in gameplay, and while there are cutscenes, you never feel overwhelmed by them and feel like you add to the story instead of being dragged along by the nose, despite the linear nature of the game.

Gameplay 7/10

Here's where the game has the most flaws. The combat is a bit wonky and a little slow. The game also could have been improved with a lock on system but it actually doesn't make combat all that bad. It's not the best combat system in a game but it never gets so frustrating that you'll stop playing. However, the game does allow you to switch between projectile gameplay and close-quarters combat with some pretty easy finesse. The inventory system is a bit of a mess, but not so unmanageable that a little planning ahead can't solve.

However, this game excels at exploring environments. The flashlight controls feel 1:1 (without Wii MotionPlus) and the shortcuts to menus mapped to the D-Pad are natural. Trust me, it's pretty awesome, and you will wander for hours enjoying every minute of it.

The game will get you to love the little moments through it's gameplay and will truly deliver an experience like no other. However, the flaws are there, but you'll be able to get through the game without too much complaint. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention them though.

Final Thoughts

Fragile is a game like no other. It's like no other game out there in this industry. I've never played anything like it and I don't see anything like it coming out anytime soon. Tri-Crescendo has breathed life into this game world like no other game out there. The story is extremely well captured and it's one that doesn't have the same effect if it were to be adapted into another medium. This game stands high in showing why videogames qualify as an artform.

I love this game, and I really want to overlook the flaws of the game but despite that, there are still flaws that need to be noted. Trust me, this is a game worth playing, and if you let it, you will be sucked into this game like no other. It's a hidden gem on the Wii, hell, it's a hidden gem in gaming, period. I really hope this review gets you to buy this game, or at the very least play it. Take a Saturday night off, stay in, turn off the lights and let this game work it's magic.

8/10
Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/28/10
Game Release: Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon (US, 03/16/10)

-Author's note, stay tuned to Undefined Gamer where I'll go into more detail into why I love this game. For those of you who remember our Heavy Rain review, know how much that can be.

This question comes up a bit.

Do I hate the new iPhone?

The short answer is no, but there's more to it than that. Apple and I definitely have a love/hate relationship. I love my new MacBook Pro, it does things I couldn't even imagine how hard it would be to even begin to do on my old PC, however, at least my PC could do everything and my Macbook Pro doesn't. While it's a huge pain in the ass sometimes on the PC, at least it'll do what I want eventually, but if there's no way to do it on Mac, you have to figure out on hell of a workaround. I do enjoy the fact that on my Mac, I can put Windows 7 on here, if I feel the need, and believe me, I have felt the need, I just can't afford it right now.

Now, before my MacBook Pro, I had gotten acquainted with Apple through the iPod, and I had the iPod Mini, and that thing still works to this day. Sure, I stopped carrying it around after 15 months and then just lived off my laptop for media, but it was a decent experience.

Then the iPhone came out, and I was 100% Super...not impressed. Don't get me wrong, I thought it was cool and all, but I knew better than to buy first gen stuff, unless it's Nintendo. Although the promise of carrying around my media in my pocket in one device instead of separate devices was something that always appealed to me, but in most other phones it was thrown in at the last minute. Apple made a very clean interface that is still in my mind, completely unmatched by any competitor (but they're getting close now). However, I knew that it was too expensive, it was missing features other phones had for years, and it was small in non-expandeable storage. So I waited, and ignored the phone. Then the iPhone 3G and it addressed most of the issues I had with the phone, but I had no intention of getting one.

Then I got one. To be fair, it was a Christmas present so I didn't buy it. I explored the features of the phone and I was throughly impressed, and the App Store really helped shape the experience that is now iconic in people's mind. I really love the phone. After all, I still have it. The 3GS came out and basically was just a faster version of the phone I had, but I wasn't going to upgrade...you know, contracts and stuff, so I decided to upgrade what I thought would be the 4G.

Oh boy...where to begin. Let me start off by saying the phone is by no means bad, it's just incredibly, infuriatingly, disappointing. There are things that Apple has, for lack of better words, truly fucked up on. First and foremost, the antenna that runs around the phone that stops working as soon as you touch the phone, is almost unacceptable. Industrial design-wise, this is a huge snafu. The consumer should be able to use, hell, hold the product without any degradation to the experience the product provides.

Then, there's no 4G connectivity. I know what some of you are saying right now, "Jose, AT&T currently has no 4G network!"
Thanks, I'm totally aware of that. They will have one by next year, and I would like my phone to be future proof. They did it with the 3GS, after all, AT&T's HSPA+ network wasn't up by the time that phone came out, but that phone fully supported it, so why not this one?

However, my biggest gripe may be the lack of a 64 GB option. I have a lot of media on my Macbook Pro, so much media, that in only 7 months, I've used up 420 GB's of my 500 GB hard drive. Come on, would a 64 GB version be so hard to do? The problem I've always had, is that I love variety in my music, and with somewhat restrictive space (my current 8 GB iPhone) it's hard to get that. Also, I'm a bit of an audiophile and I get everything I can in the best possible quality available to me, which means I usually encode directly from a CD in a lossless compression format. The sad part is, even CD's are compressed, but much less than your typical MP3 download. I find most MP3's unlistenable. I don't get how people can even bother with such bad quality or demand better quality music, but that's another blog entirely. The point is, the higher the quality the song is, the more space it takes up, and the less songs I can put. I personally think that 64 GB's is perfect having enough media on the go, along with keeping the quality intact, and Apple failed to give it to me.

These may sound like small complaints, but in the future, I know these will add up. There are some other things, I didn't mention, and once again, I actually do think the phone is cool, but this is Apple here. The company that has changed the technology industry so many times, and while I don't think that Apple has to revolutionize the industry with every product, they at least could at least stop Jobs from hyping every product up to high heaven and ignoring any suggestion from the peanut gallery.

All in all, other than answering a couple of people's questions as to why I've been so vocal against the phone, I really don't have anything to gain by this. Apple's already sold like a million phones in less than a month. Hopefully, I've at least made you want more from Apple, because I guess Apple's doing something right if we're always asking for more from they're products, yet still have a smile on our faces when we open the box.

Got my grade back from storytelling class...

for my strange attractor, and as I was looking over what I wrote I felt that it captured me very well...

Well, no shit, because I was the one who wrote, but fuck you, I wanted to put it in my blog anyways. So without further ado, my Strange Attractor from class, which is only here because I got an A on it. You're welcome.

"Overly arrogant, yet suffers from inferiority complex. Bold yet knowing when to hold back. Willing to speak in the third person to spice up his strange attractor and more than willing to break the fourth wall to point it out. He is not afraid to break the rules to screw with your (yes, YOUR) perception of reality and what you (yes, YOU) expect out of a story. With a background in acting and willing to get his hands dirty behind the scenes on the technical side of things, he is willing to go further to get the shots and make sure the story is entertaining but not insulting to one’s intelligence." - Jose Argumedo (Isn't he wonderful? He is...right?)