FF ramblings

[ria_oaks]

I happened to check Rpgamer.com a few minutes ago and noticed that FFIII:DS comes out today (I haven't really been keeping track...). I'm probably just being too over-emotional, but this day feels rather historic in the RPG world - the last Final Fantasy that wasn't released in the US is finally here. I checked, and it's been approximately 16.5 years since FFIII was released in Japan - well, better late than never, I guess. XD I mean sure, I played it years ago on a translated ROM and I won't be buying this version anytime soon (lack of a DS... and lack of time to play. woe.), but it's still cool to think that it's here. It's sort of a pity that the original version of the game will never make it here, most likely (how hard would it have been to include the orignal version in the new game, really...?), but the new version looks pretty spiffy. Hopefully I'll get to play it someday.

3 FF games in the past 2 weeks, 2 of which are new to the US (FFXII and FFIII:DS) and one of which only ever made it here in a mangled fashion (FFV Advance) - makes me miss the days when I could play all the time... I haven't really been into gaming as much the last few years, largely because of a. lack of time during school, b. other interests take up my free time, and c. i'm lazy., but I still get excited hearing about games and still want to play when I get the chance. I'm way behind on all the games I'm playing, but I still plan to ask for either FFXII or Disgaea 2 for Christmas (leaning towards the latter - FFXII will be easy enough to find for years to come, and it'll get cheap fairly quickly, whereas Disgaea 2 will start disappearing soon...). I am sorely tempted by FFXII, though - it's been getting fantastic reviews, and hell, it's FFXII! We've been waiting for this game for years, and it's finally here... and I really can't justify the time or money to get it. Part of me, too, is still a bit uncertain about it - but most of the reviews have said that the game is nothing like (and much better than) anything we've seen of it to this point, including the demo. I plan to give it a chance eventually, but can't do it yet.

And... I'm procrastinating. Back to my Farscape paper... it's due tomorrow at 9, so I need to get moving. Up to 5 pages, need about 12 - and I'm still blathering on about the context, haven't even gotten to analysing the series itself! Ehehehe. baaack to work.

Comments

[bk635.livejournal.com]

A lot of people (on the Internet at least) seem to equate racial slur with racist personality. At least that's what I noticed browsing various forums. If I called a black man a nigger, does that automatically label me a racist? Those are just words. I'm not a racist; I don't believe one race is superior to another, so my words are hollow - they're wrong, yes, but there's no meaning behind them. It's like, how many times have you been upset at your parents and yelled out "I hate you!"? We've all done it, in anger, but did we really mean it? No.

Honestly, that's just what I hope it was, but I don't know the guy, and regardless of how much truth was behind those words, the public probably won't sway to his favor anymore. I wish someone we didn't like did it..Like um, Tom Cruise. He's fun to hate. :D

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Maybe, but I think the thing with words like that is that they do have meaning - they've been used for so long to insult and oppress people that they've become strongly imbued with meaning. I'm not sure that it's the same as saying things like "I hate you" or "I want to kill my prof" or whatever, simply because that word is so powerful. People don't say that word as something hollow and meaningless, or at least when they do people are understandably offended. It's like the word 'fag' - I read an article on that last year, about how it's used by teenage boys in a way that they don't connect with homosexuality at all, but the history of the word and the way they're using it (basically to call each other weak/unmanly) still has obvious connotations of homophobia (though interestingly, they said in interview excerpts that they would never call a gay person a fag because they know that that's wrong).

Again, I honestly think it comes down a lot to simple history. It's only been fifty years since the Civil Rights Movement, and in spite of the many strides made there is still a lot of racism today. Maybe in a hundred years it won't matter as much, and race/racism simply won't be an issue, but right now we're still working towards equality.

Haha, imagine if Tom Cruise said something like that, yeah... now that would actually be kinda funny. XD

[bk635.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this is pretty much the argument I see on the Internet regarding the Richards matter. One faction argues that the words are just words without any meaning behind them, and other faction argues the opposite. Both complete with insults and spelling errors, because it wouldn't be an Internet argument without them. I'd rather not start that up here though. ;p

I think it would be POSITIVE attention for Tom. That's fucked up. But it would be funny nonetheless. Fucking psycho.