various plugs

Square-Enix had an open beta application on their site last month. I filled it out and lucky was chosen :D

I'm hearing all good things about Final Fantasy XI. It already has over 250,000 users in Japan and before I remember people saying how much it was going to bomb because Japan wouldn't like the online approach...

You got to go to E3 last year?! That must of been great because there were so many hot titles coming out. Unfortunately E3 this year didn't feel as exciting as the previous one (even though I didn't go to either, just read about them). You are lucky you went when you did :D

Oh I almost forgot! The beta kit they will send includes a HDD which is required to play FFXI on the PS2. The HDD they will send only works for the beta, but if we send it back they will send us a new one for free.

What's your grudge against Samurai deeper Kyo? I love it^^ Ok, the manga is WAY better than the anime. What's annoying in the anime, is that the opponents change into monsters. And many details and info from the manga are lacking. But other than that, I love it as much as Fruits Basket ^-^

I just love that disgusting Kyo for "hero" and Yukimura's one of the coolest guys ever. I use the name Yukimura Sanada when I have photos developped ;) "Is this your name? This... YeukimeurAA SanadAA..?" - "Yes. Yukimurra Sannada." I'll have Kyo's eyes and "Ore-sama" printed on my jacket ;) I love Kyo! Kyo is soooo cool, and to hell with Kyoshiro! (Kenshin type: yuck.)

Well, as for Fruits Basket, needless to say, I love it! It has: cute animals! Pretty boys! A very cute and adorable girl (Tohru)! Sweet but decent music! SILLY scenes! Some fighting! But it's too short. I think they should animate all of the manga.

InuYasha - oh great. I love it. I love vulgar and brute guys like Inuyasha. He's so doggish! And Kagome ain't as defenseless as certain other anime heroines. And Shippou is sooooo cute!

^^

what ever happened to the good ol' days of paper and dice roleplayers? I've been a part of a very long term group of friends/rpg'ers and we get together once a week on Sundays. The ruse is we are there to play, but a lot of the time, we spend more time just chatting rather than playing (last week, we didn't even play ^_^).



buma feels old...

buma-

You know, I've never actually had any friends who were interested in playing pen and paper rpgs. I've played muds and thing like EQ, which more or less roll dice really fast for you to simulate the same mechanics but are more lacking in the social element.

I didn't know what a "saving throw" was until about 3 months of playing EQ when I just admitted that I had no idea what all those little numbers in the "save vs. cold/fire/posion/etc" meant.

There's an article running right now on Gamespy (http://www.gamespy.com/counterspy/july03/spy07/) about Japanese vs. American RPGs about how the Japanese focus more on telling one very detailed story and Americans stress flexibility and game mechanics. Interesting read.

I've never played any of the online interactive games but I think one of the draws of playing an RPG on a game system is that you don't really need a whole group of people to complete the game, unless you get REALLY stuck and then you want everyone's help. Other than that, you can work at it at your own pace. I know there are people who still are big into pen and paper RPGs, especially the vampire ones that come with books longer than most epics we've read in school.

I think I'm going to check out that Gamespy article. I was recently talking to a friend about
the very same thing.

Flippy