Hello there! Before I say anything else, let me just gloat and bask in the glory that is me, fulfilling my commitment to updating this blog every Friday! Yay me! ^_^
OKAY, I know I actually posted something just a few days ago, but that post wasn't a weekly-update post, so it's still within my rules! This will be my first weekly-update post this year, so again, YAY ME! ^_^
.................and on that note, let me just wallow and banish myself to the farthest reaches of the corners of humiliation in admitting that I don't actually have anything to say. Any worthy updates, anyway.
Well, I suppose there IS the news that I've finally received all the replies for university (yes, it seems I'm gonna go to college, whoop-da-doodly-doo). I want to go to the United Kingdom for university, and I basically got 2 conditional offers, 1.5 rejections, and 1.5 unconditional offers. What's that? You don't care? Right, well...........uhh.........this is awkward.
ANYWHO, let's not talk about that. Let's instead talk about fanfiction. YAY ME! ^_^ So, do you know what fanfiction is? I'm gonna blab about that anyway. 'Fanfiction', or 'fanfics' for short (or 'fics' for even shorter, no 'ics' though) are, like the name suggests, works of fiction created by dedicated fans of a certain professional work, most commonly written work. Basically, in terms of writing, a fanfic is a story made by a person who likes a written work (like a novel or a poem) so much that he/she decides to come up with her own work based on the first, professionally-published ones.
Of course, being the avid reader that I am, I too happen to have certain stories I truly enjoy, and I must say I do have a few brilliant ideas (if I do say so myself) of what these stories might've turned out like if they had taken a certain turn or something. Now, currently there are a large number of websites on the internet that host fanfics; in other words, people upload their own fanmade stories to these sites for other people to read. The biggest and most famous one of these sites is FanFiction.net, where I also have an account and have posted stories!
This is what I was trying to tell you: I am the proud author of no less than ONE fanfic on FF!
...........................
Oh wait, that's not something to be proud of. What is to be proud of is that, on this day, I finally made my first update of the year! :D I just updated my story on FF today, and woo-hoo it feels great! Yeah!
But what is even more awesome is the fact that now, I am the proud author of TWO fanfics on FF! Woo-hoo! That's a cause for celebration! I have just uploaded the first chapter of a new story on FanFiction and so from now on, I will work hard to update my stories regularly, so as to not disappoint what little readership I have. I will update weekly, on Fridays, on the same day I update all of my blogs. So from today onwards, Friday will be my update day! UPDATE DAY!
Speaking of updates, my two other blogs (monsterworlds.blogpsot.com and something else that I'm keeping a secret) have also been updated and now they contain even more materials! By that I mean they now house more of my rantings. And I suppose, since they are my blogs, no one should really care. Oh well, I do most of my non-thematic ratings here anyway. I think I'm just talking to myself again. Hmm.......
Well, that's all for tonight folks. Since there really isn't anyone who actually follows all my junk here, I guess I'm actually writing all of this just for the future me. Well then, future Irfan, hope you have a good laugh when you're reading this in year 20XX! :D Talk to you soon!
Friday, January 13, 2012
Monday, January 09, 2012
I don't know what the title should be, so "TITLE"!
OKAY! I am totally hating myself for updating this blog even though I'm supposed to update it every Friday, but...but....I just got this sudden inspiration! I felt like I just HAD to rant about this particular thing, and I figured that this blog would be the perfect place to do just that! :O So here I am, ranting in the night.
Well, it's nothing important, really. Just, you know, it's about video games. See, I really like to play video games, and most of my favorite video games come from the Land of the Rising Sun (that means Japan, in case you didn't know). However, the fact of the matter remains that the last century has undeniably been the American Century, where people of the United States of America dominate almost all forms of information and communication technology (I'm talking about the Internet).
While I have nothing against Americans personally, there IS something that's bothering me. To no end. And not just people of the USA in particular, but people of the West in general. Now, understand that Japan produces an unbelievable amount of successful video game franchises (such as the Super Mario Bros., Final Fantasy, and my personal favorite, Pokémon). Of course, if a country develops something, it goes without saying that some of its values, its traditions, its stereotypes, will go into their work, consciously or not.
Alright, that's enough background. On to the main point of my blabbering! See, what bothers me is this: when a certain video game franchise becomes famous, it almost always gets exported to other countries, for various reasons. And when that franchise proves to be successful in other countries as well, that franchise has gone global. In other words, it becomes an internationally-recognized franchise, and further development of said franchise will no doubt incorporate this fact in mind.
Designers, programmers and developers alike will then try to create new games, but with the international audience in mind. And so they will most likely tone down the cultural influences in later games, so that those games can be accepted easier by people from outside the developers' home countries, who might not be aware of the commonness or importance of those influences. This is usually the point where franchises start to change, and rather drastically after a while.
What do I mean by "change"? To put it simply, the later games the developers' make will no doubt be different to the earlier games, because the earlier games are usually developed with only the national consumers in mind. But when you have people from all over the world you need to think about, the end result of future games will be quite different indeed. And when that difference becomes so large that it's unignorable/unneglectable (intermezzo: those are not real words), what happens then?
That's right! The stinking, blasted international community, whose cultural sensibilities were being considered carefully by the game developers as to not offend them by clashing cultures, complains about the dramatic change! Really? REALLY?!
...Sorry. I just had to let that out of my chest. Ahem. Continuing on, what I'm trying to say is basically this: you know, if a video game you really like changes over time, and you find yourself in a dilemma because you despise those changes, stop and think about the game developers for a moment. Those developers are working their butts off just to make sure they could produce high-quality games that are innovative and entertaining while at the same time acceptable by most, if not all, peoples in all nations and cultures. IT IS NOT EASY DOING THAT! It is very, very difficult indeed to create something that remains fresh and true to its roots when its roots are difficult to understand by people from other cultures, you know.
*sigh* I'm sorry. Maybe those of you reading this post couldn't care less about what I had to say, but I just had to say it, okay? These consumers, these members of the global audience the game developers are trying so hard to satisfy......how spoiled and unappreciative can you get? I'm not saying you don't have the right to dislike the newer games, no; by all means, to each their own and we all have our rights to like and/or dislike something. Taste is relative, after all. However, I'm just suggesting that, if you want to blame the developers for changing the franchise you hold so dearly, don't be so hard on them. It's hard to create things - works of art, if you will - that can be accepted by the international community.
Remember: they grew up in different cultures and hold different values, and those cultural values will no doubt find their way to be incarnated in the developers' works. The developers work so hard just to minimize these incarnations in order to create a bridge of understanding between differing cultures, to make their works understandable, enjoyable and acceptable to as many people as they can be, and I for one say that, if nothing else, we should at the very least respect them for that :)
Well, it's nothing important, really. Just, you know, it's about video games. See, I really like to play video games, and most of my favorite video games come from the Land of the Rising Sun (that means Japan, in case you didn't know). However, the fact of the matter remains that the last century has undeniably been the American Century, where people of the United States of America dominate almost all forms of information and communication technology (I'm talking about the Internet).
While I have nothing against Americans personally, there IS something that's bothering me. To no end. And not just people of the USA in particular, but people of the West in general. Now, understand that Japan produces an unbelievable amount of successful video game franchises (such as the Super Mario Bros., Final Fantasy, and my personal favorite, Pokémon). Of course, if a country develops something, it goes without saying that some of its values, its traditions, its stereotypes, will go into their work, consciously or not.
Alright, that's enough background. On to the main point of my blabbering! See, what bothers me is this: when a certain video game franchise becomes famous, it almost always gets exported to other countries, for various reasons. And when that franchise proves to be successful in other countries as well, that franchise has gone global. In other words, it becomes an internationally-recognized franchise, and further development of said franchise will no doubt incorporate this fact in mind.
Designers, programmers and developers alike will then try to create new games, but with the international audience in mind. And so they will most likely tone down the cultural influences in later games, so that those games can be accepted easier by people from outside the developers' home countries, who might not be aware of the commonness or importance of those influences. This is usually the point where franchises start to change, and rather drastically after a while.
What do I mean by "change"? To put it simply, the later games the developers' make will no doubt be different to the earlier games, because the earlier games are usually developed with only the national consumers in mind. But when you have people from all over the world you need to think about, the end result of future games will be quite different indeed. And when that difference becomes so large that it's unignorable/unneglectable (intermezzo: those are not real words), what happens then?
That's right! The stinking, blasted international community, whose cultural sensibilities were being considered carefully by the game developers as to not offend them by clashing cultures, complains about the dramatic change! Really? REALLY?!
...Sorry. I just had to let that out of my chest. Ahem. Continuing on, what I'm trying to say is basically this: you know, if a video game you really like changes over time, and you find yourself in a dilemma because you despise those changes, stop and think about the game developers for a moment. Those developers are working their butts off just to make sure they could produce high-quality games that are innovative and entertaining while at the same time acceptable by most, if not all, peoples in all nations and cultures. IT IS NOT EASY DOING THAT! It is very, very difficult indeed to create something that remains fresh and true to its roots when its roots are difficult to understand by people from other cultures, you know.
*sigh* I'm sorry. Maybe those of you reading this post couldn't care less about what I had to say, but I just had to say it, okay? These consumers, these members of the global audience the game developers are trying so hard to satisfy......how spoiled and unappreciative can you get? I'm not saying you don't have the right to dislike the newer games, no; by all means, to each their own and we all have our rights to like and/or dislike something. Taste is relative, after all. However, I'm just suggesting that, if you want to blame the developers for changing the franchise you hold so dearly, don't be so hard on them. It's hard to create things - works of art, if you will - that can be accepted by the international community.
Remember: they grew up in different cultures and hold different values, and those cultural values will no doubt find their way to be incarnated in the developers' works. The developers work so hard just to minimize these incarnations in order to create a bridge of understanding between differing cultures, to make their works understandable, enjoyable and acceptable to as many people as they can be, and I for one say that, if nothing else, we should at the very least respect them for that :)
Sunday, January 08, 2012
Updates, updates!
HELLO! So.................I know I have once again abandoned this thing for a few months, but hey, I'm back now! And hopefully, with the arrival of 2012, I'll be able to commit to this thing much more! :D Now, I'm not going to say a lot with this post, just some updates and whatnots.
...You know? I'm not even sure WHAT I'm supposed to be updating about. I still haven't gotten the hang of all this "blog about whatever you want" stuff, since I think having a themed blog would be better as it actually HAS a purpose for existing. Hm. Whatever.
Oh yeah, speaking of which, I DO have a themed blog, right here on blogger. It's something I made because I really, really don't know what to talk about here. It's a blog about......well, you'll see what it's about when you try opening http://monsterworlds.blogspot.com. I think the URL itself is already a major giveaway, don't you think? :p
Anyway, to those who know, who are interested, and who actually cares, I have an account on FanFiction.net. In case you don't know what fanfiction is, well, go look it up yourself, because I'm writing this during the night and as you've probably known, I am a horribly, horribly lazy person. So why mention the account anyway? Well, because apparently I have several readers who actually like my story (yeah, singular, 'cause I haven't gotten around to writing a second story), and I would just like to tell nobody in particular that I have decided to update my story once a week starting next week. On Fridays, to be exact.
Also, on that day I'm going to be starting a new story. In other words, I'm going to be writing two fanfics at the same time. Woo-hoo! ^_^ (in case you didn't know, no, it's not anything special, because a lot of fanfic writers work with multiple stories anyway. It's just a pretty big deal for an aspiring writer such as yours truly).
OK, I guess that's it. I have no college life to speak of because, unlike most of my friends, I'm not in any universities yet. So the last thing I can say here is: I have another blog. This certain blog is important, because, like monsterworlds, it has a certain theme, but unlike it, it's a pretty serious thing. If you MUST know what it is, I suppose a riddle wouldn't hurt. Crack this simple wordplay and you'll stumble upon the Clarius:
On an adventure you embark
To find what I write in discreet
You'll find it, though only the Core
Thoughts of a young adventurer
Start from the spot the flag is marked
View the thing that can be complete
I don't think you've seen it before
And I can't rhyme "adventurer"
Well, that's it. I actually have an idea on what else to say here, but I guess I'll save it for next Friday. 'Til then, TTFN! :)
...You know? I'm not even sure WHAT I'm supposed to be updating about. I still haven't gotten the hang of all this "blog about whatever you want" stuff, since I think having a themed blog would be better as it actually HAS a purpose for existing. Hm. Whatever.
Oh yeah, speaking of which, I DO have a themed blog, right here on blogger. It's something I made because I really, really don't know what to talk about here. It's a blog about......well, you'll see what it's about when you try opening http://monsterworlds.blogspot.com. I think the URL itself is already a major giveaway, don't you think? :p
Anyway, to those who know, who are interested, and who actually cares, I have an account on FanFiction.net. In case you don't know what fanfiction is, well, go look it up yourself, because I'm writing this during the night and as you've probably known, I am a horribly, horribly lazy person. So why mention the account anyway? Well, because apparently I have several readers who actually like my story (yeah, singular, 'cause I haven't gotten around to writing a second story), and I would just like to tell nobody in particular that I have decided to update my story once a week starting next week. On Fridays, to be exact.
Also, on that day I'm going to be starting a new story. In other words, I'm going to be writing two fanfics at the same time. Woo-hoo! ^_^ (in case you didn't know, no, it's not anything special, because a lot of fanfic writers work with multiple stories anyway. It's just a pretty big deal for an aspiring writer such as yours truly).
OK, I guess that's it. I have no college life to speak of because, unlike most of my friends, I'm not in any universities yet. So the last thing I can say here is: I have another blog. This certain blog is important, because, like monsterworlds, it has a certain theme, but unlike it, it's a pretty serious thing. If you MUST know what it is, I suppose a riddle wouldn't hurt. Crack this simple wordplay and you'll stumble upon the Clarius:
On an adventure you embark
To find what I write in discreet
You'll find it, though only the Core
Thoughts of a young adventurer
Start from the spot the flag is marked
View the thing that can be complete
I don't think you've seen it before
And I can't rhyme "adventurer"
Well, that's it. I actually have an idea on what else to say here, but I guess I'll save it for next Friday. 'Til then, TTFN! :)
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