Orius

Navy-blue. It's cool and dark, manly and yet retains a sense of gentleman.

I don't really read much. Of the books I read, my favorite was Mass Effect: Revelation, and I didn't even like it that much.

I mostly read comic books in the past. My favorites were the Spider-Man books, one of the few comics I had actually read.

I finally bought my first video camera almost a year ago. I used to aspire to be a filmmaker, but that ship has sailed.

Anyway, I bought it for the sake of doing my vlogs on YouTube, as well as some movie reviews. I had to buy an external microphone for that, because the internal one sucks. It cost me a lot, but the vlogs ended up in discontinuation after only a few videos... yeah.

I might try and film something again in the future, if I ever feel motivated to be a filmmaker ever again, which I highly doubt. But oh well.

I don't really tend to follow mainstream American serial, like TWD or GoT. The ones I did watch were usually superhero shows like "Heroes" and "Agents of Shield". I don't really have a favorite, as neither of those are top-notch quality.

If I have to name a favorite though, it wouldn't be an English or even a Japanese drama, it would be a local Singapore serial drama broadcast in Chinese a long time ago called "The Unbeatables". It was a really fun gambling show mixed with action, gunfights, and a 'Romeo and Juliet' kind of romance. I think my favorite aspect of that show was how it dealt with the idea of fate and destiny. These two lovers didn't end up lovey-dovey like Romeo and Juliet; they argued and fought a lot due to their conflicting families, even until the second season.

And of course, the best part of the series was watching the protagonist, who was pretty much a pseudo 'God of Gambler' like Chow Yun-Fat. He was pretty badass. And besides him, the gambling scenes were so exaggerated in action-packed formats, but it was really fun to watch them. Since I have little knowledge in gambling, it was always thrilling for me to figure out who would win.

I would watch motivational videos... Though to be frank, they don't really help much.

Soundtracks that I feel emotionally connected to helps me feel better in depressing times, but that's all they ever did, not really 'motivating' me to do anything.

I guess whenever I actually felt motivated to do something, it's a 'spur-of-the-moment' kind of thing, and I would just spontaneously do whatever it is I wanted to be motivated at two months ago, whenever I feel like it.

Yeah, I used to as well. Used to have these little forums running on free hosts that I didn't have to pay for (I think one of them was a Spider-Man forum). They didn't really work out, despite gaining what used to be a small community. Paying for hosts can take quite a sum out of my pocket, and my bank account's always empty, so that's no help to me.

It can be pretty fun though, being an admin of your own forum, making your friends moderators, and posting the content that you like.

It's summer all year round in Singapore, so I'm pretty much doing the same thing I'm doing everyday - lazing around.

If you are referring to the American period from May to July (not sure how it works), then I guess I'd be checking out the latest Summer blockbusters.

It does seem kinda interesting, but:

1. I'm currently using Firefox
   
2. I don't really listen to music much, and
   
3. YouTube has its own playlist system, albeit having the need to create another tab.
   
4. I have the need to visit the YouTube page several times anyway just to check on my list of subscribed channels, so not opening a tab of YouTube daily won't really work out for me anyway. And last of all,
   
5. YouTube's front page has a list of recommended videos that help me find interesting videos everyday, so that's another bonus to opening the page.
   

Ohh yes, it would make our lives so much easier. But no, I don't have one. lol My parents stick to the traditional sink. Guess it's just too expensive for them to afford another appliance.

Many of them just like to keep the series dragging on as long as it takes, not that different from the American comic book industry. Some of them are just so attached to their stories that they keep on wanting to share their world with the readers, which is cool and all, but then you get something like D.Gray-man, which was unfortunately unfinished.

What languages can you speak and understand And also what is your proficiency?

American English (basic)

English is our first language around here (Singapore), though I wouldn't necessarily call it a 'native' language. Malay's probably this country's native language... not that I speak it myself.

Anyway, Singaporeans have this terrible native form of English called "Singlish". It sounds like Hokkien mixed with broken English. Yeah, it's pretty bad, and though I avoid it whenever I can, speaking with the locals can sometimes influence you. I know a lot of nationalist patriots around here just love to advocate Singlish like it's something to be proud of... heh. Singaporeans.

Anyway, many of them were annoyed by my American English, because Singaporeans mostly used the British English, a result of the British colonization in the past before the country became an independent nation. They would call me pretentious and stuff whenever I used American slangs - a result of watching too many American movies and cartoons. I didn't really care, and I went on speaking better English than they ever did. Bunch of nationalist elitists.

Hokkien (native)

This is the dialect of Chinese that my parents use around the house, and the only other form of Chinese that I know how to use. There are a lot of notorious profanities associated with the language.

Mandarin (native)

And of course, there's Mandarin, which I haven't used for a very long time. I can't even write the Chinese characters anymore, having not used them for such a long time. But it hardly matters, as I'd often stick to English-use online anyway.

Any new languages you would like to learn?

Not really. I tried my hand on Japanese because I wanted to read visual novels. It didn't stick. It's a tough language to learn, especially when you get older.

Have you spoken any basic phrases recently of another language (e.g. traveling)?

Nope. I don't travel much, if I travel at all. The further place I got away from this god-forsaken island was Sentosa, and that's just off the coast. My parents did bring me to some Asian countries back when I was a baby though, but I was too young to remember anything.

I tried switching from Coke to Pepsi a while ago. Didn't work out. Pepsi just didn't have the same kind of sweet taste Coke has for myself. I don't know how to describe it specifically, but Coke just leaves me yearning for more.

And I did get more. I drink almost a cup of it everyday now... Yeah, I've got a problem.

Never really liked the other variations of Coke though, like vanilla, zero... bacon.

Yes, bacon.

lol I'm still waiting for Meikyuu's translation.

I didn't realize they still did that sort of thing in Japan. I really thought it was just an outdated thing they just did in anime.

Japan's still stuck in their outdated traditions nowadays, for all the good it has done them.

I wouldn't mind bowing though. Being an Asian myself, I've had to go through even more awkward traditions myself around here. Freaking annoying, these traditions.

Not really a game per se, but I've started playing "Kana ~ Okaeri" recently, the visual novel remake to "Kana ~ Little Sister". It's got a pretty emotional story so far, dealing with certain heavy subjects that are expected from a story like this.

But a game I really enjoyed because of it's freedom was Kingdom of hearts , you could choose to go to different worlds and also optional side missions in each world would offer a large number of things from characters to assist you (summons basically) to hard to find Items and also special weapons or items to synthesize special weapons and extra bits of story that you wouldn't know of unless you did the side missions.

I was beginning to enjoy this element of RPGs recently, the freedom of being able to interact with a world and everything. One thing that bothered me though is when these games don't use these elements creatively. For example, if you don't interact with certain characters, the only consequence is that you won't be as powerful, or your 'stats' won't be as great, etc. I prefer it when it's something like "Chrono Trigger", where the consequences are associated with the kind of fate/ending your character will receive by the end. It's so much more fun than just, "Oh, I'll have a harder time killing monsters because I missed that buff."

I don't really read a lot of books, even when they have pictures in it.

That said, my favorite manga are some of the darker psychological stories, like Oyasumi Punpun. That was fun, as it talked a lot about controversial themes that made me question my perspectives and stuff. I like it when stories do that, giving the audience an opportunity for discussion.

I'm not sure why, but I'm drawn to depressing stories like Punpun. There's just a certain addiction that comes with reading about a screwed up life spiraling into despair. It makes you want to see how much more torment would the protagonist go through. And it's great that Punpun didn't do it in an extremely unrealistic manner like many so-called 'dark manga' stories, and its themes keep to rather realistic subjects such as heartbreaks, bullying, religious bigots, and even the meaning of continuing living in a meaningless world where 'God' is a figure of your imagination. Yeah, it's that kind of story.

Another manga that shared this depressing tone of nihilism was another of my favorite, "Bokurano". Not only was it fun to deconstruct some of the unaddressed aspects in sci-fi/action movies (like the collateral damage in the recent "Man of Steel"), it has really well-written characters as well, which is a bonus when you are reading about a story that deals with the vulnerability of a child living in an adult world.

A more cruel story, written by the same author, was called "Shadow Star Narutaru". lol I read that merely for the guilty pleasure of seeing characters suffering. It's not terrible by any means, but it's so dark that it might induce apathy among some readers.

lol "Casual".

Yeah, I picked "casual" and "adventure". I'm not really a 'hardcore' gamer per se. I like my games to have good stories (a trait that many gamers frowned upon), and I mostly prefer CYOA games with dialogue choices and a branching storyline. Many visual novels have that, but they just don't have the same kind of interactivity games like "Mass Effect" do, as it immerse you in the decision-making. Many RPGs have this element as well, but it's not an aspect exclusive to the RPG genre, which is why I didn't choose that.

RPGs can be fun, but sometimes, the gameplay kinda bogs down the story for me, resulting in me quitting before I could get through the story because I had to do multiple backtracking and mundane stuff like that. This is why I enjoyed Telltale's games a lot, as they were created with specifically the story in mind. Even a game with good story like Silent Hill 2 wasn't really the most amazing story ever, because its focus was on the survival horror elements. Not that it's bad, of course, just that it's not my thing.

It's a shame there aren't more games like the Mass Effect trilogy out there. I know a lot of old RPGs have massive branching storyline, but their pixelated character sprites kinda bothered me. lol

I'm all too familiar with these "licensed games" (as they are referred to by the gaming community at large). lol They are so bad. Some of them can be fun when you are familiar with the franchise as a fan, but the enjoyment only goes as far as your devotion to the fandom.

One thing to note is that there's a misconception about some of these licensed games. Persona, IIRC, is not an anime-based game. Persona 4 is a game-based anime. It's the other way round. The same thing with Pokemon. It's probably why they are more well-made, because they weren't created with the intention of cashing in on an established franchise/license.

I did play a couple of decent anime-based ones like Digimon Adventure PSP, though that particular title felt like a cheap advertisement for the anime with lackluster and uninspired dialogues that didn't connect with me on an emotional level the way the anime did. The side-quests are really interesting though, as they further developed the characters through slice-of-life missions that takes you deeper into the character backstories.

And then you have Alien: Isolation, which I'll admit, has excellent gameplay value, but as a companion to one of the best sci-fi movies of all time, it really pales in comparison. I know I shouldn't compare, but I was kinda disappointed that the story wasn't even remotely amazing or entertaining like the two Alien movies. I mean, this was made for the fans of the Alien movies, right? Then why are you pandering to the video game community and focused on the gameplay instead? The story was yet another generic corporate evil storyline that ended with no resolution whatsoever as to whether if Amanda has any closure to her mother's disappearance. It just felt disappointing. It was a good step towards future Alien games, but I think it was a little overrated by the fans (IGN underrated it to a ridiculous level).

Anyway, my point is, when these games are created with the intention of cashing in on a franchise, the result is often uninspired. You can tell from start to finish that their main purpose, albeit not their sole purpose, was to slap together something decent and sell it.

Subscriptions, definitely.

I'm not a rich guy, but damn, those f2p games can sometimes be god-awful. And it gets worse when it's merely "f2p with limited features" like "Star Wars: The Old Republic", as it merely gives crappy features that make you go through a frustrating experience that ends with you paying for it anyway.

I guess it is possible for some f2p game creators to make a good game, if they are talented enough, but I just don't think it's very practical. Guild Wars 2, I'll admit, was one of the more well-made exceptions out there, so that's a plus. If only more f2p games could follow in its footsteps... whatever it is the GW2 creators did.

But yeah, my experience with these games is, a game with at least a cheap subscription usually has the better content. However, don't get me wrong - this is a double-edged method because the companies ended up being greedy and stuff and make you pay for all kinds of extra features that would have made your gaming experience fun and complete ("City of Heroes" comes to mind), so they aren't that great to begin with. I usually just stick with single-player games that you purchase with a single payment. It has always served me well.

30 degree Celsius, mostly cloudy, with a precipitation of 30%, a humidity of 70%, and a wind speed of 5km/h.

lol I like the 'like' system present in forums like this. That way, I won't spam up the place by replying to every single 'welcome' message with a repetitive 'thank you'.

New member here. What's up?

I've been watching anime for quite a few years now, though recently, I haven't really been in the mood for anime-viewing. My favorite anime as of now is Gintama, and I'm really glad that a new season has been released, such that it got me back into anime-viewing.

So, other stuff about me... I'm from Asia. I love movies. And I play a little video game here and there sometimes, recently completing "Digimon World 1".

Here's hoping I would meet some cool folks around here. Ciao.

I was not a big fan of magical girl anime. Then Madoka came along and I liked it, because it's not really a magical girl anime. lol

Having said that, I did used to like Cardcaptor Sakura as well.

Having seen the kind of fillers I had, I usually know their quality and would just skip them to get to the main story the author/mangaka was trying to tell the audience (too lazy to read the manga ). Stuff like Detective Conan and Fairy Tail hardly had interesting fillers, AFAIR, so I wouldn't regret much.

Of course, there are well-written anime series out there who make good use of fillers to give us a deeper insight to the story (FMA:B, hell yeah). That would be the kind of filler I would watch.