@B0bduh

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You have been tweeting about The Last of Us recently, so I wanted to ask: what are your biggest complaints about the game? And what aspects you like the most about it?

It's basically a fitting illustration Where We're At when it comes to big games as narrative experiences - its story is much less embarrassing than something like Bioshock Infinite, but there's still a huge disconnect between its pretty good stealth-action gameplay and pretty okay blockbuster-drama narrative. To critique the gameplay specifically, it seems too easy/expected to fall out of the stealth into a shooter that the game doesn't quite seem designed for - this isn't Uncharted, but the game often forces you to be playing Uncharted anyway, and that sometimes strains the experience to the point of tedium. To critique the narrative specifically, the story feels like award bait for the junior Oscars - it's written by someone who knows blockbuster narrative structure and plot beats extremely well, but there isn't that much personality to it. That's actually a really minor nitpick relative to most games, though - the script is solid, and the overall piece is far above the writing caliber of most videogames.
To critique the overall thing, I'd really like to be playing the story of Joel, wounded man learning to trust again, but generally I find myself playing the story of Scavenge-Man, Seeker of Loose Rags while the other characters wander ahead of me and have exchanges I'll never see if I want to survive the next overlong murder-rally. It's still a game attached to a story, and the seams are an awkward fit.
For all that criticism, I actually do think it's an impressive game. The story's worth caring about, the character models are incredibly expressive, and the gameplay is fundamentally sound when it's not demanding you play it as a shooter. It's about as good a Videogame As Hollywood Movie as we've gotten yet.

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Do you even have a decent political parties in the US? Were barely starting getting decent ideas in Canadian politic.

Haha no. We have "moderate conservative" and "totally batshit insane conservative." The US is basically an 80s dystopia at the moment.
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Liked by: Anime GX Adam Wednesdays Rose Bridges

Have you ever read any fanfiction? Also, what was your "super bad original fantasy trilogy" about?

Not much. And it was just dumb fantasy romance/drama/action/adventure gobbledygook. Drew really heavily from what I was reading at the time, drew really heavily from my emotional life at the time, helped me get through a good 500-1000 pages of the crap everyone needs to extract before they start learning how to write for real.
My pitch for the one I spent most of high school working on was "the heroes have saved the kingdom. Now what?" It was kind of a downer.

In Europe we often hear unsettling stories from America of parents campaigning against evolution being taught, or people wandering the streets in military uniforms. How true are stories of this nature?

Yeah, it happens. America's a pretty absurd nation in many ways.
America's also a huge nation with incredible cultural disparities. I don't run into much of that crap - I live in Massachusetts, which might as well be a separate country from classic Amurrica. That stuff only affects my life when my elections get fucked up by people who only listen to talk radio.
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Liked by: Anime GX Micchy Rose Bridges

"Most people who get mad about original Shinji can't really parse EoE." Dude, you can't deny that his character in the Rebuild is SO much more emotionally satisfying. What would you rather stay weak than grow stronger?

I'd say "there's a lot to unpack in this" or something, but there isn't - the Shinji disconnect is about as Media Identification 101 as you can get. Stuff like Mahouka and SAO are a lot more interesting to discuss in that way, since they're more reflective of full-fledged modern philosophies.

What do you think about your position in life career-wise? Are you happy that you get to write about cartoons? Did you expect it? Was it the low-hanging fruit? Will you move beyond for bigger and better things? Please reveal your insecurities for a complete stranger.

It was my... fourth choice? After "rock star," "novelist," and "game writer," all of which I dedicated somewhere between a few months and a few years to pursuing. It certainly wasn't low-hanging fruit, though - I do what I do because I love it, I work damn hard at it, and it's still a terrible choice money-wise versus other jobs I could be doing. I'm guessing I'll be doing /some/ anime writing for a long, long time to come, though I don't know exactly where my writing will take me. But the writing is the guide - it's what I'm good at, it's what I am. I'll be creating stuff for people forever, or until I'm all burned out.
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Liked by: Anime GX Daniel Huslig Rose Bridges Adam Wednesdays

Have you ever written fanfiction (even when you were 13 or whatever)?

Nope. I actually started writing the super bad original fantasy trilogy I'd work on all through high school when I was twelve or thirteen.

How do you feel about fanfiction? Do you think it's a good way to develop writing skills or is it limited in that way?

It's certainly limited, but if you're just trying to develop basic prose and storytelling abilities, then go for it. There's a tremendous amount of mechanical practice involved in becoming a decent writer, and fanfiction can definitely be used to fill in some of those hours.

Not the same person as below, but adding onto that, SAO Extra Edition is basically 80% recap. Guess you'll have fun!

Hurraaay.

Did not realize SAO Extra Edition was 100 minutes long. You have my condolences.

Yeeep. Think I'll watch that tomorrow, put a nice SAO-flavored capstone on the year in reviews.

I remember back in the day you said you were thinking about checking out Kokoro Connect. Did you end up watching it?

I watched the first two episodes and really enjoyed them, but then got bogged down in watching other stuff. I might just start it over at some point soon.

Are there any non-anime shows you plan to watch anytime soon? I'd highly recommend Black Mirror, which is a really thematically-focused series of vignettes about technology and how we dehumanize people.

I should really, really watch The Wire. There are a decent number of western dramas that I know I should get to, but The Wire is the one everybody returns to.

THoughts on kick heart?

It's fun? Not really much to it - it's a lovely vignette with great visual energy. I'm glad that other anime creators seem as fond of Yuasa as the anime-hipster internet is.

Does this mean the ANN Shinobu Time review is coming soon, or will you be too busy getting incarcerated?

In a bit. Nadeko Medusa was an easy one, because that arc is a focused masterpiece in a very obvious way. Shinobu Time's a much messier arc, and I've got a couple other reviews I need to get to as well.
Have to say, I really love this part of the job. Writing Hot Takes on individual Monogatari arcs is dream job material.
2
Liked by: Daniel Huslig zackadavis

Not sure what I said wrong, is it the way I phrased it? You really aren't saying much about F/SN in your week in reviews, ironically I think it's all vague and obtuse. Thanks for the personal attack though

I'm saying pretty much the exact same amount about FSN as I am about the other shows - I actually went back and checked last week's blurb, and there's a bit about the writing, a bit about the choreography, and a comparison to Fate/Zero. I was snarky because your initial question was pointlessly aggressive - my intent was to hopefully make you question "is this actually something I'd say to somebody's face?"

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