Dan Kim

I think it's because anime has the cutest girls, biggest explosions, and craziest shows. Same as everyone else who likes anime.

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The whole "role models" thing is (almost) bullshit. There's no reason to think that because a fictional person did or didn't do a thing that this demonstrates that a real-life person can or can't do a thing. There's just no connection. Of course, as a practical matter, we might be hard-wired so that seeing certain images make us think "ah ha, this is my/my group's place in the social hierarchy" (up to some limit constrained by biology, of course). If that's the case, maybe we can use that tendency for our own benefit.

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Anyway. I think it's pretty sad that people focus on race/gender/class with it comes to this sort of thing ... but I've written about that at length before, though, so I won't go over that again.

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Gabe is right -- it's a service problem. You sell convenience, reliability, trust, and various experience enhancers, (no viruses, managed library, access to Steam features, community access, hats, trading cards, easy access to and management of mods, etc.) -- not the game data.

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However, even if your service outclasses all other alternatives by every single objective metric, your service's perceived value to the consumer will still be relative to the value of the consumer's next dollar. If that next dollar is very precious to you (maybe you don't have much money), you'll pirate. If the service just doesn't bring any value to you, you'll pirate (or you'll just move on to another hobby). "Going after" pirates isn't worth it ... you'll corrupt your services and hurt your real customers while trying to capture a market that has no money to spend and no interest in your class of products. It's a very stupid idea from a business perspective. Instead, enhance your services.

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MOBAs, online trading card games, MMOs, Steam, etc. all work on this principle.

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I don't like any of 'em. I think the one from Brave was the worst, though.

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Seriously, what was that? She acts like a brat, makes everyone else suffer for her consequences, and then treats her own mother like an ANIMAL? On top of that she learns NOTHING? What the hell?

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The story was a total mess. She should have gotten her initial wish, suffered from the consequences, and grown up: She contracts the witch, the princes drop dead, the various factions go to war, and those around her suffer for her happiness. Eventually she learns that growing up means your own happiness isn't the only thing that matters and that actions have consequences. She works to set things right as best she can but can only resolve the conflicts at the cost of her own life. She gets her wish after all -- she lived free, decides her own fate, makes her mother and father proud, and became the princess the kingdom needed. The three little brothers are told the story about their brave older sister and look up to her. She passes into legend.

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Something like that...

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Well, that's my taste, anyway. I AM AN EDGEMASTER OKAY I KNOW >: T

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I'm not a proponent of "good games", exactly. Everyone wants different things and I'm not particularly interested in dictating to others how they ought to live their lives. What I'm interested in is preserving that kind of games that _I_ care about: gameplay-centric games that respect the player and deliver the idiosyncratic vision of the director without compromise. The market has changed a lot lately (F2P, pay to win, mobile games, DLC, ultra-expensive/complex AAA and all its consequences, Steam, etc.) and it looks like those types of games might become rarer... but that's fine. Those of us who like that kind of game just might have to accept that we've become dinosaurs the same way 2D-arcade-style beat'em up enthusiasts became dinosaurs. Sure, we might get a little scrap now and then, but in general the world has moved on.. the market conditions don't really attract the best design talent or biggest/most profitable audiences to that kind of project anymore. We might have to become like craft beer brewers to get by.

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As for Atelier and Neptunia (and, actually, movies like Avengers, books like Twilight, anime like K-ON!) -- it's useful to remember that folks use different things for different reasons at different times. K-ON! might not have a gripping plot or realistic portrayals of human life, but so what? Use it for what it's good for and don't use it for what it's not good for -- a cute girl doing cute things is like sunlight and sweet candy for most folks. It satisfies a deep and nearly immutable desire and depriving yourself of satisfaction may be as cruel and demented as locking yourself up in a windowless building and forcing yourself to subsist on gruel. You can convince yourself to do it (especially if seduced by the words of ascetic priesthood), but I think it's as nasty, destructive, and mean as taking a musclehorn out of her herd and forcing her to sit alone. K-ON! is like a stuffed animal for that lonely musclehorn or beautiful landscape painting and chocolate bar for that trapped office worker. Now, that chocolate bar might make you fat and sick and the gourmets might laugh at you, and that stuffed animal might distract you from your real herd, but that's just a normal weighing of risks, costs, and benefits. The point is to include our natural desires in that analysis without getting hysterical or superstitious about 'em.

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Same goes for the desire to gain status, social control, prime genetic material, and be awash in drama and male desire (Twilight, etc.) and the desire to experience excitement, to take risky adventures, to be the best/special/chosen, and to rain violent judgement upon the unclean while on the side of cosmic justice (Avengers, etc). All these desires need to be recognized, managed, and evaluated as part of the natural machinery of a naturally evolved creature if we wanna take good care of ourselves.

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tl;dr I play Nepnep bc I like fun&waifus! NO BULLY!! PLS GO!! >: T

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