Response to Psychology Today Article About "Fat Shaming"

In a Psychology Today article entitled The #1 Worst Thing to Say to Your Fat Friend the author, Harriet Lerner, Ph.D discusses an article written by another writer, a woman named Natalie Kusz. Ms. Kusz is an overweight woman writing about "fat shaming" and in her article she talks about instances of shaming enacted upon her by strangers and she contends that, while they are certainly hurtful, the moments during which she feels the most shamed is "the well-intentioned disapproval of a friend--the one who leans a narrow hand on your arm and murmurs, “I hope this doesn't hurt your feelings, but I love you and I'm concerned about your weight." Both authors contend that this friend is acting in a harmful, rather than beneficial manner when they make such statements to their overweight friends (I wonder if they would feel this way if it was gambling/alcohol, etc rather than obesity being discussed).

Well, I strongly disagree with the contention made by both of these authors and what follows is the comment I submitted for publication on the site.

Basic Ninja Gaiden Tips

I LOVE Ninja Gaiden. LOVE IT. Any regular reader of mine is already acutely aware of this, and probably sick of hearing about the franchise on this blog. Well, those people can roll their eyes all they want but it's my blog and I will mention Ninja Gaiden as many times as I want. I am independent, defiant and need no audience.

Wait, come back!

Okay, okay, I won't mention Ninja Gaiden for a while after this, I promise.

So, for anyone who may be new to Ninja Gaiden and are finding themselves assaulted by insanity and wondering how the hell they are ever supposed to excel at the game, I have for you a few basic tips that you should be aware of. Just remember, this is Ninja Gaiden, not Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, Onimusha, God of War, etc. It is its own beast so be cognizant of that fact and treat it as such (not bashing any of those, btw.  love some of them, like others, blah blah. Ninja Gaiden is just in a league of its own in terms of both mechanics and difficulty).

The tips:

1) ALWAYS BLOCK. On the xbox, I basically hold the L trigger at all times. This should be your default position, and from there you can flick the stick to roll, initiate attacks, etc.

2) Use shurikens to interrupt enemy attacks, and also to cancel your own attacks (this becomes more natural with time....at first, use them for stuns). This will create windows for you within which you can initiate a pre-emptive attack.

3) X+A (or X and [] on the Playstation platform) will allow you to jump towards the nearest enemy. It is a tracking jump. Once you get near them, press A again to jump off of their heads. This stuns them and allows you to roll towards them and initiate a free attack.

4) Blocking reduces the damage taken from incendiary shurikens. If you time a dodge just as they explode, you completely negate the damage (due to the i-frames afforded you during an evasion) but before you get the timing for that down, at least make sure you're blocking when they blow up.

5) The center camera button is your friend. Use it often!

Good luck and again, remember that Ninja Gaiden requires a very different mindset and playstyle than does say DMC. You don't get openings, you create them. Enemies are not there for you to kill; they're there to kill you.

Muramasa Rebirth Review

Muramasa Rebirth Review

Muramasa Rebirth is an enhanced port of a 2009 Wii game entitled Muramasa: The Demon Blade which was an excellent 2D side scrolling action role playing game that starred 2 characters: the princess Momohime and Kisuke, a ninja with, wait for it…..amnesia! Yes, amnesia, that old video game trope (I’ll save you the hassle of searching for the story section of this review and just tell you right now that if you are playing this game for the story you’re barking up the wrong proverbial tree).

When you begin the game you are tasked with choosing one of two stories to play through. Momohime’s  or Kisuke’s. Depending upon which choice you make you’ll either be travelling east or west; if you choose Momohime you’ll play as a princess possessed by a vengeful spirit in search of 108 legendary demon blades. Choose Kisuke and you’ll play as a ninja with amnesia……in search of 108 legendary demon blades. The stories both evolve (some might say devolve) from there but frankly, I paid very little attention. What did get my attention, however, was both the audio/visual presentation and the gameplay. The game is simply gorgeous, the music is great and it plays like a dream.

The Urge To Smash Break and Destroy

NOTE: This is a post I had saved (but never published) and I decided to put it up now since I think it could be the catalyst for an interesting follow up/update since things in my life have changed rather significantly since I wrote this nearly three years ago. I will ruminate on things for a bit and if I believe a follow up is warranted I will write one, post it and link the two articles to one another. 

From time to time, I get the urge to break things. To vandalise. To destroy. I don't follow up on these impulses (although I admit that I did a couple of times when I was a kid/teenager, although nothing serious) but when I have them they are pretty strong.

I'm not sure why I have these inclinations. It may be related to the society in which I live, as it feels restrictive, and these feelings are a response to this? I dunno. Maybe there's some sort of biological reason? Like I am supressing my innate destructive 'manly' urges throughout my 21st century, 'cultured' 'modern' and 'civilized' lifestyle, and my inner caveman makes an attempt to break free every now and again, an attempt that manifests as an ure to tear down the social order, the 'establishment.'

Should Microsoft Consider Purchasing Atlus? (UPDATED)

UPDATE: Congratulations to SEGA, whose bid was accepted and who are now the parent company behind Atlus.

Shin Megami Tensei. Persona. Etrian Odyssey. Trauma Center. Catherine. With these titles/entries into these series' Atlus, a long-standing Japanese video game development studio has finally made a name for itself in the West in recent years and now that this niche company is poised to make broader waves in the industry their parent company, Index, is doing everything it can to completely screw them over. They are losing money in every single division other than games (thanks to Atlus' success) and so amidst rumours of money laundering (yes, it's that bad) Index announced earlier this summer that they were filing for the Japanese equivalent (well, economics experts would take dispute the use of the term equivalence here as their version of bankruptcy (called civil rehabilitation) is very similar but not exactly equivalent) to bankruptcy protection as it is understood here in the West. Along with this announcement came a secondary announcement: Part of this process would be the selling off of their subsidiaries, the biggest of course being Atlus.

 And so starting, if I am not mistaken, at the end of July, Atlus has had a metaphorical for sale sign up in their (also metaphorical) window. This sale has attracted bids from more than 20 different companies, one of them being SEGA's parent company SEGA Sammy, who bid somewhere around $200 million U.S. If SEGA is successful in the attempted acquisition they will have immediately bolstered their suite of intellectual properties with the popular, critically acclaimed and diverse Atlus library. This is something that SEGA could really use, as their in house development has been stagnant for many years and while they have been publishing a decent amount of games this generation, they have not had any serious success. In fact, there have been more than one failures, both financially and in terms of public relations (PR). Having Atlus under their ownership would be of great benefit to them. 

Thinking about this one may wonder who else would benefit from acquiring Atlus?

Forum Discussion on Weak/Strong Atheism, Agnosticism, etc

Note: This is an old post that was was sitting in my drafts yet was never published. It's probably from 2011 but I thought I'd throw it up to have some new content on the blog in the interim between now and my next (newly composed, not an old draft) entry.

This is an excerpt of a discussion I had on a forum recently regarding religion/atheism, etc. (Italics is the other people, magx is in normal font.)

I just wanted to set you straight that not all atheists have the belief that there is no god.


If we're going further wax semantics, I suggest you look into agnosticism, because the above......


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism


....doesn't really help your case that you're some authority on the matter, here to keep me informed.

Left Trigger to Dodge and Customizable Controls

I have a gripe that I need to let out. This gripe is with the developers of hack n slash games. Actually, I have another gripe that just came to mind, which I will get to in a few minutes. The second gripe is with ALL developers. Let's get to the first one.

Gripe Number One

Hack n Slash developers, let me point something out to you: Ninja Gaiden (Xbox) was released in 2004. Almost six years ago to the day. And yet, almost none of you seemed to have received the very simple message: The right stick is not for dodging. Map that shit to the left stick! It's really easy: Left trigger is block, and the left stick is dodge. Simple, no? Here's why it's way better this way:

Speed

Think about it:

I'm in the middle of a combo. It's a four hit combo and I am just inputting the command for the fourth hit when I see one of my enemies initiate an attack. What do I do? I dodge, of course (or parry if that mechanic is built into the game) (and yes, you could also utilize a move with frame advantage and offset their attack (depending on the game) but shut up and bear with me here lol). So, where are my fingers at the moment I want to initiate the dodge? One is on the left stick, the other is on a face button, inputting the combo command. So, if the dodge command is mapped to the left stick, I can immediately dodge as soon as I see the enemy begin their attack animation, with absolutely no delay, correct?