Gaming Day - The Crappy Weapons of the Videogame World

This week, I want to write about weapons - videogame weapons, that is. In a conversation with Random V, the topic of the dumbest videogame weapons came up. When talking about Final Fantasy VIII, a game that I rather enjoy and she hates, she said that Squall's Gunblade has got to be the dumbest weapon ever. This prompted me to explore idiotic weapons and come up with a worst weapons list.

Now, it's easy enough to list weapons I personally don't like (oversized shiny BFG-types), or weapons that are impossible for a human to wield (Cloud's Buster Sword), or that just are outright silly in the context of "weapons" (the South Park snowball), but instead I propose a simple process. We must ask: Is it a ridiculous weapon in the context of similar games? Then, is it a ridiculous weapon in the context of the franchise? Finally, is it a ridiculous weapon in the context of the game? Weapons that answer "yes" to all three questions will be included, while weapons that answer "yes" to only one or two will be considered. Also, they can't be joke weapons. Just useless or ridiculous. If there are several weapons in a single franchise, we will use dual entries.

For example, let us consider Squall's gunblade. Within the real world, yes, a sword where the user presses a trigger to fire up the target that they have already cut in half is stupid. However, when taken in the context of sci-fi RPGs, a futuristic sword isn't ridiculous. In the context of Final Fantasy, a specialty sword is pretty much an everyday thing. And in the context of Final Fantasy 8, it can be argued that the Gunblade is actually one of the better weapons.

So then, with that in mind, let us explore the crappiest weapons in videogames.

The Ultimate Match: God vs. Death (Supernatural)

A raging debate in the Supernatural fan community is whether Death is more powerful than God. Top 10 most powerful characters list are always topped by God and Death alternating for the first and second spot. The assumptions that people make when deciding who is more powerful comes down to a conversation that Death had with Dean on season 5 episode 21, where Death says that God is a living being and that at the end of time Death will reap God. Those who believe Death place him as the most powerful character, while those who think that Death is bluffing place him on the second spot. Most of these lists, however, do not offer any rationale. In this piece, I will explore the God / Death problem and offer a definitive solution. 

Socialize Via Constant Updates by Carlos Encarnación

   Recently, I’ve been reading two mangas that deal with problems regarding social situations. WaTamote deals with a social anxiety disorder, while Waratte! Sotomura-san is about ‘stereotype’ generated social problems. These mangas got me thinking about how we humans view the need for socialization and acceptance, and how recent advances in technology have changed our daily interactions.

   In one of the manga the main character wants to be popular, but suffers from social anxiety disorder, which involves being afraid to talk to people, she panics if talked to, or has to talk to someone. Social anxiety has many manifestations and most people probably suffer from it, some extreme case, other rather light that doesn’t affect them much. Some people may hide their hobbies, age, salary, studies, etc. to fit into a circle they think is comfortable. Still there is one type of social anxiety that I’d like to touch on and which has been the butt of constant jokes in several forms of media. Which is the ‘escape’ to formality in form of reading Facebook during group gathering (be it with family or friends).

   WaTamote actually omits one prominent ‘social’ activity: social media. It never once mentions social website such as Facebook. Waratte! Sotomura-san shows characters using Twitter, but is still narrative of ‘stereotype’ social problem when use. Everyone views the character Sotomura as a ‘delinquent’ cause of her clothing and form of speech (rough), but in reality she is actually sensitive girl that loves everything cute and things done by the rules. The manga makes joke of Twitter character limitations and the writing of Sotomura comes out as rough and misinterpreted that ‘followers’ thing she is telling her delinquent acts.

 This forms of ‘social problems’ the main characters of the manga got me thinking, what other current social problems young (and even adults) and I decide to analyze one of them. Let’s try this: go to a restaurant and look at the tables. You might notice a lot of the tables have people using cellphone, giving you a clear idea that most people would rather look at messages, Facebook, or website than the person in front of them. The need for constant information or amusement kills the quiet moment of simply looking at one another. That small but essential silent moment when you feel comfortable with the other person, even if nothing is spoken, is now considered an awkward moment we should always avoid. The need for constant information (in social media, that is), or oversharing, of what you are doing seems to be a syndrome where people ‘need to tell the experience instead of living it’.

  People seem to prefer reverting back into something comfortable that they already know and are familiar with by simply reading friend information, looking at funny pictures, or posting something themselves instead of speaking with the person in front of them. This seems to be the norm even if they are with a friend of years. I think this is one kind of social anxiety to deal with: not having something to say or thinking that everything you might say is silly or stupid. Just like WaTamote escapes her social anxiety by imaging ‘what if’ and blames other that she isn’t popular, we direct ourselves to a bright screen to escape the fear that we aren’t interesting, and in the process we might make the other person think they aren’t interesting. Slowly, we are creating a non-person-socializing environment were the only words we say are ‘Hello, is that a Galaxy S4?’ before seeing the post your friend from another state posted to his/her wall as means to socialize in life.

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Carlos Encarnacion has a BA in communications and marketing from Metropolitan University (UMET) and is currently an Audiovisual and Media Specialist working for several companies. 

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This week, Carlos has been kind enough to be the guest writer for Pop Trends, hopefully, we'll have him again

No Gods, No Kings, Only 'Mon

By tsaoshin

Twitch Plays Pokemon is a Twitch.tv stream where people could log in and simultaneously controll a single game of Pokemon. Commands input through chat are queued and performed in game in the order that they were input. This led to the character running around in circles, discarding items, and just outright doing things that a single person would not even consider during a normal playthrough. 

During the first run of Twitch Plays Pokemon, an incredible lore was created in order to explain the events of the game as controlled by The Hivemind (all the players). In order to explain why Red constantly used the Helix Fossil, the community explained that he was consulting Lord Helix for guidance, as the voices in his head (The Hivemind) instructed.  In order to explain why Pidgeot had such a high level when compared to the other pokemon, the community explained that the bird was the Chosen Messiah of Helix, Bird Jesus.  

As the game grew in popularity, more lore was created, until finally, The Hivemind defeated Blue (the final boss) and became champion. Red's final party consisted of Lord Helix the Omastar (a god), Bird Jesus the Pidgeot (a messiah), AA-J the Zapdos (an angel), Fonz the Nidoking (a king), Air Jordan (a prince), and All Terrain Venomoth (an all-terrain vehicle, the Dragonslayer).  

Comic Book Thursdays: Crossovers!!

This is the stuff nightmares are made of.

   Once upon a time, comic books were limited to whatever universe they belonged in. Superman stayed in Metropolis, Batman stayed in Gotham city and Spiderman stayed in Manhattan. Heroes either made cameo appearances in other turfs or ignored them all together.

  Then in the 80’s the DC and Marvel universes crossed over. They proceeded to do it again in the 90’s, which in turn spawned some of the most unholy abominations ever conceived from mankind. Ever heard of Dark Claw, the unholy union of Wolverine and Batman? Or Super-Soldier, the ultimate American hero that is not G.I. Joe, but rather a Superman/Captain America Hybrid? Or better still, let’s try Shatterstarfire which is where I like to think that the creative juices just turned into cyanide laced Kool-Aid.

Gaming X-Day: The Elder Scrolls Online

I should have posted yesterday, but suddenly a wild thing I had to do appeared, so here's my "Wednesday" post on Thursday.

This past weekend I had the pleasure of participating in the ESO beta. I created two characters, liked one more than the other, faffed around, did quests, killed monsters, and by and large enjoyed every minute of it. Sadly, I didn't have time to explore the entirety of the ESO world, but what I did explore left me wanting more. Below some comments about my travels.