Found my latest pet hate on the DS

[Video]

Uh....English is what is known as a "living language" (so is Japanese, Spanish, french, etc, etc, any language commonly used by the general public) What that means, is words can (and do, like it or not) change meaning. And they have a tendancy to do it in an incredibly short ammount of time. You'd be surprised to learn that most words, when they change meanings, tend to do it in as little as one year, and rarely more than 10.

 

That means, that while at one time, Jap (or Jew, Or Brit, or N) may have been demeaning, racist word said or typed by a typical illiterate hater of some kind, doesn't necessairly mean it's still true, or has been in a long time. However, the vast majority of people who say jap, ar not in any way being racist, or a lac k of Intelligence. Lazyness, perhaps. Racist or lack of intelligence...no. Actually, someone objecting to it is more of a display of their lack of capacity to learn and adapt in the real ever changing world, than it is to the other persons lack of intelligence.

 

Just a pitty, cause after someone stops learning and adapting, they don't have much longer to live anyways. The brain may not be the last to go, just one of the most important.

 

Now, seriously, back on topic. Yeah, I hate all the text in games, I mean, I love a story, but often, it seems lately that it's just excess baggage that is not serving any purpose. Yeah, the story in advance wars DS was mildly ammusing, no reading it didn't drasticly change the gameplay. But at least in advance Wars it was skippable. There are some games that I won't play because it's unskipable, and lets face it, far to long for the ammount of amusement/info being recieved (which is quiet a bit less the second time around)

 

I don't necessairly see it as a DS issue though. It's been in every post crash system up to the PSX and 64. It's just that the modern live action videos with actual speach due to lots of space on the discs have gotten people lazy, and they forget about the last generation rather quickly.

[kisrael]

Uh....English is what is known as a "living language" (so is Japanese, Spanish, french, etc, etc, any language commonly used by the general public) What that means, is words can (and do, like it or not) change meaning. And they have a tendancy to do it in an incredibly short ammount of time. You'd be surprised to learn that most words, when they change meanings, tend to do it in as little as one year, and rarely more than 10.

Sure. I've always thought of myself as more on the Descriptivist side of the Prescriptivist (the rules of grammar and usage determine what people should do) / Descriptivist (the rules of grammar and usage should describe how the language is actually used) debate (If you're geeky/scholarly enough to care, here is an amazing article on the subject.)

That means, that while at one time, Jap (or Jew, Or Brit, or N) may have been demeaning, racist word said or typed by a typical illiterate hater of some kind, doesn't necessairly mean it's still true, or has been in a long time.

Not necessarily, but in the cases I brought up (haven't heard "Brit" thought of as being that pejorative) , not NOT necessarily either

However, the vast majority of people who say jap, ar not in any way being racist, or a lac k of Intelligence. Lazyness, perhaps. Racist or lack of intelligence...no.

I'd say intelligence, at least in terms of cultural knowledge and sensitivity. I don't think they're being racist in the use of it, or meaning the full negative set of implications, but they are saying that they don't care or don't know about the history of the terms they use.

Actually, someone objecting to it is more of a display of their lack of capacity to learn and adapt in the real ever changing world, than it is to the other persons lack of intelligence.

Except the extension of this line of thinking is "I can use any word I want no matter how offensive it's generally considered" and that's not the case. You have to take it on a case by case basis. And it's tough, because there's ALWAYS someone offended by something, so you have to draw a line. And in the case of Jap, I think there's enough people speaking the living language of English who would find it a bit pejorative that it's better to avoid it.

 

Now, seriously, back on topic. Yeah, I hate all the text in games, I mean, I love a story, but often, it seems lately that it's just excess baggage that is not serving any purpose. Yeah, the story in advance wars DS was mildly ammusing, no reading it didn't drasticly change the gameplay. But at least in advance Wars it was skippable. There are some games that I won't play because it's unskipable, and lets face it, far to long for the ammount of amusement/info being recieved (which is quiet a bit less the second time around)

 

I don't necessairly see it as a DS issue though. It's been in every post crash system up to the PSX and 64. It's just that the modern live action videos with actual speach due to lots of space on the discs have gotten people lazy, and they forget about the last generation rather quickly.

Yeah. One example is DOOM... I remember being a bit surprised that my friend had NEVER read the intro text, just dove straight into it. But I thought setting the stage, as hokey and goofy as the story was, gave it a bit of context, even if the action was obvious run, gun, and find the keys...

Edited December 30, 2007 by kisrael

[Giltygear]

God, i would hate to see the touchy people go over to the Neo-geo.com forums, they'd probably have a fricking heart attack.

 

Oh SHIT! Just observe a coulple of the posts that get put up in "war room"... some of its some funny stuff, but a lot of it kills me a little bit inside

[kisrael]

God, i would hate to see the touchy people go over to the Neo-geo.com forums, they'd probably have a fricking heart attack.

Oh SHIT! Just observe a coulple of the posts that get put up in "war room"... some of its some funny stuff, but a lot of it kills me a little bit inside

I can't speak for the other "touchy people" (to be honest, I wouldn't have mentioned it on my own though I agree with Jess) but the Neo-Geo forums seem bad, but not worse than what I've seen at the InsertCoin-spin offs and /b/. (And yeah, sometimes I know that "kills me a little" feeling; on the other hand, some of that stuff is as funny as hell.)

 

Just because I'm not easy to shock doesn't mean I don't support keeping THIS place as friendly as possible; not to the point where it's all rainbows and lollipops, but where people don't casually toss around slang that an "average" person would recognize as derogatory.

Edited December 30, 2007 by kisrael

[Miqorz]

Just because I'm not easy to shock doesn't mean I don't support keeping THIS place as friendly as possible; not to the point where it's all rainbows and lollipops, but where people don't casually toss around slang that an "average" person would recognize as derogatory.

 

Quoted for truth.

 

I'm about as hard to offend as it comes.. but I've always kind of felt that AA is "too good" for some things, and this is one of them.

 

I guess it's kind of like when in movies mob hit men always respect their mothers, despite being ruthless thugs. Some things you just don't mess up.

[Breakpack]

You could always use JPN for Japan/Japanese. Same number of letters, less controversy.

 

Tempest

 

That's what I use

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I label ROMS....

 

[Rockin' Kat]

I've been on forums dedicated to import gaming... and sometimes they have a rule against using "Jap" as an abreviation, instead suggesting Jp.

 

Check this out.

 

The Racial Slur Database

 

Anyway... On the topic of story telling...

 

What I hate is when I have to go through the same dialog/cut scenes every damn time I die and have to fight a boss again. Super Mario Galaxy is rather annoying on this. You CANT skip the damn cut scenes. It's fun the first time, but I just don't understand why I can't push a button to skip it and get to the game play right away the second time around.

[so_tough!]

but when it comes to gaming, I still see nothing wrong with Jap. God, i would hate to see the touchy people go over to the Neo-geo.com forums, they'd probably have a fricking heart attack.

 

The neo geo forums are filled with complete assholes, its enough to put anyone off neo geo.

Edited December 31, 2007 by so_tough!

[so_tough!]

but when it comes to gaming, I still see nothing wrong with Jap. God, i would hate to see the touchy people go over to the Neo-geo.com forums, they'd probably have a fricking heart attack.

 

 

Not to be rude, but this isn't Neo-Geo.com. It's AtariAge.com and we respect people here.

 

May it stay that way.

[warmachine]

The whole subject of racism was just brought up to draw attention away

from one of the downfalls of games on the ds.

 

A fanboi couldn't stand to see anyone mentioning anything negative about nintendo

and used the race card to divert the conversation.

[+LS650]

Strange theory.

[Jess Ragan]

If the original poster's comments hadn't been so blatantly xenophobic, the subject of racism would never have become an issue. Besides, I already called into question this whole nonsense that the Japanese have the market cornered on useless filler in video games. Have you played the Burnout Paradise demo? Have you played half the sandbox games on the market these days? You spend more time aimlessly wandering than making any real progress. Why is that time-wasting idiocy any better than the time-wasting idiocy in Japanese games?

[kisrael]

The whole subject of racism was just brought up to draw attention away from one of the downfalls of games on the ds.

 

A fanboi couldn't stand to see anyone mentioning anything negative about nintendo and used the race card to divert the conversation.

I'm calling shenanigans. Even as the conversation drifted towards what's acceptable terminology, most people tried to talk about how they feel about long cut scenes.

 

Claiming people are being too PC ("playing the race card") is just as much BS as being too PC.

 

I'm a giant Nintendo fanboy, though I have a DS but haven't ended up liking it all that much, because either A. I'm at home and can use a more high powered console or B. I'm on a bus or subway or whatever and can read a book instead...

[n8littlefield]

The whole subject of racism was just brought up to draw attention away

from one of the downfalls of games on the ds.

 

A fanboi couldn't stand to see anyone mentioning anything negative about nintendo

and used the race card to divert the conversation.

Hahaha!

 

I'm assuming that you are just joking - the spelling of fanboi just cracked me up!

 

But seriously, complaining about too much text in Japanese RPG games is certainly not a DS only issue. I'm pretty sure it's been that way forever, except on the consoles it might be "Unskippable cutscenes with horrible voice acting" - but the same issue of overnarration.

 

To get over it, I recommend a few rounds of Orcs & Elves, it's wonderfully old school.

Edited January 2, 2008 by n8littlefield

[joeybastard]

Most games regardless of where they're developed have filler which I usually try to skip. I have to say though, I much prefer the cut scenes where I read the dialog over the terrible voice acting and rubber mouth movements of onscreen characters. What really makes me made is when filler can't be skipped at all.

 

I know some folks want a story or movie experience when playing games. I don't. I want to kill the bad guys or solve the puzzle or whatever else but knowing the "motivation" for it has never made a game better for me.

[Lord Helmet]

I know some folks want a story or movie experience when playing games. I don't. I want to kill the bad guys or solve the puzzle or whatever else but knowing the "motivation" for it has never made a game better for me.

 

I was the same way until playing Mass Effect. The acting is top notch in that one, and the cut scenes are really good.

 

Most games though...I'd rather ready the dialog quickly and skip the crap.