diongreyson

Yeah, with me trying to be more active around here again, here is a list of topics that MIGHT come up in this journal:

- Anime / Manga
- Furry
- Censorship
- Gaming
- Software (Windows and Android mainly)
- Geocaching
- Music (Metal, Punk, Folk, Rock)
- Roleyplaying of all kinds
- Transhumanism and technology in general
- My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic / Brony stuff
- German Pirate Party (Piratenpartei) stuff

I'll try to tag everything correctly and of course I'll also tag NSFW stuff that might arise occasionally, of course.^^

So, yeah, that's that so far, more later.^^

...but this time for real.^^

I spend most writing-time over at Twitter and Google+ the last months, if I had time for that at all.

But now I decided that for giving out my thoughts and opinions, a "real" blog is much more convenient.

So, expect more thoughts, thanks, ranting and whatever here within the next weeks and months, HOPEFULLY.

Thanks to those still reading this, hehe.^^

Greetings,
RealZero

Jep, so, an all around Valentine's journal from me as well^^.

Most people around me either don't care about this day, or openly dislike it, for differing reasons.
Most just don't care, some say it's only commercial bullshit, built up by some industry. And others say: "It's love! You shouldn't put your love on one day, it should always be present.

I'm inclined to agree with the latter two...to a degree. It might be a day created or at least kept alive by the greedy industries, yeah. And love should not only be lived out on one day.

But what about other days? Martin Luther King day, International Day of Peace...
Do we celebrate them, because of what happened on that one day? No! We do not celebrate a single day. We celebrate something big, great persons, great things, great changes, deeds and hopes. And because we cannot celebrate all our lives, we dedicate a special day to those things. Not because they're important on that day, only, but because they're ALWAYS important and we want one day, one day, on which we come together to celebrate, all together, for that and those which we hold dear.

And to me, it's the same on this day. Love all the year. Love all your life. And damn, show it whenever possible. But on this day, let's all come together. Not because we're currently in love, not because THIS day is special. But just...because we want to dedicate this, all together, to a feeling, to people, and to past experiences we hold so dear.

It's something the industry created to get money? Hell, in that case, THANKS. Thanks, you money-addicted bastards, for once, without sarcasm, THANKS! Thank you, even if your intentions were not pure, for giving us something, a day, a time, an opportunity to unite like this for a common cause, for a common feeling.

...

I'm single. I haven't been in love for nearly seven years now. And I more than once talked bad about love. About how stupid it is, about how much it hurt me and about how the small, good times I had thanks to it will never make up for the pain I suffered through love.

This still is true. My experience with love in the past still was more bad than good. But still...

If love brings people together, if love makes us strong, if love makes us fight and stand together, united, as friends, partners, forgiving each other, helping each other and spread peace among us, in that case, I'm willing to ignore the pain I felt and give my best wishes to all those out there, who go through such pain, such fear and problems, all, for what they love.

So, after this there'll be the annual Valentine's meme, so, let me conclude with those words:

Even though I'm not in love myself...even though my own opinion and attitude towards love is not "pure"...
To all those out there who are in love, to all those who simply are fond of each other, who care for each other, who forgive and trust each other...
To all the loving couples, no matter what sex, age, or number of persons...
To all those who fight the big battle of life together, knowing they're partners, lovers, brothers and sisters they can trust, fight with and fight for...
To all the ones out there who suffer, try and never give up hope to protect those dear to them...
To all of you who devote their life and maybe more to love, friendship and the hope we don't allow to die...

Have a nice Valentine's Day, have another year full of energy and finally...have a successful and happy life together with everyone and everything you care for

With best regards and wishes to all of you, greetings,
RealZero



( Now following: Valentine's Meme^^ )

Yeah, finally a new entry from me, and lemme tell you in advance, it's not a positive one:

So, since the release of the first game, I've been quite a fan of Blazblue, a 2D anime fighting game from the guys that brought you "Guilty Gear".
Some weeks ago the second game was finally released in Europe and it was announced that two, and later another, characters would be released as download content (DLC).

Now, just so you know, IN GENERAL I think DLCs are something nice. It has much potential to rip people of by making them pay for "half games" and have them buying small stuff for additional costs to get the "full thing".
But if it's done correctly: You get a full game which is great and totally worth its price, and you can some months later buy more stuff for it, well, why not? Although I still prefer the "buy the addon disc in store" method to downloadable addons, but well, that time is dead at the moment.

But well, let me get back to Blazblue. The two additional characters have been released, 5.99 Euro (About eight dollars) each. So, this was already quite prices, but their fighting style was fitting and quite unique, you had new levels and music along with them and such stuff. So, I accepted it and bought it, and I still don't regret that and will most likely buy the third character, when released, as well.

Today was another Playstation Store Update and finally more updates I was really looking forward to. So, here it is, along with the prices:

• BlazBlue: Continuum Shift
  • Additional Character Colour Vol. 1 (£5.10/€6.49)
  • Additional Character Colour Vol. 2 (£5.10/€6.49)
  • Additional Character Colour Vol. 3 (£5.10/€6.49)
  • Additional System Voice Type-C (Taokaka) (£3.99/€4.99)
  • Additional System Voice Type-K (Jin) (£3.99/€4.99)
  • Additional System Voice Type-M (Carl) (£3.99/€4.99)
  • Unlock ‘All Unlimited Characters’ (£3.99/€4.99)
  • Unlock Playable Character: ‘Mu’ (£1.59/€1.99)

I originally intended to buy all DLCs for Blazblue: CS, but pah, the prices are just totally ridiculous.

I cannot say much about the voices. Certainly not "cheap", but pff, I don't really have an opinion about that.
But now, the additional colours!

6.49 Euro!? What the hell are you thinking? It's not even additional or alternate clothing! It is a colour palette swap! You take two colours and replace it with two others! Stuff one does in GIMP/Photoshop with some clicks! And no, I won't believe it is much more complex to you to pull this off.
You know what? There are games that allow you to change your characters colour the way you want FOR FREE. As often and all ways you want! You know why? Because it is easy to implement and they know that the little time of programming it needs would not be worth a high price.
Seriously, I'm disgusted by this! Nearly 7 Euro for new colours. Yes, they are for all characters, but that doesn't change my opinion.

So, what is my main point, asides telling you that 80% of publishers are soulless, greedy monsters?
Basically, I wanted to buy all DLCs for Blazblue.

I will not.
I might, if these will ever be reduced to a price that is worth their worth. But not like this. I'm not gonna behave like the stupid cow or sheep or whatever they want me to be.

There was a time when customers had the feeling to be important to companies. Damn, I even waited for the European release of this game so I could support the European publisher. Fuck it.
I had hope in good service for fans. How naive, eh?

Ah well, that's enough ranting for one day, I guess.

I think this is ridiculous, but I guess everyone has to decide on his or her own.

So, decide for yourself but, mhh, even if my words were harsh and sound more like "flaming" than constructive criticism, maybe you'll find the time to think about it yourself, and maybe it'll change the way you think about it.

Have a nice day, and don't be fooled by bastards.^^

Greetings,
RealZero

Okay, the following content depicts a situation in Germany, but I'll still make it available in English here bI think it might also be interesting to "foreign" anime fans.

Okay, so, in Germany there now is some new organisation called "Anime Copyright Allianz" (Anime Copyright Alliance - http://www.anime-copyright-allianz.de/). This bond of anime fansites, publishers and so on has been founded for the purpose of "fighting" illegal distributions of licensed animes in Germany.

They're, as they state, not going to take legal actions against anyone, but they do their best to have any kind of illegal copy removed from streaming websites, download sources and so on as good as they can. They also offer the possibility for everyone to send in illegal anime sources so they can work to shut them down or something like that.

Soo, now my thoughts on it:

Know an important thing: I am NOT against copyright. I really, really think that whoever creates something also deserves to be paid for the hours and hours of work he has done and to be credited in an appropriate way.
But here are my doubts now:

First off...there are anime distributors in it. Well, of course, seems logical. But well, call me paranoid or anything, but whenever there's a company involved that earns its money with a certain topic, I immediatly feel as if...well...money is the only thing they care about anyway. So, do the interests of fans even matter to them anymore? In most cases, with most companies, I'd say "No", because all they do is being "nice enough" so their fans don't run away, so, only treating them "a little bit like shit".
I'm NOT saying that the ACA does this, but I'm just a little afraid it'll turn out that way.

But that's only one point and it's the smallest one. Here are the other two:

1. Dojinshis

Doujinshis, those are fan-created and normally fan-published mangas. In several cases they feature original stories, but very often, especially in Japan, they're "fanfiction" works of bigger, more or less well-known series. So, from a copyright point of view they're illegal, because the fans don't have the right to create and then sell them (normally for very cheap prices). But as far as my knowledge goes most Japanese companies tolerate this kind of behaviour. After all it is some kind of advertisment for their products and it doesn't steal away any sales of the original works.

The German doujinshi community is small...compared to the Asian one nearly non-existant I'd say. I think that REALLY is a pity. I'd love to read more of 'em, but as I cannot read Japanese, well, I'm very limited in choices. Maybe we don't have enough anime fans, maybe not enough artists or maybe they're just too afraid to publish such stuff and end up being sued by the German license-owners in the end.

So, what about the ACA? Will fans have to be afraid now? Afraid that their "fanwork", which they do from their hearts because they love the series they know and want to work with it, will be seen as serious copyright infringement and that they end up, well, not sued then, but blocked, removed and despised for doing something that, in my opinion, deserves some damn straight respect and honour?

As I said, the doujinshi community here is much smaller and it would be awful if this will mean the ultimate death of it...we shall see, how the ACA will handle things and what the influence will be.

2. The general way animes will develop now.
We have German dubs (German voice actors) for anime series. Back then many dubs were very crappy done or plainly translated wrong. Even subtitles by fansubs were often much better than the "official" subtitles. Today, dubs have become better. But still, I so much prefer the Japanese voices and reading subtitles.

And how will go things now?
You know the series Ranma 1/2? Back then I loved the series (especially female Ranma *purrs*). I SO wanted to have the series. And then the time had come, there was a DVD box release! BUT...it only had German dub. No Japanese voices, no subtitles, no...anything else.
I did not buy it. I was feeling bad, I hated it. It was so sad. I haven't found any fansub of it anymore, as most "reputable" fansub studios stop spreading their work once it is licensed in their country.
And there are other things. Changing translations on purpose, to make them feel "more native" to the audience, changing characters age due to "moral guidelines", censoring swearwords and insults. We want something but we don't get it, because it sells better "their way".

We have fansubs, because they're mostly "true to the original", they often have great quality and you know the people behind it really love what they do as they do it for free and with all their heart.

Asides fansubs, what else? Anime music videos. Will they die now? Because they contain licensed scenes from animes? Most likely not, as the ACA states they only search for "full episodes and movies", but who know how it'll develop and what other people will do with similar, maybe more "extremist" projects?


So, what to say in conclusion? I don't "hate" the ACA, they're new, I don't know them. Maybe they're genuine fans who want to support the fandom. Maybe they're commercial assholes only caring about money and giving a fuck about fans once they squeezed out all of their money. Who knows. Anime DVDs are expensive here. Will they get cheaper now, as they have a new "force" on their side that'll help get rid of pirated copies? I HIGHLY doubt that. Will the quality of dubs increase? I doubt so.

Maybe nothing will change, maybe things will get worse. We don't know.
I do NOT want to insult the ACA here. If they do a good job and help the fandom improve, yeah, that's great then. But if they become something like other German copyright and licence fee organisations (GEMA, GEZ), oh well, what the fuck, that'll be baaad.

I'll keep an open eye on them and see how stuff develops. I hope for the best. But I still fear that in the end we, the fans and customers, will end up beaten up and made fun of by big companies.

So, yeah, those are my thoughts. ACA people: if you do a great job, you've got all of my best wishes. Please, always remember: You're still anime fans, aren't you? Don't betray us. Don't become the monster we fans despite and try to fight (in vain) for so long already.

Greetings, have a nice day,
RealZero

Oh damn, how could that game serious slip my attention for so many years?

So, I always loved those point and click adventure games. Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion, Woodruff, Simon the Sorcerer, Larry, all these classics. But yeah, at most of the games, I sucked, so I was never able to complete 'em and the internet and walkthroughs weren't that widespread back then.

But yeah, let's get to the topic:
I played the newest Sam & Max game, season 3, "The Devil's Playhouse", this being my first Sam & Max game.
I completed it today, and what can I say? Oh I really love it. The two remind me of Wallace and Gromit, kinda, but much more crazy.^^
I love both characters, the humour is great (I'm playing the English version, so, the original, untainted jokes^^) and so many stupid punchlines and jokes, ah, it's just great...I'd love myself some more sexual innuendos, but well, cannot have it all, right? :P
And well, after Max started talking about licking each other with their tongues, how could I ask for more?^^

So, yeah, I'll buy the comic book collection next months, maybe along with the DVD, and certainly the other games in the future as well.

Let's see what I can play now, until I got my hands on em, just completed Monkey Island 1 and 2, so, time for something else, mhhhh...

Sam & Max are great, check it out, and have a nice time.^^

Greetings,
RealZero

Or something like that.^^
I normally don't do advertising, well, asides my own little furry project, but still, at times I feel impelled to promote stuff I like, so that others might enjoy it as well.

Some of you might know I love comics. Some might even know I love online comics as well.
And from time to time there is one that sticks out enough so I really hate it when I reached the "end" and have to wait for new strips.

And some days ago I just "finished" another one of those, and what can I say? I love it. Especially one of the characters.

So, check it out, a bit of furry-like heaven-and-hell fantasy with "Slightly Damned":

www.sdamned.com

And dammit. I soooo love Buwaro, the purple demon male-main-character of the comic. He does not only look cuddly and fluffy (asides the horns, but they're cool^^), but he's also so totally cute.
A little bit dumb, maybe, but he's so good hearted, nice and loves to hug and make friends.



Oh man, sometimes when I read such comics, I really feel a bit disappointed not to be living in such a fantasy world myself. Although...most likely I'd die the first day I arrive there.^^

But yeah, Buwaro, he's great. And if he wants hugs, he can certainly get 'em from me.
Mhhh, as soon as the artist opens for commissions again I'll ask her if I could get a picture like that done. *purrs*

So, yeah. Read the comic, it's great, not just sweet Buwaro, but everything in general.^^

And if you're finished, read some more great comics:

www.2kinds.com (furry aspects)
www.misfile.com (anime, not furry)
www.housepets.com (furry aspects)

Well, you know, I am not very emotional about death. Death is natural, something that is expectable, and something we should not be afraid of. Well, at least if you think about it in a logical way.

In this case, I am still not very emotional. I do not cry, I do not suffer, I do not feel hurt. But still, this kind of journal might be unusual for me, but it is for a man who really deserves it:


I am a metal-freak. Fan and follower of Hard-Rock and metal at heart and, if there is something like that, soul.

What can I say? Dio was to me, as well as to many other metal-followers, a very important man. I think he was one of the people who made metal what it is today. He was a star, he was a mentor, a role-model and maybe so much more.

Although I do not lose a friend with him, because, well, I never knew him in person, it is still a real pity to lose this man. He did many great things, he did damn great songs, damn great music. And even though he had already reached a quite advanced age, he was still active and "rocking on".

So, yeah. I don't really have more to say. It's a pity, I will miss his working, but I'll certainly keep him in my mind and memory as the great and important person he was to the metal scene.

I am an atheist, kinda, so I don't believe in "real" gods, an afterlife, or anything.
But well, if I'm wrong, and there is one, I sure hope Dio will be waiting in Valhalla for some of us.

Yeah, so, remember this great man, for to me, he surely is a legend:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64coD-rx9sk

Rest in peace Dio, thanks for everything you did.

...erm, well, at least to me.

When Red Alert 3 was, to me, already the burial of the "Red Alert" part of the series, the lingering plague is now also doing its best to kill the Tiberium series.

While the death of the Red Alert series was caused by many things, the horrible look, many totally useless units and more, it is mainly one thing at the Tiberium series, the same thing that also killed many other games for me and will kill more in the future:

The absence of a LAN mode and dedicated servers.

So, yeah, CnC, Starcraft, Call Of Duty, all these games were so great when played in LANs, I rarely played online, so LAN was the main part of these games to me, and surely to many other people as well.
And now? Now all the companies start to enforce an active internet connection and remove more and more features like this.
Of course the developers and distributors have plenty, totally logical reasons for this:
Allowing constant "levelling", enabling online profiles and savegames, "social networking" features in-game...
What the fuck? Since when do I need such useless junk? Okay, I'll admit it, Steam's feature of saving keyboard configurations in profiles is quite neat, but asides that, seriously...What would you prefer, a CnC or CoD game that gives you "online savegames" for your single-player campaigns, or one that you can play in a LAN, with your actual friends, without having an internet connection usable by everyone on the party?

I'll certainly settle for the latter. But I guess we all know the true reasons, right? The fucking greed of the publishes, mainly.
Sure, I do NOT promote or support any kind of "software piracy", I buy my games like I'm intended to do, but in the end, that's it, right? So far I haven't gotten the word about people like Electronic Arts having to close and "die" because of the "evil, evil, software pirates."
I value the effort that goes into creating such works, I really do, but think about it:

I don't know about you, but to ME, as a developer, not as a publisher, the love of my fans and their praising would be one of the greatest things in my job, and damn, I bet that's the same to many actual developers. But this kind of actions just provokes rage and disappointment in every fan. Do you, dear publishers, really want that? Well, of course you do, as long as you get your money, fuckers!

Let's face another fact:
YOUR GAMES WILL BE 'STOLEN'!
Seriously, EVERY Steam game, damn, EVERY game is available for illegal download. No matter if you use CD-keys, online activation or anything like that, people WILL find a way to crack and steal your games. And you? You're "improving" your protection. But do you know who you're hurting with your methods? You hurt ME, you hurt US, the legit BUYERS of your games by causing incompatibility, stress and grieve due to your fucking protection methods.
And the ones you actually WANT to hurt, the users of illegal software downloads, they have their neatly cracked version of the game, with all the modes, all the features, and most likely all of your beloved "download content" (damn, another fucked up invention to satisfy your damn greed) for free.

This is not a theory! I witnessed it! I couldn't play Prince Of Persia: Warrior Within because the stupid copy protection did not work on 64bit systems and thus denied me to play the game, the game that I PAID for.

That's just one example, there are many more, in the end it's always the same: Legal buyers have all the stress and problems, and the "original targets" get away without any problems.

So yeah, what was I saying? Oh yeah, Command & conquer is dead, without LAN mode, it's another game I'm not going to buy.

Have a nice day, I'm going back to enjoying my beloved UT3, which works without CDs, without stupid protection and is a great fun at every LAN. Oh, and PS3 gaming, of course.

Greetings,
RealZero