buru5

i wrote this essay, using the video game Romancing SaGa 2 as a springboard to tackle questions such as:

• “is life worth living?”
• “ought we eradicate all life to prevent suffering?”
• “is creating new life justified given the potential for suffering?”

if you read, let me know your thoughts here. thanks.

registration is invite only at the moment, so please review the community guidelines then let me know if you'd like to join; i'll send you an invite link.

howdoyouspell.cool is an open community of writers who value privacy, autonomy, and creative writing – and, most importantly, we reject corporate interests and monetary incentives. We aim to be a no-pressure, polite community of writers from all walks of life, away from the ten-thousand-word user agreements of corporate-controlled platforms. If you consider yourself even the most amateur of writers, you’re welcome here. Too often, writers leave their work languishing in a folder somewhere – this community aims to change that by providing a safe space for expression without fear of ridicule or some big-word conglomerate stealing your words to power a fake-sentient SQL table.

example blog: https://howdoyouspell.cool/forrest/

i wrote a thing about Ariel Pink. but it's more of a wrestling match with the cognitive dissonance that comes with enjoying music that's made by gross people. kinda a "separating the art from the artist" thing, kinda not. bound to inspire some negativity from some, but the goal is to explore this weird dynamic that happens between art and artist and fan in an open, cordial way.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17152252

On Computer Games Monthly is back w/ the 2nd issue of the #fediverse’s only free unofficial gaming-slash-creative-writing magazine.

Inside you will find articles written by some of Mastodon's wackiest residents; nostalgic ramblings, societal critiques, personal stories, and fictional tales using #videogames as the delivery mechanism.

Issue #2 covers games released in and around December 2000 and features the following titles:

Dark Cloud

Pokemon Crystal

The Bouncer

Rollercoaster Tycoon

Guilty Gear X

Phantasy Star Online

Mobile Suit Gundam: Journey to Jaburo

----BONUS CHAO MINIGAME---- There is a small minigame in this issue; 16 bonus chao (yes, chao from the Sonic series) have been placed throughout the magazine. If you find them all: send me an email/message and I'll place you on the illustrious BONUS CHAO CHAMPION list on the archive!

https://archive.org/details/on-computer-games-monthly-december-2000-magazine

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13971279

On Computer Games Monthly #1

https://archive.org/details/OCGM-1-Nov-2000

I have been working on a passion project for the last two months; a retro games magazine, and it's finally completed! This #zine is a digital celebration of nostalgia; a collective of writers from the federated internet that strives to capture the subjective quality of gaming with stories about life-and-stuff told through the lens of video games. Issue#1 covers November2000 and features: Breath of Fire IV, Counter Strike, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, love letters to the Dreamcast and PlayStation consoles, and much more.

On Computer Games Monthly #1

https://archive.org/details/OCGM-1-Nov-2000

I have been working on a passion project for the last two months; a retro games magazine, and it's finally completed! This #zine is a digital celebration of nostalgia; a collective of writers from the federated internet that strives to capture the subjective quality of gaming with stories about life-and-stuff told through the lens of video games. Issue#1 covers November2000 and features: Breath of Fire IV, Counter Strike, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, love letters to the Dreamcast and PlayStation consoles, and much more.

created this video essay thing based on an essay i wrote for my website.

https://youtu.be/OBFZtIQYiiI?si=LDxjp-lfoh5cJ47s

if you happen to watch, let me know what you think

could post this in the SaGa forum as well but figured this would be a better spot.

covers some of the following:

0:00 (Introduction & Justification)

2:26 (CHAPTER I: History of Final Fantasy Legend II or: Richard Dean Anderson's Haircut in Season 6 of MacGyver)

5:11 (CHAPTER II: Presentation, Setting & Plot or: Smoke Dope, Go Bananas)

7:57 (CHAPTER III: Music or: Is this Emerson, Lake & Palmer?)

11:34 (INTERLUDE or: Artistic Gentrification)

13:15 (CHAPTER IV: Gameplay or: Nintendo Power Nominee for Hardest Game Boy Game of 1990)

20:58 (CONCLUSION or: SAVE THE WORLD or: If Richard Dean Anderson is the Peak 90s Action Celebrity ...)

anyone have distinct memories of their first Final Fantasy or how they got into the series? share them!

as a kid, my parents sent me to live with grandma in Charleston SC every summer. there was an older boy that lived next door, met him while he was fishing in the lake behind my grandma's house. i don't know how it happened but i asked him "do you like games" and he, of course, said "yes" and we went to his house, up to his room, and he showed me his collection of PS1 games. i must have been 10 or 11 at the time.

anyways, he had FF8, which didn't look super interesting to me, but he came over to my grandma's house one day, brought ff8, and he played it on my grandma's huge old-fashioned projector TV (pictured); i remember being immediately entranced with the music; specifically Balamb Garden theme, and my interest in the series immediately increased.

that was my first "experience" with Final Fantasy, later during one of those summers my friend’s friend lent me their Game Boy Camera to “play with for the week,” and I subsequently traded it at the local Babbages for in-store credit (i was a psychopathic kid); these events were significant because thanks to that in-store credit, I was able to purchase a used copy of Final Fantasy 7; and at the time, my brain was immediately drawn to the spiky-haired guy holding a big sword on the cover. i spent the rest of that formative summer playing Final Fantasy 7.