Ask Lyra

I watched this video completely straight faced until it got to “We’re putting it down. Uhwe~h-ugh!“ completely desynchronized to the visual action taking place.

Then I completely lost my [omitted].

I do not remember that from when I watched one of the Shenmue 2 “movie” videos a few years ago.

Okay, so Take Two.

Video games, yes. But I also like thinking of ways I could make a game better. Rebalancing, new mechanics or systems, alternative ways of playing. Call them thought experiments. Includes this.

Music playing, duh. I also like listening to music. Also duh, but somehow I didn’t mentioned it. I also like watching musicians perform, especially off-stage where the spectacle is the artist themselves, not on a bunch of lights or a booming bass. Basically, this. I wish I hadn’t been so selective about reblogging things with this tag early off. There were some good ones I remember on my dash I let slip away.

Writing, yes. In fact I’ve been doing a bit more technical writing on Reddit lately (Warning: Explicit Language). Reviews, specialized retrospectives, and this one style-emulating/spoofing a professional news columnist. Some strict, but self-imposed, timetables to be relevant has forced me to work more consistently. I think it’s been good for me.

Family, of course. I love to hang out with Bon-Bon and I do what I can to help her. And while I might not have much to impart to Liza these days, it’s nice to hear her talk. Simple loves his scratchers and face lick’ems (but not in the nose).

I love to see people being happy. My favorite thing on tumblr is to see other people enjoying themselves (without any level of vindictiveness or spite).

I love seeing people’s drawings (that aren’t violent or sexualized), or talk about something happy, or share a photo. To me, this is what the Like button is for. If you put in your own effort to make some original content (rather than reblog someone else’s) then I want to let you know I appreciate it. Even if it’s just talking about a good day. And if I don’t like your original works, it doesn’t mean I don’t like you. Not all content is made to be consumed by everyone.

I love memes. Off-model Knuckles singing the theme song to M.A.S.H. (which was originally designed to be the stupidest song ever written)? So ridiculous it’s hilarious. Tuesday again? No problem! Wednesday my dudes? aaaaAAAAAAGGGHHHHH (Volume Warning)!

I like to drink sodas. I like food with cheese on it or in it (and Vanilla Strawberry pasties/ice cream). And I like candy corn! In fact I’ve eaten half a bag in less than 24 hours and I need to stop because I’m starting to feel sick.

There are a lot of things that make me feel happy. And things that make me happy are my favorite things!

Note to self: redo last post. Focus on lots of things. Do not dwell on single things.

Keeping things above the waist, of course:

I like video games. Shocking I’m sure. My favorite games typically fall into two categories. Cartoony-style action games, like EDF, the Dynasty Warriors series, and Portal Knights. And then just really by-the-numbers rpg/strategy rpgs where half the battle took place before the fight ever even started. That’s games like SMT: Nocturne, Final Fantasy Tactics, the Front Mission series. And yes, to a lesser extent Pokemon. But really more on the Etrian Odyssey side of things. Like, if Etrian Odyssey 3 didn’t pad its game so terribly with mandatory grinding, that would have been one of my favorite games (and, I mean, the grinding didn’t even make sense it was already a really long game). Pokemon’s largest issue with me is the one-on-one combat. Like, if the series focused on doubles matches I’d own all of them.

Then on very rare occasions you have your customized, environmental puzzle-via-navigation games (which is, like, a sub-genre I just made up). This is where your Deus Ex and Shadowrun series fall- and what makes them so great. Your skillset creates the path forward and not only is there no right answer, you can double back and take a different path too.

Music, of course. I can just jam out and, you know, even if recording it would prove that it sounds awful, I can fill in the gaps in my head and it’ll sound good to me at the time at least. And I might not like practicing a song over and over again. But if I get it done and people like it, then it feels worth it. And I get that’s kinda shallow, you should be doing it for yourself, but isn’t other people liking it the whole point?

Same thing with writing in a more professional format. I don’t like sitting there and checking the first word of each sentence and making sure I’m using varying sentence lengths. But if I post it and people like it then it feels worth it. And then I can go back and reread sections or relisten to sections and go “Yeah! You know what? I did do a good job! I’m proud of that work!“ Instead of wondering, “Was it just posted at a bad time? Did I offend someone? Does it really sound that bad?“

So, as shallow as that might be, I guess that’s my favorite thing. To be appreciated for my work. For the time I spent on something to result in a feeling of accomplishment. And that’s probably why I play video games. To get that feeling when I can’t get it anywhere else, even if it’s just from a group of pixels saying “You Won“ or watching a meter go up.

I like spending time with my family.