Soycrates

Your friendly neighbourhood philosopher interested in ethics and the philosophy of science. Journalist and editor, amateur 3D designer and silly game maker. My posts are about video games, veganism, ethics, journalism, Canadianisms, and life.

[soycrates]

It’s Over, Isn’t It?

It was a long journey, and I had lots of fun here and made lots of memories, but I’m no longer active on this blog! You can find me on Twitter, Twitch, and Medium.

Thanks for being awesome, and see you around!

[soycrates]

Morning, good hunters.

[soycrates]

Tumble into the Abyss of 1980′s Japanese Graphic Adventure Gaming

I haven’t stopped raving about Japanese adventure games from the 80′s for the last couple of days. The trail of this madness is littered all over my twitter right now (no doubt making people wonder “who is this person, what have they done to Soycrates, and why will they not shut up about old games?”) but I thought I should collect/edit it here, in one space, perhaps to contain the wild beast and put it to rest for good. Come down the rabbit hole of PC-88 era fiction with me!

There was a huge boom of sci-fi, cyberpunk and detective graphic adventure games in Japan on the PC-8800 series that deserve to be seen and experienced by a Western audience, and it kills me so few of these have translations. I’ve been cataloging a good dozen of these games this week to search for them later on (and leaving my criteria of what deserves to be on the list loose, hoping not to cut any secret gems from my search), though I am likely to find that the majority of the games on my list have not yet, nor ever will be, translated for an English audience.

Some of these games were lucky enough to make the PC-console jump over to the Nintendo Famicom. But as the NES gained popularity in North America, it seems games like these had died off, become fringe, were judged not profitable for a global market perhaps. The force behind narrative-based adventure games that featured science fiction, mystery, thriller, and cyberpunk had arguably migrated from the interactive platform and into a safer environment of animation and manga.

Worldwide, the gaming market was drifting away from welcoming story-telling as a viable form of mainstream, profitable interactive entertainment: technology had pushed the boundaries of gaming far enough to enable what would become some of the most beloved action-platformer and shooter games of all time, such as Contra, Super Mario Bros, and Metroid. The 90′s would see the steady progression of platformers and the palpable rise of the First Person Shooter.

Back before Enix merged with SquareSoft, they were a pretty prominent publisher of this discarded genre (I’ve even previously written about one of these! It was an Enix sci-fi adventure game named Jesus: Dreadful Bio-Monster) although their acknowledgement of these games today - especially for the global market - is basically non-existent as they grew to focus on the RPG format for their games with story elements. Stories had not necessarily left gaming, as many who have played early RPGs will attest - but they had taken on an altogether different form, one interspersed between tactical combat rounds and item fetch quests than trees of dialogue and point-and-click era detective work.

One of the most popular examples of this kind of early adventure game - taking more cues from film than from RPG storytelling methods - comes from outside of Enix: none other than Konami's cult classic Snatcher, written by Hideo Kojima. Snatcher - originally released in 1988 for the PC-8801 and MSX2 computers - was not released to an American audience until its port to the Sega CD in 1994, based on the 1992 remake for the TurboGrafx-16 SuperSystem.  Snatcher is beloved now, especially by Kojima fact-finders and superfans, but the sale of the NA-available Sega CD version is considered to be a commercial failure. It is only speculation, although entirely possible, that this failure could have in part contributed to the diminished production of sci-fi inspired adventure games, being taken as a sign of the West’s disinterest in the graphic adventure game format.

Which is a crying shame, because this is in my humble opinion one of the most imaginative and wild eras of gaming. Think of the weirdest story and you’ll get weirder when you dive into a pool of 80′s graphic adventure games. For example...

In 1986, a JP software house (that joined SquareSoft the same year) produced a mystery-adventure game filled with Casablanca references, time travel, and murder. It stars reporter Jerry Randolph, who uses a time machine to track down the killer of her old friend's scientist father. Pictured above in a field of green is Jerry herself, flanked by a time machine on her right and (what I presume is) the scientist on the left. The game is called Casablanca ni Ai o: Satsujin-sha wa Jikū o Koete, which with my best attempt tells me translates to Love of Casablanca: The Killer Across Space-Time or otherwise phrased Love of Casablanca: The Murderer Beyond Time and Space (While I have done translations of romanized japanese text from the 2015 FromSoft video game Bloodborne, I am very bad at this and bad at catching nuance).

Nevertheless, it does not follow any of the events of the film Casablanca despite so prominently featuring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman on the cover and in the title sequence. It's genuinely just a time-travel murder mystery starring a female reporter as its protagonist. The game may even have its spot in progressive/feminist video game history annals: it released the same year as the very first Metroid game, often touted as one of the first playable female lead/protagonists in video games alongside Toby Masuyo (nicknamed ”Kissy”) from the 1985 shooter Baraduke. Jerry may easily be the first female protagonist outside of the sidescrolling platformer.

But with so many games that disappear into the fabric of history, just as many of these adventure games have, who’s to say?

[soycrates]

[soycrates]

DS3′s Ruined Boss

As much as I hate to say it, I think as time passes DS3 is becoming my least favourite Soulsborne game. The other games have plenty of faults, but DS3 might feel the least inspired to me now. Now, I remember being pretty disappointed when DS2 came out, and I didn’t have that huge of a letdown with DS3, but I’m slowly breaking through those initial conceptions and developing longer lasting impressions.

I still enjoy it and love plenty of parts of DS3, so it's not to say it fell there because I started disliking it. As mechanically boring and empty as I found DS2 (especially SOTFS), stylistically it took a lot of interesting risks, and followed through on those risks. An example of how I think DS3 tried to do something weird and ethereal but backed out last second for whatever reason: Oceiros is SUPPOSED to be holding a baby. They didn't bother to change or alter his model after they took the baby out. So now his pose looks... wrong?

We can make whatever lore excuse we want for Oceiros' pose, like "oh the baby is invisible! how spooky!" but we gotta admit there's just this WHOLE boss in DS3 whose aesthetic is based around sadly carrying a child and screeching about it. And they removed the centerpiece of that. I genuinely think Oceiros’ shouldn’t be in DS3 and he’s just used as boss-padding, a convenient transition between levels. And yeah, almost every other Soulsborne game has that! (Though I’m hard pressed to say exactly which boss in Bloodborne could be considered filler - they’re all pretty fantastic, and the ones that aren’t ranked as highly still don’t feel like they were just thrown in between levels. The Witches of Hemwick probably?)

A small part of me feels like they might have had to take Oceiros' baby away because one of his animations is literally SLAMMING the baby into the ground, and someone told them they couldn't do that. But hear me out 

 LET FROMSOFT FUCKIN' BODY A NEWBORN CHILD

[allthecanadianpolitics]

why do so many on the left oppose pipelines if they're gonna create tons of high paying union jobs and create tons of revenue for the government to spend on programs?

Fact: The largest private sector union in Canada, Unifor, opposes the Kinder Morgan Pipeline expansion, because it will not create many jobs and will put many good paying jobs in BC at risk:

Unifor Says Pipeline Expansion Is Short-Sighted

Major energy worker union opposes Kinder Morgan pipelineUnifor comes out against Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion

Also I have no idea where you are getting ‘high paying union jobs’ from? This pipeline project will create 50 permanent, direct jobs. The thousands of jobs touted by the company are all precarious, temporary construction jobs.

[soycrates]

I don’t know why they’d bother with something like gender on the night of the hunt.

“Are you a man or a woman?”

“I’m a hunter.”

“No, I mean, what’s in your pants?”

“The Old Blood.”

[corgiteatime]

You’re joking but the official Bloodborne comic goes pretty much like that. Issue #2 to be exact.

[soycrates]

[pictured above, from left to right, top row first: coconut jelly lychee drink, red bean yokan, ginger lemon candies, mini almond cakes, variety mochi, seaweed and sesame dough twists]

Last year, I posted a few cool finds for vegan-friendly Japanese snacks. This year I’m expanding that list outside of Japan with to include all the awesome vegan candies and snacks you can find from Taiwan, China, Malaysia and elsewhere throughout east and south-east Asia. Check out my rounded-up selection of traditional and modern sweets, treats, savoury snacks, and drinks!

Classic Candies: suwa shoten golden plum candy // ameyasan matcha candy // gold kili ginger lemon candy 

The ginger lemon candy (from Singapore) is almost always stocked at my local food market, and I love them! Ginger-spicy, lemon-chewy, and a gentle powdered sugar coating. I could eat these for the rest of my life.

Sweet Cakes: sankio husband cakes // sankio sweetheart cakes // yuki & love green tea mochi // yuki & love peanut mochi // huihuang osmanthus cake // favor desserts walnut nougat cakes

The first two options are simple variations on a light pastry stuffed with winter melon, with a cute traditional Chinese tale behind them. Yuki & Love’s basic mochi are all vegan, so if green tea or peanut isn’t your jam, you can also check out the taro or black sesame varieties. 

Bite-Sized Treats: dainagon shiro yokan (sweet bean jellies) // chimes toasted coconut hard toffee // chio heong yuen mini almond cakes

Chinese almond and walnut cakes are quite commonly vegan, consisting mainly of bean flour, sugar, vegetable oil, and nuts. They’re somewhat like a shortbread cookie in nature, but a little less sweet, less packed and more crumbly.

The Chimes hard toffees, hailing from malaysia, will be a welcome treat for those who’ve tried cocomels (the soft vegan caramels) but want a hard variety.

Hard-Candied Wonderland: uha rose vitamin candy (second source) // kasugai roasted coffee candy

A lot of popular rose and coffee flavoured candies (hard and gummy) either contain gelatin or milk (or both!) so these are some particularly great finds. Not only that, but the roasted coffee candy reviews especially well as tasting like a real, intense cup of coffee! Both these flavours are a little more refined than your average soda or fruit gummy, so you can indulge without feeling like a kindergarten kid.

Salty Snacks: joytofu bbq-flavoured bean curd (second source) // wangfu seaweed and sesame dough twists // wulama vegetarian beef meatball skewers // lonely god tomato-flavoured potato twists // calbee x haitai baked rice snacks

While my sweet tooth is bigger than my salty snack craving, I still absolutely love the intense variety of dried bean curd/tofu snacks there are on the market. Go take a look at the wulama meatball skewers and tell me you aren’t instantly hungry. I first tried these when I noticed the quirky mascot on the packaging, a lady after my own heart who seems to spend most of her time gaming or sleeping. 

Post-Candy Quenchers: hoyjun white peach soda // mogu mogu fruit and coconut jelly drink (lychee flavour pictured above) // matcha love sweetened green tea // kimura ramune soda (strawberry flavour pictured above) // pocari sweat sports drink (second source, korean label)

I tried the white peach soda recently, despite not being personally big on peach as a fruit. It is so delicious and gentle that I know I’m going to get it at least once a month from now on! The Mogu Mogu fruit drink comes with little chunks of coconut jelly in it, which will be familiar to those who already drink aloe or grass jelly drinks, but I’ve always found jelly bits in my drink to be a funny novelty, like the ramune soda bottles and their distinctive glass marble seal. Pocari Sweat is a huge Japanese brand of electrolyte drinks, and if you’re lucky you might even nab the strange jelly pack version of it. I’ll stick to the refreshing liquid version that helps me after a hangover!

If you have any favourites not on this list, feel free to reblog and add them!

[philosophybits]

There is no creature whose inward being is so strong that it is not greatly determined by what lies outside it.

George Eliot, Middlemarch (via philosophybits)

[soycrates]

I had pictures of books I borrowed from the library, and pictures of high school friends, and high school bands. I had pictures of the gravel road on the way to the corner store, and the sock monkeys we made when I was in the hospital, and the autographed Kim Thayil guitar up on the wall. I have photos of the city I don’t even remember taking. And you bet I had lots of pictures of my cat. I took pictures of the aftermath of the first D&D game I ever ran, and when you two played chess with the chess set given to me by my grandmother. 

There’s blurry shots of the wee foster dog we took care of, and my bizarre Halloween costumes. The year I was a raven and went to an Edgar Allan Poe themed bar. Of the first things I ever 3D printed. The summer we were strolling along and I stopped to take a picture with a Darth Vader cosplayer. And just, I have to repeat, so many pictures of my cat. Who can blame me? He’s my best friend, and he’s a real cutie.

I have almost nothing of you. You liked it that way and I thought that didn’t bother me, until it did. 

[soycrates]

A quote from Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations that I’ve had in mind recently. 

[soycrates]

“What are the best baby games, for babies? Silly babies.”

I'm browsing an AskReddit thread, because I’m burning through multiplayer games on the PS4 like crazy (Vermintide, Destiny 2, CoD WWII, Overwatch, Diablo 3, Dark Souls 3, Bloodborne, Monster Hunter: World, A Way Out). But the question asked isn't "great games for 2 people to play together", it's "the best 2 player games to play with a significant other". Top comments full of "great games for inexperienced players" and I'm not left wondering why "easy" games are recommended on this list.

I'll be charitable - there are lots of guys who believe their girlfriends are just really not into video games, and are bad at a lot of games, and they might be right (though there are definitely times I've seen guys say "yeah, my girlfriend doesn't really like video games" when what they mean is they try to shove a genre on her she doesn't like, and then ignore the genres in gaming she does like). Personally, I can't imagine being this into gaming and choosing a spouse who knows nothing about it, but different strokes for different folks. I just wish their experiences with their inexperienced gaming SO's didn't taint the whole conversation and take priority whenever someone mentions playing games "with their girlfriend". We're out here in 2018, folks, we gotta stop pretending girls never liked video games.

I guess I'm also just really creeped out by the culture that says "Aw look! My girlfriend is bad at video games! Isn't that soo cutie-wootie?" The way we talk about women who are bad at video games is essentially the way we talk about children or pets. "I just gave her the controller and even though she didn't know she was aiming in the wrong direction, she had fun! Isn't that adorable?" No, it's just kind of weird. She's an adult, just tell her!

[soycrates]

I love my local library so much, I’d love to get more involved with it this year. I’ve only used the 3D printing services in the Maker Space on the top floor once or twice (I usually just use online services like Shapeways) and I think it’d do me some good to experiment some more with the basic materials they have in stock.

Rich or poor, young or old, going to a good library can make you feel so enriched. I’m such a hermit these days, but there’s something different about seeing people in a library. Everyone’s friendlier, everyone’s busy reading or working or playing, growing their minds and hearts.

📚✨

[soycrates]

Hiring Women in Competitive Gaming

You say "people should be hired based on skill, not gender", and you believe that the system is fine, nothing needs to change - i.e. that people are already hired based on skill, not gender.

But there are virtually no women in major (non-gender segregated) esports teams. So, if people are hired based on skill alone, and no women are hired, this implies that virtually no women were skilled enough to be hired. "Skilled enough" simply means equal or better than the worst competitive team in the scene, since the worst competitive team was obviously skilled enough to be hired.

That would mean you believe women are, as a whole, not skilled enough (or as skilled as men) to participate in competitive esports, and by extension, you believe that no women are as skilled as, or better than, even the worst competitive team.

When people - especially people in the commercial decision-making roles involved in the scene - believe implicitly that women, as a whole, are not skilled enough, they (consciously or not) use this belief as a metric when hiring competitors. Our beliefs shape our actions, they shape our inclinations and practices so that we do what we think is best in any given situation.

Because of this belief, fewer women will be hired, regardless of their actual skill level. People will not be hired "based on skill as opposed to gender", but instead with a gender bias influencing their hiring practices.

The system needs to change, especially if people like you think we don't need to be having these conversations.

[soycrates]

Daniel Handler’s Handlers  – Medium

How an author, acting with less tact and maturity than his young readers, managed to amass a reputation of juvenile, sexually charged, and…

In 2014, Daniel Handler encouraged an audience of his peers to find it funny — ironic even — that the African-American, award-winning children’s novelist Jacqueline Woodson was allergic to watermelons. Handler felt comfortable in assuming that his audience would laugh at the idea of a black woman being allergic to watermelons because of the racial stereotype.

Does this make you uncomfortable? It made me uncomfortable, confused, and embarrassed, even after learning of the reparations and apology Handler offered following the incident. Woodson, who responded with nothing short of immense strength, grace, and wisdom after the event, “was astonished when he brought this up before the National Book Award audience — in the form of a wink-nudge joke about being black.”

This incident is why I thought I was seeing Handler’s name dragged into the discussion of sexually charged harassment in the children’s literature community, because of an event in 2014 that was racist in nature. This incident was, incidentally, not why I was seeing his name in this discussion, and “the watermelon joke” only served as a harbinger for the further revelation: I had never known who Daniel Handler was. His audience has largely been insulated from his personality; intentionally and methodically insulated over the years. Handler’s comments concerning Woodson were, to me, only The Bad Beginning in an unfolding series of very unfortunate events to come — but much like his novels, these sordid stories told by women in the children’s lit world have helped educate me. I can never regret reading them.

I’ve written an article concerning comments about Daniel Handler that have surfaced as the children’s literature community continues its frank discussion about sexual harassment. Handler’s novels were important to me as a child, and I’ve come to find that who this author really was had been meticulously kept a secret from kids like me so that we might read and continue to enjoy reading. A lot of work went into “handling” Daniel Handler’s inappropriate personality.

[soycrates]

Things I’d Like

I’d like to be better at making new friends. I’m often worried that I will be the quietly weird one, not weird in a way that’s enigmatic or entertaining, not weird in a way that stands out; just weird. I think I’ll say something awkward enough for people to remember they’re not really into me but nothing important enough for them to remember what it was I said to make them feel that way. Beyond my insecurity I want to be better at conveying my interest in knowing others completely and intimately, not just a surface-level acquaintance but a lifelong friend, someone who just “is” a part of your life, always is and will be, and exists as a constant. And at the same time, not come on that strong?

I’d like to encourage myself rather than feeling as if self-care and self-direction weren’t important. Whenever I think about doing something good for myself, there is another facet of myself that responds how pointless the activity is. It doesn’t matter what direction the action leans in; if I want to eat salad to be healthier I tell myself it won’t make a difference, if I want to eat a hot load of fries covered in gravy to feel comforted I end up telling myself I shouldn’t fall into a trend of poor-eating. If I want to take a walk and see some flowers I tell myself I have chores to do; if I want to do chores I tell myself there’s going to just be another mess later anyway. Life goes on, I don’t know why I can’t let myself have the choices that make me happy - if the reason I stop myself is “because nothing matters”, then it should follow that I have no reason to stop myself.

I like feeling appreciated and trusted; when someone says they love or care about me, I’d like to believe it. It could be a lie, or it could change over time, but I don’t have any control over whether or not they truly care. If I try to constantly create safety nets for myself in case I lose them and feel lost, I end up spending a lot of time just making some pretty shitty nets I’ll never use.

I like the spring, I would like to get better at seeing it, being in it.

I like poetry, I should remember to indulge in it when I can.

[soycrates]

A Year For Gaming

For the first time practically ever, I have such a huge backlog of games I need to play that I actually have access to! Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, Gravity Rush 1 and 2, Call of Duty: WWII, Ape Escape 2, Prey, and Diablo 3 mainly. I already started Ape Escape 2 on a whim for stream, which I should finish up before I move onto another game.

On top of that, the Overwatch League has recently started, and catching every match is consuming a lot of my time, but I’m excited for it and want to be able to follow the series myself and find my favourite players. I already have a huge doc filled with clips of some of my favourite plays from the first round of matches.

It’s a year for completing and competing games, and I couldn’t be more excited. It’s a good thing that 2018 doesn’t promise to be as packed with new releases as 2017 was, because I still have so much catching up to do.