Comments 136

Re: "He Was Giddy" - Even Lord British Has Succumbed To The Allure Of GenAI

Ruka

@Damo
"You don't need GenAI to make your talent shine through - the past has proven that beyond doubt"

I'd like to rephrase this.

@LordBritish you don't need AI because you actually have talent. Most people using AI for stuff like game dev are doing so precisely because they lack the thing that you have, and even with the aid of AI their "creations" don't come anywhere close to what you were able to accomplish all by yourself decades ago.

Re: "He Was Giddy" - Even Lord British Has Succumbed To The Allure Of GenAI

Ruka

These posts are annoying because the comment section always turns out like this:

People who don't like AI: "Video games are a creative medium so I wish that developers would innovate and introduce new ideas and mechanics rather than automating the creation of the game with a machine that just recycles what already exists and doesn't do a good job at it. Also it's not good for the environment."

People who like AI or just don't like people who don't like AI: "POLITICS! POLITICS! POLITICS! Everyone who doesn't like AI is a COMMUNIST!!! AI IS ACTUALLY REALLY GOOD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT BY THE WAY!! Nothing original has ever been produced before!"

Re: "He Was Giddy" - Even Lord British Has Succumbed To The Allure Of GenAI

Ruka

@LordBritish there's nothing wrong with experimenting with new technologies, but as a person trying to sell a product you also have to know who your audience is and cater to them a little bit. If your audience doesn't like generative AI then don't use it, it's that simple. This should be good advice regardless of anyone's views on AI. Know your customer.

Re: Sega CD Shadowrun's English Translation Was Developed Using AI

Ruka

@81632bit literally everyone is wired to learn languages. You brought up math and science, but those topics can be reduced to critical thinking and logical reasoning, which everyone is wired for. Outcomes will differ based on various factors such as the quality of the educational material, the ability (or lack thereof) of the teacher, and even seemingly unrelated factors like if the student got enough sleep the night prior or ate a good breakfast. But the sinole fact is, with the exception of people who have legitimate mental disorders or deficiencies, everyone is wired for critical thinking and logical reasoning.

But language is neither critical thinking nor logical reasoning. In fact, it's much easier, and linguists insist that not only is everyone wired for it but also that everyone learns it the same way.

Re: Want To Learn Japanese? Retro Games Are Your Friend

Ruka

I'm in my thirties and have been living in Japan since I was a teenager, and I play games exclusively in Japanese (except for the rare occasion where I might play a Western game). There is some good information in this article.

Speaking from my own personal experience, I think modern games are better for learning. Something like the Famicom Detective Club remake, Dragon Quest HD2D remake, or any of the plethora of visual novels released over the past 20 years will be infinitely more helpful to a new learner than something like an old SNES RPG. Those retro games are absolutely worth it when you reach that level, and it's highly rewarding to be able to play them in Japanese, but if you're still figuring things out it's better to play newer stuff (in my opinion) because it's much easier. That is to say, maybe let your first few games in Japanese be something relatively modern.

That being said, I think you should treat games as a supplement and nothing more. It's much better to learn from books, and then use games (along with TV) as a fun way to relax in the language when you're not reading a book. But reading novels should be your absolute top priority as that's where most of your gains will come from. You CAN use games as your main learning material (lots of people do this with visual novels), but learning is much faster with novels, and then you can use games purely for enjoyment.

Also don't get hooked on Anki. It's a helpful tool but it's not something to obess over and it can easily burn you out and ruin learning for you. Do not waste your time on vocab mining.

All of that being said, I can't agree enough on Game Center CX, as well as the many manga and anime based on games and other media. Just as I love playing games in Japanese, I'm always looking forward to the latest episode of GCCX, and I have manga based on various games in my collection like Zelda and Rockman EXE. Reading old issues of Famitsu is a lot of fun, and I also really enjoy all of the retro gaming related mook's being published these days, such as the Perfect Catalog series that's mentioned in the article. This week I just picked up a book on the history of fighting games which is from the same author. Like the author of this article, I also have a collection of guidebooks sitting beside my MOOK collection. I also like some anime based on old games, like the Sonic OVA from Studio Piero. Consuming all of that media, as well as playing games, was very beneficial for my learning.

If you want an easy (retro) RPG for a beginner, check out Rockman EXE.

Re: Popular Retro Gaming Variety Show, Game Center CX, Lifts Ban On PS3 & Nintendo Wii Games

Ruka

@Arcadia_Official they played Steel Battalion with the full cockpit control panel and they rented out a theater so that Arino could feel like he was piloting a real mech while he played.

The show "ignores" Xbox because nobody in Japan owns (or owned) an Xbox and it's a TV show focused on nostalgic games that people played in their youth.

The show has so much "ultra-Japanese sentiment" that they film specials where they visit other countries to show what the retro gaming scene is like there. Cool it with the racism.

Re: Popular Retro Gaming Variety Show, Game Center CX, Lifts Ban On PS3 & Nintendo Wii Games

Ruka

@gmar it's on Fuji's CS channel just as it has always been. It's also on FOD, but idk if that includes new episodes or if it's just older content, I've never subscribed to that so idk how it works. And of course there's the DVD sets too. Recently they also put some content on TVer which is free. During the anniversary they did a YouTube channel too, it's not super active anymore but they did keep it around in some capacity because it was popular.

Re: Popular Retro Gaming Variety Show, Game Center CX, Lifts Ban On PS3 & Nintendo Wii Games

Ruka

@gmar GCCX predates those consoles by a few years. PS2 and Gamecube were the latest consoles when the show started. Not sure what you mean about the show being a relic of the past though, it's pretty popular and they routinely fill entire stadiums for live events. Every time they have an event they have to get a bigger stadium because the show is that popular. The original even at Nippon Budokan only drew 7000 people, but the 2023 even at Saitama Super Stadium drew 15,000 people. I was there, it was packed, every seat was full and tickets were sold via lottery. Lots of fans traveled from across the country just to attend. To say that a show which can pull those kinds of crowds is a relic of the past that's in danger of getting cancelled is just out of touch.

As for the game, why would a game based on a Japanese TV show be released in other countries where the show doesn't air, or on platforms that aren't popular in the country where the show does air? If you want it released overseas then petition for a company to pick up the rights and localize it like what happened with the original DS game 20 years ago. Bandai certainly isn't going to do it today, just as they didn't do it at that time.

@Arcadia_Official what's up with the racism? Xbox isn't popular anywhere in the world and has never been popular in Japan because Microsoft didn't built strong enough relationships with local developers and never did anything to appeal to the local market. They built a small niche in the 360 era because of a minor attempt at providing software that appeals to the Japanese market, but their hardware was garbage and it ruined that attempt. And none of their consoles after that were popular anywhere.

Re: Popular Retro Gaming Variety Show, Game Center CX, Lifts Ban On PS3 & Nintendo Wii Games

Ruka

@Penguinpengy no that makes a lot of sense actually. Things didn't just change overnight, it took a generation. 5th gen is the last gen where arcade games were still prevalent and had an influence on game design, the last gen where it was expected by default that the people you play with were in the same room as you, and the last gen where games were fully offline.

7th gen is the first gen where online was not only normal but being connected online was the default. Arcades were long dead and their influence on game design had long since passed, and it was now expected that the people were were playing with were in another location.

6th gen was a weird period of transition. Arcade games dropped off in popularity, the last game console based on arcade hardware came and went, and every console in that generation introduced modems and online play, but not everyone had one and not everyone went online. DLC became a thing, as did patches (on console) which started to change how games are developed, etc.

What you said makes absolutely perfect sense.