Yay E3. My opinions in particular can be rather baseless, but they’re opinions and I’m not trying to persuade otherwise. This E3 was a joke. The only person who seemed comfortable with themselves on the stage was Cliff Bleszinski. Oh, and I almost forgot Mr. ‘Kevin Butler’, but he’s just silly. (In a good way.)

First off, I’m already miffed at Nintendo flaunting how much crap they’ve sold. You can watch the Nintendo conference anywhere – just google it or go ahead and visit your favorite site for gaming media. They’ve sold more? Good for them. I couldn’t care less if they sold 15 million more units than the PS3. But aside from that, the Nintendo conference had Reggie and his fellow corporate buddies speaking to me like I was an idiot. Sure – they have to speak to an audience with a wide range of journalists and just.. people. The way they spoke and delivered their wares seemed that there had to be some applause after everything they said. I felt annoyed after watching the Nintendo conference, uninterested with Microsoft, and angry at Sony. And the 3DS announcement was underwhelming; please get an English speaking person next time, Nintendo. Even then, I don’t think that would have improved it, so I’ll count my blessings for now.

The only thing that made me happy from the Sony conference was Portal 2, and Gabe’s few opening statements were pretty funny. And as much as I may be excited to see another Dead Space 2, I was hoping for a different game. It wasn’t in the conference, but I’m also on the lookout for FFXIV, since I’ve played FFXI and actually stuck with it for a while to realize it’s probably the best Final Fantasy game I’ve ever played.

And meh to Microsoft. Please enjoy the picture of Sakuya watching Ryuu getting his arse kicked.

-maserbeam

The image above is of the “new” Hatsune Miku designed by Crypton Future Media which graced the cover of the box for the virtual idol’s second release entitled “CV01 Hatsune Miku Append”. Crypton is widely accepted to be the leader in the VOCALOID world when it comes to vocal quality and merchandising, so when Crypton made the unexpected announcement that they would be changing the pictures for all of their characters with the new releases, people were generally displeased.

It is not the fact that the image has changed that makes this so big a deal, it’s the principle of the matter. Put simply, Crypton made an unforgivable mistake. They forgot that their entire operation is 100% community-driven. In the VOCALOID world, making a change in what a character looks like is tantamount to changing the words to a national anthem. It’s true that it may not be that big of a deal on the outside, but it changes the heart and soul of the thing. Crypton’s decision to change what Miku looks like came without researching how the community would react, and now they feel the consequences. Sales of Hatsune Miku Append, though expected to be high due to very advanced technology and sound-quality, came short of what was expected and now Crypton has some serious decisions to make.

The main problem VOCALOID fans now face is, “Which one is the right one?”, and to a lesser extent, “what about the old images?” Crypton’s misguided move has possibly made tens of thousands of fan-created images incorrect, and more than this actually causes damage, it makes the community feel less attached to Miku, which is terrible news for Crypton indeed, given that their largest income comes straight from the people’s love for the virtual singer.

I understand that playing hardball in the business world is necessary, especially when it involves idols (virtual or not). But this is not the normal business world; this is a business that took off after a joke video that became an internet meme, and is supported entirely by a cult following. There is really no margin for error.

For now, the question remains unanswered, “Does this mark the beginning of the end for Crypton and Miku?” Possibly yes, and possibly no. Crypton still has enough income to stay afloat after a haphazard mistake like this, but if they continue with their previously-stated plan to re-design all of their VOCALOID characters, who knows what could happen?

Close-up of the new “Hatsune Miku Append” Figure

-Koda-P

When hearing Japanese from various sources,  you can eventually listen in on the language itself. I call this listening comprehension. The better you get at listening comprehension, the more the words form separately in your head. This mostly leads to actually understanding the words itself as opposed to a foreign language being unintelligible technobabble.  An obvious source for many people is anime. But can anime alone be enough to improve listening comprehension?

That’s inconceivable!

-maserbeam

This article is the first in a series that we hope may bring new light to a question everyone is asking about the eerie-yet-endearing Japanese RPG Maker game, Yume Nikki.

“What is Yume Nikki trying to tell us?”

Our All-encompassing Theory Explained

To begin, a few important things should be addressed: 1) This series obviously contains major spoilers about the plot of Yume Nikki. It is best to finish the game completely before reading this, or to watch one of the many walk-throughs available on YouTube or NicoNico Douga. 2) Since the true nature of the game can only be speculated upon, this has been titled as a theory, rather than an explanation. These ideas are merely the observations and connections made by the staff here at maserbeam dot com and should only be taken as such, regardless of how chillingly-correct and insightful they may be. 3) If you subscribe to the theory that the game is just weird for the sake of weirditude, then you have no imagination and should not be playing Yume Nikki.

Open the diary?

-Koda-P

In the image above, there’s a trap. It’s the left most character in the light green sports bra. Why else would I use a header like “There’s a trap in my soup”?

In the past few years, there been an emerging population of trap characters almost every season. A large population will watch these series and fall into this trap. A typical reaction: “Wow, what a feminine character. She’s so cute, I’d fap to her. What you say! Oh god no.” Reminds me of my first experience with it. But first, there are some people who haven’t encountered a trap and don’t know what it is.

No, really. What did you say?

-maserbeam