Remembering the Day We Lost Ryan Davis

It's been exactly one year since Ryan passed. I remember that day for something horrific happening in proximity to me. I take two buses to get to work and on that day at the 2nd bustop the stoop that I typically wait on was occupied by some teenage girls talking to a friend of theirs' who was standing on the sidewalk. I didn't think anything of it at the time so I just sat somewhere else. Without warning a 3 car accident happens right in front of me. I was miraculously unscathed and the girls on the stoop were nearly pinned by a car, but one of the drivers and the girl standing on the sidewalk died shortly thereafter. Had I been where I normally sat at the stop my legs surely would have been crushed or worse I may have died.

Sufficed to say there was a heavy weight hanging over me for the next day or so. I felt as though I was spared but that my karma had to claim something from me. I needed something to take my mind off of what I had seen so I went to Giant Bomb that Monday, stoked to see what they had planned, and that's when the news hits. Now I don't feel responsible for it going down the way it did and this could just be me trying to look for meaning in something so senseless as death. But it really instills how impossibly tragic a day like that is. You have a girl who hasn't even gotten the chance to become an adult and a man who was beloved and who reached an apex of happiness by his last dying breath.

So how can I find hope in something so dismal? Well I keep coming back to Giant Bomb and there was still content being made. I mean say what you will about the quality or quantity but these guys were making it happen. I kept having a smile on my face when I come to this website every week and every time I think about Ryan Davis I have a smile on my face. I'm never going to forget that dude because he helped build an awesome website where I can see all his greatest work both on and off camera. It may not be the same without him but it's always got something to keep me coming back. It's an experimental phase that's happening right now but I have to believe that dudes like Vinny and Jeff have some great ideas on how to make things bigger and better.

Today I plan on watching some videos and listening to podcasts featuring Ryan. I'll probably just be listening to Pretty Angry. If I had the know-how I'd totally make a tribute video for Ryan to that song.


Television as a theme of fighting games

With all this Person 4 Arena talk on the site I had a question come to my mind. Are their many fighting games with story lines that revolve around "Television" as the theme? I can think of at least one game on the PS1 called Evil Zone. It had kind of a junky fighting system where the success of your attacks were based on the distance between the characters on screen. The characters were some of the most generic anime characters designs I've ever seen. What was interesting about the game was in how it differentiated the story modes between characters. Every single 'episode' of the story mode starts with like a preview of the fight where you would get a slide show of static images from the upcoming fight. What was interesting is that every character did a voice over during this preview of the fight you're about to have and each one felt like kind of a different style of TV show.

The mightiest hero! Danzavier!
The mightiest hero! Danzavier!

Though each was presented differently I can think of the 3 that stood out in my memories of playing this old 3D title. One was a dude named Danzavier who was just a typical Zentai style costumed hero who was basically spitting talk about how he spots the next fighter doing evil and how he's going to stop him. The dude was so over the top with stuff about him being the greatest hero of all time. The voice acting throughout was kind of bad but I imagine this dude was going for it.

I think by
I think by "character" they meant "occupation".

Another one I remember is Linedwell Rainrix who basically just had some guitars shred while you see the fight preview and then it posts the name of the 'episode' and you just hear the voice actor read the episode name aloud. It was kind of hilarious how pointless and cheap it was to produce that character's story mode. In the end the dude was just a typical goth character who talks to his sword Sha'Hal and cuts people with his sword Sha'Hal. Finally I remember Keiya Tenpouin who was essentially doing a dating advice talk show for every character he fought. It was kind of surreal to hear a dialogue about the intimacy problems of all these dumb anime characters and him acting all calm and collective before he goes and beats the crap of the person he's talking to.

The "love doctor" is in.

There are others that don't stick out much in my mind. One was like a soap opera. Another was like a romantic comedy. Another was a fantasy adventure. The reason I bring this game up is because the idea of the stories being presented as TV shows reminds me a lot of Persona 4 the RPG. Specifically when you delve into a cruel broadcast being produced by the shadows of the protagonists. I can't help but wonder if the P4 fighting game shares this methodology in it's storytelling. Is Chie more of a comedy while Yukiko more of a Soap opera? Or is it trying to capture the emulation of the Persona verse without playing up the theme of Television. Well perhaps I should have played it before I actually brought up the similarities but I would really like to know if more fighting games embrace the TV show.


Take 5

I ate my first Take5 bar ever today.  They're pretty damn good.  I like chocolate pretzels so I really don't know what took me so long to try these.


Quest Completed

Seriously no one reads blogs anymore.  Also I find twittering or "micro-blogging" to be disgusting.  I understand its a useful networking tool (especially for press coverage) but seriously, people are going to get dumber if they read too much into that crap.