h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm pretty certain I shan't have time to do much seeking out of leads relating to my comments about gaming before the university term ends and I return to my internet-connection-less home, but I can provide a few suggestions.

Regarding PSX otakuism, I quote the following from Raijin Game & Anime #13: 'Even within Japan, the land of its origin,only a handful of game enthusiasts is familiar with the title known as Gunparade March, and all of them are hardcore gamers.Originally made available in September 2000, this game made for the first PlayStation was bereft of any advertising whatsoever when it was released. However, thanks to word-of-mouth that was effectively spread over the Internet by individuals who had discovered the game, it eventually attained a respectable core following of hardcore fans, even going so far as to attain the Award for Excellence at the 2001 CESA (Japanese game awards show)... . For all its acclaim, however, Gunparade March remains a cult hit in status, and fans of the title are so passionate about it that they are prone to discussing it in hard detail at any given opportunity.'

Any attempt to search for the title using a search engine is likely to produce information on the anime spin-off only (at least as far as the English language is concerned), but I'm not really suggesting that you refer to this game anyway; I'm just trying to show that the PSX story is more complex than Sony's own advertising would suggest.

There's also the presence of Final Fantasy VII - IX on the PSX; and while not every player of Final Fantsay is by any means a hardcore gamer, the series has no shortage pf fans prepared to spend hours debating the J = L Theory (the infamous -- because it sparked off such a lengthy debate -- theory that FF7's Jenova and Lucretia were in some sense one and the same).

Of course, a lot of the above points (especially the Gunparade March ones) relate primarily to Japan. Not exclusively, however; the J = L debate was an English-language one.

Owing to the fact that the Xbox lacks hardcore appeal outside Japan (where PC gaming is itself a specialist hobby), I'm afraid I couldn't really find anything suitable in the time I had available. I am led to believe that the console has something of a specialist status there, but digging out evidence either for or against this assertion looks likely to take a while.

On a related note, don't forget about the PC gamers; anyone spending hours not only playing games but also getting to grips with the more complex level editors out there probably qualifies as a member of at least one of the categories mentioned. Not to mention modders, especially total conversion creators.

Then there are the retro gaming enthusiasts. I mean the ones who go back further than the NES, and in many cases still own the ancient classics and the original hardware.

I may find time to seek out some Web links for you, but I can't guarantee that I shall be able to. It depends on how quickly I get my Excel Saga Entry ready to upload; I'm trying to finish the section on the anime before the end of term. Cover the 25 episodes, cover the other one, and tonzura koite.

Oh, and you might try a Google search for 'Jeff Minter'.

Hey folks,

I couldn't add anything valuable to this discussion, being a) non-English and b) nearly 40, but what I wanted to say is this: top entry.

I agree, though, that the intro is a bit on the lame side, and the links have to be fixed. Other than that, there's nothing that couldn't be done during subbing.

SchrEck Inc.

some updates have been made, more are on their way.

"Though generally used in a derogatory sense, *the many of the qualities associated with dorks are becoming increasingly desirable" -- lose a "the" there

"someone who is intelligent, sober, and who prefers more cerebral pastimes" -- I would say "intelligent and sober, and who prefers" but perhaps you wouldn't.

You need to lose the spaces after "Black Sabbath ."

"Judge Dredd and Spawn ."

and "animé and manga ."

and lose the italics on "and" in "Judge Dredd and Spawn"

The links have been sorted out, and I think I've gotten everything Recumbentamn said, but if I missed something, please let me know.

It's a cute entry, but I was a bit surprised not to see a link to A742655 - Anoraks - They're People Too...


- Jimi X

By all means include anoraks!

It's been updated, just gotta check out anoraks.

Hi there,

I see the entry has been greatly improved. Just add Anoraks and it's ready, I think. A small nitpick, there are ')'s missing at the end of the 'Fanboy' para.

Great work!

SchrEck Inc.

This is much better than that *other* entry of yours. You might be interested in a book written some years ago, the Dork of Cork: http://www.sciencesbookreview.com/Dork_of_Cork_0446670006.html.

Thanks for the link, FF, though it doesn't seem to have much place in this entry. I'll let your comment go on the grounds of reasonable scepticism.

'The assassination of US President John >Francis< Kennedy is of particular interest to conspiracy theorists....'
>Fitzgerald<, please.

Don't mind me...just an aging geek.

Good entry, BTW

I was sure it was Francis... oh well, I'm wrong.

You could always bung in a link to A2181890 (John Fitzgerald Kennedy - 35th President of the United States)

Bobby was Robert Francis.

JFK has been linked.

I love this entry!


Mikey

Hi Hussassan,

I understand trying to categorize the various terms. That's hard enough; but then you try to identify them in some pretty specific ways.

Your discussion of comic books, for instance, is extremely subjective. I doubt that all 'geeks' feel that Dredd and Spawn are the only comics worth reading, even if that is an attribute of a geek.

You may feel that Marvel has run out of stories, and DC has no interesting characters. You should know, though, that to each new generation of readers, all is new again. It begins to sound like you are forcing on these alleged subsets, the very dysfunctional attitudes that the appellations suggest, rather than find truly common ground among them.

I don't have any problems with this as a cute entry, but don't see much hope for the EG. Too little fact and substance, and too much opinion.

Still, I hope it was fun for you to write. It looks like you must have enjoyed it. Perhaps AWW is a better place for it?

I think you're being a touch harsh here; you haven't identified anything that seems beyond rewriting. If you think Hussassan's views are unsupportable, just bombard him with comments and sources, like I did regarding 'otaku'.

I'm sure he'll that...

Harsh!! Who? ME?

I thought I had merely speculated that his definitions were too restrictive to be accurate over a wide geographical and/or sociological area!

Anyway, once you're into your third page of threaded messages, you should pretty much have an entry sewed up, I should think. If you still have such glaringly unsupportable claims, you either aren't listening, or you aren't going to get the kind of 'review' that will get you to the EG.

[ I did like your work on the otaku issue though! ]