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

... I've been to Mexico for 2 hrs in a backwater border town. Thats about it. But I've been to Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, Florida, Texas, Ohio, and Virginia (when I went to my gf's prom and on school trip to Williamsburg) and Washington, DC. No countries though, thats what college is for... Thinking I might take a few courses in England and Japan.

Southeast Asia? So you're...?

And busking?

(shrugs) I'm gonna go out this weekend to buy school stuff, so then I'll get some fresh air... Possibly to a festival with my stepmom on Saturday... So in due time...

Fresh air! Hooray! It is nice after all, but don't tell my nerd friends I said that. I might be excluded from the social circle

All the countries I've been to have been small and only required car or boat to traverse them - so I automatically assume that all plane flights take you to a different country, and got the impression you'd been all over the place. Sorry

I'm half English & half Filipina. I've mostly lived here though, so the flights are all due to family holidays to the Philippines (a lovely place - awesome people, friendly culture, cheap beer! ). I did live in Thailand for a couple of years though, and we did a little bit of country hopping after that - Singapore and Bahrain.

Is "busking" another Britishism then? Y'know, making music out on the streets. My friend brought his geetar & I "sang" ... my throat still hadn't woken up, though, so I must have sounded like screeching wheels.

... Okay so busking is when you sing, while your walking in public... WOW! I whistle to myself and maybe belt out a verse or to on my way to place, but never straight out sung. Like Singing in the Rain kind of sung... Just humming and whistling... Is this sort of thing common? Busking I mean?

Ahh... I'm a quarter Cuban. My grandfather came from Cuba after Castro came to power... But I have more of the white boy genes myself...

Most of my family is now in TX, hence the frequent flier miles...

Wait... umm... Re-read "busking" defination... Better question, you get any dough for your singing?

Hooray for race-mixing Make sure the genes don't get too diluted!

As you've probably read then, it's more a sort of street performance than just singing to yourself. Imagine getting paid for humming under your breath though...

We got like £3 for the awful music, maybe a little more. Most of it was from friends, of course. Some of it was in Euros, from these little kids, who'd obviously been on the Continent recently. They were more interested in asking us if we could do such and such a song than actually listening to us perform such and such a song when we said yes, actually, we could.

Well, it was a laugh.

LOL... So are you guys a band?

Goodness no! Well, my friends are, but not me. I don't have the talent... nor the confidence. So what the hell I was doing singing in the streets, I don't know! Nah, I just like to sit and idly make music with my friends, but I don't usually perform in front of anyone.

Do you do anything musical?

Except for listen to it, no... Though people have said I play a mean kazu.

I've always been interested in musical stuff, and the stories of bands, and how they form and come together... Like on the movie Almost Famous. Though instead of being a Rolling Stone reporter, I'd be more like a video game reviewer. My taste in video games is quite good. Or possibly review tv shows... Since I watch a lot of those...

hehe

I'm quite unlike you then. When it comes to games, I pretty much only care for Tetris and Super Mario. I've been playing Super Mario World on the SNES recently. Makes me feel warm inside...

Can't go wrong with classis SNES games... I have a GBA that I don't play, but oddly found its way into Grey's Matter...

Mostly into computer strategy games and RPGs. The Final Fantasy series on the Playstation and Fallout and Knights of the Old Republic on the comp...

Ooh ... The original Game Boys were better You know, the ones sized like bricks - they didn't even have coloured cases, let alone screens

I have actually never played Final Fantasy. I think I'm in the minority. (What actually IS it? Is it a fight-y game? I don't like those )

Final Fantasy is one of the greatest RPG series known to man... Actually they have Final Fantasy Tactic Advanced on the GBA, one of the reasons I wanted to get, but its a very monotonous game so its about good for two months or maybe on long car trips... But it lacks the thing that seperates Final Fantasy from other RPGs, which is an epic, if not convoluted, but really enjoyable storyline...

Used to have one of the old brick Game Boys myself, but personally I like the idea that the GBA fits in my pocket. Like a normal pocket, not an oversized pocket... Curious about the Playstation Portable (PSP) though, since I'm more partial to Sony now then Nintendo...

But what *is* an RPG, in such a context? It's never been explained to me. I've only ever really experienced RPGs in the context of MUDs, and written stories.

I suppose you're right, but it's easier to just refuse all the fancy new fangled stuff - cheaper too

Yum... unfamiliar territory

Well as far as I have been able to fathom an RPG is game in which a player takes on a part in a fictional world. NOW, having skimmed some of the stuff here on H2G2, people would go into Dungeons and Dragons type stuff. But basically an RPG is game (electronic or paper and pencil) in which a player choses (or is given) a role (knight, wizard, summoner) and gains experience points, abilities, and new toys (weapons, armor) through combat, dungeons (even in games like Final Fantasy), and other feats.

I have a tendency divide the genre into two sections. RPGs based off of the Dungeons and Dragons model, this is common with games like Neverwinter Nights (which uses D&D rules) and Knights of the Old Republic (which is based off NWN). As well as games like Fallout (which have roots in the D&D tradition). These games have a tendency to more free roaming and focus more on the story of the individual player than the party. (The exception to this being Knights of the Old Republic, so far).

There are are also RPGs based off the Final Fantasy model. These come from Japan and feature slightly effiminate anime style heroes. Unlike the D&D style games they aren't free roaming and the player is often led to different places via the storyline. These games focus a lot on combat systems, while the D&D styles focus more puzzle solving (using skills and abilities). The Final Fantasy style games also have a tendency to keep most interactions between party member scripted. (In Fallout you can have party members but you don't gain anything by chatting with them, same with NWN.) The most notable influence of these games is as I mentioned before Japanese anime and manga.

So thats video game RPGs in a nutshell! Barring paper and pencil D&D which I have never played, and online RPGs like Star Wars Galaxies and Everquest, and Ultima (which I have never played as well). Or written stories which I have had my hand in...

Oh there are more D&D style RPGs on the computer than on games consoles, which err more toward FF style RPGs...