My fling with Noel Vermillion

I am abjectly terrible at fighting games. This didn't stop me from seeking out arcades in Japan to hamfistedly fondle the seductive BlazBlue machines, or importing the US version when it was released, or venturing online to be emasculated in short order. I may appreciate their focus and purity but a lack of innate talent and free time means I'll never be as good as I desire. Talent is not in question, but is my ineptitude really an issue of time?

waiting for a time when I've run out of series to review and ideas to explore
Certainly a nine to five job blocks out close to ten hours of the day, but leaving a modest six hours for sleep that still leaves eight hours for hobbies and the minutiae of life. Pondering the issue more, I could only conclude it is still fundamentally a time issue, but it would be more apt to brand it as a lack of dedication. When that invisible plateau is reached where the time to become better encroaches on the ability to enjoy other games and anime, that dastardly analytical part of my brain takes over.

Even when I'm waist deep in Noel's story and practically giddy from her soundset when facing Litchi, a mental flag pops up. There's new anime to be watched! New games to be played! Things to do. Sometimes very good games can override this, dragging me under for weeks at a time, however all it takes one slow section to send me gasping back to the shoreline. This sounded like a good enough reason: essentially a free time defence mechanism; and it certainly fit with my habits, but it doesn't explain why the balance between video games and anime I used to maintain had been broken, marginalising former in favour of the latter.

Reading up on the mentality which accompany intense fandom - otaku - postulates that many of their actions, from fanfiction to dojinshi to cosplay all stem from a desire to "own" part of an existing work. It makes the fan part of a collective culture surrounding the original, essentially an active expression for a passive medium, a modicum of control for an uncontrollable entity. This creativity and interactivity are important for a pastime because they satisfy desires that passive absorption doesn't.

Surely then video games, demanding of skill and inherently engaging, satisfy that requirement? But this leaves the question of passivity. Sure there are cutscenes, video sites like Gametrailers and a growing body of literature surrounding them but that feels like it's doing things backwards. To me anime doesn't have that problem, it may be passive communally or in solitude but the meaty interactivity comes afterwards with blogs and image boards and conventions and tweets and all other manner of holding one's interest long past the closing credits.

Some video games, for better or worse, find a balance between the active and passive - look at the popularity of Final Fantasy; others transcend it by letting the idea, the uninteractive part, become stronger than the canonical interaction with it. Certainly there is a catharsis to be had from video games that anime can't touch, comparing the fundamentals of them results in a fruit cocktail, but the interplay between the two juxtaposed elements is the same, anime just happens to have the more enticing composition.

So Noel's story sits incomplete at 98%, waiting for a time when I've run out of series to review and ideas to explore before experiencing her true ending. Although, Continuum Shift is coming out soon...

Responses to “My fling with Noel Vermillion”

chaostangent

@kadian1364: I guess this is a lamentation that there isn't enough time in the day to do, and crucially, be good at everything you'd like to be. I'm by no means begrudging the fact that I experience more in general than focus on one thing, I think it all comes down to cost-benefit. I reason I'm not going to "gain" much by becoming brilliant (if indeed that's possible) at one game, even competitively. So, like you say, I see more worth in moving on.

@lhw: I greatly respect any and all competitive fighting game players - their skills are rooted in the sacrifice of other genres and pastimes to hone and prepare themselves. I think it's a case of I like the idea of that sort of commitment, but I'm not willing to undertake it myself at the expense of other things. At one point I think I was waiting for the "right" game for me to start down that path, but now I'm sure it doesn't exists.

Definitely looking forward to Continuum Shift, it's on my pre-order list and hype is certainly in the air. Sure to be followed by lamentation but cest la vie.

lhw

Its a matter of where your commitment lies in my opinion. I used to be an avid gamer before I got introduced to the world of anime. As I went on, I realised I had less time for my hobbies and I had to sacrifice some things just to get by in life. I used to play musical instruments, watch anime, read manga, play sports and even did well in studies. Fast forward to uni life, I pretty much stopped playing the keyboard, play much less sports compared to last time, and even watch less anime/read less manga just go fit in the busy schedule of studies and classes. I find myself even sacrificing my anime time nowadays just to play more games as I'm a great fighter fan.

Speaking of fighting games, there's a line that separates the casual and competitive player. Competitive players will make the effort to study match videos, discuss match up strategies in forums, and spend that time in training mode honing their skills in execution for combos/mixups. I see myself as a competitive player and with that comes the sacrifices I've made to practice.

On a side note, BBCS will be out in 2 weeks so get hype.

kadian1364

Video games require practice, and practice inherently involves repetition of known forms. A great single-player game balances learning new mechanics and polishing old techniques. But in multiplayer games, especially fighters, you will hit that point where there's nothing more to learn theoretically, and any improvement will just be getting faster at what you already do. That volume of time repeating the same techs over and over certainly looks better spent in other yet unknown enterprises like new anime and such. At least that's how it is for me.
Respond to “My fling with Noel Vermillion”

Community rules:

  1. Keep it civil: no personal attacks, slurs, harassment, hate speech, or threats
  2. No spam: includes marketing, pyramid schemes, scams etc.
  3. Notify of any spoilers: even if it's for something the post isn't about
  4. Your response may be edited or removed: if your response was in good faith, you may be contacted via email explaining why

Your address will never be shared

The following HTML tags are allowed: <b> <strong> <i> <em> <a href>