Phantasy Star Online Redux

I read in Electronic Gaming Monthly this week that a new version of Phantasy Star Online will be coming out soon titled Phantasy Star Universe.

For those of you know I was once a huge video game geek, lao strictly Nintendo, puru ha' fanboy with a iron tight allegaince to the house that Miyamoto built. NES, Super Nintendo, 64, Gamecube, Game Boys and most recently the DS, all of them have helped raise me and either enhanced or neutralized large tracts of brain cells. Since I started my current graduate program, Ethnic Studies at UCSD, I've had to swear off most video games in my life, to ensure that I actually do my readings instead of losing a couple days to an RPG. The only game that I'm currently devoted to is Killer 7 for the Gamecube, which for those interested plays like a dissociative disorder/schizophrenia. I will post something about it at some point.

My first and only forray in online gaming came through Phantasy Star Online on the Gamecube. I had played it offline with friends in the split screen mode, but given that i che'lu-hu Si Kuri was stateside at the time while I was on Guam, I used this diasporic distance as an excuse to try out gaming online.

Playing PSO online was a bit crunchy. Alot of times the timing would be off and enemy's smacked for a helluva lot more online. Playing online you'd also encounter a lot of professional punk asses. People who run off ahead of the group, or don't understand the concept of team, and get themselves killed and blame everyone else in the group for it.

There was fun involved of course. Meeting people from around the world. Going into European dominated servers and bashing Emporer Bush with people from France and the UK. Playing with players who didn't speak English, so I would speak Chamorro to them instead of English. Trading for rare items, that would take me 150 hours to find on my own.

One of the most fun parts about playing online though was really a simple stupid pleasure. PSO came with a feature where you could slowly type out messages to people. If you had a keyboard controller this was alot easier. But the majority of the time, you would communicate through preset messages assigned to hotkeys on your controller. Some of these were battle related, such as "HELP!" Others were commerce related, "Looking for ASUKA" For others they were antagonistic "EYE WILL KICK NEONES A$$"

I enjoyed finding interesting quotes to fill my hotkeys. After reading about the new Phantasy Star Universe game that's coming out I sifted through my notes to find some of the sinangan I used to use. Estague un tinamtam, they are a mix of stuff I made up and stuff I borrowed from famous people or martial arts movies:

"Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy!"
F. Scott Fitzgerald

"An injured friend is the bitterest of foes."
Thomas Jefferson

"The nearer the dawn, the darker the night."
Henry Longfellow

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."
Eleanor Roosevelt

"I have access to good weapons, the way Christians had access to the lions."
Judge Earl Johnson Jr.

"A Hungry man is not a free man."
Adlai Stevenson

"Another massive intelligence failure."
Taken from a Doonesbury article about the War in Afghanistan

"True freedom is to share, all the chains our brothers wear."
James Russell Lowell

"Fear always springs from ignorance."
Ralph Emersson

'If there is no struggle, there is no progress."
Frederick Douglas

"PSO Diplomacy, easy on the brain, hell on the feet."

"To think , is to differ."
Clarence Darrow

"In matters of the heart, even the most consummate warrior, can be little more than a consummate idiot."

"Happiness is a warm gun."
Beatles lyric

"HELP! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!"

"Hmm. Anyone seen my spleen?"

"Time for my big fat greek a$$ whoopin."

"Enemies of reality will be ignored!"

"Strong and subtle will ride out the storm."

"Real skill comes without effort."
Taken from the English dub of Iron Monkey.

"Only when you let go, can you posess what is truly real."

"The innocent blood spilled must be avenged!"

"I have always let my actions speak for me."

"A Buddhist Monk Feels no pain."