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tenshinoakuma) wrote2012-01-15 11:27 pm
tenshinoakuma) wrote2012-01-15 11:27 pm
(no subject)
I've been helping mum learn how to use her laptop, and how to use Microsoft Word, though most of the latter she's been learning from online tutorials I printed out for her.
As someone who's used computers for most of my life (I still remember when he had a computer that booted from a floppy disc, and it was one of those 8-inch ones, too), a lot of these things are like second nature to me. Double click to open files. Single click to navigate to this directory. Double click to navigate to this other directory. Stuff that's really simple for me is difficult for mum. There's a lot of complicated stuff in using computers that, as a user who is familiar with at least the basic workings of one, I didn't really appreciate until mum had come to me, confused about a section of the tutorial. I don't notice these 'inconsistencies', but mum does. Stuff that's really simple and straightforward for me, really is not for her. And it takes a lot of thinking to come up with an explanation (a lot of questioning of why) that she can understand and remember.
I think it's a good lesson for when I become a teacher.
Comparing leadership/friendship/teamwork as presented in DDS with Persona
And by Persona I mean Persona 3 and 4, because those are the only two I've played. And for P3, I'm only going to talk about Minato because I have no idea how it is for Hamuko (since I don't have P3P) but honestly I imagine whatever I say about Minato you can probably apply to Hamuko, too.
FIRST I will say that I love all three of these games a lot, and maybe it's not really fair to compare DDS and Persona when the context of these worlds are so different. But I do want to comment on some of their commonalities and I MIGHT just be more than a bit biased towards DDS right now.
I find it rather curious that even though the very first cutscene in DDS talks about how "A leader is irreplaceable. Remember that," of the three games, DDS is the only one to not give you a game over if the protagonist falls in battle.
... Well, DDS isn't really about Serph; it's about everyone. The only time the game really focuses on Serph is at the end of DDS1... and the end of DDS2 (though that's not just Serph but nevertheless--). In Persona 3 and 4, you're playing from the point of view of the protagonist, and while the game does give everyone else their time in the limelight, the games are ultimately about Minato and Souji.
All three games have a message about friendship and teamwork, but... I think I felt it more keenly with DDS than Persona 3 and 4. The thing with P3 and P4 is that... the protagonists are never on equal footing with the rest of the party. From the very beginning, Minato and Souji are special compared to the rest of the party, thanks to their Wild Card. It's a... kind of inequality, if you will. Even the final boss battles for P3 and P4, who is it that ultimately deals the final blow? The protagonists. They were seriously very cool scenes and very UGH MY HEART!! moments, but nevertheless it doesn't feel like they conquered their bosses together with their party (though they certainly wouldn't have gotten as far without their teammates). And the fact you get some sort of in game benefit out of social linking does make me feel like I'm doing this for the fusion exp rather than for the friendship (... because I was). And while I don't think that's the main reason why Minato and Souji went out and made friends, it's still a niggling feeling in the back of my mind. That these friendships aren't for the sake of friendship but for some kind of reward in return. From a characterisation point of view, I'm fairly sure the two made friends and helped others from pure intentions, but as a person playing the game, the gameplay reinforces the idea that I'm doing this to get something out of it.
P3 and P4 actually kind of gave me the vibe that Minato and Souji are the ring with which you hang your keys from. Take them away, and all the keys scatter to the ground. They're the ones to hold everyone together. P3 The Answer shows you what happens when the ring is gone. Sure, in the end, they held it together, after tearing into each other, but it's not stable. You can see that the threads of friendship are there, but there's a good chance they will drift from each other. P4 doesn't show you what will happen after Souji leaves, but it's not difficult to take a guess. Igor said Souji has formed unbreakable bonds, and yes, everyone's formed an unbreakable bond with Souji, but what about each other? I like to think that even if they drift away, they're still capable of picking that back up once a reconnection is made. But for both games, when I try to think about what happens after the canon events, it just feels so very bittersweet.
I don't feel that way with DDS. How is it the game about cannibals gets the most upbeat ending?
Granted, DDS is a very different set of circumstances. For one, the core Embryon members likely have been working together for at least a couple of years, while most of the P3 and P4 teams had less than a year to figure out how they'd work together. Even though Argilla says Serph is the most important (as the Tribe leader), it certainly doesn't feel that way. Serph is not superior to the others in any way combat-wise (not counting guns), and everyone can learn the same skills (outside of the special skills granted on the Sun), it's not game over if he falls in battle (imagine how much harder DDS would be!) and heck you can even boot him out of the party!
It even comes up as plot points. Gale asks Heat what he would do if Serph died, to which Heat replies, "I'd take his place." And while you can interpret his words as yet another sign of an underlying animosity towards Serph, it's clear from the conversation that even if they lose Serph, they, as a Tribe, can still stand united. When Serph does 'die', even though it affects everyone greatly, Gale takes over and everyone pulls it together. And they keep going when they start losing more. They didn't even have time to grieve. Again, different set of circumstances to the Persona cast (being 'older', being soldiers/fighters, living in a crapsack world where you have to keep going), but even with Roland, who only joined them for a short time, they're all just... so interconnected. Removing one person doesn't break them.
And the entire endgame. You successfully reached out to your enemies. You welcome a stray sheep back into the fold. Everyone proves their worth before Brahman. The reincarnation. Even though not everyone is present in that ending, the game leaves you with an overwhelming feeling that everyone's connected. Whether they are together in this life or not in the next, everyone has a connection.
Yeah, Persona 3 and Persona 4 make it a point to tell you the protagonist is special in the story, reinforced in the gameplay. Digital Devil Saga makes it a point to tell you the protagonist is important, but for the most part, the gameplay reinforces that he's actually pretty ordinary. The specialness of Minato and Souji are pretty much 'you had this potential inside of you all this time'. The specialness of Serph is because he made a decision to be that way. Yes yes Sera created him in the ideal image of what she imagined Sheffield to be like but Serph still makes the decision after the flashback sequence. And early DDS1, Serph isn't as compassionate so it's something he cultivated over the course of the games.
Yes, Minato and Souji are also amazing characters in their own right and sob I love them a lot. But all three of these guys essentially saw The World, but when I look at Minato and Souji's crazy timetables, I sort of get all "HA HA HA there is no way I can do that :|" It feels a little hard to apply what they did. Sure we can apply what we learned about social linking, forming bonds with people. But most of us will end up collapsing in a pile of exhaustion if we kept the same schedule as them. And the games don't explain how to reach out without taking on everyone's burdens.
On the other hand, if you cut to the core of why Ser(raph) saw the world, the answer is have compassion, and that is something anyone can do.
As someone who's used computers for most of my life (I still remember when he had a computer that booted from a floppy disc, and it was one of those 8-inch ones, too), a lot of these things are like second nature to me. Double click to open files. Single click to navigate to this directory. Double click to navigate to this other directory. Stuff that's really simple for me is difficult for mum. There's a lot of complicated stuff in using computers that, as a user who is familiar with at least the basic workings of one, I didn't really appreciate until mum had come to me, confused about a section of the tutorial. I don't notice these 'inconsistencies', but mum does. Stuff that's really simple and straightforward for me, really is not for her. And it takes a lot of thinking to come up with an explanation (a lot of questioning of why) that she can understand and remember.
I think it's a good lesson for when I become a teacher.
Comparing leadership/friendship/teamwork as presented in DDS with Persona
And by Persona I mean Persona 3 and 4, because those are the only two I've played. And for P3, I'm only going to talk about Minato because I have no idea how it is for Hamuko (since I don't have P3P) but honestly I imagine whatever I say about Minato you can probably apply to Hamuko, too.
FIRST I will say that I love all three of these games a lot, and maybe it's not really fair to compare DDS and Persona when the context of these worlds are so different. But I do want to comment on some of their commonalities and I MIGHT just be more than a bit biased towards DDS right now.
I find it rather curious that even though the very first cutscene in DDS talks about how "A leader is irreplaceable. Remember that," of the three games, DDS is the only one to not give you a game over if the protagonist falls in battle.
... Well, DDS isn't really about Serph; it's about everyone. The only time the game really focuses on Serph is at the end of DDS1... and the end of DDS2 (though that's not just Serph but nevertheless--). In Persona 3 and 4, you're playing from the point of view of the protagonist, and while the game does give everyone else their time in the limelight, the games are ultimately about Minato and Souji.
All three games have a message about friendship and teamwork, but... I think I felt it more keenly with DDS than Persona 3 and 4. The thing with P3 and P4 is that... the protagonists are never on equal footing with the rest of the party. From the very beginning, Minato and Souji are special compared to the rest of the party, thanks to their Wild Card. It's a... kind of inequality, if you will. Even the final boss battles for P3 and P4, who is it that ultimately deals the final blow? The protagonists. They were seriously very cool scenes and very UGH MY HEART!! moments, but nevertheless it doesn't feel like they conquered their bosses together with their party (though they certainly wouldn't have gotten as far without their teammates). And the fact you get some sort of in game benefit out of social linking does make me feel like I'm doing this for the fusion exp rather than for the friendship (... because I was). And while I don't think that's the main reason why Minato and Souji went out and made friends, it's still a niggling feeling in the back of my mind. That these friendships aren't for the sake of friendship but for some kind of reward in return. From a characterisation point of view, I'm fairly sure the two made friends and helped others from pure intentions, but as a person playing the game, the gameplay reinforces the idea that I'm doing this to get something out of it.
P3 and P4 actually kind of gave me the vibe that Minato and Souji are the ring with which you hang your keys from. Take them away, and all the keys scatter to the ground. They're the ones to hold everyone together. P3 The Answer shows you what happens when the ring is gone. Sure, in the end, they held it together, after tearing into each other, but it's not stable. You can see that the threads of friendship are there, but there's a good chance they will drift from each other. P4 doesn't show you what will happen after Souji leaves, but it's not difficult to take a guess. Igor said Souji has formed unbreakable bonds, and yes, everyone's formed an unbreakable bond with Souji, but what about each other? I like to think that even if they drift away, they're still capable of picking that back up once a reconnection is made. But for both games, when I try to think about what happens after the canon events, it just feels so very bittersweet.
I don't feel that way with DDS. How is it the game about cannibals gets the most upbeat ending?
Granted, DDS is a very different set of circumstances. For one, the core Embryon members likely have been working together for at least a couple of years, while most of the P3 and P4 teams had less than a year to figure out how they'd work together. Even though Argilla says Serph is the most important (as the Tribe leader), it certainly doesn't feel that way. Serph is not superior to the others in any way combat-wise (not counting guns), and everyone can learn the same skills (outside of the special skills granted on the Sun), it's not game over if he falls in battle (imagine how much harder DDS would be!) and heck you can even boot him out of the party!
It even comes up as plot points. Gale asks Heat what he would do if Serph died, to which Heat replies, "I'd take his place." And while you can interpret his words as yet another sign of an underlying animosity towards Serph, it's clear from the conversation that even if they lose Serph, they, as a Tribe, can still stand united. When Serph does 'die', even though it affects everyone greatly, Gale takes over and everyone pulls it together. And they keep going when they start losing more. They didn't even have time to grieve. Again, different set of circumstances to the Persona cast (being 'older', being soldiers/fighters, living in a crapsack world where you have to keep going), but even with Roland, who only joined them for a short time, they're all just... so interconnected. Removing one person doesn't break them.
And the entire endgame. You successfully reached out to your enemies. You welcome a stray sheep back into the fold. Everyone proves their worth before Brahman. The reincarnation. Even though not everyone is present in that ending, the game leaves you with an overwhelming feeling that everyone's connected. Whether they are together in this life or not in the next, everyone has a connection.
Yeah, Persona 3 and Persona 4 make it a point to tell you the protagonist is special in the story, reinforced in the gameplay. Digital Devil Saga makes it a point to tell you the protagonist is important, but for the most part, the gameplay reinforces that he's actually pretty ordinary. The specialness of Minato and Souji are pretty much 'you had this potential inside of you all this time'. The specialness of Serph is because he made a decision to be that way. Yes yes Sera created him in the ideal image of what she imagined Sheffield to be like but Serph still makes the decision after the flashback sequence. And early DDS1, Serph isn't as compassionate so it's something he cultivated over the course of the games.
Yes, Minato and Souji are also amazing characters in their own right and sob I love them a lot. But all three of these guys essentially saw The World, but when I look at Minato and Souji's crazy timetables, I sort of get all "HA HA HA there is no way I can do that :|" It feels a little hard to apply what they did. Sure we can apply what we learned about social linking, forming bonds with people. But most of us will end up collapsing in a pile of exhaustion if we kept the same schedule as them. And the games don't explain how to reach out without taking on everyone's burdens.
On the other hand, if you cut to the core of why Ser(raph) saw the world, the answer is have compassion, and that is something anyone can do.