Imperial Command of the Raccoon General

Thoughts and Memoirs of a Ring-tailed and Masked Dominator of the World

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General of the mighty Raccoon Army

Friday, November 28, 2008

Yoga ban?

Keeping it short here.

Locally, there's been this talk about the recent supposed banning of Yoga practices amongst the local muslims here in Malaysia, under the premise that it could erode faith and that yoga instills aspects of Hinduism.

The Prime Minister however has said that yoga is allowed for the said parties, so long as it does not include the elements of Hindu spiritualism.

The article i read on MSN ended with, "Malaysia's population is dominated by Muslim Malays, and the ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities are becoming concerned over rising "Islamisation" of the multicultural country".

I have yet to see the concern voiced outloud by my non muslim friends, though being so closed from the outside world, I may have missed it. Nevertheless, it makes you think.

Why? Why this need to ban and impose (yes, i mean that... impose) regulations on people these utterly strict rules that for me, degrades us as if we are incapable of discerning the different elements we should and should not indulge in a thing.

I am muslim, so why is it I find the act demeaning, even though I sure as hell don't want to be swayed from my faith?

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

The Oldest Dream

I had a realization.

I wrote of freedom, and how it is now misused. True enough but my focus now shifts, to what freedom was, and what it means to me now.

Freedom was a dream.

It was a dream, a great hope by people who dared to imagine something better than what is, and to fight to make it true. It was the great vision, it was the glorious call. While it is sad to see what some reduce the call to these days, I think it's equally important to realize what freedom meant, what it once stood for, and what it means to each of us.

I live in a democratic country. I live in a place where governments do not impose heavy restrictions upon me. I have the right to vote (though I haven't done so) and thus elect leaders, and I have the rights to certain priviledges like speech, music, entertainment and such, to an extent.

Do I have freedom?

Once, long ago, freedom was simply meant as the rights to live as one pleases. A vague description, I'm sure, but one that is still largely accurate enough, provided it does not violate the rights of others I assume. And once long ago, democracy was not the rights to vote for a leader, but the rights of citizens to vote for a decision. They did not elect people to make choices for them, but rather the actual voting is the decision making itself.

I do not vote because I don't know who to vote for. For me the choices are either bad... or worse. I do not live as my please, because underlying all things in life, there are needs that has to be taken care of, financial and like wise. Therefore I cannot go when and where I please, nor can I object when something is asked of me. Not by the government or the state of course, but for the people I work for.

MY daily life is in fact dictated not by myself, but by others.

I am not free.

Like many in history, we are bound. The surface of it differs from age to age, but all the same we are bound, not free.

"Live believing, Dreams are for weaving, Wonders are waiting to start..
Live your story, Faith, hope & glory, Hold to the truth in your heart.."

That's quoted from a song, in a movie most of us watched...some time ago. Probably when we were still children, some of us at least. The singer is Diana Ross, the song is If We Hold On Together, for the soundtrack of the animated feature, The Land Before Time.

I believe I have a dream, and I always had it. I was always though too fearful to lose it. It was hope, for which we hold dear, but fear letting it out lest we lose it. We cheerish its thought, but fear it cast down in the face of contemporary cold logic.

I dream to be free.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Where is the fight for Freedom?

I think of the soldiery fighting for freedom and I picture in my head an army of the finest-equipped soldiers, the most awesome fighting force on the planet, simply obliterating an enemy that could barely put up a fight against them. I think of vast industrial and technological might crushing those that barely habe modern equipment of their own. These days, the cry to fight for freedom is more often than not being greeted by a sneer, or snide of contempt and the cliche'd thought of it all.

Maybe for people who are fighting amongst those superior, powerful, and supposed freedom-championing factions might still feel a connection to the word, but for me, my reaction to "fighting" for freedom is cynical at best.

And how can I not be? Given past examples, historical texts as well as contemporary re-enactments of those texts, have always shown that more often than not the aggressor, is the enemy of freedom. Today however, the aggressors fight for freedom? I just can't reconcile with the notion. As such I become a paradox.

These days, I loathe to hear American military efforts being hailed as a fight for freedom. It is cliche'd and for me utterly corrupts and tarnishes what the word once meant. But at the same time. I love the tales of the fight for freedom; but not as how it is being played in this modern age. I harken back to a time, when people fight for freedom against overwhelming odds for what they truly believe is just. Today, a just cause is usually the cover story for a cause that lies in the same bedsheets as greed, power and dominance. I so enjoy the tale of freedom fighters triumphant againts odds that were borderline impossible, but for which they kept fighting because they would rather die than lose their freedom. I believe that, having my own miniature fight for freedom, there are areas in which there is no reconcialliation with my far more conservative family members who view my somewhat free lifestyle with contempt, but I will not trade such freedom back. I would sooner die.

There was a time when the fight for freedom was not a cliche'. It was not a scam. It was genuinely a positive ideology, cause and state of being. Freedom almost always is a fight against aggressors who invades upon your own life and freedom. I cannot view the attacks by the Americans these days as such because they are fighting an opponent far inferior to them and imposing their brand of ideology on others. Democracy maybe hailed as good, as despite my misgivings towards democracy, I see its merits. But the fundamental fight for freedom is not about imposing a democratic rule on a people, as said people must instead choose for themselves the rule of democracy. Toppling a dictatorship may sound good and nice, but I don't think it's all that fair to impose and influence what goes on with the people there with your own brand of ideology. The people have to make up their own mind, for good or ill.

That for me is freedom.

"In the Year of our Lord 1314, patriots of Scotland - starving and outnumbered - charged the fields of Bannockburn. They fought like warrior poets; they fought like Scotsmen, and won their freedom" quote from the last lines in the 1995 movie, Braveheart.

This best examplifies my rather romanticized view of the fight for freedom.

I thought just now while having breakfast, how different it is today of how we view the rallying call for freedom, than when many years ago our forefathers were fighting for such a cause. I don't think that generally we take our freedoms for granted. Maybe some do, but the bigger issue for me is that how we misused the term these days.

Well, that's the thought...

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Playing Fallout 3

Last of the 3 games I bought and ultimately the best.

Fallout 3. I think even non gamers can recognize the name Fallout. Basic thing about it is the post nuclear apocalyptic future setting in which we, as a survivor in an underground vault, finally ventures out into the wastelands of the surface.

Fallout 3 is a heaven sent for character customization in my opinion. True there are many other games that may offer even more minute level of character customization, but Fallout does it best. You start out as a baby, using technics of supposed future techs as well as personally controlling your avatar, you begin to set up specific traits of the character. Best of all is that at one point in the early game, after you had some adventuring or roaming about, you are given one last time to re-customize your character, just incase you're not happy with him/her yet. And even more is that later in the game you can find NPCs that can still help you alter your physical appearence, should you want a change of look.

The world of Fallout is huge, spanning the area of what was the American capital, now called the Capital Wastelands. The world is dotted with points of interests from derelict landmarks to makeshift enemy camps, to subway systems and shabby towns. I won't go specifics on how the world is, but suffice to say, I enjoy doing sidequests in this game not for the rewards or XP, but for the opportunity to explore the world. In one instance, I went some place quite far very early in the game, armed with a stubby little baton and a gun with barely a dozen bullets in it, and luck had it, found a super mutant, struggled to kill it, and looted the bastard's minigun. A damn minigun so early in the game....

Story plays out interestingly enough, with your main objective is to find your dad who supposedly wandered off from your Vault, in order to pursue his last project or something, which he abandoned when your character was born. Along the way, you get the heads up on the going arounds of the world, meet interesting people and make allies or foes. What's best is that many little things you do affect how your character will be viewed in the future, and be it good or bad, specific factions might target to..."off" you. This sort of thing does make you think on what actions you would want to take, and who you would want to be on the good side of, and who you'd prefer pissing off.

Combat is a mix of FPS and RPG, in that you can use normal FPS style shooting (though still has RPG factor like weapon condition and affecting skills) or you can use VATS, which is basically like putting you in RPG mode, tell what you want to aim for, and the character auto executes it in slowmo, all factors calculated in, just like a traditional RPG in a way. After killing, you loot, of course, and I like the more or less WYSIWYG thing about the game. Basically speaking, if the enemy has a minigun, shoots you with a minigun, then killing him and looting, a minigun is what you get. That. and a few other trinkets of course.

There are other things too in the game that add depth, like lock picking and computer hacking. Computer hacking requires the use of skills to access a terminal, but the actual hacking requires you using your own logic. It's nifty, smart...but sometimes... I didn't exactly pay for the game to play an IQ test. I suppose this might be an appeal to some, but I find it mildly annoying. Maybe coz I sometimes just don't get it.

It's the same with lock picking. Skills are a contributory factor, not a guarantee. Lockpicking try to simulate the real thing with you picking the lock using pins and screwdriver to turn. The trick is to turn the lock without breaking the pin. Let's just say my logic factor sometimes goes off here too, and I broke a fair amount of pins. Not really my thing too I suppose.

There's a lot more to say about Fallout 3 and a lot more for me to find out too. But then, I'm not doing a real review, just stating opinion on the game. Buy the game to experience the wonders personally.

A good 9 outta 10 I'd give this one.

Political Circus

Quote:

"A new generation of leaders in Malaysia is fighting for control of the ruling party -- in disarray since heavy election losses -- with the premier's son-in-law battling his predecessor's son.

The successors of current leader Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and former premier Mahathir Mohamad are shaping up to continue hostilities that have raged between the two veterans for the past few years.

After disastrous election results in March, Abdullah has been forced to stand down early next year, unleashing an unprecedented contest for top posts in the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).

Drawing intense interest is the tussle for the influential role of youth wing chief -- a nurturing ground for future leaders.

Abdullah's son-in-law is pitted against Mahathir's son, in a fight that could determine which of the rival clans will control Malaysia's future. "

I took that off MSN news when I was checking my MSN email account. The title of the article was 'Party feud grips Malaysian politics'.

I'm not a politically inclined person, most of the time I feel like politics is similiar to pro-wrestling in that there's all the drama and silliness and but not much in the way of actual fighting. It's almost a circus of sorts. And while I always had high regards for Tun Dr. Mahathir, I am still not inclined to be actively taking sides in this supposed feud.

Anyhow what is of interest to me is the way the article seemed to portray the scene in Malaysia. I mean "which rival clan"? Does that not make it sound like we are some sort of tribes people or something? Does it not also imply that either side promotes only members of their own family or something? What are we, another Saddam Hussein regime? I find the word clan more often related to familial ties and to think that our country is to be divided in such terms is... demeaning.

Anyhow, maybe that's how articles and the like are, but from my point of view though things are not as bad as it might sound. Sure economy's bad and politically its like a circus, but people can still get by. I still have a job, which considering my past posts, is almost as effective as a big raise in my salary as well. I got to save up money a bit more these days but I can still go out shopping or eat fancy food once in a while.

Oh well... back to my mundane life....:D

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Playing Sacred 2: Fallen Angel

I feel like a game reviewer.

But honestly, I've enjoyed all those games I spent a bucketload of my earnings on, and I can't help but be excited by each one of it.

Today though, I'll focus on the supposedly most flawed and contoversial of my purchases; Sacred 2: Fallen Angel.

The first take on Sacred is that it is a Diablo clone, and being such, it must be only of extraordinary quality to warrant a look at it, otherwise we'd be better off just sticking to the original Diablo series itself.

To be honest though, Sacred builds upon the Diablo mechanics and then goes its own way with it. Most of Sacred's fighting is above ground, and the tone for the world is largely bright and colorful. Most prominent is that the game plays on a large world map that has very little area transitions. To accomodate such vastness, Sacred offers mounts, horses or such, that can traverse the world much faster than on foot.

Sacred's character development is divided to three elements; combat arts are to be found via looting (or trading at rune masters), skills are raised few points per level, with every few levels or so, new skills can be unlocked; attributes are levelled even per level automatically with 1 additional attribute point given for you to focus on one particular attribute. Adding new element over the old Sacred is the customization of combat arts via upgrading skills related to those combat arts. Now one can customize how effective the combat arts are rather than simply upgrading it per level. For example, a level 2 seraphim radiant light combat art can deal say...20 damage points, but depending on personal customization, some people can make it deal overall better damage, or increase its area of effect or duration, add a perk that sucks enemies into the combat art...etc.

Sacred 2 has 6 characters, but I'll get to them later down below....

Having established the basics there, I'll get on to the bad first. I know people like to go to the good first typically, but I'll go to the bad first.

1. Bugs. The common plague of the sacred series, Sacred 2 suffers from several bugs upon release, some of it severe, others contribute to the decline of the game's feel. Fortunately some of the serious ones are ironed out by several patches already, though the game still suffers occasional stability issues. Game crashes occur not that often, but still it's more than you like. Fortunately the new patch enables on the spot save game feature, so F9 is your bestfriend in the game. That aside, the most prominent bug in the game I can see is largely non-lethal, but annoying; undeads that ressurrect are almost always "submerged" waist deep in the ground.

2. Character customization. Look, some people like blondes, I like red heads. Some people like tattoos, some like a clear face, and so on. I find it hard to grasp why a new and modern RPG, one that uses 20GB of space at that, has 6 character classes and all are unable to be customized in appearence sense. It's not that hard to do I would think, and the features are more or less there. I found out that you can for example change hair types and color for the seraphim via a few codes or so on the console. Thus, the question is why not just make it a formal feature. I'd love for a non-pig-tail hair style redhead seraphim.

3. Voice Overs. Some of the voice actors here do admirably well, some are good enough, and some are silly enough to be humorous but there are moments that punctuate the gameplay with odd comments, silly cries and the like which sounds like a 4th rate effort at best. Whats up with that? Redo all the bad VOs and I would feel a whole lot better about it already.

That about lists the major grievences I have about it. To the good stuff.

1. Character designs. Seraphim: sexy warrior. High Elf: sexy mage. Dyad :Sexy ranged combat. Inquisitor: Cool Evil Guy. Shadow Warrior: Heavy Combat guy, Temple Guardian: Cool cyborg. You can check online and such for the pics, but though some may object, I have to say I am largely satisfied with most of its design.
2. Open map. A vast majority of the map is open for you to get to from the get go. It's just a matter if you are brave enough and/or strong enough. Add that with the myriad towns and cities, to explore, sidequests that go from helping find a cat to saving hordes of people from death (hey I like domestic lifestyle quests sometimes too!), you get quite a filled up world.
3. Rides. Look, we travel the world ey? So was it in Diablo. So we should have had horses and such.. Fortunately they do here, even have specialized mounts for characters like an awesome tiger for my sexy warrior.
4. Items and loot. Aside from the fact that largely the items given to you are for your class, I only have one other thing to say. Metal Bra and thong with utility belt, defense total... 60... (and you havent factored in the high heel boots, pantaloons, hand and arm guards, helmet and wings, as well as jewelry yet). So nice! Awesome bonuses for making a chick look seductive~!
5. In game concert. Blind Guardian rocks.... hahahaha.

So, Sacred 2 isn't perfect. It's a flawed gem, but it's still worth keeping, at least that's what I think.

7 outta 10 I would say.

Can't wait to get back and play, and do some lingerie/wargear shopping for my seraphim... haha..

Monday, November 17, 2008

Playing RedAlert 3

Recently bought and played 3 games. All of which are superb in some way, though the differing aspects and features may make others contradict my statements. For now, I'll tell you about one of that. I'll post my thoughts on the others later...

C&C: RedAlert 3

Any fool who does not know the Redalert title is either a non gamer, or a freak.

Having said that RA3 offers the most humorous gameplay I've had in a long while. Truly if there is an example of a game that does not take itself seriously, this is it. Further more, they strive so hard to amuse you and make u enjoy the experience, that one thing I commented on the game was that I'm seeing cleavage almost everywhere, The Allies have them, The Soviets are loaded with such cleavage showing soldiers, and even the supposedly traditionalist Japanese have them, though they are largely extras.

The 3 sides play fairly different enough from each other. Despite having units that almost mirror each others roles, they are diverse enough in their ability and distribution to provide a style to itself. Soviets for example, are heavy on ground attacks, and their forces are designed to match this. The bear, the tesla trooper, the tanks, terror drones all provide a wide variety of strong arm ground assault options for the soviet commander. At least that's how I see it. Soviets however do suffer in terms of expansion. Let me explain this. Firstly, unlike Japanese who can build structures anywhere, and the allies who can place a premade stucture next to a deployed Prospector (the Allied Ore miner), the soviets need a specialized unit built, called the sputnik, and even then, soviet style building methods means it will be placed first, one by one, before the building is built, given the in-building-process expansion a severe vulnerability.

Allies, the so called good guys, play traditionally as C&C games should. "Building, Construction Complete, place building, new construction options.." Allies are fun to mess around with their abilities, like the shrink rays and cryo shots. But by large, they feel ... typical. Contrast that with their usual "for freedom" rhetoric against the silly Soviets, makes them much less funny than the hilarious red army and their host of sexy soldiers, despite having one of the hottest chicks in game (your guess to which one is it) . Allies focus, on my opinion, in air power. Allied Airpower is largely specialized mixed of units with devastating ability. Every side gets an anti air fighter, so that aside the allied strike craft and bomber are the most impressive, combining strength and speed nicely.

Japanese are truly unique. Being that they are largely amphibious means that Japanese rules the waves. I think for my game play style, the japanese navy balances its units out well enough. The small attack unit for the navy is a submersible, useful for hit and runs, capitol ship assasinating and suicide runs even. The mid range cruisers packs a decent surface to surface fire power, and the Shogun battleship is simply awesome, being able to ram enemy ships as well as having primary fire that is not intercept-able, like the allied carrier and its fighter drones.

They also expand well enough due to the Nano-core style build method. Construction yard produces nano cores for the specidied building, and you can thus horde a whole array of prefabricated structures, refineries, barracks, power, turrets and all, and send them all in one go, fully bulding a well equipped and defended expansion base.

In short, the game does not offer anything new in RTS gaming, but what it does is make a regular style game largely enjoyable. I don't think many games can make themselves this silly, and sometimes borderline idiotic.... and get away with it.

On a scale of 0 to 10, I'd say a solid 8. And lastly.... Dasha is hot. :P

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Pretty Ones: Stories of Girls

1. Her Hand on Me

Every working day I would take the ERL and LRT trains to work. Having arrived at the Bukit Jalil LRT station, I would therefore wait at the bus stop for the shuttle bus to take me to my office area. If I was lucky, the wait would be no more than 5-10 minutes. If I was even luckier, this one chick would be there.

I don't know her name or what she does, only that I suspect she studies at APIIT, coz that's where she usually gets off the bus. On this particular day, I rushed into the bus, secured myself a seat at the front of the bus. There were many people today, and she got on last, so she had to stand... right in front of me. She reached for her phone/mp3 player in her bag and as she does so her hand went to be in contact with my right knee for a bit (my seat was partly elevated, so sitting down, my knees were at stomach level more or less). I don't know why but there was a thrill to that.

I don't say this as some fanatical infatuation or anything. Like some people, I had my time of 'weird' fascinations with things I don't usually take to. She was neither dressed sexily nor was she exhibitng any 'strong woman' persona; in fact she seemed rather shy. She wore rather thick framed glasses and usually wear sensible professional clothing. Yet I found her appearence seemingly attractive as well as calming. I find this a curiosity, as I usually pride myself in knowing what exactly I like in many things.

2. Airline

The good thing abt KLIA trains is that it shares a 'commodity' of sorts, associated to airlines. Every day, going back from work, I take the train going towards KLIA. On good occasions there would be a few hot female stewardess around. I've seen 3 airlines stewardesses; Air Asia, Singapore Airlines and MAS. But MAS always steals the show for me. I thought shorter skirts would do it for me. But the tight fit of the MAS kebaya uniforms proved to be.... superior, in its attraction.

I don't know how they do it, but they managed to find not only pretty faces, but also curvaceous bodies. I guess that maybe it, for while other airlines have skirt wearing stewardesses, they are also covered up top with jackets and the like. But with MAS stewardess, you get to see the figure. And what a sight it is. Standing next to three of them one time left me feeling rejuvenated enough for hours of gaming. Imagine what 'closer contacts' could do.

My only qualm is that most are tall,which is usually ok but some, sadly, are taller than little old me. Which though nice to see still, it does make me feel rather.... small.

3. Nobody

A good friend of mine recently told me of how he was somewhat 'fascinated' to a cutesy asian girlband, a Korean group called the Wonder Girls, singing a song titled "Nobody". That in itself would be unremarkable, unless you know how picky the guy is with his preferences.

While he does not profess a high, noble attitude that sexy women doesnt appeal to him, he is rather specific on what he lavishes his attention to, typically dismissing many things we shallower people would fancy as simply being "unable to see the point of such things". I know this would make him one of good, high tastes, but girl bands were typically something he would not go in to, let alone these asian cutesy girl bands.

Sure, they're nice and sure the dance has some seductive appeal, but hearing him mention that seems like either he has gone through a lot of change, or that he is losing his mind from being too bored from where he is.

It doesn't matter really, what's important is he showed me new selection of pretty girls.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Bikini Armor

It's not a new question. It's an old one. It seems like a dead certain matter, but people argue about it still. Or maybe it isn't a dead certain matter... oh well...

It is the question related to women, It is related to hot chicks.

It is the question about hot warrior chicks in bikini armor.

...and my mind races back to the few GUYS who said how they hate women portrayed as such. Hyprocrites of Fags, these people I think. The former being that they're just trying to sound 'noble' and deny their own thoughts, and the latter.... well, I don't really need to explain about the latter now, do I?

And as for women who object to this... well, I'm not asking *you* personally to strip down to a bikini, i just simply would like to state, in general, that I like such things. Choice preference.

I recently played a few RPGs, new ones, and to those who know me would know my partialness to making a hot chick character for single player purposes. The idea being that I'd rather see a hot chick walking around, bouncing here and there than some supposedly alter ego of myself, when playing alone. Anyhow some games make incidentally sexy outfits for women, or those that still is considered more or less practical. Mass Effect for example has body armor that covers the chick neck to toe, but it's so body hugging, that it isn't too hard to picture her naked. (on the 'up' side, you actually can get to see your female character naked in the game but thats another thing).

Few actually give modest outfits for women. Fallout 3 for example has several "practical" outfits that does seem little concerned about sexiness (not that the game has none at all). But I'm sure some girls are all reliefed that their avatars can now be not portrayed a sex object. Hurray to you then.

Then there's those that throw most of the practicality out the window and go primarily to make chicks that make you drool. You can see she's a warrior, but you can't help but stare as she decapitate you. Case in point, the Sacred series' Seraphim character. Armored bra, panties with utililty belts and... high heeled combat boots???

I would firstly like to clarify that I am not one of those that brought this matter up to condemn it like so many "that's not proper combat attire" -shouting forumites. In fact, I dare admit I like things that are pleasing to my eyes, and I like sexy women. Even if it does seem impractical for her to be so.

What interests me is that so many people who cry against these are guys, and so many that try defending it seemed... consciously trying not to admit that they liked the sight of a scantily clad babe swingong big swords around. They would try point out facts and examples instead. The 'haters' would of course go for the obvious; in that there's little protection able to be provided by such scanty outfits, and how many vitals are left exposed to injury. Those who stand against them would of course use the argument that the lack of heavy armor enables a more agile and dexterous combatant to totally avoid injury in the first place.

For the former, I have this to say. History has pointed out that people have fought naked before, and how heavy armor has in certain conditions jeapordized, rather than protect their wearer. I think there are times or places or conditions where the lighter dressed troops have superior advantage over their over-encumbered heavily armored foes. Case in point the decimation of Legions in Parthia to hit and run ranged attackers. To say that combatants must be properly covered is therefore not universally true, and if minimal attire can be said feasible, what's to stop it from being designed as..."fashionably appealing?"

That does not mean I support the latter argument fully though. It is worth noting that several nuances of the sexy chick-warrior outfit serves little practical use, like the stiletto combat boots for example. And while minimal armoring can be of use, and even made trendy, let us not forget that even against the environment do we need some protection, like against cold or harsh weather. I don't think therefore that it is entirely proper for a chick to fight in nothing but bra and panties through a forest area for example. While the area does provide good cover that makes full armor superfluous, she would thus be more likely to catch cold.

And they did make such a thing, I recall, in a little game on the Sega Megadrive platform, called Golden Axe. Oh she was hot, no doubt, but she would me more likely to fit in a bikini contest than in battle. And how she survives travelling highlands and even flying into clouds with minimal warm clothing is anyone's guess. Fortunately, in the latest remake of that series, the hot chick has been redesigned to something more closer to practical than before, though still about just as sexy. And from blonde, she's now a red head.... hmm... nice.

The whole thing therefore I think it's not really about balance, but rather fusion. Balance implies that to gain more sexy appeal, bits of practicality should be sacrificed and vice versa. But I believe that a good design would be one that does not eschew practicality that much but still tries to exhibit great appeal to the audiences.

To end it all, I would like to address any who might ask that in terms of these warrior women, why bother at all with the appeal? Why do these women need to be pretty or sexy or gorgeous? The answer is simply, they don't need to. It is never a compulsory rule. It is however a matter of preference. If you love practicality or like attires that is borderline... amish, then go for it. But I feel that women should be pretty. I once wrote that a beautiful woman is among the greatest of God's creation, and whatever form of gorgeous women that I like to see, that is simply a matter of my preference, which I have a right to, and which I want regardless.

And i hope I can't be sued for that. :P

Cheers.


-edit November 14, 2009, additional findings to share.

As I might have implied or mentioned, I love playing Sacred games, despite the bugs and some design flaws, because of the simple, action oriented gameplay, large open map to explore, graphics that are bright but still gorgeous (for Sacred 2) and I can ride wicked cool mounts. And it has sexy females that I like.

I went to the forums looking for any character build tips, among the things i find are comments regarding the Seraphim;

User Ecchi said this, "And what we left in the end is Seraphim.She has good looks (if you don't mind slutty ,well I don't XD) ,she has tones of useful skills and I played her in sacred 1 so that's what I play now.."

I used to mind, but I don't think slutty is too much a hindrance for me anymore. I think acting slutty is ok to a point... don't over do it:P

This guy Aropax was straight and honest saying "I chose her for her slutty looks;..."

Fcera stated, "the male movement animations could use some work, but look at sacred1, the guys were pretty terribly animated in it as well. i think it has more to do with the designers than anything else, they seem to put more effort into the female models."

That's starting to sound like something of a developer studio that would be lead by.... me:D

Also, Fcera included, "they have 3 different female model types to appeal to different people:tall and skinny = high elf, short and stocky = dryad, barbie doll = seraphim". I don't know really. I like tall (but not taller) but skinny means lacking curves, and I like curves. Short and stocky sounds so not my thing. I suppose if barbie doll s the best balanced choice, then so be it. I do mind the term barbie doll...but oh heck, she looks nice :D

Lastly, user FreeBird had this to say, "Seraphim: Decent skills, and a lot more interesting than I thought. Her special mount looks good, but she can only play nice. I prefer naughty girls. I mean bad girls. Still, the lack of a dark side doesn't matter much as she kicks as much butt as everyone else, and I don't think her enemies count her as good anyway"

Now you can probably guess... that is what I like.... hmmmm :D Bad girls are nice.