Well, games aren't everything...

I thought I could talk about games, but I guess I have other things I want to talk about too. This is kind of a big one, so here goes.

As some of you know, I have kidney disease. Some people aren't really aware of how bad kidney disease is, though. I spent last week in the hospital because I had fluid in my lungs making it difficult to breathe. How do I get fluid in my lungs because of kidney disease? It's because of how important kidneys are to the body.

Imagine you lived in a house where you couldn't take the trash out. Nobody was getting the trash, so you had to stick it someplace. And it just keeps growing and growing. Eventually it's going to affect your entire house. This metaphor is still insufficient in describing just how brutal kidney disease is.

I've had pulmonary edema, congestive heart failure (mostly as a result of the edema), hypothyroidism, anemia, and severe mental instability due to the kidney disease. It throws your entire balance out of whack. Worse yet, I pretty much require a kidney transplant to survive without dialysis (its own can of worms), but despite a living donor available, my transplant team has managed to bungle that, too.

All I'm saying is, some people have the idea that kidney disease is "not that bad" compared to strokes or heart or liver disease. Get that out of your head. It sucks terribly.

Why money matching is stupid

The latest thing in Street Fighter seems to be money matches. Whereas the B tournaments and the first few Evos did not have many money matches, and the ones that were had were personal and not remembered, these days money matches are just as important, if not more so, than tournaments. It has gotten to the point where the rejoinder for any strategy talk that one disagrees with is "bet it, mm any amount".

Hell, people try to get into money matches these days over girls. Shit's retarded.

Honestly, I can kind of see why money matches are popular. In tournaments, the chances that you'll fight the person you have beef with is pretty low, even if you're a top player. Luck may put the guy you have beef with into a bracket against some other top player, and you can't settle your hash. With a money match, you are guaranteed a match against the person for something valuable.

However, this is where things start to get stupid.

When people say "bet it, mm any amount", onlookers start to toss in their own money, and the amounts become ridiculous. The stress becomes massive. And it's generally impossible for people to play their best. There are exceptions - the infamous Clockw0rk vs. Duc Jr. matchups in MvC2 are a good showing of where a money match actually proved something to the general public.

But did it prove something to Duc Jr.? He's still talking incredible amounts of shit. And that's why money matches are stupid. You can only justify them in two ways. Either you think they're to shut the loser up - in which case they verifiably fail at doing that. The loser may be shamed into shutting up, but on the other hand, the loser may possess no shame and keep on talking, and rallying the shameless of the group to his side.

Or, you can say "it's just a game, we're just fucking around". In which case, I can only respond with one thing: Money doesn't grow on trees. If you get off on risk, go play poker or something.

Microsoft Songsmith

Well, maybe stuff about gaming later. Right now, I have to bitch about this. If you don't know what this is, just look it up on YouTube, and prepare yourself for something utterly horrible.

You know, I used to think that Microsoft, while its business practices were questionable, had making computers easier to use in mind. I even gave them the benefit of the doubt with Vista. But now it seems kind of clear that Microsoft wants to make us all into heartless robots.

Steve Jobs was a workaholic and difficult with people, but Apple's stuff had heart. I'm not going to switch to a Mac, because I hate Macs (Apple II forever), but I'm kinda not gonna defend Microsoft anymore. This Songsmith shit is giving me real grief.

"Good game" - STOP SAYING IT.

I came to an epiphany today. I have a blog. I have things to say to no one in particular. Why not use my blog to - yanno - say those things? So let's get started.

And let's get started with a big one - "Good game". It's a common practice in Yu-Gi-Oh to say "good game" (or, worse yet, the shorthand "gg") after a duel - ANY duel. I find this more insulting than anything, and here's why.

1) When this is said, it usually wasn't a good game for the opponent. He got worked, owned, pasted, etc. You know it. Those matches where your opponent doesn't seem to exist? Yeah, those ones. Saying "gg" (you'll find the full "good game" is never said in those situations) just hammers the point home that you are another step in your opponent's glorious path to success. You shouldn't be surprised if they snap at you afterwards. We see through your false modesty.

2) If you lose and say this, unless you are genuine, you are an even bigger hypocrite. It is an attempt to mollify what you know was a terrible loss on your part. You shouldn't have to say it was a good game if it wasn't. If you got your ass kicked, you probably want to just acknowledge it with a simple "You kicked my ass, broski", if you say anything at all. I'd certainly prefer it to the empty "gg" that you say while your mind thinks "If I had a better hand I'd have crushed him!!!!111one"

In Street Fighter tournaments, the "gg" takes the form of the customary handshake after a match. I remember a tournament match I had once in CvS2. I completely walked all over the opponent, and he knew it, too. I knew he was pissed and would rather punch me than acknowledge that I beat him. But then he did the customary "polite" thing. I did my own customary thing - I walked away without saying anything. I had wasted time and wanted to get back to preparing for my next match.

I'm not saying that it's good to be an asshole; there's a chance I misread that dude and he was genuinely confused and hurt by my lack of manners. But he probably learned something that day after all was said and done - don't piss on someone's leg, and then tell them it's raining. I'm not a good player. If you can't beat me, you got to work on your fundamentals. From there, we can talk.

In closing, sometimes the most polite thing to do is just walk away without saying anything.

Chest Pains

I had some chest pains today. My dad gave me an aspirin and I think I'm feeling better, but if I don't come online for awhile, it's because I'm in the hospital. In any case, please say some prayers or me.