dog$

In light of my dour mood last weekend and seeing it mentioned so much recently, my wife took it upon herself to spontaneously buy Bloodborne for me that Saturday. After letting the install and patches go through, I sat down to play it and lasted a few hours until I reached the point where I stopped moving, stared at the screen, asked "Why am I doing this?" out lout to myself, found no answer to the question, and shut the game down. The disc is on its way to a new owner now. I've had a lot of time through the week to think about the impression the game had on me, and I finally settled on the main underlying point of contention I have against it, and that point could be summarized in a single word:

Wait.

The way I see it, I play video games to do things, and I don't play video games to not do things. For example, the main aspect to many FPS which I think is behind my distaste of them is that, by nature of the genre and in most cases by actually seeing the end of a gun on screen at all times, I expect there to be nonstop shooting and become very annoyed when that doesn't happen. The character death frequency of Bloodborne is hardly at issue for me; what I found is that I spent so much of my time waiting to do things that I was driven away. It felt to me that you have to wait for enemies to approach you, wait to separate groups of enemies from each other, wait for the enemies to attack, and wait for specific times to roll away. Here, and only here, you are finally allowed to make two attacks of your own until this cycle repeats again. If you become too hasty or otherwise commit an error, you have to wait for everything to reload to try again. I guess the lack of handholding is enough for people to tolerate this kind of pace, but I quickly found it unbearable. I shudder to think of what the tempo of the other Dark Souls games are like if Bloodborne is indeed the "offense oriented" twist of the series. Meanwhile, what I find most interesting about this period of interaction with the game is that it seems to have invigorated some kind of train of thought for rationalization and justification for opinion which I hadn't bothered or needed to make in some time, and it seems to have had some kind of rejuvenation effect of sorts. There's a lot to like about the game in certain respects and I didn't play it with the mentality that I want to find fault with it to the extent that I would drop it. I see the kind of praise and joy people have with the game and wanted to see if I could experience something similar myself. If my own reputation would be used against me, it could be argued that I am deliberately holding this contrary stance for the sake of aggrandizement (ignoring the required assumption that anyone else gives a shit about anything I think in the first place). It's not, though. I gave an honest chance and now, yet again, I will stand on the outside looking in.

All work days were heavy this week. The weather has still been basically warmer than usual in this time, but the quantities of orders reflect a more typical winter season and the frequency of repairs to be expected therein. I had no shortage of material returns to handle as well, though hopefully that's just attributable to this being the first full week after the end of the year and the trend to not continue into next week.

I was able to spend a lot of time at the arcade last Sunday and was able to get enough plays of Copula in that I should be roughly twenty credits away from completing the current cycle of post-game content. If I have enough time this weekend, I should be able to finish it, but I might have an actual social event to attend to which would get in the way. Home sessions meanwhile were pretty good yesterday and today at least. It's never a totally bad day if I get new records over plays from 2012 and 2013, even if it's just a scrape.

Lunar Beat. Extra Mode. Double play. "@" denotes Random chart modifier. All songs are of highest difficulty type unless specified.
First line, by column; song title, EX score percentage and letter grade rank, EX score value and pass/fail, judgment readout (just great, great, good, bad poor), highest combo reached, note count of chart under Extra Mode, original note count of chart, percentage increase of Extra Mode notes over original note count, timestamp.
Second line, by column; pass count / play count, EX score percentage difference from record, EX score value difference from record, judgment readout difference from record (if current play is new record), highest combo reached difference from record (if current play is new record), timestamp of old record (if current play is new record).

Code:

			EX% & Rank	EX.p/f	pg.gr.gd.bd.pr		combo	nc	onc	%+nc 	date
lolita queen sunrise	46.93 C		1530.F	488.554.417.79.237	0162	1630			2016-01-05T19:34:40:450Z
0/4			13.55-		0442-

emotional		37.29 D		1339.F	463.413.507.210.645	0117	1795			2016-01-05T19:35:17:673Z
0/6			04.26-		0153-

milly barll		24.14 E		1768F	542.684.1104.502.1918	0020	3661			2016-01-05T19:38:06:040Z
0/3			00.28-		0021-

暮夏 			29.56 E		1419.F	433.553.804.269.924	0026	2400	1376	074.41	2016-01-05T19:41:00:304Z
0/2			01.88+		0090+	7+76+28+26+23+		0006+				2014-07-10T05:29:20:452Z

i was the one 80s	76.06 A		1103.P	447.209.67.1.5		0335	0725	0725	0	2016-01-05T19:43:52:057Z
11/11			00.45+		0002+	13+24-10+0·4-		0063+				2012-03-30T03:22:13:806Z

stick around		74.60 A		0658.P	260.138.42.0.5		0388	0441			2016-01-05T19:46:47:640Z
7/7			07.59-		0067-

neogenesis B14 		45.18 C		1643.F	534.575.493.76.312	0099	1818			2016-01-05T19:51:11:301Z
0/10			06.90-		0251-

believe in me		46.70 C		1631.F	588.455.398.133.473	0131	1746			2016-01-05T19:54:49:816Z
0/12			04.29-		0150-

autumn leaf		37.83 D		1779.F	603.573.568.305.888	0085	2351	1323	077.70	2016-01-05T19:59:44:972Z
0/2			03.36+		0158+	32+94+52-45+59-		0008+				2014-10-18T20:03:17:597Z

anima			31.40 E		1154.F	390.374.589.235.755	0057	1837			2016-01-06T19:29:48:978Z
			11.15-		0410-

praludium		52.77 C		1567.F	557.453.341.54.239	0095	1493			2016-01-06T19:32:42:459Z
			05.99-		0179-

still in my heart	62.67 B		1612.P	608.396.239.6.101	0123	1286			2016-01-06T19:36:01:643Z
			01.28-		0033-

turii panta rhei	64.65 B		2012.F	748.516.247.19.115	0146	1556			2016-01-06T19:40:22:651Z
			00.93-		0029-

UK道中HARDCORE万丈	51.33 C		1887.F	691.505.363.114.463	0064	1838			2016-01-06T19:53:03:258Z
0/3			04.05-		0149-

extreme mach collider	36.70 D		1386.F	457.472.543.194.711	0038	1888			2016-01-06T19:55:55:650Z
0/4			03.04-		0115-

going to the future	38.25 D		1518.F	516.486.576.176.621	0038	1984			2016-01-06T20:00:40:147Z
0/3			04.23-		0168-

alien artifact		28.84 E		1617.F	505.607.919.370.1133	0043	2803			2016-01-07T19:05:54:004Z
0/2			01.42-		0080-

deep clear eyes		79.95 AA	0395.P	160.75.9.0.4		0082	0247			2016-01-07T19:07:50:716Z
3/3			01.01-		0005-

飛燕草 			36.66 D		1814.F	609.596.742.196.782	0068	2474			2016-01-07T19:11:09:388Z
0/3			01.33-		0066-

omega ix		41.56 D		1242.F	437.368.376.131.524	0161	1494	1087	037.44	2016-01-07T19:14:07:708Z
0/1			

shes an esper		34.78 D		1450.F	504.442.530.264.903	0293	2084	1559	033.67	2016-01-07T19:17:41:196Z
0/8			00.67+		0028+	19+10-24-39-166+	0008+				2013-10-16T01:01:49:058Z

airman stage		64.64 B		1545.F	565.415.138.26.160	0124	1195			2016-01-07T19:20:14:716Z
0/10			07.36-		0176-

青春			44.96 C		2249.F	748.753.581.260.753	0085	2501	1610	055.34	2016-01-07T19:27:25:868Z
0/1

thank you for playing A	41.42 D		1474.F	495.484.416.212.617	0095	1779			2016-01-07T19:41:14:869Z
0/7			04.15-		0148-

asakage			28.95 E		1729.F	650.609.959.397.1496	0026	2986			2016-01-07T19:45:58:229Z
0/4			01.74-		0104-

really love		76.22 A		1304.P	518.268.70.1.40		0095	0879			2016-01-07T19:50:03:325Z
9/12			00.39-		0007-

vg			33.49 D		1899.F	651.597.767.402.1181	0134	2835			2016-01-07T19:53:56:372Z
0/4			00.12-		0007-

merry go round		42.44 D		1910.F	691.528.446.226.991	0110	2250	1405	060.14	2016-01-07T19:59:40:692Z
0/1

like a wind		27.59 E		1384.F	425.534.840.357.994	0031	2508			2016-01-08T18:48:24:476Z
0/10			03.40-		0171-

reunion			46.85 C		2070.F	748.574.487.129.711	0090	2209	1893	016.69	2016-01-08T18:51:21:572Z
0/12			02.97+		0131+	73+15-15+12-18-		0028+				2012-04-24T01:19:32:728Z

dancer			77.66 A		1502.P	606.290.55.4.40		0337	0967	0845	016.80	2016-01-08T18:54:03:612Z
18/18			00.88+		0017+	24+31-5+2-11+		0003-				2015-11-20T18:18:04:208Z

vanessa			35.15 D		1338.F	456.426.579.179.757	0043	1903	1297	046.72	2016-01-08T18:56:41:780Z
0/12			01.79+		0068+	36+4-31+26-13-		0002+				2014-04-03T00:54:10:350Z

howling			39.57 D		1697.F	571.555.553.183.782	0040	2144	1060	102.26	2016-01-08T18:59:38:508Z
0/9			03.05+		0131+	40+51+18+27-24-		0002-				2013-10-08T01:28:36:396Z

nstepmixtube		62.44 B		0522.P	181.160.63.3.18		0120	0418			2016-01-08T19:12:53:892Z
4/4			05.86-		0049-

shining world		45.73 C		2133.F	765.603.473.175.724	0079	2332			2016-01-08T19:15:43:116Z
0/10			01.43-		0067-

hundred a o 		43.13 D		2135.F	716.703.574.212.845	0132	2475	1587	055.95	2016-01-08T19:19:27:236Z
0/6			02.27+		0112+	15+82+8-13-61+		0051+				2014-06-20T23:12:59:674Z

turning the motor over	83.98 AA	0640.P	266.108.7.0.0		0381	0381			2016-01-08T19:21:41:716Z
8/8			00.39-		0003-

bag			63.25 B		1513.F	536.441.186.9.110	0240	1196			2016-01-08T19:24:01:316Z
0/12			04.47-		0107-

22dunk A		69.90 A		0460.P	170.120.33.1.11		0085	0329			2016-01-08T19:27:21:259Z
12/12			04.55-		0030-

now and forever		55.10 C		1706.F	586.534.325.32.185	0278	1548			2016-01-09T22:32:49:597Z
0/11			04.13-		0128-

ladymade corestar	36.47 D		2007.F	637.733.840.193.891	0047	2751			2016-01-09T22:37:05:420Z
0/4			01.69-		0093-

greensleeves		73.36 A		1725.P	660.405.88.8.45		0276	1175	0602	095.18	2016-01-09T22:41:05:517Z
4/4			00.43+		0011+	4+3+10+4-4-		0041-				2014-07-17T18:41:44:350Z

金糸雀コンプレックス 	40.60 D		1267.F	455.357.357.118.572	0108	1560	1139	036.96	2016-01-09T22:45:57:852Z
0/2			02.40+		0075+	35+5+12+26+29-		0061-				2015-11-23T17:52:59:810Z

anisakis B14 		41.98 D		1937.F	662.613.560.186.823	0116	2307			2016-01-09T22:50:24:941Z
0/7			03.61-		0167-

babylon 3092		37.07 D		2293.F	794.705.769.410.1332	0126	3092	1973	056.71	2016-01-09T22:54:32:916Z
0/5			01.11+		0069+	54+39-25-96+174+	0016+				2015-07-24T19:39:25:290Z

happy puppy		53.17 C		0771.F	271.229.163.14.123	0065	0725	0725	0	2016-01-09T22:57:55:109Z
0/5			01.04+		0015+	8-31+3-4+14+		0005+				2014-08-14T19:36:44:499Z

final countdown		76.19 A		1277.P	487.303.43.0.15		0349	0838	0838	0	2016-01-09T23:01:04:877Z
9/9			00.12+		0002+	15-32+11-1-5-		0127+				2013-09-25T03:32:27:553Z

それは花火のような恋	40.64 D		2155.F	727.701.640.241.980	0035	2651	1930	037.35	2016-01-09T23:05:33:629Z
0/2			05.47+		0290+	111+68+87-22-89-	0009+				2015-12-03T18:43:24:919Z

stampede		34.19 D		1298.F	454.390.446.145.933	0036	1898	1322	043.57	2016-01-09T23:07:55:508Z
0/4			03.66+		0139+	53+33+11-31+40+		0007+				2014-03-23T00:48:56:548Z

spin the disc		76.68 A		1388.P	542.304.54.1.20		0398	0905	0900	0	2016-01-09T23:11:19:469Z
10/10			01.88+		0010+	4+2+17-0·5-		0166+				2012-03-23T00:26:19:774Z

真夏の花・真夏の夢 	55.38 C		1584.F	581.422.258.70.269	0084	1430	0771	085.47	2016-01-09T23:14:15:908Z
0/11			02.55+		0073+	33+7+3-2-19-		0001+				2012-06-29T00:49:33:527Z

colorful cookie		37.32 D		1834.F	615.604.673.247.930	0087	2457			2016-01-09T23:18:49:924Z
0/12			03.84-		0189-