I'm incorrigble with money. I'm always straddling on broke or debt. I'm doing a lot better than I was, that's for true, with my credit cards looking to be paid off by the end of February, but unfortunately I was never "trained" to handle money properly, and it's hard to form habits this late in life.

But, regardless of how good I get, I'm handing the financial responsibility over to the wife when I'm married. She's just more sensible than me in that regard. :\

For the people trying to act as if homoesexuality is regulated strictly to the OT, I'd point you to Romans.

Outside of that factoid, have fun with the rest of your conversation. :)

(tl;dr incoming)

When OoT came out, it was heralded as one of the best games ever, a legacy that would live on for decades, creating a reputation that overshadowed every sequel that followed.

Looking back, many gamers today often wonder why OoT is considered the "best" when more recent iterations of the Zelda franchise have improved on the design and mechanics of its predessesor. I'd love to hear your theories as well, but here I will present mine.

My hypothesis is a simple one. OoT is pure, concentrated "Zelda".

Think about OoT's formula for a moment. The game opens up with admittedly long text scrolling cutscene, but after this, there is always the option to progress the story at your own pace. You can dawdle in Kokiri Forest, or you can grab your sword and shield and go straight for the first dungeon. Once you're out of the Forest, you can explore Lon Lon Ranch or Kakariko, or go straight for Castle Town. There's a constant balance of being able to continue with the action, or to relax and explore at your leisure.

And all throughout the game, there are no forced gimmicks on the player. Now, one could argue that the time travel mechanic is a gimmick, but I would counter-argue that the time travel mechanic doesn't at any time change the fundamental hack-and-slash adventure gameplay of Zelda. Think about this:

Majora's Mask, while a great game in its own right, forces a time limit on the player. Lots of parts of the game have to be done at a certain time, and a number of things have to be re-done if it's not done correctly. Not only that, there is a long intro segment where the player is forced to play as "Scrub Link", not a very popular form.

Wind Waker pushes sailing on the player, which artificially inflates the time it takes to get anywhere, slowing down the pace of the game. Also, exploration is heavily restricted. A player might stumble across the Ice Island or Fire Island, for instance, only to be confused as to why they can't enter them. Only later in the game will they learn that these are tied to the story, and can only be accessed after a certain event.

Twilight Princess TRIES to step back into OoT's formula, but missteps in it's Wolf gameplay. Most of Link's abilities are lost in this form, which is forced on the player for a good while. The insect hunts, which would make a decent side-quest in any other game, are instead required to advance the plot.

Skyward Sword is possibly the closest to the "Zelda Concentrate" the series has been in a while, but still forces a number of unpopular mini games and detours on the player. Collecting note fish, for example. Or the rematches with a certain boss fight. Or the redux of insect collecting from Twilight Princess.

When you look at the flow of Ocarina Time and compare, the entire game is consistent in one style of gameplay. For those who want to take a break from the hack-and-slash exploring, there ARE alternatives, but these are almost always optional. (The one thing that must be done at some point is getting Epona. However, even with that, there's the caveat that the player doesn't need to get Epona until they plan on heading into the desert, which is towards the end game anyway.)

Ocarina of Time has its flaws, sure. Every game does, and every game that's been around for 15 years are going to see at least SOME of its mechanics and features outdated. But even with these flaws and aging mechanics, Ocarina of Time is a solid game that presents a consistent, undiluted adventure experience to the player.

And that's my two cents. :P

PS: OoT isn't my personal favorite Zelda. Mine is Majora's Mask.

So, I'm sure a number of us had tormentors in school. Anybody else run into them years later? How'd you handle it, what was your or their reaction?

I ran into mine at the gym once, a couple years after Jr. High. He actually approached me and tried to strike up a nice conversation. For me, I try to make the past the past, and I did my best to maintain that conversation but...it was just so damn awkward. I really wanted to tell him, "I honestly hold nothing against you, I'm just naturally this socially awkward", but that probably would have made things even worse. I felt kind of guilty when it was over because I think I gave him the vibe that I still hold a grudge or something, when in reality, I'm just terrible with having conversations with strangers. >_>

I went to two different private Christian schools.

In retrospect, I'd much have preferred public. Not that I have anything against Christianity (as a Christian myself), but, hearing all the cool classes my public school friends had the opportunity to take versus our barebones curriculum (and a health teacher who skipped over sex ed with the excuse that "we weren't mature enough") I'd have much rather preferred the variety.

It don't matter if you're black or white, Ch'mon!

In all seriousness, all skin tones have equal atrractiveness potential. And all skin tones have equal unattractiveness potential. Um...

The reason they picked Loki, I assume, is because Loki was the first villain the Avengers fought in the comics. The fract that he was already establiches in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the most likely to pose a substantial threat to the team they assembled probably also worked in his favor.

As a fan of super heroes, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. I didn't want a deep, thought-provoking masterpiece, I wanted fun character interactions and super hero action, and on that level the movie delivered. There's room for a strong story in super hero movies, but this movie decided on another direction and pulled it off, I think.

That all said, it's just another summer blockbuster at the end of the day. I personally don't understand the hype for it. I didn't think the Avenegers were that well known outside of comic book fans. I always thought movie going audiences would be more hyped to see the Justice League. Hrm. :\

I do think people should be able to name their kids whatever they want within reason, but the idea of a certain amount of "legal" names isn't a new concept. I think Japan has something similar, but I might be misinformed on that one.

What's funny is that it's even lampshaded in the manga. Vegeta is training with Kid Trunksand when Trunks turns SSJ Vegeta seems legitimately irritated that becoming a Super Saiyan has become something little kids could do.

But honestly, the moment Vegeta could go Super Saiyan because he was butthurt for Goku is the moment SSJ stopped being special, lol.