Just for needed facts, I've been working with two other people on this. I won't give their names, but I need to at least say that this isn't a lone work of mine. Part 2:

Ky looked on in awe as he saw a full-grown Pidgeotto fly towards Falkner, a belt of Pokeballs wrapped around it. Ky was always amazed at the size and grace of Falkner's Pokemon, and how he always took such great care of them, in and out of battle. Ky looked again at Natu and thought, "I'm sure that I can make you just as strong. That'll be my first goal." When Ky's eyes returned to the arena, he saw a Pokeball's burst of light, forming into a Spearow. "One of his newer Pokemon, I see," Ky muttered. "If I were that person, I'd send out the Larvitar. It'll stand a better chance against a Bird Pokemon.

To Ky's surprise though, the trainer's Spinarak jumped out. "Hm, he must be pretty confident to do that," Ky said, again returning to the railing, watching and figuring what this trainer's strategy might be.

The Spearow quickly dived at the Spinarak, beak pointed threateningly. As a counter, the Spinarak blasted a string of sticky silk, entangling the Spearow on the way down and stopping it just short of where the Spinarak stood. "Wow, that Spinarak must've trained hard to have captured something moving that fast!" Ky exclaimed, impressed.

Suddenly, a bright, colorful ray shot out of the Spearow's mouth, striking the Spinarak at an extremely short range, almost painful to watch. Even Natu cringed. When the light faded away, the Spinirak appeared near the edge of the field, burned badly but standing firm. Ky looked on, surprised by the attack but also by the Spinirak's endurance. "That was too perfect. Such a powerful move," Ky sighed.

The Spinirak returned with a volley of poisonous needles, all of them striking the prone Spearow. After the volley though, the stringy binds instantly broke apart as the Spearow spread its wings and soared into the air. Its speed drastically increased in the air to the point where it was hard to see. Again, the Spearow came down at the Spinirak, looking to use its aquired velocity for a devastating attack. It appeared that the Spinirak was ready with some kind of counter, standing on its front legs, but the connection didn't seem to be dampened in the slightest. The impact made the Spinirak fly backwards, landing near its trainer, obviously knocked out cold. Ky sighed, thinking about how hard it must be to be a trainer and how he would have to suffer, knowing that his Pokemon would be taking hits just like what he saw. He looked at Natu and wondered whether he was thinking about facing such attacks. Ky gathered nothing from him though, finding the same expressionless stare, directed at the match in front of them. Ky sighed again and returned to the match himself.

This time, the trainer's Larvitar jumped out, a very determined look on its face, mimicking that of the trainer's. Falkner's Spearow, having returned to him for some rest, again flew into the air towards the Larvitar, eyes fixed. The Larvitar looked back at it, seeming to be reading for its next move. Spearow then unleashed the same bright ray as before, its path heading quickly towards the Larvitar. Amazingly, the Larvitar dodged it unscathed. Suddenly, the air began to look darker beyond the protective glass of the bleachers, filling with rapidly swirling minerals and making it almost impossible to view. Ky was disappointed that the Sand Storm was keeping him from seeing the battle, but inside he could imagine that things were going to get much tougher for Falkner, whose Spearow was now trapped in the very winds that guided its attacks.

Here's part of a working fan-fic:

The loud sounds made by the Violet City Gym's gears woke Ky as he was napping on a nearby grassy hill. Ky smiled when he heard the familiar sound and got up quickly, brushing the random loose blades of grass from his shorts. He bent down to pick up his backpack and after throwing the straps around his shoulders, he set off at a light run towards the gym. "I wonder who Falkner could be duelling this time?" Ky thought as he ran. Ky had seen many of Falkner's battles, but this time he had a Pokemon with him, a Natu that was recently given to him by his older sister. Now that he was considered a true trainer, it was time he started acting like one. Watching this duel was going to be a learning experience, for both Ky and his Natu, not merely for sport. Ky reached the Gym's entrance and followed the signs pointing to the spectator bleachers above, high above the ground where the match was to be held. When he finally climbed all of the steps, he made his way to the middle where he could get the greatest view. There weren't many people watching today, so he could lean up against the glass without blocking anyone else's view. Ky saw that the other trainer had already made it to the challenger's highrise and that Falkner was ready, standing ever so confident on the opposite end. It looked like he had just made it in time. Before Ky forgot, he pulled out his Pokeball and called his Natu out. The young Natu appeared at Ky's feet, sleeping... "Hey, Natu! Now's not the time to sleep! This is going to be our bonding moment, and at the same time you'll be able to see how strong of a bird Pokemon you could be!" Ky said. His words hit deaf ears though, as his Natu just slept on. Ky became frustrated and picked up the Natu in his hands, shaking him a little bit. Ky smiled again as Natu's eyes started to open. Then, he pecked sharply at Ky's left thumb, causing Ky to hold up Natu with his right hand as his left hand recoiled in pain. "Gah! What'd you do that or?! I thought captured Pokemon were supposed to be..." Ky stopped as he saw his Natu hop off of his hand, perch onto the bleacher's handrailing, and stare intently at Falkner. "...tame," Ky finished, smiling. Ky focused his attention on the match, elbows on the railing. It seemed that the opposing trainer had made his move, tossing out a Larvitar and a Spinarak.

"Man, it was a terrible day. I remember waking up, looking outside, and seeing grayness all across the sky. It didn't help my mood at all, seeing that I was to take a test in less than an hour. I did my usual morning routine: took a shower, brushed my teeth, quickly made my bed, and said 'bye' to my mom as I headed out of the house. Before I got on my bike, my mom called me back, and threw me a poncho. 'It's going to rain,' she said. Gloomily, I said 'thanks', put the poncho on, and went off north, down the road. As I was pedaling, I went through notes in my head, humming the familiar tune from my memory, 'Electrode, Diglett, Nidoran, Mankey, Venusaur, Rattata, Fearow...'.

"Normally, the ride to my school wasn't that bad. It was level most of the way, so it wasn't a strain despite the distance. There was one part of the route that didn't stay level though. About three quarters of the way there, the path dipped into a small valley. There, nothing poses much of a problem on a clear day, but that day it started raining hard and a dense, lightless fog kept me from seeing anything but the path, if even that. I was very familiar with the road though, so I continued to pedal at a fast pace. That is, until I hit something.

"At that time, I wasn't quite sure what happened. It just felt like a bump and I wasn't paying attention to see what was on the road. I could've just gone on speeding towards school, but something told be to go back. It was a good thing I did.

"I got off my bike, turned around, and headed back into the fog, looking carefully for what I had hit. When what I hit came into view, I immediately felt the pang of guilt. Lying in the road, it was about three feet long, purple, barely-moving, and had a tire-sized impression near the gold ring on its neck. I had hit a young Ekans.

"Not thinking at first, I reached down to pick him up. Scared and injured, he struck at me, biting me below my right wrist. The bite burned menacingly, but I just cringed and took the pain as best I could. Trying not to frighten it further, I spoke to him. 'I'm here to help you little guy. I won't hurt you. I just need to get you to a Pokemon Center," I said. I believe he understood me, because as I reached out for him a second time, he let me pick him up without struggle. I carefully used my left hand to cradle the injury on his neck as I lifted him onto my shoulders. 'Okay little guy, what I need you to do is to keep your neck and head on my back pack, wrap the rest of you around my neck, and hold tightly.' He did exactly that (even making sure not to hold on too tightly), so I got back on my bike and rode as fast as I could towards Azalea Town.

Making it out of the valley, everything seemed to be going well. Ekans was holding on fine and I was keeping a good pace. Then, about a mile away from town, my right hand went numb. At first, I couldn't feel the handle, but shortly after that, I couldn't even move my wrist and fingers. I tried not to panic, but I knew then that it wasn't just Ekans' life that might be in danger. I kept riding fast and I started to feel more side-effects along the way. Luckily, my balance was still intact, but my vision was starting to get blurry and it was getting harder to concentrate. Once I came into town, I read a nearby sign pointing to the various places in Azalea Town. I couldn't read the distances because of my blurred eyes, but I could make out the arrows pointing to the hospital and Pokemon Center. Unfortuately, they were pointing in almost completely different directions, being towards the north-west and north-east respectively. I was about to head towards the hospital when I felt Ekans grip suddenly fail. I reached around to catch him, but luckily he had found the strength to catch himself at the last second. I helped him get back into a more comfortable position and rethought of how I was going to transport him in his condition. Unable to think of a solution, I asked, 'Little guy, I know you're hurt, but could you hang on for just a bit longer?' Surprisingly, he managed to wrap strongly around my neck, though I could feel his body quiver in pain as he did so. Moved by Ekans effort, I headed towards the Pokemon Center. I was so determined at that point that besides the fact that I couldn't move my right hand, I rode on as if I was never poisoned, peddling to a newly-found, quicker pace.

As I sped along the streets of Azalea Town, I kept close attention to the strength of Ekans grip. Knowing it could give out any minute, my adrenaline pushed me faster and faster. Hope began to well inside me as I saw the Pokemon Center come out from the horizon. Carefully, I brought my bike to a stop in front of the building, got off, and removed Ekans from my neck. When I looked at Ekans, I panicked; he wasn't breathing. Cradling his neck and brought to tears by the situation, I sprinted up the steps and through the sliding glass doors of the center. As I rushed to the front counter, Nurse Joy noticed the urgency and already had a stretcher on the move. Two Chanseys came out with it and I placed Ekans on it as soft as I could. As Ekans was carried off, Nurse Joy came over to comfort me. All I could do was stand in the middle of the room and think about whether Ekans would make it, and grieve over the thought that I might have killed him. After rubbing my back for a few seconds, she took some tissues from her pocket and started wiping the tears from my eyes. When she took a good look at my eyes though, a look of concern quickly came to her face. She grabbed my arm and noticing the Ekans bite called out to her assistants, 'Get an ambulence!!!'. After that, I can't remember what happened, since I lost consciousness."

After telling that story, I couldn't help but smile. I glanced over at Arbok and could see that he was smiling too.

"As you can see, everything came to a great ending, no explanation needed," I finished.

Koga, gym leader of the Fushsia City Gym, stood up from the dojo floor and started to clap. The rest of his students followed, giving me a full applause. After the applause died down, Koga spoke.

"Withough a doubt in my mind, you care about this Pokemon more than any trainer I have ever known. I can also safely guess that you treat your other Pokemon with equal care and respect, which they deserve. And, because you have fairly and skillfully defeated my top student in battle, I hereby offer you the position of becoming my new top student. With this position, you may take my place when I am absent and offer the Soul Badge if and only if you are defeated by another trainer. Do you accept?"

Pleased at the offer, I turned to Arbok. "You up for it, Little Guy?" I asked laughing, knowing he has grown much since I first called him that name. Arbok nodded. I turned back to Koga and said, "I accept."

I stood up and Koga held out his right hand to shake mine. Politely, I made the same gesture, but with my left hand. Koga realized why and switched hands. After we shook hands, I asked if I could step outside for a moment. Once outside the dojo, I stood on the porch and gazed out at the night sky. I looked at the nub on my right arm, looked at the scar-like impression on Arbok's neck and said to myself, "It was worth it."

First of all, before I start my ranting, I would like to say that everyone is entitled to their opinions and that my opinions are no more superior than anyone else's. In this entry, I'm going to talk about my favorite video game genre, the RPG (role-playing game). I find RPGs better than most games because they are the most serious when it comes to developing a story and a believable world (including those with fantasy themes). They come in many varieties, my favorites being Pokemon and Final Fantasy VIII and X. It makes me angry though when people try to point out the flaws in the best of RPGs.

I just recently spent 20 hours playing Final Fantasy X at my friend's house on the weekend. Besides pausing for food and turning off the PS2 when I slept, that was 20 hours of playing non-stop. I have never been so drawn to a game ever since I played the two others I mentioned. The story was awesome, the characters were as real as I could imagine, and the fact that I received a "Game Over" three times (two bosses and a random battle gone wrong), proved that it wasn't a walk in the park. Someone I know though, disagrees with my appraisal of the game's difficulty.

I was talking to him about how much fun I was having with the game and how I had to use strategy to survive bosses and tough random battles. Arrogantly, he laughed and said that there is no strategy to RPGs, that battles are purely there as little side-actions to the story and that the "game" is simply an interactive movie. I agree that RPGs are heavily story-based, but I argued that there has to be strategy involved, since I reached "Game Over" by lack of planning. Again, he laughed and asked me why I just didn't fight random battles until I was of sufficient strength to easily beat whatever encounter I might have. Knowing that that was a perfectly legal way of playing a game, I simply answered, "Because that's not fun."

This is where I stress one of the reasons I like RPGs the most. I keep it separate though, since it is based off of my style of play, which I'm not sure how many would adhere to. I love RPGs because they have an awesome amount of strategy built into them; you just have to fight the urge to level up your characters and make the challenges disappear. I understand that there are those who find little difficulty enjoyable, but without a constant challenge, I cannot have fun.

When I played those 20 minutes, I never ran around the wild places to get more sphere levels to gain the upper hand. I always went right after the bosses, sometimes having to re-think my plan after a tough loss, especially when I noticed patterns in the enemies movements. Taking advantage of those patterns and weaknesses is exhilarating and fun. The same thing happened with Pokemon while I was doing a test play. I wanted to see if I could take down Brock starting with Charmander and only using the experience gained by the trainers and random battles that took place along the way. I won't go through the details, but all it took was planning and more than brute force to beat him, and the success was all the more rewarding.

To sum up what I'm trying to say, I believe that the game designers of RPGs are not just using simple game mechanics to fill up a completely story-based game. Strategy guides wouldn't exist if they weren't complex. They put a lot of thought into their work and I'm sure they are hoping that people don't take advantage of the unlimited experience available in some games. I proudly say that I avoid using that method and I hope that more people challenge themselves as I do to really notice the fun you can have. If you want to only follow the story, that's fine with me, but if you could make it better by challenging yourself, why not try it?

I'm going to write about what I want The Off-Topic Union of Gamespot to be like. First of all, I want a good amount of members and a good amount of participation. It's good to send invitations to hundreds of friends to get the high numbers, but I care more about all of the different participants on the board. The more we have, the more off-topic the union can be. If it's just the officers posting, the same views and topics will repeat and it ends up like a 5-person chat room. Members are members for a reason.

The second most important thing is the topics and posts themselves. If we are going to be off-topic we have to keep the topics as diverse as possible, covering all the possible things that people might think of conversing about. For those members or officers that have a sudden urge to talk about something in particular; they should be able to create that topic so that we fill in what is missing. Having a huge amount of topics would be the best thing for this union and it would attract more members. Once we start attracting members, we don't have to focus on the growth of the union and can start focusing on the union itself.

Lastly, we officers need to be the pushing force for all of these things. We are officers and therefore have to represent what the union is about. We have to show that we are enthused and excited about our topics and that we want everyone to participate. The members will mimic these good habits and really cause the union to thrive. If we're to make anyone believe that we want this union to grow, we need every one of the officers to do their part. Post, Plan, Off-Topicize! That was a pretty lame catch phrase, but I'm keeping it. Heck, I already have a new topic idea, but I want the other officers to catch up with their own ideas. Let our union grow!

I haven't been playing much during my first week back from Winter Break. I played a lot of Halo 2 last week, but right now I just don't feel like playing at night. I pulled Nintendogs out for a quick play, but that sums up my gaming for the beginning of this week. I'll probably get into it again this weekend and play some Big Team Battle (my favorite playlist). Having my birthday only 1 1/2 months away from Christmas has given me plenty of new games to play, but I can't make up my mind. I can't even write a decent paragraph.

During Winter Break, my cousins brought my old NES to where my family was staying. The nostalgia was awesome. I played Super Mario Bros. 3 (my favorite game as a kid), beat every level on World 1 and 2, and beat level 1-3 on World 3 before I had to stop (alas, saving feature, where art thou?). At the end of that play, I had 20 lives, showing I still had the touch I had back then (though most would argue that world 1-3 is nothing compared to the later worlds, which I agree). The games might be great now, but nothing tops the classics.

While I was playing, I sat back to look at the level designs. As a kid, I never realized how creative each level was. If you've played the game, you would know that there are a lot of chances to pull off Koopa shell, block-breaking fire-works that are just awesome to see (not to mention they usually give you a power-up of some kind). Also, some levels require thinking rather than pure reflexes in timing. I never thought I would have to make the decision to have an enemy hit me on purpose so that I could easily get under some blocks without running out of time attempting the sliding duck. Miyamoto is a genius!

It is so painful having to wait for my level to increase. Level 6 seems to take longer and longer to reach. I guess I just have to keep posting. I'm starting to like the GameSpot Basic Union again. MoonFoxx (or Andi) helped me get acquainted and has been responding to most of my posts. I have to admit that I didn't give a good first impression (criticizing banners doesn't help), but hopefully that's stuck in the past now. I hope to get to know Andi's friends through the posts as well.

Those ABC games are pretty fun, though I can't really participate with the ABC Music game (my song vocabulary isn't very large). I also hope that Brainkiller (or Simon) makes the "Pokemaniac" tag for me. I think I'll pay him 1000 GS credits for it, though I don't know how much he charges. I'll also ask Black_Flag (Eric, I think) to make a banner for my union when I make one.

My idea was to make a College Gamers' Union; a union for those of us who are talented enough to juggle coursework with a solid amount of electrical stimulation (computer/video games). It may sound a bit restrictive, but honestly, I want to talk with other people who go through similar things like essays, tests, morning classes, evil professors, etc. I could probably come up with a good list of topics if I get a good amount of members. As for officers though, I can only think of my friends from high school who are going to college and my college friends here at UC Davis.

I am a bit worried of my own upkeep too though. I don't want to make a union and then get despised because I leave the union untouched for a week. The only reason why I have time right now is because I am near the end of the fall quarter, so the work is low and all I have to worry about are my finals. I think next quarter will be easier now that I'm used to the college life (it is my first year, after all). I think I will finally get X-box Live and play Halo 2 as well as play World of Warcraft with my buddies. I hope I get to Level 6 soon.

Tetris just happened to come to my mind today. I wonder what Pentis would be like. How large would you need the falling space to be? Would it be too hard? I know it would be more difficult than tetris, but it could be almost impossible. I know Propis (three squares) wouldn't be a puzzle at all. It seems interesting that four squares just happens to be so perfect. Now we have games like Meteos and Lumines that have taken the stand as lead hand-held puzzle games. Could we say that these games needed something like Tetris? I don't know.

Minesweeper is a cool game too. The rules are simple, but the strategy can get complex at times when you have to start saying where the mine couldn't be instead of where it has to be and then determining the next set of mines. I remember seeing 3-D Minesweeper which I thought was a great game since corners always seemed to be the cause of getting "stuck". I'm not sure whether 3-D Minesweeper was harder or not; I never played it enough. I was wondering if a circular minesweeper would be possible. It would get rid of the corners but still remain in its 2-D shape. Just an idea.

I was talking to my math professor and he told me that games can be looked at in a special arithmetic of its own. Sometimes within games, little mini-games form that the player has to pay attention to. This sort of give you the feeling of being a commander in games like chess or anything else that is turn-based. Certain parts of the board can become much more important than others; some parts of the board and its units are worthless (like if a piece can't move or it has no reason to be moved). I think this is just a way to say that strategy is the math of games. You obviously can't win a game unless you come up with some type of strategy. Some games can be mastered so that you can know how to win or draw even before starting the game. It's crazy stuff.

I won't rant about this for long, but I think Gamespot went the wrong way in terms of usability. I can't figure out where I'm going anymore with my profile. It took me a while to figure out that my "blog" was my journal. The old Gamespot was much better. It's hard to explain what's missing since all of the easy-to-use tabs are gone. And what's with everything being cramped up to. Look at the journal entry space, it's so tiny! I used to be able to type 300 words or so without having to scroll down, but now it looks like I'm going to have to do it after 100+. Oh well, I can't change the big heads who thought of this "ingenious" new format.

Anyway, it's been a long while since I've written down anything or even checked up on the games that have been coming out. Most of my tracked games have their reviews and I don't have anything updated. I haven't even been able to talk to my Gamespot buddies. I was always interested in what xourico or erdet had to say. I wonder if they've forgotten about me. I wish I could have been more consistent. I guess you really can't have a busy college life like I do and keep up with the world at the same time. I'll tell you one thing though, I can't wait to actually start programming my own games.

My gaming life falls into small slots between my classes, homework assignments, essays, and tests. I used to mainly play Smash Brothers Melee, but my birthday happened to roll around, and now I have three new games and a Nintendo DS. For the GameCube, I got Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and overall, the game is pretty fun (I haven't beat it of course). For the DS, I have Nintendogs and Advanced Wars. My dog's name is Suzy and I am ever so slowly advancing in my Advanced Wars campaign (pun intended). For the computer, I downloaded Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, which I enjoy a lot when I'm not being owned by the super-shooters. Hehe, so many games, so little amounts of time slots. At least every minute I get feels so precious.

I'm finally moved into UC Davis and now I have some time to write. I've been doing so much stuff like buying books and going to mandatory meetings that I have little time to play my video games. My classes start Thursday, so I probably won't be writing that often. I wish I could participate on GameSpot everyday, but I'll have a tough time fitting that into my busy college schedule. It's my first year, first dorm, first roommate. My roommate's great and he's willing to play Smash Brothers every once and a while. I have one friend from high school and she also said she'd be willing to play as well.

I bought myself a little 13" TV specifically for my dorm (the rooms are pretty small). I have a broken X-box, so I'm playing my Game Cube only. Right now, I've been playing 5-stock battles on Smash Brothers whenever I can. My favorite character is Fox. My roommate's favorite is Samus. When my roommate's not around, I just play against the computers at the 8th or 9th level of difficulty. Even though my favorite is Fox, I like to mix it up while playing against the computer to keep the matches from getting dull. It doesn't really matter though since I only play in short bursts.

I haven't played my other Game Cube games yet while living here (I've only been here for three days). When I get the chance, I'm going to see if my X-box can get fixed, so that I can play the games I have for that. I'm not sure if it's even worth it. I've been told I should scrap this X-box and buy a used one to replace it, or just get an X-box 360. I'm not really convinced that getting the 360 is worth it; all I want to do is play Halo 2 anyway.