And a second bonus question from the same person: “Why don’t you put all of this in a book and sell it?! Seriously, I’d buy that shit…”

1. By ‘private,’ I would understand you to mean exclusively for single-player aspects of the game, neither using them in battles with other people (except with permission) nor offering them for trade?  I’ve honestly never really given it much thought, but it seems little different to cheating in any other single-player game.  If you’re going to go and rack up a bunch of wi-fi victories with a team of Pokémon you magicked up out of nothing, well, then you’re starting to devalue the time and effort your opponents have put into raising their Pokémon ‘honestly,’ but if you just want to stomp Diantha with a shiny Ho-oh because it looks cool, who am I to deny you?

2. Would you, when it’s all available on here for free?  Well, perhaps you would, at that, but I can’t think all or even most of my readers would.  Besides which, publishing a book would probably require me to deal with copyright law… since everything I do here most likely falls under ‘discussion or review’ I might well be okay there, but I feel I’m safer not trying to sell any of it.

(For reference, this question references the process that resulted in this)

Eh.  I am ambivalent about it.  It took a lot longer than I thought it would, and for that reason alone I don’t think I’d do it again, but it was at a time when I wasn’t posting a whole lot anyway, and I think I learned a bit from the process, so I certainly wouldn’t say I regret it.

I missed you too, random sunglasses-wearing anonymous grey sphere.  I missed you too.

Okay, let’s watch this thing…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE6Xs0zWfq0&list=PLRhGZdZiftIdHMA2zWL1DqOSYNO4npnoh&index=65

Okay, that… just…

…most of the evidence this video presents goes against the thesis it’s arguing!  ”Pokémon sometimes disobey their trainers’ orders, therefore captured Pokémon are brainwashed”?  Good grief!  I would go through this point-by-point but I honestly don’t think it’s worth it; they assume the conclusion they’re supposed to be arguing, and then interpret the evidence in the light of what they already believe.  Any child can do that.

I wouldn’t know about ‘most people,’ but the games could certainly do with being brought up to date – it would be nice to play through those old stories with the mechanical changes from generations 4 through 6.  As long as they didn’t just redo the stories without any new content, it could be good.  I don’t think I’d be ‘dancing in the streets’; remakes are kinda neat but they’re all about the execution.  I’d probably buy it, though.

Well, I don’t know the one you mentioned, but this one is amazing.  I think it’s still going, but very slowly.  You sort of have to accept from the beginning that it’s not going to make a great deal of sense, but once you get past that, it’s… well, it’s an experience, put it that way.  The party dynamic is basically as follows: Ash is mildly retarded, Pikachu is a psychopath, Brock is an incredibly creepy potential rapist, and Misty is the only sane person in the entire world.  Chaos ensues.  People who consider themselves completely mentally stable should stay well away.  Anyone else should jump right in.

I’m not quite sure what you’re getting at, but thanks!

I’m sorry, but I don’t know what you’re talking about.  Is that the same thing as The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon?  If so, I haven’t seen it.

Not really?  I tend to think of what I’m doing here in similar terms to the way I think of studying history and archaeology, which is my “real job” – there are the “primary sources” (that is, the games and anime), and there are our interpretations, and although it can be interesting and productive to compare interpretations, for me everything has to go back to the sources.  When I read what another person thinks, my instinct is to dissect it into bits that make sense to me and bits that don’t, and assess it in terms of how well it fits with what we all know.  Of course, a good story is a good story, but I think that’s entirely separate to what I normally do.  Does that make sense?

…I’m not sure I understand.  If you’ve read all of it, what are you looking forward to reading?

Anyway.  My… second-favourite video game?  Um.  That’s a tough one.  Uh… it kinda fluctuates?  For a long time it was probably the Baldur’s Gate series but I haven’t played those games in some time (although I would not hesitate to call them classics).  Sid Meier’s Civilisation is definitely up there, even though I never actually played I or IV.  The Age of Empires series has a lot of nostalgia value (Age of Mythology being my favourite, for reasons which should be obvious to those who know me…).

Someone who knew the games in question and had read a lot of my stuff (particularly the “If I Were In Charge” series) could probably analyse this list and come up with some frighteningly incisive observations about my personality and my value as a human being.