October 2011
Bad Player
He's evil! He even admits to it! ... Oh wait, he means he's rubbish.
I personally select each month's Member of the Month. People are picked based on their contributions to the community, whether they are: making excellent trials, providing comic relief or just being a brilliant person. The next Member of the Month could be you!
If you have any questions about the Member of the Month system, please PM me.
If you don't see him much in General Discussions, you'll most likely know Bad Player from his featured trial, New Year's Turnabout.
Bad Player: Thanks. It's great to be here. I think it's kind of nice going after Zeel, because I don't have to try to be super-crazy, because I know I wouldn't be able to match his interview.
Meph: First, let's start off with your username. Are you really a bad player?
Bad Player: Well, at Warcraft 3, yes. That's where I first started using it. I just stuck with it for a while after that because then it's either apt or it's a misnomer, and I'm fine with either of those.
Meph: What's your home life like?
Bad Player: My dad is usually out working, but my mom retired shortly after I was born, so she's usually around. I don't have any brothers or sisters, but I have 3 dogs and a cat, and they usually keep the house lively enough. To be honest, it isn't really that exciting (but that's not to say I don't mind~).
Meph: What do you usually do on most days?
Bad Player: On weekdays I usually get up at 8 AM. I go onto the internet a bit, get ready for the day, go to classes, have lunch, then go to more classes, which end at 3. Sometimes I'll have rehearsal with a music group, but besides that it's a combination of doing homework, hanging out with my friends, surfing the web and playing video games.
On Saturday I tell myself I'm going to get lots of homework done, but then I usually just goof off and wind up doing it all on Sunday. ^^'
Meph: Where do you like to go on holiday?
Bad Player: When I was growing up, we mostly went on vacations to different places in the US (including Disneyworld, as I'm sure you're interested in. I've been there, probably about... 15 times?). But we started to run out of places in the US, so now we usually go on vacations to other countries. We usually go on a bus tour through a company, so that we get to see all the major sites, rather than just staying in one city and only seeing that. Sometimes, if we don't have much time, we'll take a road trip to someplace close by, too.
But to actually answer your question... I've been to many many places, and I haven't had a bad vacation yet, so I don't really have that much of a preference.
Meph: What was your childhood like?
Bad Player: It was pretty good, I think. In elementary school, I was usually really good friends with one person, but then it just stopped the next year... At around 2nd grade, I became friends with a girl, but boy/girl friendships don't usually work out in elementary school. However, by complete chance in middle school we were in the same homeroom, and we both signed up for Latin, so we quickly became friends again. We expanded our circle of friends a bit each year, and it worked out pretty well.
As I already mentioned, my mom retired so that she could take care of me, so she was always there whenever I needed anything.
I also started playing the flute in 4th grade for the band, and playing a girly instrument is probably just as bad as being friends with girls... but I just kept on playing it. I think that's where I got my attitude where I just do what I want, not just what others want me to do.
Meph: What are your future ambitions?
Bad Player:Hmm... To be happy, and hopefully be rich. To be honest, I really don't know what I want to do in the future...
Meph: Do you have any idea what field it could be in? What are you good at?
Bad Player: Well, right now I'm studying economics. I'm good at math (with numbers, at least. Real math is difficult and scary) and there's lots of money in economics/finance/business, so... And as most of you are probably already aware, I'm also studying Japanese. I don't know exactly what I want to do in the future yet, but I'm trying to set myself up so that I'll be able to do something I like and am good at.
Meph: Do you think you'd be good in a job as a localiser or maybe working in Japan as a holiday rep?
Bad Player: My hunch is that localization is one of those jobs that's "ZOMG it would be so awsum to do that!" at first but actually not that great when you think about it further. To be honest, I'd probably be more interested in making the original game rather than the localization. And I just don't have that much interest in being a 'holiday rep,' you silly Brit.
I'd say the ideal would be getting a job on Wall Street, getting super-rich, retiring at age 35, and opening a small game studio for fun. ...Oh, and meeting my soulmate and starting a family somewhere in there, too. I don't think that's actually likely, buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut...
Meph: Why don't you want to be a rep? I thought you would have liked to live in Japan through half the year?
Bad Player: Just because I said I didn't want to be a concierge/travel agent/tour guide-person-thingy in Japan doesn't mean I don't want to do ANYTHING in Japan. xD I mean, if I work for an American company that has a branch in Japan, or the other way around, or work for a company that has a lot of ties with a Japanese company... That would work too, wouldn't it?
Meph: Yeah. That could work, too.
Meph: Do you have any other hobbies or interests?
Bad Player: Well, there's video games, for one. I also like to watch anime, although lately (= past year or so) I've been reading manga more, just because it's easier to fit into a schedule. Maybe it counts as a subset of video games, but I want to start reading some visual novels soon, mostly for Japanese practice. (...Does Japanese count as a hobby? I'm doing it mostly for fun. xD)
I play quite a few instruments, but I actually don't listen to music that much. Or rather, I don't listen to a great variety of music. There are some great video game soundtracks, and I really like plays and musicals, so I have plenty of showtunes, but... there's not much beyond that. I don't like rap, but beyond that I'm pretty neutral so far as which music I like and not. I think I just don't really have time to listen to it, so I don't. Another thing on my list of things to eventually do is to try to compose music, but I think that'll have to wait until I have time, a midi keyboard, and (money for) a decent program.
...Oh, and I also like to play games. ^_^ (Game theory is interesting!)
Meph: When did you first visit AAO and what made you want to join?
Bad Player: To be honest, I'm not sure when I first visited/found out/joined AAO. ...Well, according to my profile, it says I joined on May 20, 2009. But I found out about it from The Great Casemaker Debate (PWLib vs PyWright vs AAO) on CR.
I think the story of joining AAO is pretty much tied into how I got into fancasemaking... So near the end of October '08, a guy from CR called Prosecutor Manella asked if anyone wanted to write cases for his fangame. (He wanted other people to write the first 3 cases that would set up the AU, and then he would do the last two cases himself.) So I signed up to do it... mostly on a whim, I think. ^^'
He told me, "The case is called Silence of the Turnabout. Drew Misham is the defendant. Alita, his wife, is the victim. Witnesses are Vera and Guy Eldoon. Go." and I wrote up SotT from that. (...Although in retrospect, it seems Eldoon fell through the cracks. ^^') Then at the beginning of '09, Frenchy contacted me and asked me if I wanted to help out with Turnabout Substitution. To be honest, I had completely forgotten what that even was when he contacted me. But I accepted, because writing SotT had been fun, and we all know how TSub turned out... (And if you don't, you should go play it! ;D [/shamelessadvertising]) But anyway, then in (I guess) May that year, Manella had pretty much gone inactive. I didn't want the script I wrote for SotT to go to waste, so I decided to just make it myself. Since AAO was on the "easy/simple to use" end of the casemaker scale, I figured that that would be the best casemaker to use for it. So I signed up for AAO, made SotT on it (but just the trials, since the investigations were boring and would've needed a lot of custom graphics that I couldn't make myself), and posted it. I stuck around to get it featured and see the community's reaction to it, but then I just... left. However, near the end of last year, Tap (I think) told me on Ace Fancase that SotT had been nominated in a few categories for the AAO awards, so I returned to rally up some votes so I could win. And I've been here ever since. ;D
Meph: That ties in nicely with my next question. How do you feel about the success that you've been having with your trials?
Bad Player: Well, it's only natural that someone as great as I would make such amazing trials.
Although really, a lot of it is due to Frenchy. If it wasn't for him asking me to help write TSub, I probably would've just stopped after the script for SotT. SotT was on my own, and it was great for its time, but if you compare it to some of the newer trials, it doesn't really match up anymore. TSub was Frenchy's game; I just wrote out the crime that he had developed. For NYT, I came up with the basic trick the killer used (you should know which one, if you've played it ;D) and in general how it fit into the story, but Frenchy came up with the characters, their backgrounds, and why they did what they did. And even though it isn't out yet, the same thing is pretty much happening with The Black Turnabout... although he's also the one who is organizing the creation of all of our custom graphics. So, yeah. I'm really glad that my trials have been received so well, but they aren't just "my" trials.
Meph: What do you think helped to give you your skills in writing?
Bad Player: To be honest, I'm not that sure... Being a grammar nazi helps, I think. I like logic and order, so that (and SATs >_>) instilled what to do in that respect. When I was a kid, I used to read a lot, but through most of elementary school (I think), my mom read to me pretty much every night, which is always a good thing. Thinking back on it, it's kind of strange, but she read rather... mature books to me. That is, murder mystery books. But less detective fiction, and more horror film-esque "zomg someone is killing everyone else who could it be?!" books. But that probably helped. The only creative writing I've really done besides AAO fancases, though, is Yu-Gi-Oh fanfiction. It was pretty bad, but practice makes perfect, right?
There's also the fact that writing Ace Attorney fancases is sort of "cheating" in a certain sense, since it's just writing dialogue without the rest of the prose.
Meph: What's your favourite fan trial on AAO?
Bad Player: Turnabout Deception.... Although that was a long time ago. I need to replay that. And Turnabout at the Convention. My other favorite trials are The Virtual Turnabout and One Hell of a Turnabout (and probably Turnabout of Courage, once it's finished). Blackrune can make some preeeeeeeeeetty crazy mysteries.
Meph: Which of the official Ace Attorney games is your favourite?
Bad Player: Well, I haven't finished it yet, so I don't want to say officially, but Gyakuten Kenji 2 is really amazing. I'm getting to the end of the fourth case, and unless the last case is really really bad (and according to people who have played/know GK2, it isn't) then it will be my favorite. It's not just that every single crime is great, but the way the mystery is developed....
Out of the ones that I've finished, I think it's a tie between Ace Attorney and Ace Attorney Investigations. AA was the first, original game in the series. The production team may have stepped up their game since then, but 1-4 and 1-5 are just great cases. I even like 1-2 and 1-3, despite the deus ex machina in the former. (I still love the way the wiretapping played into it at the end...) AAI had a really nice overarching storyline. I-1 and I-2 aren't that great, I think, but the other three cases are pretty neat. Especially I-5. The length of it turned some people off, but... I just loved how deep and convoluted the mystery was. xD Plus, both AA and AAI had really good soundtracks overall, I thought.
HOLD IT!
If we're done talking about the actual AA games, then I need to mention how much I hate 2-4. ^_^
Meph: What other games do you really like?
Bad Player: Well, 999 is The Best Game Ever. Everyone should to play it. Right now.
I mostly like RPGs and Adventure games. So Legend of Zelda series, Baten Kaitos + Baten Kaitos Origins (although I haven't finished BTO yet), Tales of Symphonia, Final Fantasy 5, Final Fantasy 6, Chrono Trigger, Professor Layton, Hotel Dusk, and Trace Memory to name a few off the top of my head... Also, Super Smash Bros. It's the only fighting game I can play (and Mario Kart is the only racing game I can play).
Since I don't have my game collection right in front of me, it's hard to remember all the games I've played and really liked... What I DO have is a (pretty long) list of games I want to eventually play, but that isn't as helpful. ^^'
I also like to play online games, since they're short (sometimes) and free. I put my favorites in the "Video Game Top 10s" thread, but if I had to quickly through a few out right here, I'd say Tower of Heaven and the Mardek RPG series are really good games that everyone should try.
Meph: Before we conclude this interview, do you have anything else you'd like to say?
Bad Player: It was pretty fun doing this, so thanks for picking me to be this month's MotM, and thanks to all the other users who make AAO such an awesome place to be. ;D
Meph: No problem at all. Thanks for the interview.