September 2012 - Ping'

The MotM is an interview that the team does at the end of each month. It's a fun way of finding out about respected members of the community.

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Meph
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September 2012 - Ping'

Post by Meph »

Member of the Month
September 2012
Ping'

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Trololololololol~ ♪ [Ping' was led to the assumption I would use his old avatar of Paul Strings. See our conversation in the spoiler tag below!
Spoiler : :
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<Insert quote from someone with Strings commenting on how the above avatar is ancient.

Ping: (I actually wanted to show you all a beautiful painting by Valerio Adami, but a certain vegemite eating crocodile hunter forced me to use Paul Strings, so I had no choice but to obey this mindless, Kylie Minogue-loving kangaroo hugger)

Tap: (Oh, so we'll be including these comments in your interview? I'm certain His Royal Eyeness won't be too pleased... And Australians loving Kylie Monogue is a terrible, terrible stereotype!)

Ping': (Neither are puppies when he's around.)
This is the Member of the Month; an interview that I do at the end of each month. It's a fun way of finding out about respected members of the community.

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.
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As you've noticed by now, Meph did not conduct this interview. Right now, Meph is currently settling into university life. At the time of when this interview first began, he was in the midsts of preparations, and as such, simply had no time to spare for MotM. Instead of giving it up, however, he sent me, Tap, a PM asking if I could take over the reigns temporarily. If there are any similar situations in the future where Meph is unable to conduct the MotM one month, I will take over for him again.

Our next Member of the Month is Ping'. As the creator of Turnabout Substitution, the first [desktop case engine] case to be completed, Ping' is widely recognised as an expert on all issues relating to AA fangaming. With a friendly and cheerful demeanour, Ping' has commented on a number of cases, and offered a great deal of beneficial constructive criticism. He is also a known source of inspiration for many users to develop their own cases and series, this interviewer being one such fan. He was also the first to develop a 'Legendary Title', of which the quality has been hard to match ever since.

Much thanks must go to The Great C-R crash, which was largely responsible for permanently convincing Ping' to visit our wonderful site, instead of lurking and occasionally posting in the French sub-forum (as TSub has a thread there!). Ping', like many other users, has brought a great deal to the AAO community. Besides his collaborative works, he has also established himself as a respected and trustworthy member. So without further ado, let the interview... begin!
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Tap: Hello, and welcome to the twenty eighth Member of the Month interview.

Ping': Thanks! It's an honour and a pleasure. Interestingly (or not) 28 is my favourite number. Being MotM is nice, but the 28th? Now THAT's something to brag about.
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Tap: Tell us about how you found AAO, and what made you want to join.

Ping': Oh... it's a long story. Pardon me if I end up sounding like a boring granddad rambling about the good ol'days - though I suppose that's what I'm here for as well.

I'd been wanting to create an Ace Attorney fangame since 2007 - I had just finished JFA. Because I didn't know anything about programming, I was actively looking for trial editors that would make the job easier, so it was only natural I'd eventually find out about AAO.

By 2008 I had a much clearer idea of the kind of game I wanted to make. Pioneers like Neon Lemmy Koopa and his Prince of Lawyers series had also showed me creating a fangame was actually possible. I started "testing the market" for case makers/trial editor.

First on my list was AAO. I tried making a case with PyWright or PWLib. I tried making a case with the AAO editor somewhere in the spring of 2008 - I'd joined under a different username, though curiously I don't remember what it was. As I recall, the case reused the crime in Turnabout Substitution [first developed under the title of 'The Substitute Turnabout' - no it wasn't] , except it was Klavier Gavin accused of murdering Kristoph in his prison cell. I found AAO remarkably easy to use, but also quite rudimentary for the kind of game I was envisioning. At the time, AAO was nothing like it is now, as a lot of essential features were missing.

I wanted original characters with custom sprites, I wanted new gameplay mechanics, and most of all, I wanted actual investigations. I was pretty ambitious from the start: my goal was to recreate the best of the AA experience. I could see it all in my head, and what I could witness myself producing with the editor fell short of my own expectations. Back in 2008, a case like The Virtual Turnabout would've had to be made with PWLib.

Speaking of which, PWLib was second on my list. We were at the height of what we called the "casemaker wars". I didn't invent the term, the debates were so violent everyone was using it. KSA_Tech and MechaBowser, creators of PWLib and the original Case Maker, respectively, were the ones fighting it out. To sum up, MechaBowser was a slick salesman type who kept promising he'd release a fully functional casemaker that was also easy to use (it never happened), while KSA was a brilliant, hard working programmer who actually delivered the goods, bringing arguably us the most powerful AA casemaker ever made, but who also wasn't the nicest, friendliest person on Earth.

I want to use this opportunity to pay homage to KSA... we sure had our disagreements, but I've always had huge respect for him. AA fangaming owes him a LOT. PWLib was a groundbreaking casemaker, it just never saw the success it deserved due to luck. Ultimately it came down to this: PWLib was used to (not) make Remnants of the Past, while PyWright was used to make Substitution and Scapegoat... it could've easily been the other way around had I been a bit more patient.

Looking back, the history of large scale AA fangaming was filled with unnecessary drama... Nowadays, everything is simple and smooth. If you're an author looking to make a good case, you decide to join a competition, collab with another author, pull out a classic out of your rabbit hat in two to three months, and everyone's happy. In 2008, you had to choose a casemaker... if you ever happened to mention PWLib once, but changed your mind later, KSA would harass you and call you a "traitor" in public. Good times...

Anyway, the first real version of PWLib was set to be released in June of 2008. It had a lot of promise in terms of features, and I almost decided to use it, but it all seemed quite complex to me. Besides, I was a bit worried it might not be 100% ready to work with by the end of summer, and I wanted to finish Substitution by September because I was going to university for the first time and thought I wouldn't have the time.

Thankfully, there was a third option, a then little known casemaker called PyWright. Its creator, saluk, largely stayed out of trouble, so he didn't have a 50 page topic full of hate from his rivals. It turned out to be everything I wanted - it was already functional, it was particularly fit for investigations, and the syntax appeared to be easier than PWLib It didn't hurt that saluk was a class act. It was essentially like PWLib, perhaps less powerful, but also less intimidating.

Then I created Turnabout Substitution, but we'll save that for the next question. When the first demo was released, I thought of advertising it on AAO (for some reason, I did it in the French section - national pride, perhaps?), but because I was spending a lot of time on Court Records, I didn't stay long.

In 2010, a combination of factors led me back to AAO: your presence there, the Great Crash of Court Records (which also meant the temporary disappearance of the Turnabout Substitution topic) coinciding with what I perceived to be a backlash to TSub's popularity, my own self-doubts as to whether I'd produced enough for the community, and the AAO Awards.

While CR was slowly dying, AAO had become a truly vibrant place. The editor now allowed to make just about any cases, and a number of classic fangames had been made with it: The Bitter Turnabout, Turnabout Deception, Silence of the Turnabout, and of course, The Virtual Turnabout.

Something was happening there, and I wanted to be a part of it. In CR, I was first and foremost that guy who created fangames, and there it was, a community full of fangame creators just like me. I realized it was made for me all along. Very soon after I started posting again, BP came to me for a collab which became New Year's Turnabout, giving me all the more reason to stay. It was like migration, in a sense. I was adopted quickly by the fantastic people on this website and never looked back.

...Sorry about the long reply, I naturally tend to write giant walls of text.

Tap: Well... I think this is a first. :XD: You've pretty much answered any of my subsequent 'mini questions', so I think we'll move on to the next question.
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Tap: Let's talk about the pioneer fangame you developed, Turnabout Substitution. What gave you the idea for the plot of the series?

Ping: It didn't come to me all at once. Ideas come to me all the time - it's all a matter of combining them in a way that makes sense. Which is why, incidentally, I may not remember everything correctly. Consider me an "unreliable narrator".

So. From 2007 to 2008, I had a lot of ideas for AA fangames and fancases... some of which I still come to today for inspiration. Several elements of The Black Turnabout and the competition case I'm making with Gumpei are based on leftovers from that productive period. My best cases are usually three-four cases into one... The Black Turnabout is essentially a full game I'd been planning to make, condensed into one case.

The concepts of working on serial killings, the serial killer's identity, and using the judge as the defendant, all emerged separately some time in 2007. In the summer of 2007, just before I played T&T, I imagined a full PW game. Case 4 dealt with
Spoiler : GK2 Spoilers :
the fake assassination attempt of a president,
starting a pattern of unintentionally copying future AA games. Case 5 was the prototype of what would later become Turnabout Substitution, except obviously Phoenix was the main character.

In March of 2008, after I'd played AJ, I thought it would make more sense in terms of timeline to make my fangame the sequel to AJ, especially since Apollo felt like he still had a lot of potential in him as a character.

I rewrote my plans for a fangame from scratch... I remember that the first case occurred at the Wonder Bar. The second was a murder in the midst of a plane flight to Borginia (seriously, it was.. the killer was even a flight attendant, and smuggling was involved). The third case was a complicated crime that made heavy use of optical illusions in the haunted house of a Borginian themepark (it now seems difficult to believe in retrospect, but I swear it's all true). The fourth case started with a flashback, but that's all it had in common with the fourth case of AAI. It ended the game's main arc... I intended case 5 to be a bonus in the vein of Rise from the Ashes. I loved the concept for the case 5 in my previous plans for a PW game, so I simply replaced the characters, and that's how Turnabout Substitution came to be.

A couple of months after that, I realized there was a reason this epic case 5 was in both fangames I'd been planning - it was the one I wanted to make all along, the one that would make the experience worthwhile. The fancases I'd played were all tutorial cases, often with Payne as the prosecutor, so I made the decision to do exactly the opposite and start with the grand finale right away. One of the better decisions I made, but it could've been a disaster. To this day, I still can't get over how lucky I got in the making of this case. Looking for a spriter? Ceres, the greatest spriter we've ever had, appears out of nowhere. Later, when I'm stuck and looking for a dialogue writer? I go to Bad Player, who's never released a case before, on a hunch... based on reading his posts in the forums. And he turns out to be... well, Bad Player.

All the case's loose ends were tied up in the month of May. By June, Turnabout Substitution had been completely planned out.

As for my inspirations, well, I don't know... A lot of it came from cases in the real series. Elements from 1-5, 3-2, 3-5... I was reading a lot of philosophy at the time - I was so obsessed with it I was researching lesser known works on the presocratic thinkers, such as Niezsche's Early Reflections On Democritus. Authors like Borges too were part of my life in that year. This probably contributed to the abstract, geometrical approach to the construction of the plot. TSub has a strong focus on structure, and I think it had a lot to do with my mindset at the time. The whole atmosphere of the case drew heavily on cinema - the typical thrillers and serial killer flicks, but also dark comedies and gothic, Burtonesque imagery, but if you've played it you most likely picked up on that. Finally, the importance of foreshadowing reflected my fascination with Edgar Wright.

Tap: Well... I think I'll be jumping for sub-questions, so let's head off in a slightly different direction. While Prosecutor Payne may still be indeed quite an easy option for fangame developers (in the past, naturally), AAO has still seen quite a number of trial successes featuring our favourite custodian. Of course, I refer to 'The Failed Turnabout' and 'Turnabout Proxy' to name a couple. My question is, despite the negative connotations surrounding him, can Payne still be successfully used? And if so, have you ever given consideration to writing a case featuring him?

Ping': Payne is a fantastic character, and you can write a brilliant case with him as the prosecutor. You gave given good examples.

He was actualy the prosecutor in most of the tutorial cases I was planning. If I wanted to use him in a more difficult case, the crime itself would have to be extremely complex and the villain particularly cunning. In that context, Payne's incompetence would play right into the killer's hands.
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Tap: We've also seen a number of collaborative works from you in the past couple of years. Can you tell us a bit about those?

Ping': Sure.

As you know, BP and I had already collaborated somewhat on Turnabout Substitution. I had also beta tested Silence of Turnabout. After TSub, I was planning to make a full PW game in which he also would've had a part, while he had a case idea of his own I was to be involved in. So we were already quite used to working together prior to New Year's Turnabout.

Near Christmas 2011, he approached me saying he'd had a new idea for a case. The idea in question was the now infamous photo contradiction. He was looking for a plot, backstory and characters, and suggested a collaboration. I accepted without hesitation. I remember I was in Toronto at the time, and my flight to go visit my family in Paris had just been cancelled... Planning New Year's Turnabout helped me get through that day of waiting. That's when I invented the character of Gilligan Teeschlegelsteinhausenberdorf (BP came up with the name), partly inspired by Glase Canon.

We worked together in a completely organic way - it was almost too easy. We had great fun, our chemistry was off the charts, and everything came together perfectly in a few weeks.

It was a huge contrast to Turnabout Substitution, where we had to overcome the most ridiculous obstacles from incomprehensible glitches to car accidents, went through months where absolutely nothing was done, recruited another spriter every two weeks, spent the last weeks before release in a state of total panic, and barely made our deadline due to a number of dedicated, courageous people bailing us out, Mia-style. The creation process of TSub TSub (The Black Turnabout has been following a similar trajectory) felt a lot like an Ace Attorney case. We seemed destined to fail, but we still managed a Not Guilty verdict in the end. In comparison, NYT was a walk in the park.

BP and me going up against Blackrune, was an exciting moment for AAO, and I'm proud to have been a part of it. Turnabout of the New Generation had a number of excellent/innovative entries, not only those mentioned but also trials by Koopakirby, Mimi Mika and E.D. Revolution. Huge credit goes to Wampyr for organizing the whole thing - it turned trial competitions into big events, showed that some of the best cases on the website could be made in a few months, and paved the way for future collabs.

When I started out, the fangame community was like most fangame communities on the web - full of half-hearted projects, 99% of which were abandoned. Remnants of the Past symbolized the gap between ambition and reality. Actually releasing a case, any case, really, was a huge feat in and of itself - people like Lee Ji Hoon and YggdrasilsSword, who did it back when it was very hard, deserve a ton of praise. The combination of Substitution, Scapegoat and AAO's continuous development made us the exception - the PyWright and AAO pioneers showed what was possible, and AAO's continuous development made fangame creation much more accessible. We had quality, we had quantity. The AAO competition movement was the logical next step, stimulating our best authors and bringing the fans "quantity of quality". Nowadays we're almost bound to get a great case every three months.

NYT was a success. At first we were only jokingly hinting at a sequel, but both BP and I had a lot of ideas left, and we had such a great experience the first time around we wanted to do it once more. We were now a real duo, there wasn't just BP and me, there was the both of us - French Petroleum, as we call ourselves ^^

PM after PM, this hypothetical NYT sequel became the "blockbuster" that is The Black Turnabout. What can I tell you about this case? First, let me reassure you all that it is still being made - we may take our time, but you don't know us to give up, we always deliver in the end. Second, it's as long as a full AA game. Third, it features original characters with custom sprites. Fourth, I believe it is much better than Turnabout Substitution. It'll be a thrill to play from start to finish - out of the games I've been working on, it'll undoubtedly be the most fun to play.

I have also collaborating on a case with Gumpei for the "Never-Ending Turnabout" competition, to be released October 27. A sequel to TSub, it is both longer and arguably better as well, though only half as long as TBT. There's a limit to what can be done in three months, but I think we've reached that limit. Expect a dark, emotional case with plenty of memorable moments. Gumpei is working hard on it as we speak, producing frames at an inhumanely fast rate. He's a truly brilliant author too - right now he's underrated but I can guarantee you he will no longer be a month from now.
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Tap: I think it's time to ask one of the most anticipated questions of this interview. Do you happen to have a favourite fan trial?

Ping': To answer your question, I'm not sure. A slightly polished up Turnabout of Courage would probably be my favourite case. As of now, my favourite remains The Virtual Turnabout. Along with Turnabout Scapegoat, it's one of the few fancases I keep replaying. The golden age mystery vibe and countless innovations it brought to the series have been copied many times since, but no one has done it better than Blackrune.

Other than Virtual, I love all of Rune's other cases, as well as Turnabout Bloodlines and Turnabout Redeemer by Zeel1, the Matt Silver series by Narokh, and The Bitter Turnabout by Hodou Okappa. I should also mention comedies like The Undecided Turnabout and Wampyr's Turnabout Orange, as well as Jean's excellent series, The Omniscient Turnabout.

Not the most original choices, but there's a reason everyone mentions them.
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Tap: Now let's talk about your personal life. What was your childhood like?

Ping': It was fantastic. Defined me as a person, and in a good way. It was a time of close friendships and an infinite freedom to create... that's really all I want in life. Love is nice, too, but it has to be a close friendship to matter to me.

I was precocious in all things intellectual, and useless when it came to interacting with my surroundings. At the age of 8, I was an opera lover who read the Odyssey and wrote philosophical treatises on evil and the nature of reality, but the socks I wore never matched and I didn't know how to tie my shoelaces. People didn't know if I was a genius or mentally challenged. Turned out I was neither - thankfully!

I spent my whole day thinking about new things to create, and creating them, 24/7. Even in my sleep I was creating. I wrote novels, short stories and plays. I created fake newspapers, fake companies, fake utopian societies. I invented a full language that was African sounding, and gave lessons to my family as though I were a tenured professor. They had to sit through it all... I even game them homework! I drew a lot - I was quite good at it, too, back then, especially shading and colours. I also painted but I was better at drawing. I composed full music albums in various genres in my head, then tried them on the piano. I directed a Zelda fanfilm (I played Ganondorf, even made my own costume) and a short art film that was based on filming a Myst-like video game. And of course, I kept coming up with new ideas for videogames. To me, videogames were the pinnacle of creation. They had everything - graphics, music, text, interactivity... I would draw maps of levels, lists of items...

My best friend was an accomplished artist. He was so much better than me at drawing that I eventually gave up... I was jealous of his talent. I'd come to his place and we would create comic books (he drew, I wrote) and card games based on our characters. We'd play video games and make them (using RPG maker... it was the only way we could do it). During playtime, we would act out our video game series. One took place in a fantasy world with humanoid dragons and various species of reptiles... it had the most convoluted plot. Another was more sci-fi, with tons of absurd humour. Once we participated in a boat competition. We made and drew on our own boat (characters from one of our series, of course). We were about to win when the boat sank. It's one of my most heartbreaking memories, to this day.

So it was all pretty carefree. There's no reason why life shouldn't be like this. We put up with a lot of things we really shouldn't be putting up with, especially in our professional lives. Or maybe I'm just crazy, I don't know.

Tap: Don't forget about your family! We want to hear everything about Mr and Mrs Ping', Pong' and Pang'.

Ping': My dad's the prototypical well-travelled businessman. A perfect British gentleman who always treated me like an adult, though he was never around when I was a kid. Bit of a Mitt Romney type, in many ways - maybe why I'm ambivalent towards the guy. My mom's a wonderful woman - she didn't just teach me how to be a good person, she taught me I should want the best for myself and actually do everything to get what I want, which is at least as useful in life. You want to be good, but you also want to be happy (you do others a great service by being happy anyway). Enjoy life, enjoy yourself, enjoy others, you don't get a lot of time to do it. I have one older brother, currently unemployed - he used to work in finance, he's a brilliant mind, much more mathematical/logical than I am - and a hyperactive older sister who works in management consulting and manages to spend even more time at work than my dad. She often leaves me with her son, whom I love with all my heart but who really should stop confusing Thor's hammer and an actual hammer.
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Tap: That brings me to my next question. What is your average day like?

Ping': Well, it's a bit different than usual at the moment. I'm interning somewhere, so I work 9 to 5. Dull, I know. I dress up, go to work, come home, visit the websites I haven't visited in the day (I never procastinate at work, naturally), spend the evening geeking and reading stuff, eat, watch myself a good episode from The Wire or whatever series I'm watching at the moment, and go to bed. I sometimes have a piano or theatre lesson, and on Friday nights I go out with friends. I don't have a routine for week-ends, so I can't really describe an "average" one, but it's typical geekster stuff.

Currently I try to use my hard-earned salary to escape from the Parisian suburbs, whether to Paris itself, more inspiring parts of the country, or England.
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Tap: What are your plans for the future?

Ping': You don't want to ask me that question. I'm a walking plans-for-the-future-generating machine. Asking me "when are you going to get X done" would be more useful ;)

So let's see...
  • There are two video games I want to make after TBT is released. Not at the same time, it'll be one after the other.
    • The first one is a BIG project that will make the community proud. For now, it's a surprise - only one person other than me knows. I have a master plan for everything, and if I told you more it would ruin the plan.
    • The second one is more personal.
  • - There's a play I need to finish (it's almost there) and a novel I need to seriously start.
  • - I have ideas for several websites that would be in the public interest.
  • - I'm helping an innovative new company get off the ground. The "product" should be launched in the summer of 2013.
Professionally, I don't know. The reality of the situation is that I have a lot of opportunities, but I don't want to end up as any random executive that works for any random company, even if it's well paid. I've seen it in my family, I've seen what it does to you... misguided purpose, or lack of purpose altogether... It's depressing.

All I know is that by the end of my life, I want to have had founded a family, kept in touch with my friends, produced something useful, published a book, travelled, and enjoyed every moment of it. Nothing too ambitious XD

Oh, and I want to be remembered as the most self-important artist of the 21st century.
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Tap: What are your political views? If you answer 'right-wing', 'conservative', 'Liberal' or 'centre-right', be wary of a shotgun which is currently pointing in your direction. ;)

Ping': A bit of a trick question, isn't it? Though around these parts, probably less so than the one about my favourite Ace Attorney game.

Tap: Not at all. There are two perfectly valid answers to give -- "left" and "centre-left".

Ping': Okay then. I consider myself centre-left, but for most Americans I would be a radical socialist as I believe that while free markets are useful, they're not the deity we should be worshipping. We don't want the "system" to be free, we want ourselves to be free first and foremost.

Anyway, the point is, those categories don't translate that well internationally. To me, left wing and right wing made sense in the age of industrial revolution politics. We're in an information age. Politics need to catch up.

Collective intelligence, crowdsourcing and other rationalized bottom-up processes... I believe those could come to define 21st century politics. I'm certainly a big proponent of that. Making politics more like Wikipedia, essentially (it should also happen in the private sector when they realize how money it can make...). Democracy, expertise and efficient decision making can be achieved at the same time with modern problem solving mechanisms, even if they have to come with a degree of "automaticity". Freedom and equality will only come from a well-designed, well-functioning democracy. There will always be great men/women, but they need the proper environment to thrive.
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Tap: With the US Presidential Election only under two months away, it would be uncalled and unmoral for a British Frenchman or French Britishman to comment on who is likely to win... so let's ask anyway! Will Barack Obama secure a second-term, or will Mitt Romney give him the boot? And why?

Ping': Things aren't looking good for Mitt Romney right now. He just made a fool of himself on foreign issues... he doesn't have many bullets left. Save for an "October surprise", Obama should be re-elected. Even if an international crisis happens, it should benefit Obama more than Romney. Say, Israel decides to strike Iran... will American voters prefer to elect someone who jumps the gun and could potentially lead us to another World War, or a proven commander in chief who carefully considers all the options before making his move?

Tap: In your opinion, is foreign policy likely to play a significant role in the next two months, particularly in the October debates? Or are voters likely to be more influenced by domestic issues, such as the economy, health care and education? Of course, one could also argue rather successfully that foreign policy, trade in particular, is utterly critical to pretty much any economy around the world.

Ping': Absolutely. As I said, it all depends on whether an international crisis happens in October. Voters are usually concerned more with domestic issues, unless something big like a war distracts them from those. But I'm not in the business of making predictions. I'm a disciple of Nassim Taleb - predictions are for fools.

Tap: Then how about a hypothetical? If Romney were somehow elected to the White Office, but the Democrats were to regain control of the House of Representatives (in addition to maintaining its holding of the Senate), how do you think a Romney presidency would play out? Would it be a reflection of the current play?

Ping': No chance the Democrats take back the House. Well, never say never (being a real Talebian is hard XD), but it would be extremely unlikely. Even if Obama gets reelected, he probably will need to work with a Republican congress.

But suppose your hypothetical scenario happens. Romney strikes me as a relatively moderate politician. If he doesn't have to concern himself with a far right Republican base as much to secure votes for his initiatives, he could turn out to be a decent president, at least domestically. Something like a modern day Eisenhower.

Tap: All of your answers have been rather interesting. But to maintain interest, I suppose it would be best if we were to move on. Not all AAO folk share our interest in politics, as terribly upsetting as it may be!

Ping': It is their right =)
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Tap: Which is your favourite Ace Attorney game?

Ping': Trials and Tribulations. For the third episode in a trilogy, the game feels incredibly... inspired. It manages to be both completely over the top and quite emotional at the same time - the perfect "dramedy". The characters (especially the killers) are all memorable, the soundtrack is fantastic, and the localisation is the best in the series.

Plot-wise, the game has two of my favourite cases, 3-2 and 3-5, and even "throwaway" cases like 3-3 are fascinating.

PW:AA would be a close second, in large part thanks to 1-4 and 1-5.

Tap: I have to ask, as finding anyone who ranks PW:AA rather highly on their list is rather rare these days. What about 1-1, who introduced us to the Glorious Payne and Sahwit?

Ping': It's the worst case in the series, but it made me fall in love with the series instantly.
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Tap: What other games do you really like?

Ping': I have pretty classical tastes, I think...

Like many people from my generation, I was raised on Nintendo - Zelda (especially Link's Awakening, Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess and Ocarina of Time, Mario, Pokemon... I also loved Rayman, all of Rare's stuff (Banjo Kazooie/Tooie, Conker's Bad Fur Day), Monkey Island, and RPGs such as FF6/7/8 and Chrono Trigger. The Dreamcast era was big for me, so games like Shenmue 1 and 2, Skies of Arcadia, Jet Set Radio, Soul Calibur count among my favourites... Even "failures" like Omikron had great playing value.
I've always been a big Castlevania fan (Symphony of the Night and the GBA/DS episodes in particular).
In more recent years I've been into games like Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Okami, Portal, Braid, Heavy Rain, and Little Big Planet. Not to mention Oddworld. Can't believe I nearly forgot it. =)

Shameless pleasures include Super Monkey Ball and I Wanna Be The Guy for the sheer difficulty. Oh, and of course you have the obvious: Ghost Trick, which I might actually prefer to the AA series, Professor Layton and Hotel Dusk.

Last great game I played was Journey. It's short but every second is worth it.
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Tap: What was the first video game you ever played?

Ping': I think it was Super Mario Bros. I kept getting killed by the first Goomba. It was embarrassing.

Tap: To be fair for you, it isn't as if Super Mario Bros. makes the controls for jumping or any other action obvious. I recall the old Game Boy games pretty much threw you into the world with no story introduction whatsoever. I suppose that is also what is the Mario Appeal, though... =)

Ping': It wasn't as if I didn't know where to press to jump. But there was a slight delay in Mario's response to my commands. He wasn't as sharp as he was in later games. He probably ate a lot of fish in between episodes.

Tap: Not cheese?

Ping': Probably cheese as well. He certainly got a bit fatter as time went by.

Tap: In other words, the plot line of the Mario games is not to rescue Peach or any other princess, but to get Mario in shape after he spent the time for the new game's development eating and eating and eating. It doesn't have the same sort of appeal as rescuing someone, or going up against Bowser now, does it? ;)

Ping': But it sends a meaningful message about public health. Mario will save our planet from obesity, one jump at a time.
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Tap: Last question, now. Do you have any other interests?

Ping': Everything interests me. I'm curious about everything, I find boredom impossible.
Hmm, now if I had to make a list... we already mentioned politics, but I'm also into philosophy and the other social sciences. Hard sciences whenever I can understand them. I love music of all kinds, literature, cinema, TV series, contemporary art... I read a lot, I write a lot. I've been playing the piano for fourteen years now. I play basketball, and I'm taking up theatre. Going out with friends, travelling with family are obviously a big part of my life as well.
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Tap: Okay, I lied... twice. It's time to discuss what is arguably the most anticipated question of this interview. Tell us about cheese!

Ping': No, YOU should tell us about it, since you're apparently obsessed with it. Besides, Australia is the only nation to have found the secret behind "tasty cheese". France has hundreds of varieties of cheese, but none of them are "tasty cheese". We're totally jealous.

...We should call more things "tasty". Maybe if Australia was called "tasty Australia", more people would want to visit? Actually, probably not, because it's a horrible place.

Tap: Well, at least we managed to get through the GFC, unlike France which has lost its AAA credit rating with major credit agencies! :P

Ping': Even if we default on our debt, we'll still have Victor Hugo and the Arc de Triomphe.

Tap: Ah, but if France defaults, it would spell worldwide spread economic disaster. After all, isn't it just one of the many reasons why French, feeble-minded politicians shake in their boots every day? :)

Ping': Perhaps we'll create a worldwide economic disaster. It won't matter. We will eat chocolate, drink wine, make love and paint masterpieces until the end of the world. Decadence is beautiful.

Tap: Are you even qualified to reach such a conclusion, though? As it stands, I believe you are technically more British than you are French. What is the meaning of this!? Are you impersonating French people for your own benefit!?

Ping': True, my DNA is more British than it is French. To French people, I'm a Brit. To English speaking people, I'm a Frenchy. I like having both cultures. Dreamy-eyed idealism and reasonable pragmatism make a hell of a pair.

Tap: I would assume 'reasonable pragmatism' would naturally be the British blood in you. ;)

Ping': The British people are dreamers too. They even have better dreams, I would say. They just give up on them to work in Slough. It's a quintessentially British trait.

Tap: Indeed... :XD:
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Tap: One more question! Tell us about 'beterbomen', who fashioned himself rather early on as quite an intelligent and well-mannered man, if I have to say so myself.

Ping': Or "bitter bald man", as I used to call him. He was a poster on CR who called himself a "Critic", with a capital C. He specialized in disparaging reviews with very few actual arguments to back up his opinion. He hated Substitution, and he also hated Turnabout Shot Dunk. Actually, are you sure you want me to mention Turnabout Shot Dunk?

Tap: I've never heard of this 'Turnabout Shot Dunk' before. Was it any good?

Ping': Aside from the fact that "Shot Dunk" doesn't mean anything (I would know, I played basketball for more then ten years. A dunk is technically a kind of shot), it was pretty good.

Anyway, I didn't mind his criticism of Substitution, but what he said about your case angered me. Though from what I understand, it only helped you get better. We should embrace criticism of all kinds, whatever the source. I guess that's the lesson of the day.

Tap: To be fair, it was justified. I mean, the script was rather sub-par. But on the matter of criticism, how about when SilentBobX gave a rather scathing report on TSub? I seem to recall he was rather critical of Super Bad's writing...

Ping': And mine, for that matter. But he gave it 3/5, so it wasn't exactly a "scathing" review. He just said it was overrated - which it is, in my honest opinion. That's why I'm convinced I can do better with both The Black Turnabout and the competition case I'm making with Gumpei. But his review wasn't exactly unbiased. He was upset that we were getting all the attention...

Tap: Perhaps, but I would still argue his review in certain aspects was justified. Oh, well... he is American, so I suppose we'll just have to let him off with a slap on his wrist.
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Tap: Before we conclude this interview, do you have anything else you'd like to say?

Ping': I just wanted to say thanks a lot to everyone on this website for being so amazing, funny, adorable, and talented =) I hope you had fun reading this interview. Have a good day!
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Re: Member of the Month: September 2012

Post by TKinhonipei »

It took me about 50+ refresh's to find out that you and BP had the same avatar. xD

Nonetheless, congrats Ping'as!! (Sorry, I had to. Oh wait, doesn't Zeel do that too? Aha-eheh...)

A-Anyways, when will we be seeing another amazing case of yours? :)
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Holhol is my soulmate ~<3

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Re: Member of the Month: September 2012

Post by Zeel1™ »

Aw hell yeah, congratulations Ping'as! I miss talking to you, friend. You're a fascinating guy and I mean in the best and worst ways possible~
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Re: Member of the Month: September 2012

Post by Kroki »

There is a french TSub thread? I just discovered something. x)
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Re: Member of the Month: September 2012

Post by enigma »

Congratulation, Ping, Master of the Bug-Filled PyWright Finales~! :awesome:
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Re: Member of the Month: September 2012

Post by DWaM »

'Grats, Ping'!
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Re: Member of the Month: September 2012

Post by Ping' »

Wait, I was interviewed? Strange... I don't recall any of that :mrgreen:

Thanks a lot guys!

Zeel1 > I miss talking to you too. But in fact I realized this can easily be fixed, as I changed my hotmail address. I'll give you the new one via pm.

TKinhonipei >
The sequel to Turnabout Substitution, a collab between Gumpei and me, will come out exclusively on AAO, October 27th ;)
And it won't be buggy.

Then you'll have The Black Turnabout, BP and I's sequel to New Year's Turnabout. I realize it's been in the works for a long time, but you won't be disappointed when it eventually comes out. Progress is not always smooth, but at the very least parts of the case should have been released by the end of the year.

After that, I'm done creating AA fan cases. I'll still be around, it's just that I'll be moving on to... another kind of project.
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Re: Member of the Month: September 2012

Post by enigma »

Ping' wrote:Wait, I was interviewed? Strange... I don't recall any of that :mrgreen:

Thanks a lot guys!

Zeel1 > I miss talking to you too. But in fact I realized this can easily be fixed, as I changed my hotmail address. I'll give you the new one via pm.

TKinhonipei >
The sequel to Turnabout Substitution, a collab between Gumpei and me, will come out exclusively on AAO, October 27th ;)
And it won't be buggy.

Then you'll have The Black Turnabout, BP and I's sequel to New Year's Turnabout. I realize it's been in the works for a long time, but you won't be disappointed when it eventually comes out. Progress is not always smooth, but at the very least parts of the case should have been released by the end of the year.

After that, I'm done creating AA fan cases. I'll still be around, it's just that I'll be moving on to... another kind of project.
B-B-But the buggyness is part of the charm. :(
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Re: Member of the Month: September 2012

Post by Singidava »

Congratulations 'Ping~! I forgive you for that Detective Conan copypasta contradiction in NYT because that was clearly BP's doing (but I'm not forgiving BP any time soon~~)
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Re: Member of the Month: September 2012

Post by Zeel1™ »

Ping' wrote:Wait, I was interviewed? Strange... I don't recall any of that :mrgreen:
Ah, so they've finally started with the fabricated interviews, I was wondering!
enigma wrote:
Ping' wrote:Wait, I was interviewed? Strange... I don't recall any of that :mrgreen:

Thanks a lot guys!

Zeel1 > I miss talking to you too. But in fact I realized this can easily be fixed, as I changed my hotmail address. I'll give you the new one via pm.

TKinhonipei >
The sequel to Turnabout Substitution, a collab between Gumpei and me, will come out exclusively on AAO, October 27th ;)
And it won't be buggy.

Then you'll have The Black Turnabout, BP and I's sequel to New Year's Turnabout. I realize it's been in the works for a long time, but you won't be disappointed when it eventually comes out. Progress is not always smooth, but at the very least parts of the case should have been released by the end of the year.

After that, I'm done creating AA fan cases. I'll still be around, it's just that I'll be moving on to... another kind of project.
B-B-But the buggyness is part of the charm. :(
Maybe so, but the only way they could ensure that bugs remain is to put them in intentionally. In which case, they wouldn't really be bugs. They'd just be a crockpot of unmitigated subterfuge. And there's nothing charming about that or that sentence.
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Re: Member of the Month: September 2012

Post by enigma »

Zeel1™ wrote: Maybe so, but the only way they could ensure that bugs remain is to put them in intentionally. In which case, they wouldn't really be bugs. They'd just be a crockpot of unmitigated subterfuge. And there's nothing charming about that or that sentence.
Hey! No need to insult the sentence! What did it do to you? Shoot your pet hamster?
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Re: Member of the Month: September 2012

Post by Zeel1™ »

The sentence is a hell spawn. I would know, I was there when it was born. I felt the flames, smelled the brimstone, and looked Satan in the eye.


It was slightly more pleasant than regular child-birth, all-in-all.
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Re: Member of the Month: September 2012

Post by enigma »

Zeel1™ wrote:The sentence is a hell spawn. I would know, I was there when it was born. I felt the flames, smelled the brimstone, and looked Satan in the eye.


It was slightly more pleasant than regular child-birth, all-in-all.
Explain to me how you know what that feels like? :redd:
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Re: Member of the Month: September 2012

Post by SwagmaWampyr »

DARNIT PING I SPOILED MYSELF ON THE COMP CASE BEING A SEQUEL TO TSUB TO WISH YOU A HAPPY MOTM.

I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY YOU JERK. :(


Disappointment subsided, happy MOTM Frenchy. :D
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Re: Member of the Month: September 2012

Post by Unas »

Ah, the casemaker war, the good old memories !
It was indeed at it max when I first tried advertising AAO on CR, in March 2008, and barely got noticed at all.

I guess it's a good thing that AAO wasn't on par with the existing solutions then, so it didn't get involved in these flame wars. And actually, KSA was quite nice to me, as I remember, and helped a little with AAO getting some consideration as an honourable case maker on CR.

Anyway, thank for bringing back the memories :XD:
Ping' wrote:The second was a murder in the midst of a plane flight to Borginia (seriously, it was.. the killer was even a flight attendant, and smuggling was involved). The third case was a complicated crime that made heavy use of optical illusions in the haunted house of a Borginian themepark (it now seems difficult to believe in retrospect, but I swear it's all true).
Are you sure you're not Takeshi Yamazaki (the AAI game director) in disguise ?
Perhaps it's not that bad that you're going to stop making fan cases - at this rate, you'd probably spoil us all about AA5 in the next few months with your works :P

Aside from that, it's always great to read from the other French-speaking wall-of-text writer around this place. Except for the political views, which we've quite extensively discussed in the past, we do sound quite similar :awesome:
Ping' wrote:The sequel to Turnabout Substitution, a collab between Gumpei and me, will come out exclusively on AAO, October 27th ;)
And it won't be buggy.
Wait until I migrate AAO to V6 completely, and you'll have plenty of importing bugs :mrgreen:
(Well, hopefully not, but you never know :-P)
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