not quite realising the aptness, i went out and bought dynasty warriors for the psp. i intend to start playing it on my flight to beijing tomorrow, and i hadn’t realised till now it was all about fighting as a feudal lord during the warring states period in chinese history.

i really hope my game is in english, since i bought the north american version. looking at the screenshot and all the chinese characters (edit: i meant the chinese words, not the characters/people), i suddenly had a flashback of the last time i played mahjong and pissed the entire table off by delaying gameplay everytime i had to count the circles/balls/blobs and bamboo things on the tiles.

there’s a theory in economics about people having the need to affirm their decisions and purchases after the transaction’s over. even though you can’t go back. like the way people look at their purchases and pat themselves on the back for the “good value” they found, how “worth it” it was, and so on.

likewise, i tend to read reviews of games/software i buy after i buy them. which is often stupid, because i get all disappointed if it’s a bad review. for dynasty warriors, it’s been generally good reviews, except for a long-ish bad one. the main point of contention in the latter is the unchallenging state of the game, being easy to learn and not having a lot of strategy. (but it rated the game medium/hard, which confuses and worries me — how much strategy is not enough strategy, anyway?)

besides, the manual that came with the game had 36 pages of information i couldn’t read in one sitting. and half of it was about the supposed “strategy” so purportedly lacking in the game. so i’m worried on two fronts: 1. that i’m going to find this game too difficult and will be forced to retreat into a hole in shock and 2. that i’m too stupid for the modern gaming industry standard as a whole, and will be forever forced to play games like kirby, mario and pong.

because the last time i asked about kirby and kirby-related games in a gaming shop, the counter clerk said, “oh, you mean the cute cute type of games, issit. the girl girl type lah.”

which is insults my incredible kirby-oriented gaming talent. and like, 51% of this world too, may i add.

before i leave tomorrow morning (at the ungodly hour of 7 am), please pray for my bladder control abilities, and that i may not encounter the much-referred to “doorless toilets” so famous in china. and that i will be spared the sight of a stranger’s (or a friend’s, or family member’s, or hey — even my own) excrement. i just… can’t.