Dear Cia Column

Dear Cia

Why don't aliens wear hats?

~Tex

Dear guys,

Sorry, party night.  Rainchecking like there's no tomorrow!  XD


--Cia

Dear Avocado,

Hmmm, I seem to recall you answering a similar question about cholesterol some time ago, but it's worth repeating, especially since this is slightly different.

Anyway, cholesterol is actually a very important part of our bodies... so important that cholesterol is constantly produced by our cells and livers naturally.  The body produces considerably more of its own cholesterol than it could possibly intake from food, which is why it's silly to equate dietary cholesterol with blood cholesterol (in much the same way as equating dietary fat with body fat).  Of its many uses in the body, cholesterol is used...

1) to maintain cell membrane integrity, as well as fluidity, of our cells, ensuring that cell membranes are neither too fluid nor too firm.  In doing so, it creates the conditions in which essential proteins can secure themselves on the membrane, allowing for a number of functions that make possible blood clotting, burning of glucose into energy, burning of body fat into energy, calcium regulation in the blood, and communication between other cells (such as in nerve or brain cells).

2) to serve as a component for various hormones that help us cope with stress (ie, serotonin, melatonin), that can help us promote growth when we're younger (HGH), and that promote specific sexual or maturation functions (estrogen, progesterone and testosterone).  It's also used to help the body produce its own vitamin D from sunlight.

3) to help keep the intestinal wall healthy and impermeable, preventing a lot of gastrointestinal issues including the so-called "leaky gut" syndrome that can lead to a lot of gastrointestinal distress, as well as the makings of various food allergies and autoimmune conditions.  A strong healthy intestine, in combination with healthy gut bacteria, is better able to resist toxic elements (such as plant lectins), in addition to making you feel happier and healthier.

4) to serve as a very powerful antioxidant in the body, and one of the most effective mechanisms in our body to repair things like cell damage from the excess of free radicals and damage to arterial walls caused by excess inflammation.

The fact that people blame cholesterol for clogging arteries and causing heart attacks is PARTIALLY like blaming firefighters for causing the fire just because there are a lot of them at the scene... it couldn't possibly be that there are excess firefighters because they're, you know, TRYING TO PUT OUT A FIRE?!!!  Why doesn't anyone blame the fire?  Probably because in the case of heart disease, the true cause of inflammation and the excess production of free radicals in the body occurs in something commonly ingested that has an obscene excess of pro-inflammatory Omega-6, as well as high levels of oxidation and rancidity that masked through the clever use of chemical deodorants and clarifying agents.  I'm talking, of course, of sludge oils... byproduct seed oils, from things like cottonseed, soybean and rapeseed, manufactured within only the last 100 years, and coinciding perfectly with the astronomical rise of heart disease as a major killer of human beings in developed countries. The very artificial fats touted as "healthy" alternatives because of their "low cholesterol" -- which, when taking into account the TRUE nature of cholesterol in the body, doesn't sound like a good thing anymore.  

The only reason I say "partially" is because there is one way cholesterol can do harm to the body.  As I stated, the body is ALWAYS trying to produce cholesterol.  Even if you ate nothing but celery sticks all month, limiting your intake of dietary cholesterol to zero, your body would STILL try to manufacture this cholesterol from something. After all, without enough cholesterol, you could potentially die -- and in fact, very low blood serum cholesterol seems to correlate with increased mortality!  Fat, and especially saturated fat, are primary components for making more cholesterol as well as the lipoproteins to carry them (saturated fat, in fact, helps raise HDL, the so-called "good" cholesterol).  Absent any dietary fat to work with, the body has to use whatever it can to produce more cholesterol with whatever it has available... and this CAN include carbohydrates, which the liver can convert to special body fats called triglycerides which in turn can be used to manufacture cholesterol and cholesterol-carrying lipoproteins (in addition to being stored in muscle tissue as glycogen, or as body fat.  

These kinds of makeshift fats (including those obtained from sludge oils as well!), however, do not produce effective cholesterol or lipoprotein carriers -- in the case of a heavy grain-based and sludge oil diet, the kind which leads to the formation of pro-inflammatory visceral fat, the resulting cholesterol is already highly oxidized and prone to damage the areas it's trying to repair.  Likewise, the production of HDL suffers due to a lack of available components, thus causing its volume in the body to plummet, and the production of LDL is limited to a small, dense, heavy kind called LDL-b. This form is, again, highly oxidized and ineffective -- it can be sent to try and deposit cholesterol in a highly damaged artery, but due to its small dense size it gets lodged into the damaged area instead.  Being already heavily oxidized, it damages the artery further, causing more bad LDL-b to be sent to repair the damage, and in turn make the damage even greater.  With this process continuing with no end, and without enough HDL to clean out the stuck LDL-b particles, a plaque begins to form which can then lead to a constriction of blood flow to the heart, and thus a heart attack... or other coronary heart condition.

So to use the firefighter analogy in this scenario of tainted cholesterol, we can say that many of the firefighters were of the crooked kind, intent on stealing things more than actually doing their job, and in turn inadvertently letting the whole building burn down.  So here is a scenario where cholesterol CAN be very bad for you -- but then again, if not for the unjustified fear of dietary fat and cholesterol, we wouldn't be compulsively trying to eat low-fat, low-cholesterol, heavily-processed "healthy" foods that cause tainted cholesterol to begin with!  Evict these inflammatory foods and sludge oils from your body, and the composition of your body's cholesterol will normalize, and the risk of heart disease should, ironically, go down considerably!  

After all, if dietary fat and cholesterol WERE heart killers, then countries like France and Switzerland would have suffered devastating epidemics of heart disease, rather than the ironically-low incidences of the disease as has happened historically.


--Cia

Dear Tex,

Have you ever tried wearing a fedora or other silly hat while in space?  It's very cumbersome and unnerving, especially when you're out doing a spacewalk and have to struggle to keep it from floating away forever!  Plus many aliens reported have big heads, and they might feel embarrassed to have big hats, so they prefer to just leave them home for sporting events only. XD


--Cia

Dear Cia,
How do you avoid getting acne/spots?

Dear Hannah,

Aha!  A great question for all the players out there who might be suffering from minor or major problems with acne... I certainly used to suffer the occasional pimples well into my 20's, so I used to be quite the victim.  They are very rare now, so naturally I am a strong supporter of eliminating acne through diet change.  This is something that researchers are only JUST NOW starting to take seriously given that previous assertions about the inevitability of acne in teenagers (or it being a product of dirty skin or genetics) don't hold much weight when factoring in that some native cultures throughout the world NEVER experience acne at all, even as teenagers.  

Anyway, a very brief explanation of what acne, or more specifically a "pimple" or "spot" is.... 

It basically forms when skin cells around a hair follicle fail to detach due to an excess of keratin (typically a symptom of vitamin A deficiency, hmmm), and new skin cells simply form below it, clumping together until they clog the follicle and trap the oil it secretes which keeps your skin shiny and bendable (called sebum). The clogged up pore begins to inflame in this condition and attracts a normally-benign species of bacteria called P. acnes to come and make a home inside this formation, leading to additional inflammation and redness as the body tries to combat this abnormality.  This typically occurs the most in teenagers due to the fact that excess sebum production occurs when a significant amount of androgen (a sex hormone) is produced in the body, something which commonly occurs in puberty and other stages of heavy hormonal changes.  

So where does diet fit in?  Aside from the Vitamin A portion I listed above (which can be deficient in people following low-fat diets, since vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin), it is interesting to note that insulin is androgenic, meaning it increases the production of androgens in the body, which can in turn increase the production of sebum.  A standard insulin rise and fall from consumption of low-glycemic foods is generally harmless as not enough androgen is produced compared to what the body already produces. But high-glycemic foods, such as refined sugars and grain (wheat, especially), can spike your insulin for many hours, and so can produce enough excess androgen to disrupt your entire hormone balance and of course cause your sebum production to skyrocket.  Dairy also shares responsibility in excess sebum production as well since, as I mentioned in a previous Dear Cia, certain milk proteins, including casein, are highly insulogenic.  So between teenagers growing with raging hormones, pressured into eating low-fat garbage in school, inherently eating high-carb junk food, drinking non-fat milk full of lactose and casein, and always going around with highly elevated blood sugar, it ceases to become a surprise that acne is such a prolific problem in the youth of industrialized nations.  It should be noted however that, thanks to the insulgenic-cause of acne, many people can still suffer from pimples well into their adult years.

There may also be a contributory role of excess pro-inflammatory Omega-6 in the body (thanks to the excess consumption of sludge oils, coupled with a low consumption of omega-3 rich foods like fish and grass-fed products), which can at the very least cause the raging inflammation that creates hospitable conditions for the P. acne bacteria.  If your omega-6 to omega-3 ratio is closer to its standard balance of between 2:1 and 4:1 (as opposed to 25:1 in your standard American teen, for example), then you're less likely to experience visible manifestations of acne.  

It's hard to really tell which of these (if any) are the true "cures" of acne since, by lowering intake of high-glycemic foods, you also have a greater chance of lowering intake of omega-6 since so many junk foods in the market are cooked with omega-6-heavy sludge oils like soybean oil.  On top of that, you also might gain more nutrients from the foods you're eating to replace those junk foods, as well as absorb more nutrients now that you're free of the effects of powerful anti-nutrients in grain products -- in both scenarios, your intake of Vitamin A will improve considerably, thus eliminating the first precursor to the formation of acne.  

Either way, a healthy diet that eliminates or at least reduces grains and excess sugar, eliminates the consumption of toxic sludge oils, encourages you to eat whole foods sourced without hormone-disrupting additives (such as pesticides in conventional, unwashed fruits and vegetables, and encourages you to eat fat rather than fear it, will increase your chances of never experiencing embarrassing acne ever in your life... or at least not to the ridiculous extent you see in your stereotypical teenager.


--Cia

Dear Cia,
How does a virus replicate itself?

Dear Hannah,

Well not to sound overly-simplistic since microbiology isn't my forte, but a virus pretty much replicates much like a Xenomorph from alien does.  It attaches onto a cell or bacteria and injects its nucleic acid (call it its version of DNA) into the cell, at which point it either floats around taking over the host cell, or it integrates into its DNA to get a free ride in multiplying.  Either way, at some point the nucleic acid cannibalizes the host to create new copies of the virus.  once enough copies are created and the host is essentially eaten from the inside out, the viruses burst out of to go infect other cells and bacteria.

Here's a picture that can help illustrate the process....




--Cia

Dead cia,
How much do you know about dreams?

Dear Hannah,

Hehe, what a vague question... XD
I mean I can't say I know much about dreams since no one really does... Biologically they're images and senses that flash through your mind involuntarily as you sleep, but it certainly isn't enough to cover very convincing feelings of floating in the air or encountering prophetic images that come true later.  So there may be more than just random neural impulses for sure.

All I can say is that while I used to suffer from nightmares a lot in the past, now I barely get them at all.  Granted I don't remember many of my dreams anymore either, but rather that then wake up panting and screaming in the night.  I consider it yet another under-appreciated advantage to a good diet.


--Cia

Dear Cia,

Why are there so many annoying new forum games that I cannot resist participating in? T_T

Dear Avocado,

Oh my, how did I miss this one?  Stupid notifications. XD

Anyway... well... annoying is purely relative... for a lot of your fellow players, those games are awesome.  Sort of a mixed bag for me... some are really clever, others are just brain-dead.  XD

Either way, though, these silly games serve one purpose... to let loose and participate in SOMETHING on this forum.  Better to post something droll than not at all, as I always say.  Even if I hate bad apps, I appreciate that they at least keep the whitelist threads busy, and my staff on their toes.  

As for why you can't resist them... hehe... you secretly wuv them.  ^^


--Cia

Dear Cia,

Why do you hate Microsoft so much?

Dear Avocado,

Lol. Keep forgetting to answer this one.  Call it a case of deep-seated vengeance, plus a recognition that they have been, for many years, a kind of cartel.  They're only changing in recent years because they're really hurting from real, more robust, competition, but it doesn't mean that traces of their old ways still don't see through.

Here's an informative read about these old criminals... http://www.ecis.eu/documents/Finalversion_Consumerchoicepaper.pdf


--Cia

Dear Cia:

What causes greenhouse gases?

Dear Hannah,

That's a surprisingly-loaded question and I rather not spend a whole lot of time on it, so I'll just focus on what is generally understood, and simply include some personal notes in the end.

Greenhouse Gas #1: Carbon Dioxide
Natural:  respiration of terrestrial and marine life, decomposition and volcanic activity
Human:  burning of fossil fuels for energy, transportation, production manufacture, modern agiculture, concentrated animal feeding operations, and especially military activities.

Greenhouse Gas #2: Methane
Natural:  Wetlands, termites, and methane hydrate deposits in the oceans.
Human:  burning of fossil fuels, landfills and concentrated animal feeding operations.

Greenhouse Gas #3: Nitrous Oxide
Natural:  Nitrogen-fixing vegetation and oceans.
Human:  modern agriculture, burning of fossil fuels, and sewage.

Greenhouse Gas #4: Flourinated Gases
Natural:  none.
Human:  gases used for refrigerators, air-conditioners, foam production, and aerosol cans

So that's pretty much the sources.  What to do about them is more tricky since the whole obsession with greenhouses gases is primarily driven (and given such significant media attention) in order to create divisions in society, and continue to indoctrinate a notion of an ecological "original sin". It is drummed that the world being destroyed is YOUR own personal fault, much the same way as standard nutritional advice says being sick and obese is YOUR own personal fault for not eating more grains and exercising.  While we may share some fault for being lead astray so easily in the first place (again, like with nutrition), we should not lose focus of the fact that, without the regional government and corporate powers of the world reshaping human culture into accepting fossil fuels, modern agriculture, evil concentrated animal feeds, and consumerist market cultures as a whole (for the sake of profit and population control), all of these issues would not have taken place.  If you and your family lived without these things mandated by the Anointed, your greenhouse gas emissions would probably be... 0%,... or maybe 0.00000000001% if you need to burn firewood, depending on where you live.

The best example of this is (in the case of the US) the military's impact on greenhouse gas emissions, which is purposefully excluded from any assessment of greenhouse gas emissions, thus skewing the root cause of human-generated emissions to civilian sources even while military mobilizations and wars burns endless fossil fuel, on top of releasing nuclear and biological toxins, and destroying environments and whole land/marine ecosystems for weapons testing/training, or to deprive the enemy of natural resources or terrain advantages (as in the case of napalm use in Korea or Vietnam).  So long as the social, economic and political structures of the world's most powerful countries mandate the need for continuous conflicts, thus making it untouchable in the field of climate change, then no personal changes that we CAN make easily and peacefully will ever match the shear destruction of the changes we CAN'T make and are often made against our will.  

In the case of food, modern agriculture and concentrated animal feeding operations serve similar roles as they have heavily supplanted the food supplies of many industrial nations, and are deemed "efficient" in feeding the world even as they are hideously-more inefficient in terms of the atrocious energy expenditure need to grow poisonous wheat and GMO crops, or to torture animals for their poisoned meat, milk and eggs.  Ironically, growing food in a more "inefficient" traditional manner would produce no impact on the environment, and probably even a net gain through the creation of reclaimed biospheres (such as the reclamation of deserts to grasslands thanks to managed grazing, and the restoration of local soil nutrients with compost).  Whether they'd feed the world or not is less relevant as the problem with world hunger is not a supply problem but a distribution problem -- we could increase the output of grain 10-fold, and there would STILL be world hunger for various reasons, such as the aforementioned militarism, enforced poverty and the destruction of cultural traditions.


--Cia

Dear Cia,

My family has decided to put me on a permanent low fat diet because of high cholesterol... I know you don't think fat is a bad thing, and you hate grains the most, but what should I do?

(Sorry if this question has already been asked, I'm in a small state of mental panic over this permanent diet and didn't take the time to look over the questions. )

Dear Rad,

Aw, I'm sorry to hear.  

Well we already talked about this a little via PM and I had a couple of more details about what's going on; I also hear that you're not in such a great state of panic.  So now that we've had a chance to think this through (and you, to view a special video), I think we can entertain some options.

Now the idea that fat causes cholesterol to rise which causes heart disease is called the Lipid Hypothesis, and has been the prevailing scam for the last 60 years or so.  To learn more about the specific of the Lipid Hypothesis and why it's wrong, including details of what saturated fat and cholesterol do for the body, I highly recommend these two books specifically on the subject:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Great-Cholesterol-Con-Disease/dp/1844546101
http://www.amazon.com/The-Great-Cholesterol-Myth-Disease-ebook/dp/B009PKIPOE/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1

The main takeaways are this... 

==========

- inflammation is primarily what causes heart disease; people can get heart attacks and strokes even without artery clogging or other visible symptoms

- the role of cholesterol as an antioxidant means that it is trying to "cure" something in the body -- if there is an extreme excess, that means that something is very wrong in the body.

- the effectiveness of cholesterol delivery is determined by the quality of lipoprotein carriers, both HDL and LDL.  A poor diet heavy on carbohydrates will not produce the necessary building blocks to create enough HDL, hence why you may end up with a deficiency.  Likewise, it will produce small dense LDL particles called LDL-a which are very poor at their job, and thus require much more volume than normal.  

- other external signs such as skin rashes, gastrointestnal issues, blood sugar problems, thyroid problems and obesity, concurrent with high cholesterol, are all indicative of inflammation.  They are not independent issues piling up on you, but simply symptoms of the same or similar underlying causes.

- once this source of inflammation is quelled, then most of the above symptoms will disappear, and cholesterol levels will normalize.

- thank goodness you're too young for statins as these are not safe drugs to take; but even if you were offered these cholesterol-lowering drugs, take note that they work by lowering the amount of inflammation in your body. So what's the sense of doing that and risk wrecking your body's production of cholesterol for essential functions like memory and motor control, when you could simply reduce the inflammation some other way.

==========

So understanding that, we can see that a low-fat diet is not only wholely inefficient at reducing cholesterol -- since it eliminates an ally rather than a cause of high cholesterol -- but it could be dangerous too as you need fat to create good quality lipoproteins.  The so-called "good cholesterol", or HDL, which is designed to remove cholesterol in the body after it's finished, will go up with the consumption of saturated fat, for instance.  This on top of the fact you still need fat for brain function, nerve function, memory, skin health, immune strength and hormone production, including mood-regulating hormones such as serotonin and melatonin.  This is why people in low-fat diets can typically be depressed and anxious, as they are essentially starving themselves of their body's natural anti-depressants (aside from always being ravenously hungry if it's a semi-starvation diet).   

Sadly, after 60 years of misinformation, it is very difficult to suddenly tell people that saturated fat and cholesterol are not bad for you, especially if you're already suffering from very high cholesterol levels.  We don't want to mortify your parents after all.

Besides, once you understand how obesity and high cholesterol occur, and what to do about it, you can easily develop an effective regime that works even without consuming a whole lot of fat.  I will work within this "low-fat" paradigm to offer suggestions you can take to try and have your cake, and eat it too.  Low-carb cake, that is.  ^^

==================

1) Base your diet off an existing established dietary lifestyle with sufficient literature and support base online.  I would recommend an old-style Paleo diet as back in the old days when the Paleo movement began, it was actually both low-fat and low-carb, and derived much of its nutrition from protein, with strong emphasis on natural whole foods free of modern chemical processing, and with no grain, sugar, dairy or sludge oils in sight.  This has evolved to the current high-fat, moderate-protein, moderate-carbohydrate paradign that exists today, but there is still plenty of literature on low-fat paleo that can fit well with a cholesterol-lowering regime.

2) If paleo is too scary for your parents, you can also adhere to a modified "Mediterranean" Diet which is a lot more conventional.  It is one of the few "standard" diets that permits the use of some oil, in thise case extra virgin olive oil and other comparable monounsaturated fats which are somehow considered "heart-healthy" based on the Lipid Hypothesis insanity. Monounsaturated fat is in fact relatively neutral in the body, but it's better than no fat at all, so take advantage of it wherever possible.

3) You already mentioned it, but... no grains.  Grains, and wheat especially, are responsible for the pro-inflammatory visceral fat that is said to "produce" cholesterol by conventional wisdom (it does indirectly by producing so much inflammation that cholesterol has to flood it to try and reduce it) -- this is why "beer bellies" are called as such. And as stated earlier, they are also responsible for HDL reduction, and the production of poor quality LDL -- you can generally tell how prolific this is by your triglyceride levels, since triglycerides can constitute special fat molecules converted from carbohydrates in order to be stored as body fat.

4) For the above reason, limit your sugar and soy as well.  Soy is a nutrient inhibitor and you do not want it wrecking your body while it suffers deficiencies of fat intake.  Dairy will have to go to as it is mostly fat, and non-fat dairy is worthless, but perhaps from an autoimmune perspective it might be interesting to see if the lack of dairy can cause positive effects for you.

5) if the idea is to consume low fat, then use this to your advantage and declare you never want a single DROP of sludge oil ever again!  Sludge oils -- manufactured seed oils made through the chemical extraction and hydrogenation of trans fatty acids from corn, soy, cottonseed, safflower and canola -- are not only rancid and heavily oxidized, but they are also ridiculously-loaded with pro-inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids.  Incidents of heart disease in this country skyrocketed shortly after the introduction of the first sludge oils to market (in the form of CRISCO vegetable shortening) -- and given they already admitted trans fats are horrible for you, and it's no stretch of the imagination to see that sludge oils are probably the cause of the CVD epidemic.  That makes their marketing of being "heart-healthy" and "zero cholesterol" as rather sad and ironic.  

6) In the absence of these sludge oils, stick to any plant-based fats that are produced through natural extraction methods with no use of chemicals or hydrogenation -- and you want these to be plant-based, because people popularly associate animal-anything with "bad for you".  Extra virgin olive oil is a great ally, free of any public scorn, and you can certainly make use of its cousins avocado oil and macademia nut oil -- just be sure to get them cold-pressed.  And if you can get away with it, try to secure extra virgin or cold-pressed coconut oil; although it is high in saturated fat, it sometimes gets a pass because its saturated fat is "different"... and in fact its medium chain fatty acids do indeed resist conversion to body fat, while also increasing your body's metabolism.  This, and many other benefits, make coconut oil a fantastic ally for a cholesterol-lowering regime... and as an added bonus, it technically has "zero cholesterol" too (if that label even meant anything).  

7) It goes without saying to avoid junk food, but when you really look at what junk food is made of, you'll see that 98% of it is composed of grains, sugar, soy and sludge oils... ergo, you really wouldn't eat them anyway.

8} The suggested emphasis will be on vegetables and fruits, which are okay but are not highly satiating on their own, so don't expect to subsist only on these unless you accompany them with a "safe" fat base, such as EV olive oil, EV coconut oil or tree nuts.  Incidentally, coconut is an amazing fruit to eat, so take advantage of it wherever possible. And always favor organic produce free of hormone-disrupting pesticides than conventional produce.

9) In the absence of highly-satiating fat, protein will take over as your primary macronutrient.  It is also highly satiating, does not produce a significant insulin response (what drives fat accumulation), and is needed for strong muscles and the like.  Copious protein will certainly make any low-fat diet more tolerable.  

10) With protein being a target, you should be able to safely consume poultry and lean muscle meats, and use the previously mentioned "safe" plant fats to augment their flavor if necessary,  But don't forget to also comprise your diet of fish as well, which will offer anti-inflammatory Omega-3 fatty acids, which do indeed reduce inflammation and thus reduce overall cholesterol quite effectively.

11) Supplement intelligently.  If you do not like eating fish, consider taking Omega-3 fish oil capsules instead, especially those containing full DPA-EHA.  Vitamin D also has an incredible normalizing effect on cholesterol, and is remarkably useful for so many bodily functions, so definitely supplement this if possible (greater than 1000 IU's a day preferrably, but talk to a doctor if you're not sure of a dose).  

12) A healthy gut microbiome ALSO has a normalizing effect on total cholesterol, so try to take good quality probiotic capsules at first (ie, 15 billion CFU capsules) during a period of several weeks or months.  After that, you can discontinue consumption of pill-based probiotics in favour of superior natural sources, such as fermented vegetables.

13) Lastly, do note that the loss of body fat may inadvertently cause blood serum cholesterol to stay the same or even rise for a short while, as it's making use of converted fat that, up until now, was locked away as visceral fat.  Don't lose heart when seeing this, it's perfectly normal and temporary.

==================

Hope this helps you... if you have more questions, you know where to reach me. ^^


--Cia

Dear cia,
Would you rather have a free xbox one, ps4, wii u or 3ds?
(I think we all know ONE of those is definitely NOT it)

Dear A4,

THANK YOU FOR ASKING A DEAR CIA QUESTION!!! I was starting to feel unwuvved. ;v;

Anyway, correct, ONE of these can burn in hell, pretty sure you can figure which one that is. XD

The PSR4 would be the most popular, and although it has no game I'd be interested in, I'd probably be able to get some good money selling it. ^^

Wii U is probably the more useless one, and although Splatoon looks interesting, I'm not using that ridiculous tablet controller thingy JUST for that game.  XD

I guess if i were forced to actually KEEP this free game system, I'd stick with the 3DS.  It has less games I'd be interested in, but it's portable, cute and potentially useful, and would make a nice little gift if I didn't like it.  Plus it's pseudo-3D so the effects are probably nice. ^^


--Cia

((The new 3DS is a lot bigger but has way better 3D. It tracks where your face is... The old one (Like mine!) is smaller, but the 3D is horrible, and mine is so horrible that the 3D is just plain broken. Not that I used it though. 3DS does have good games though. Also, Wii U's pretty fun if you love Nintendo. It does have Pikmin, Sm4sh, and Splatoon, but other than that... There's only a few things here and there you want. You can just ignore me if you want...))

Dear Cia,
Staying on the topic of video games since that's now the only thing my brain can think about, what over video games aside from minecraft do you play?

Dear KFC,

OMG!!  You live!!! D:
Well at least now we know why you're gone if videogames have consumed you,... bear in mind they can rot your brain (although in fairness, processed junk food full of refined carbs are more the cause of that). XD

In any case, mandatory chicken shot...



And now onto your question...

Games I play other than Minecraft, let's see...

I play nothing, nothing fortress 2, nothingraria, nothing story 2, the binding of nothing 2: reborn, final nothing XIV, GTA nothing, nothinglands: the pre-sequel, nothing is strange, don't nothing together, and of course, my all time favorite, the world of nothing! XD

But yes, in actuality, I don't play any game outside of Minecraft and some of its mods... I just don't have the time or the interest to do so, and my main game input comes from watching Yogscast Let's Plays.  Occasionally I'll be interested to try a few things that look really fun, such as Don't Starve, Little Inferno, or Cities:Skyline, but I rarely get drawn-in enough to play these into perpetuity, certainly not to the extent I've done for Minecraft which continues to be a game I adore.

And I don't play any consoles either, and mainly have a small gathering of very old consoles I keep for the sake of collection.  If you ever wanted to try out Kirby's Adventure on an old NES-101 console, I got you covered. I also play some casual games on my phone, but not a whole lot... and of course, you gamers barely consider these as proper games anyway.  ^^

So that's my sad sad state of affairs on the game front, but don't cry for me as I do have a lot to take care of.  And in fact, thanks to my lack of attention in other games, I can focus more of my time on you all. ^^








--Cia

Dear Cia,

(yes, I am also lost into other video games other than Minecraft since my brother is not at college and loves to play other games with me since this is his only chance (at least face-to-face. lol, we're old school.))

Staying on this video game topic (that Cia loves, hehe), why are so many new videogames based on online interation and in-game mechanics and character abilities rather than a good storyline?

Dear Avocado,

Grrr, the torture of game questions continues (though I guess it could be worse). XD

But this is a simple question... especially if I can guess the former to be more like your standard MMORPG or party game or killing game or battle card game or whatever arena vomit is popular these days (be it DOTA2 or LOL or that new game from blizzard).  These are games that can be created with very little investment of time and money to create complex story lines and elaborate single player set pieces, or hiring writers, artists and voice actors to do all that.  Best of all, since we're social creatures by nature, we'll happily shell out the money to pay for these rather unsubstantial games if it means being much more socially stimulated, and in fact we can see this here too where we all keep ourselves happy and entertained on a relatively boring game like Minecraft, held back by a very antiquated mod.  That could not be possible without good people, and companies know this... and the more they wisen up to this reality, the more money they can make with less. ^^

Granted, there are STILL lots of introverts in the world as well as people who appreciate fine art, and so those players are the reason why we still have very elaborate singleplayer games.  Or so I assume, since of course I never play those kinds of things. XD


--Cia

Dear cia,
Leaving the topic of video games, was the chatbox (at the bottom of the forum home page) ever used once?