Akira Kurusu

Hey, there! I'm from India. I've applied to a weekend Japanese course and plan on taking the N-4 test. I do wanna get better at the language to potentially secure a job in Japan. I'd like to interact more with people in the language down the road and also would like some advice in planning :). Any help would be great!

Totes agree with this. But, then. Mark Laidlaw just left Bioware! @_@... and now I don't know what's really happening.

Hey, everyone! Sorry I've been off for a while. Was so engrossed with my new youtube channel I lost focus with everything else. If you're interested, you might like to check out some of my videos. I have combined my passion for human psychology with anime to produce something you might want to apply to your real life or stories. Here's an example: Breakdown of Light's Incredible Emotional Intelligence | Part - 1 Looking to be more active here. Cheers!

Hey, everyone! Sorry I've been off for a while. Was so engrossed with my new youtube channel I lost focus with everything else. If you're interested, you might like to check out some of my videos. I have combined my passion for human psychology with anime to produce something you might want to apply to your real life or stories. Here's an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZLm63VIZTY&t=2s Looking to be more active here. Cheers!

Hey everyone. Since 2009 I had always wanted to make a youtube channel. I was inspired by the Red vs Blue and abridged series and loved watching Yahtzee, Gigguk's videos. But, then college happened. Since being on this guild, I started getting a lot of confidence into pursuing what I want. I finally ended up making a decision to upload 2 youtube vids every week. So, this is a big WOOT for me. I created my first video on the anime Neo Yokio and I enjoyed it so thoroughly. Now, it might be bad and little rusty... but I'm so pumped to keep making more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XePdHi7BE8&t=1s Here it is. If you'd like. Please provide feedback. All your valuable criticisms will go a long way in helping me become better :). P.S - I'm already working on the next one.

Yo, what'd you think of the Dragon Age series post Origins? Origins is one of my favourite games of all time. (love love LOVE Alistair), but I felt it went downhill from there. Inquisition didn't really do it for me. I mean, it was a solid game from all fronts but just so... unmemorable, except for revelation of Solas... which has me very intrigued for the sequel. I'm one of the few people who is really excited about DA:4. Patrick Weekes is easily one of the best writers at BioWare and the fact that he's heading the writing team for the next game gives me high hopes. Also, Alexis Kennedy is involved, he's f***ing awesome!

Interesting picks. I must say I've never heard of either of the two. What are they about?

Heyo, Currently, I'm taking theater classes and my instructor is one of a kind. He made me understand a lot about the emotions of humanity rather than techniques for drama. Which is why I'm revisiting some of the most iconic characters and stories and finding out where my own voice lies. Recently, I've been drawn to the likes of Tyler Durden (Fight Club), Light Yagami (Death Note) and Johan Liebert (Monster). What makes me attracted to these people is the amount of conviction they have in what they speak. Despite their questionable character, their actions line up with their beliefs (not so much for Light ... which is again what makes him so interesting)... So I'm interested in such grey characters and what makes them tick. I really like writing things that contain a lot of humour but have dark overtones. I'm more keen on the emotions and the behaviour of character rather than the story. Eitherways, I'm still a novice at the end of the day, and look to push my interests into my strengths and hope to write characters as great as those mentioned above someday.

Aye, how's school? Yea, Totes understand how stressful it might be :P. Let's just pace ourselves in a way so that we can spend atleast 30 mins everyday, yeah?

Yo, what happened to the guild? Did y'all run off on some secret mission without telling me?

Oh crapp! I haven't gotten to reply to previous prompt. Thanks for all your inputs people, it was super helpful. Here's my prompt #3

Yep, I realised the problem is that I'm a really fast speaker. I need to tone that down. Anyways I'd rather give this a few more shots, pitch in other ideas.

"Hey, so my idea is basically about this video-game that runs like the matrix system and analyses a person's psyche to procedurally generate challenges for him to overcome. I'm taking cues from all self-help books to visualize life like a videogame and how all your problems are caused by stories you tell yourself. With success of Inception and anticipation of Ready Player One, plus the whole ethical debate on videogames, I think you'd be interested in this one. Would you like me to tell you more about it over breakfast?"

Prompt #1: An exercise in POV Persona 5 1:02:39 - 1:10:39 Heavy inception shit goes down as two peeps are trapped in Metaverse Castle. Bitch boy comes and fucks Ryuji up. MC get pissed and decides its time to summon his Pokemon.. I mean Persona. POV: This is from Ryuji's perspective as he watches MC unleash his persona in all his badassery. Phew! That was 3.3k words. I can't believe I ended up being that productive in a single day. Thanks for the prompt! Feel free to tear this sucker down!

Nice. What made you move to India? Was it the marriage? Hyderabadi food is usually on the spicier side. Lots of Islam influence since this was a Nawabi area. Best is during Ramazan when you have Haleem and all other food on the street :D. Ohh, are your parents Indians? Or did they just live in India? That sucks that you don't visit Bangalore anymore. I'm mostly gonna go back there in 2 months. Could have bumped into each other :P. Yep the food is amazing. I can't imagine the life of a vegan in India doe.

Wow, what part of England? The adjustment to climate must have been rough. I'm starting to learn a bit of cooking too. Have to, if I need to get anywhere with my diet xD. I was born and brought up in Hyderabad. And as a Hyderabadi, it's really hard to resist Biryani.

Akira Kurusu is the protagonist of Persona 5. A game that has had a major effect on me. It has reshaped my beliefs on time management, people management, etc. What shines out is that he has been wronged by the world and has immense social pressure onto him but has chosen to rebel. His archetype is The Trickster. The trickster seems to be a comedy of opposites. For every good aspect of his persona there is an equal and opposite aspect. In religious stories his role is very diverse. He is the breaker of taboos. He provides comic relief to a religious myth. And he will pull off elaborate schemes to teach a moral lesson or expose the folly of men. He is everything I wish to embody Highly recommended to watch this video

Ah. I had gone to Mumbai for an interview last month. Has a lovely air to it. Were you born there? I've been struggling to get my diet in order since Indian food is so heavy on rice and bread. xD

I like what Sorkin said about writing and rewriting. He drew an analogy with a sculptor who sculpted this really famous man. When somebody asked him how he did it, he said "I looked at a piece of marble and removed everything that was not the man." Sorkin said that the first draft is your piece of marble. Then your remove everything that is not a part of the conflict. He also said to print the first material and have it by your side and start your rewrite completely fresh on a new page. This gives you a hedge against laziness and you'll find new and better ways to write the same thing. (Though Idk if this would be feasible for books. Screenplays are usually 120 pages max) Essentially, rewriting should be much easier since it's more problem solving. You need to stop thinking like an artist at that point and start thinking like an engineer.

Same here. And what's worse is my inspirations for screenwriting happen to be Aaron Sorkin (took his masterclass), Edgar Wright and Joss Whedon. All of whom have heavy emphasis on dialogues.

Thanks! These are things just bouncing off my head. But my dream since a kid has always been to write an epic fantasy series following this guy from his childhood to veteran adult age. Right now, I really just wanna write something fun and cheery that also features an underlying sadness. Teenage years are best for this and it's no surprise that my two favourite stories this year happen to be Persona 5 and Spider-man: Homecoming. What I love about these two and what I wish to do is just focus on a small part of a town and really flesh it out so that it feels like a real neighbourhood. You know, a place where everyone knows where to get their sandwiches. A place with it's own local sports club, etc. I want to do something really small scale and give an impression of a larger world full of adventures which I may or may not visit. BTW! I read your blog. The idea of ferryman is really interesting. I'm very curious to see how this goes forward :). I read the first chapter and I do share the sentiment about Wilem being a total dickwad. But, I'm interested to see how his character progresses. I'm also curious as to why he is such an ass to his aunt and wants to do things by himself. Is there a backstory to this? Tanim started the water boiling, and got out the tea things ^this line kinda made me go what? XD Interesting setup though, all things being said! My problem with writing is I struggle to make relatable content for people in my country. I'm from India and I grew up having really niche interests. I got a computer early and gorged myself with videogames and RPGs (JRPGs, which is a niche even in gaming industry) while also watching lots of animes. Needless to say, I my tastes and interests were totally out of sync with my country. So when I try to write something that is "relatable", it just falls flat and I don't know what to do. I just want to write on themes that are universal.

This is most interesting. Thank you for making me a part of this guild. You may call me The Mad Bard. I used to write as a hobby. I won a writing competition at a national festival which I leveraged to pitch some sketches to this youtube channel. I got kicked out of that but one of the girls there was dating this dude from a game company who was looking for a writer. So I got referred and then worked on my first videogame, which flopped and I was laid off. I'm trying to put together my own game with few people I grew rapport with. While at the video game company, another writer told me he used to be active in a writers forum and interact with Chuck Palahniuk (author of Fight Club). He passed me over a workshop document for writing that Chuck had given to him. I never got time to get around to it. I think I will now. If anyone here is interested, I'd be glad to send you the document as well. (I know I'm breaking the first rule here with this) I am always confused as to what I want to write. What genre? What aesthetic? Should it be a game, movie or book? Since I love anything and everything. I wish to write about anything and everything. Only yesterday did I scribble down the purpose of my writing. I made a page long description as to what kind of stories I wanted to tell. Then, I realised I could boil it down into one sentence. "I'm going to show people the deepest darkest truth about themselves that they refuse to see." I think, I can work around anything as long as it follows this purpose I look forward to this. ^^ p.S - I have also written a brief description for a new idea for me book here. You can check it out if you wish

Yo! I'm currently in Hyderabad and will move to Bangalore in few months. Anyone here from around these areas?

I've written for blogs and freelance sketches. I also worked on the narrative of a full-fledged game. But professionally all of this only accounts to one year. I have always been writing as a hobby. But, that's something sporadic and I wish to make it regular.

Thank you so much for the detailed reply. Here are my answers Plenty of good suggestions here. Some that I did not think of first time round. There is essentially no wrong way of playing it. The difficulty settings are adjustable as in a normal game and it's up to the user to decide that. Yes, like all games, there are genuine bugs in this. Some shutdown cases are genuine faults due to the game. I think this routes back to difficulty settings. No physical incompatibility as such. In fact, their physical appearance pretty much is shaped by how they subconciously wish to be percieved. (An Indian in real life could be white, a boy could identify as girl, etc) Yes, as advanced as the game is, it's still nowhere close to the human psyche. What I've thought of is that it takes note of the most important memories and guages other psychological factors like the player's self esteem, to which it assigns a level, and then runs the simulation to create its world. It is by no means as complex as The Matrix. Sort of like Dark Souls. The game merely acts on the narrative that goes on in the player's mind. It provides challenges that the player feels he/she is struggling with. This could be harrowing experience for people but, at the end of the day, a game is designed to be beaten. P.S.Y.C.H.E is no exception. Some people just do not see it that way and give up. So yeah, if the players were broken in a way, the game would only make it worse. This self-fulfilling prophecy that works in real life works here too. It can be addressed as something developers are trying to fix. This is where things get real interesting People who benefit the game already have seen the game as a challenge that can be overcome. They see it as an inner reflection and feel like they are improving as a person while playing it. People who are at peace with themselves might find the game to be a soothing walk along a countryside where they explore wildlife. Some might find liberation in their sexuality, etc. Overcoming the challenges in a way helps them overcome their insecurities and it also improves their real life. A side effect of this could be people getting addicted to the game world, but in this case they haven't really overcome the challenge. A game is meant to be beaten. I haven't really thought deeply about this one. Thanks for pointing it out Nope. The studio has no malicious intentions. Other gamers are good possibility. With sharing and co-op available, it's pretty easy to sabotage the game. People could take their real world grudges and exercise them here. Players are very vulnerable psychologically when playing the game. Hackers are definitely going to be a thing. Can't have a game and not have hackers :). Though I wish to have a prominent role for them that is accurate to how they function in real life currently. I share your sentiment and I have no intention of a malicious corporation. I had planned it to be a company that's really proud of the breakthrough technology they have created and are trying their best to defend it. They do have genuine concern over the mental shutdowns but they value their business as well and closing down the game would be a huge blow to them. So, they might try to shush people here and there. But, it's purely to keep the game up and running while they fix the bugs and not some evil agenda. Like how GTA 5 is a violent game but that does not make Rockstar Games an evil company. Again, my aim here is to give a picture of how videogames are currently percieved by the media. There are extreme arguments on both sides of coin whether this is harmful or helpful to people. Whether it can be considered art, etc. This is basically to give a firm perspective on all of that. Thank you again for your feedback. It made me think of a lot of things I would never have thought of. This community is something else.