September 8, 2003
Just for fun, I thought I’d tackle this month’s Musing as a mock FAQ. These aren’t actual questions asked of me (well, most of them aren’t). I just made them up as a way of getting to the point, so to speak, while having a little bit of fun at the same time.
Q) Where are the game hints pages for Network Transmission and Battle Network 3?
A) I haven’t finished them yet.
Q) Why not?
A) I haven’t beaten the games yet.
Q) Why not?
A) There aren’t enough hours in a day. I have almost no time to actually play them, and of course I’m not going to be posting game hints until I finish the games. It doesn’t help either that these games, unlike classic Mega Man titles such as Mega Man 2, aren’t games that you can sit down and beat within two hours. Capcom’s recent tiles are actually requiring quite a chunk of time to go all the way through properly, particularly those in the Battle Network series.
Q) Do you want help with Battle Network 3 then?
A) No, but thanks. I prefer to go through the game on my own. When I finish it, I’ll post the game hints page, but not before then. Also, don’t bother asking for help for games that don’t have game hints pages yet, because I’d rather just write it all out once, and only after I’m familiar enough with the game to know what I’m talking about.
Q) Can you help me with Battle Network 3?
A) I told you not to ask that. Wait for the game hints page. It will be posted eventually.
Q) Okay, but then what about the missing items on the Legends 2 game hints page?
A) Same reason why the hidden bosses and other items are not yet covered for the first two Battle Network titles. I just haven’t had time. In addition, I figured getting game hints pages up for the new games that I haven’t beaten yet takes priority over those that at least have full game hints pages (even if not totally complete), so unfortunately those get a back seat.
Q) So that’s why you don’t list all the CDs in Mega Man & Bass?
A) Well, in some cases there’s a tiny bit of lack of motivation in there as well.
Q) Lack of motivation?
A) Sure. I enjoy playing through the games, but once the game goes from fun to irritating, it’s a little hard to find the motivation. I’ve forced myself through such games before just to create game hints pages (the Game Gear game pops to mind), but I tend to stop at beating them and don’t bother searching for additional secrets or doing anything which requires playing through them a second time.
Q) So it wasn’t that you couldn’t find the CDs?
A) Nope. I just never really tried. Oh, I picked up the ones that I came across while playing through as Bass and as Mega Man, but I didn’t go too far out of my way.
Q) Why not?
A) Three words: Ground Man’s stage.
Q) Good point.
A) See?
Q) Hey, aren’t I supposed to be the one asking the questions?
A) Oh yeah.
Q) So are you bored with the Mega Man series?
A) I’m still here, aren’t I? If I was bored, trust me, I wouldn’t be maintaining this site.
Q) But you said you don’t have motivation?
A) There’s a difference between liking the series and enjoying playing the games, and having the motivation to find every tiny little secret, particularly those which require one to be insane.
Q) Insane?
A) Sure. Anyone who gets that CD in Ground Man’s stage must be insane.
Q) What if they are using save states?
A) Save states are cheating. Of course, anyone who could get through Mega Man Zero without save states was either already insane or went insane just from the experience.
Q) But didn’t you get through Mega Man Zero?
A) Not very well. And you notice I’ll never go back to try to find all the hidden Elves and things. And I definitely am not playing through on hard mode. (A “hard mode” in that game has to be some sort of sick joke.) Sad to say, but anything which requires beating the game on hard mode I just am not going to see.
Q) So why don’t you get that information from other people?
A) There are a multitude of reasons. It’s my website and I like to handle as many aspects of it myself as I can. Also there is no way I could possibly post every person’s school of thought regarding every particular aspect of a game. It’s true that accept contributions of specific things like damage data and the like, as long as they are sent to me by the person who created the item. But I will not take information or data from another website and re-post it on MMHP. I am not a thief and will never steal from another site, even if they have found all 100 CDs and went so far as to actually identify which CD is where.
Q) You thought of doing that, didn’t you?
A) Of course. I even began to gather the data the long, tedious way: by getting a CD, then immediately exiting the stage so I could look up which CD I had just obtained. But after a while I began to realize that I was being crazy. So I stopped.
Q) Are you sure you’re not insane?
A) I’ll get back to you on that.
- The MegaMaster