-- INTRO

Yo, it's Rex. I'll start off with my own personal anti-disclaimer. If you have EVER used my name as your own screen name, I will wish nameless horrors upon you and someday stab you dead. I created the name; I use it in everything. Have some courtesy and use your own imagination for once.

-- ABOUT ME

Now that the angry rant is over, I'll continue with a little about me. I'm a hopeless romantic to the core and naturally, greatly enjoy reading romance fics, typically about video game characters, though I'll occasionally branch out and read book and anime fics. I've considered writing, and am still considering writing, my own fics, but have yet to come up with a good enough idea to warrant publication. I suppose I'll keep on thinkin'.

Games I read for:

Golden sun - One of the best RPGs I've played. I love the characters, I love the story, I love the game. The lack of a third installment also leads to interesting fics. Then again, I've heard rumors of a GS game for the Wii...

Fire Emblem - My personal favorite strategy game. It isn't necessarily difficult (especially Sacred Stones) but the amazing characters, interesting storylines, and inconclusive endings provide for dozens of fics, a good deal of which are good enough to catch my interest.

Riviera - One of my little cult RPGs. It's unfortunate that so few people know about the awesomeness that is Riviera. The storyline is complex and interesting, the characters are cute and real, and the ending is so broad and inconclusive that the possibilities for fics are just about endless. If only I had the creative ability to write something for it...

Tales of Symphonia - An all-around amazing RPG. There really isn't anything I can hate about this game. The characters are quirky and interesting, the storyline is full of suspense and builds to a huge climax, and the gameplay is absurdly fun. Best part for romance fics: the game doesn't technically end, so sequel fics are joyously common.

Zelda - An RPG with unparalleled gameplay. Your typical RPG with your typical storyline, but this one was the first. Zelda's been around since the NES and it's been consistently vague with its main character's personality, allowing authors of fics for it to write virtually whatever they want. Honestly, it's like the creators just set up this world just for fics.

Skies of Arcadia - Another culty RPG. Although not quite as unheard of as Riviera, SoA is considerably unknown as well. It took me several weeks to find it used after I first played it. The world is amazing and just fun to imagine, the characters are dynamic and understandable and the ending allows for more possibilities than the beginning. It's unfortunate that so few write for this game...

Harvest Moon - The farming game! As stated in my endings rant, my like for this game simply comes from the escape from the everyday it offers. I like the way that everything is so simple in it. Buy some seeds, plant the seeds, water the seeds, sell the plants, repeat. As far as fics go, there's plenty of options for romance. In the 64 version (the only version simple enough for my tastes...), there's five different girls, all with their own lives, preferences and personalities. Love at first sight, sappy romance, love triangles, heck, love HEXAGONS, the possibilities are endless.

Harry Potter - No, it's not a game, but the final installment was absolutely wonderful and yet completely inconclusive. I'll be expecting good fics within two months of this date at the utmost. I'm a huge Harry/Ginny shipper...

-- RANTS

Now what I DON'T like. Angst fics are stupid. If I want to meet emos, I'll go and find some of the ones in my school. I don't want to read about them and I don't care about the horribly gruesome pain that they constantly feel. If they wanna cut their wrists until they bleed out, may they play the emo violin until they can play no more.

Yaoi must also die. I'm male, so it's only natural that I think there's something VERY wrong with them. I'm religious, and there's only about 50 verses in the bible that declare that homosexuality is DEAD WRONG. Thus, I will horrifically burn any Yaoi fics that fail to denote that they are Yaoi fics in their summary. I don't wanna read about it, so have the decency to WARN ME!

I felt that I REALLY needed to add this one. DON'T START STORIES IF YOU AREN'T GONNA FINISH THEM! Do you know how excruciatingly painful it is to spend all night reading through an amazing fanfic, just to have it leave you with a cliff hanger and realize that its last update was TWO YEARS AGO! If you've read any of the fics on this site, probably. People here seem to have issues finishing what they start. It's the main reason that I only read completed fics, or stuff that my fav authors have written, because I KNOW they'll finish theirs. So please, if you're gonna write 2/3 of an amazing fic and stop right before the climax, do me a favor and stab yourself in the eyes so I won't have to hunt you down.

And just to prove that I'm impossible to please, I'll rant about endings as well. Should you manage to FINISH a story I'm reading, I'll probably post an angsty emo rant about how amazing it was and how utterly pissed off I am that you kept me up until three in the morning making me read it. However, I'm just pissed off that it's over. I can't stand the fact that stories have to END. That's the whole reason I read fics in the first place, I want the heroes to just keep on living. I want to know what happens AFTER the big battle. Naturally, the game makers are gonna give you the token, "and they lived happily ever after" or something like that, but THAT'S NOT WHAT I WANT TO HEAR! The hero's struggles aren't just gonna suddenly end because the world is at peace. He's a HERO! He's not gonna be content just sitting around on his but. He's gonna keep moving, keep questing. Who can be happy sitting still? That's why NPCs are so lame! They just FREEZE after you're done with them! Fanfics extend the life of a hero into infinity. That's why I read them and that's why I hate it when they end.

-- WRITING?

Still nothin' doin' on this front. I wish I had some of the creativity that you guys have been blessed with. I can come up with basic ideas, but then the creative well just goes dry so fast... I've got a decent idea for a GS one-shot (Mostly because there isn't enough IssacxJenna and I wanna write about Jenna walking through a ring of fire...), but I don't know if it'll ever ferment properly...

Anyway, I'll keep reading everyone else's stuff. Even if I can't write my own crap, I can still improve my own writing by thinking about how to improve yours. I suppose I'm just an editor at heart...

Later,
Rex