vili's recent activity
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Comment on CGA-2025-10 🕹️⏰ 🗺️ 🐸 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 Chrono Trigger in ~games
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Comment on Babies’ brains recognize foreign languages they heard before birth in ~humanities.languages
vili LinkA meta question: should articles like this be under ~humanities.languages or ~science? I never know. It feels wrong to post them under ~humanities, as it feels like promoting the view that...A meta question: should articles like this be under ~humanities.languages or ~science? I never know.
It feels wrong to post them under ~humanities, as it feels like promoting the view that linguistics isn't a "real science" but some kind of a softer more philosophical humanist enterprise. Not that there is anything wrong with philosophical humanist study, far from if. But it feels different than what the formal, applied or social science of actual linguistic research is.
But then, it also feels wrong to post these in ~science since we already have a separate language related group. Of course, it is "languages" and not "language", so perhaps this is meant to cover only common language use and language arts, not the study of the nature of language?
Surely, I'm overthinking this. Or am I?
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Comment on Babies’ brains recognize foreign languages they heard before birth in ~humanities.languages
vili LinkThe link is to a Scientific American article. The original paper can be found here with the following abstract: I don't think anyone in the field will be particularly shocked by the results of...The link is to a Scientific American article. The original paper can be found here with the following abstract:
Newborns have an immature brain network responsible for speech processing that resembles the adult language network. However, it remains unclear how prenatal experience modulates this network. To test this, we exposed 39 fetuses to a story in their native language and in a foreign language during the last month of gestation, while another group of 21 fetuses received no experimental prenatal exposure. Within 3 days of life, neonates’ brain responses were recorded using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) whilst they listened to the same story in their native language and in two foreign languages, one of which neonates had been prenatally exposed to. Results revealed that brain responses to the native language and the prenatally exposed foreign language were similar, whereas they differed in the left temporal and right prefrontal regions when listening to a prenatally unexposed foreign language. Findings indicate that foetuses’ linguistic environment influences speech processing at birth.
I don't think anyone in the field will be particularly shocked by the results of this study but it is still an interesting data point.
Also: I like the word neonate.
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Babies’ brains recognize foreign languages they heard before birth
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Comment on CGA-2025-10 🕹️⏰ 🗺️ 🐸 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 Chrono Trigger in ~games
vili Link ParentI was also thinking about this the other day. So far (I'm about 20 hours into the Steam version of the game), there has been absolutely no grind or micro managing things, and I love that....I was also thinking about this the other day. So far (I'm about 20 hours into the Steam version of the game), there has been absolutely no grind or micro managing things, and I love that. Experimentation has never been punished. Exploration has often been rewarded with some little wink and nudge. Combat has never been tedious, and I must confess that I am usually very easily bored with JRPG mechanics. The game is also very generous with its autosaves. And just when you think the game is settling into some groove, it throws a bit of a curve ball at you. All in all, it's been a very pleasant and engaging game to play.
That said, narratively I've been a little bit more lost. I usually know roughly what I should probably do next, but I don't always know where (or when) to do it. And I have often also been confused about why I should do something. So, there has been quite a bit of aimless wandering around for a while, and then opening a walkthrough to check where to go next. But maybe it's just me and I'm poor at understanding the game's narrative guidance. It would be interesting to hear from others who are playing the game for the first time.
In any case, I feel that I'm more invested in the characters, the world and the game mechanics than I am in the story, if that makes sense? Which I don't really mind. I'm very much enjoying my time with the game.
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Qualcomm buys open-source electronics firm Arduino
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Comment on CGA-2025-10 🕹️⏰ 🗺️ 🐸 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 Chrono Trigger in ~games
vili LinkAs I wasn't a console gamer growing up, I hadn't realised how big a deal Chrono Trigger was at the time of its release. I knew that it was a major event, but reading about the game's history now,...As I wasn't a console gamer growing up, I hadn't realised how big a deal Chrono Trigger was at the time of its release. I knew that it was a major event, but reading about the game's history now, I see that it was something of a GTA6 of its time in terms of hype and anticipation. Well, maybe not quite so when it comes to wider cultural recognition, but within the contemporary gamer culture at least.
Like @ali writes in the introduction, the game brought together top talent from two major JRPG franchises, Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. What I hadn't understood until now is that those franchises belonged to two different companies: Square and Enix. It's a bit like if Bioware and Bethesda had made a game together after Mass Effect 3 and Skyrim. In other words, mind blowing.
This seems to have been reflected in the game's price. In the US, Chrono Trigger reportedly retailed for around 80 USD (see e.g. here, here and here). I found this interesting, as there is currently so much talk about $80 games. But this was back in 1995. Adjusted to inflation, the price would be around 170 USD today! I suppose there is more to relative cost and value than straightforward inflation adjustment can tell us, but still, the game certainly wasn't cheap. In contrast, regular new SNES games in the US appeared to cost around $40-60 at the time, or something like $85-130 in today's money.
It wasn't expensive just in the US, though. In Japan, the MSRP price appears to have been 11,400 JPY. Adjusted to inflation, that would be around 13,400 JPY today. In contrast, the Switch 2 release of Mario Kart World retails for around 8,000 JPY at the moment.
Despite the high price of entry, the game ended up selling 2.5 million units, making it the 17th best selling game for SNES, or the 6th best selling game that wasn't bundled with the console.
A decade after combining their forces for Chrono Trigger, Square and Enix merged to become Square Enix in 2003. In addition to continuing to work with both companies' original franchises, Square Enix has also owned IPs like Tomb Raider, Hitman and Deus Ex, as well as having worked as the Japanese publisher for western companies like Activision and Ubisoft.
Meanwhile, Chrono Trigger's lead designer Hironobu Sakaguchi, lead artist Akira Toriyama and composer Nobuo Uematsu joined forces again for the 2006 JRPG game Blue Dragon. The game was the first major JRPG exclusive for the Xbox 360 and it was marketed as a spiritual successor to Chrono Trigger. I remember when the game came out but only now understand the hype around it. Has anyone here played it? Any thoughts?
As I was researching the history of the game and leafing through old gaming magazines looking for Chrono Trigger articles, I realised that when it comes to past games that don't belong to a well known franchise, it is often easy to look at them and think of them as charming, little known gems. But when put into a historical context, most of the best known games were actually the biggest things of their time. And I guess, in the case of Chrono Trigger, of any time.
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Comment on CGA-2025-10 🕹️⏰ 🗺️ 🐸 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 Chrono Trigger in ~games
vili LinkA question for anyone who played Chrono Trigger at the time it was released: did you make use of the manual that came with the game? I was just thinking about this as I feel my introduction to the...A question for anyone who played Chrono Trigger at the time it was released: did you make use of the manual that came with the game?
I was just thinking about this as I feel my introduction to the game would have been different (and I think better) had I spent some time with the official manual when I started to play. The Steam release didn't come with one but the original 80 page English manual is available at the Internet Archive. It actually seems to do a pretty good job at setting up the game and the story, and guiding the player through the first couple of hours of gameplay, as well as telling you where the story will eventually go. I think I would have benefited from reading all this information before I started to play. I also think that the weapon and tech tables will come in handy as I'm now entering the final quarter of the game.
If you are interested, the Internet Archive also has the official player guide, which seems like more of a walkthrough than a hint book. I haven't really looked at that in detail yet and probably won't until after finishing the game.
Another context that I didn't have for the game, but which at least some players back in the mid-90s would have had, is the contemporary advertising. I couldn't find much, but it's at least interesting to see the difference between the Japanese and American TV ads that I could find on YouTube. Japanese ones like this and this and this emphasise the "dream project" aspect of the game and the visuals are colourful, communicating the fantasy and adventure aspects of the game. American ads like this and this seem darker. The first one explains what the story is about while the second one... well, I'm actually not sure what is going on with the second one, as the English subtitles are just a bunch of 90s slang that has nothing to do with the Japanese voice.
I notice a somewhat similar contrast between the Japanese cover art and the American cover art. The Japanese emphasises the characters and the group. The American one is all about action. Also, what's up with Marle in that US cover? At least so far, I haven't seen her wearing a bathrobe or using fire spells in the game. Still, it's of course all marketing, and the US cover certainly is eye catching.
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Comment on European Space Agency will pay an Italian company nearly $50 million to design a mini-Starship in ~space
vili LinkThe emphasis seems to be very much on the word "design" here: the contract is for a preliminary design that will be delivered in two years. Not that $50 million (reported elsewhere as 40 million...The emphasis seems to be very much on the word "design" here: the contract is for a preliminary design that will be delivered in two years.
Not that $50 million (reported elsewhere as 40 million euros) would build a rocket like this. For context, the development of ESA's newest rocket Ariane 6 has cost 3.7 billion euros. It's a different type of a beast, but still.
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European Space Agency will pay an Italian company nearly $50 million to design a mini-Starship
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Comment on CGA-2025-10 🕹️⏰ 🗺️ 🐸 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 Chrono Trigger in ~games
vili LinkChrono Cross, the sequel to Chrono Trigger, is also currently on sale on Steam. Those who have played both, would you recommend Chrono Cross to those of us who are now for the first time playing...Chrono Cross, the sequel to Chrono Trigger, is also currently on sale on Steam. Those who have played both, would you recommend Chrono Cross to those of us who are now for the first time playing through Chrono Trigger and finding ourselves enchanted by it?
My understand is that Chrono Cross is not a direct sequel but a little more of a thematic one, wasn't made by the same team, is generally not quite as highly ranked as its predecessor but is still loved by many, the Steam release also contains the illustrated text adventure Radical Dreamers that bridges the two games, and that the release had major issues at the time of release but they have more or less been patched since.
All this leaves me quite undecided whether to invest time in Chrono Cross or if I should rather explore other JRPGs like Earthbound, Final Fantasy VII or Persona 3, now that Chrono Trigger has shown me that I can actually enjoy JRPG mechanics. Any help is appreciated!
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Comment on What common misunderstanding do you want to clear up? in ~talk
vili Link ParentThe idea that spoken or signed language is acquired while writing is learnt is actually a fairly basic concept in linguistics that also has quite a bit of research behind it. Or at least this used...The idea that spoken or signed language is acquired while writing is learnt is actually a fairly basic concept in linguistics that also has quite a bit of research behind it. Or at least this used to be the case some two decades ago when I completed my degree and briefly taught undergraduate intro courses at a university. Life has since taken me to other places and fields, but I at least haven't seen anything that would have fundamentally challenged this idea.
That said, the method and extent to which language is a natural part of us humans has been much debated. On the one side, we have major theories like universal grammar, which argues that our language abilities are the result of an innate biological component. But then there are also those who see language more as a result of multiple individual components in our brain that aren't in any way language specific.
In any case, we have observed cases of both language deprivation and the emergence of language which have generally been taken to indicate that there is something innate in us for natural language to develop, and that there is a period in our childhood during which one needs pick up a language. If an individual does not acquire a language during that time, they will never be able to fully do so.
I am not aware of anything similar when it comes to writing. It seems to be more of a learnt skill which is not dependent on our biology or developmental phases.
Foreign language learning of course complicates things and it is a good question how much it follows the processes of native language acquisition, and how much it is instead a learnt skill like writing. Probably a little from column A and a little from column B, especially at the beginning of the learning process. There are also many different levels of language proficiency, for both active and passive language skills, such as when one is able to understand a language but not actively produce it. Perhaps, like you pointed out, in this context it indeed isn't quite as black and white as saying that writing is always subordinate to speaking.
We are also living at a very unique period in the history of human language use, as writing is suddenly so ubiquitous and such a major part of many current cultures and social interactions. Still a little over a century ago, being able to read and write was an exception, and still a couple of decades ago, writing was a skill you used much less frequently. Today, many people spend more time exposed to written than spoken language. As we study the results of this change, it will be interesting to see how it adjusts our concepts and understanding of human language ability and the mechanics and processes behind it.
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Comment on 'Cementing over our own future': Europe's nature loss is 600 football pitches daily in ~enviro
vili LinkThis was a bit of a shock to me. I thought Europe had actually been going through something of a slow reforestation trend since the 90s and that we were making at least some right decisions about...This was a bit of a shock to me. I thought Europe had actually been going through something of a slow reforestation trend since the 90s and that we were making at least some right decisions about wildlife conservation.
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'Cementing over our own future': Europe's nature loss is 600 football pitches daily
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Comment on Hot take: 4:3 > 16:9 in ~tv
vili LinkGrowing up, I was chasing for those rare VHS tapes that featured the original widescreen version of a film, rather than the general release 4:3 crop. These days, I find myself going through...Growing up, I was chasing for those rare VHS tapes that featured the original widescreen version of a film, rather than the general release 4:3 crop. These days, I find myself going through streaming app settings trying to figure out if a favourite series of mine is still available in its original 4:3 ratio, rather than a widescreen crop. History is funny sometimes.
Not all conversions are equal, of course. David Simon, the creator of The Wire, has written a really good article on the efforts that went into converting his series into widescreen and HD. Too bad the embedded videos seem to have been taken offline since its publication, but I think it's still an interesting read.
It is also fascinating to witness the transition that filmmakers make when they switch aspect ratios. Akira Kurosawa, for instance, first used the widescreen format in his 1958 film The Hidden Fortress. And boy does he use the wideness of the screen space there! The contrast is especially marked if compared to his previous film The Lower Depths, which used its 4:3 aspect ratio to the fullest to present the film's claustrophobic setting.
When Kurosawa switched to colour with the 1970 film Deduskaden, he did something similar. That film is not just "in colour", in many ways it "is colour". He actually also went back to a less wide format there (1.37:1), as he felt that widescreen camera lenses couldn't capture colour information properly at the time.
Which I think underlines that a good creator picks the format that best serves their intentions.
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Comment on What common misunderstanding do you want to clear up? in ~talk
vili Link ParentThanks for your response! I agree with you on many points, but I shall push back a little. Written language is subordinate to speech in the sense that spoken language is an acquired ability,...Thanks for your response! I agree with you on many points, but I shall push back a little.
Written language is subordinate to speech in the sense that spoken language is an acquired ability, whereas writing is a learnt technology that derives from it. With some exceptions, all humans growing up in a typical social environment will begin to speak the language(s) of the social group, but writing is something that needs to be explicitly learnt.
There seems to be something biologically innate in us that makes language possible. What it is, and to what extent, is much debated. We don't know when human language originally developed, but estimates typically put it somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 years. As for writing systems, we have had them in some for a little under 10,000 years. It's a relatively recent technology.
To repeat what I wrote earlier, in reality the relationship between spoken and written language does get more complicated when you look at the interaction between the two. This also extends to the relationship between letters and sounds, and indeed meaning. English, like you point out, is a great example of a rather fascinating setup.
Chinese, like other logographic writing systems, doesn't strictly speaking use letters but it is certainly a very interesting system as well. Is it really true that a modern Chinese speaker would, without any additional training, be able to read 7th century poetry? My understanding is that even if many of the characters have remained the same, much of the language itself has changed, and in the specific case of Tang poetry, the brevity of the texts makes it a little easier for modern speakers than other writing from the era? But I have no background in Chinese at all, so I really don't know. I just imagined that it's a bit like me "reading" Chinese texts after learning Japanese. I could figure out much of the general meaning of simple passages, but it didn't feel like a language skill, more a puzzle solving exercise.
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Comment on What common misunderstanding do you want to clear up? in ~talk
vili LinkLetters don't make sounds. Letters represent sounds. Writing is a mechanism with which language is recorded. It is subordinate to speech, not the other way around. In reality, it of course gets...Letters don't make sounds. Letters represent sounds. Writing is a mechanism with which language is recorded. It is subordinate to speech, not the other way around.
In reality, it of course gets more complicated when you study the interaction between spoken (or signed) language and writing. And not every writing system works the same. And there are all sorts of exceptions. And so on. But as a starting point, "letters represent sounds" is a less confused position than "letters make sounds".
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Comment on What common misunderstanding do you want to clear up? in ~talk
vili Link ParentIf I may challenge this a little: does it really? Copyright itself does not cover ideas, only their expression. At least in the jurisdictions that I'm familiar with. A boardgame is a good example....The modern conversation almost always starts from an assumption that ideas are private property
If I may challenge this a little: does it really?
Copyright itself does not cover ideas, only their expression. At least in the jurisdictions that I'm familiar with.
A boardgame is a good example. The idea or the rules of a game cannot be copyrighted. But the presentation of those rules is under copyright. So, in theory, you can make a game that plays exactly the same as some other game, but you cannot write the rules in the same way, you cannot use the same art, or the same set of unique terms, and so on.
One might be able to patent some aspects of game rules, or rather their specific implementation. And one could have a trademark for the title, characters, setting, or other aspects of the game. But I don't think any of these mechanisms cover pure ideas. Ideas are free.
I know this is nitpicking, and I'm responding to a hand-picked, out-of-context part of your post rather than its spirit, but in the spirit of the wider topic: I feel the mechanics of copyright, patent and trademark law are often a source of misunderstanding.
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Comment on CGA-2025-10 🕹️⏰ 🗺️ 🐸 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 Chrono Trigger in ~games
vili Link ParentThank you very much for both replies! I learnt a lot and I'm definitely interested in trying out both Persona 3 and Metaphor, although like you pointed out, both may have aspects that will be a...Thank you very much for both replies! I learnt a lot and I'm definitely interested in trying out both Persona 3 and Metaphor, although like you pointed out, both may have aspects that will be a little suboptimal for me.
Length is an additional challenge. A game of this size will take me 3-4 months to play through, so it's definitely a commitment. I often wish they made "shorter cut" versions for games like these!
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Prospect of life on Saturn’s moons rises after discovery of organic substances
33 votes
That is... quite something. Actually painful to look at.
I remember as a kid buying C64 games largely based on the pictures on the box (not much more to go on), and even if I knew that the box art had nothing to do with the graphics in the game and that the gameplay pictures in the back couldn't have been from the C64 release and were most likely from the Amiga version, as I sat in the car on our way home, holding the newly acquired game in my hand, I still allowed myself to imagine the graphical brilliance of the game that I would get to play soon. And once we got home, I rushed into my room, placed the tape into the cassette deck, loaded the game and... well, I don't think any game ever graphically exceeded my young mind's expectations.
Or well, maybe The Last Ninja 3 did.