Just Another Machine

I came out of a period of a combination of both a rut and not having accomplished what I wanted to in my personal state to fall back in a state of mindlessness that has pretty much been there since I started my most recent job. It's both the best and worst thing that has happened to me. The best because of what I'm able to accomplish because of it. Also, I have become more comfortable with myself as a person. The worst because I put so much into it that on most days, I just don't have the energy for much else. It's like when Sonic comes out of Super Sonic form. Zero rings left. You can't do much without any rings. You get touched, you're dead.

At work, I'm a combination of who I am online and a completely different person that only comes out at work. One who takes no prisoners. If you tell me no, you better have a damn good reason why, because I'm not afraid to call you out on it. I like that I can throw personality into it since we are essentially selling tech support plans for computers but sales is sales. It's brutal and some customers are just flat out stupid or annoying. Also, if you're doing good, you're getting more calls than anyone else. With this new system, by the time my normal shift is done, I'm done. It becomes mentally draining trying to overcome objections all day. I don't like to fight with people but I become relentless. A machine. I've been called this before at work and sometimes it all just comes to me. I don't always know how, it just does. The name is fitting. Too fitting, in fact. When I sit back and think about it, it is actually a bit scary. Epic boosts of confidence are great and all but this can also mean that when you get shut down, it becomes that much worse. Maybe I'm bi-polar? Nah. Crazy thoughts. I have lots of those. Moving on...

A good comparison to help tell my story here is a comparison to Scrooge McDuck in DuckTales: Remastered. Scrooge McDuck is filthy rich. He doesn't even have to think about how to spend his money but at the same time, is stingy with it as well. His money is his life. He's smart about it and he treasures it very much. With that being said, there is a human side to him that comes out. When his nephews get captured, he cares no longer about the money and even seeks the aid of an enemy to save try and save them, even if it means giving up some of his hard earned treasure he collected earlier in the game. We are human after all, so something can trigger you. You can't become completely lost. There is a release somewhere. Some sense of sanity. Something that breaks away from routine.

Here's another example. Classic Mega Man was designed to destroy Wily's robots to keep peace. In the TV show, every now and then, he would show compassion to save Roll, Dr. Light, or Rush. Being that he was "Rock" before becoming Mega Man, he has feelings. Robots can't lie, but Mega Man can sometimes think on his own, regardless of what he was created for. He's more than a robot. When all else failed after Dr. Wily betrayed Dr. Light by running off with the robots they designed together (originally designed for the good of humanity), and the world being at risk as a result, Light made this decision to make Rock into Mega Man. That was his answer. Another machine.

Going back to my scenario, I'm at a point where I have so much going well, I cannot just quit. My job, VGHC, MachinaeTribe and furthermore, the people I've had the pleasure of talking and associating with throughout all of it, all of who I treat as I would want to be treated. The Golden Rule. It is all second nature to me. Where does the time come for yourself though? Where does the time come in to vent? Where do the thoughts racing go when you don't have the energy or even think to talk to someone else? Why not just lose yourself in something you're used to or passionate about and forget about it all? Why not just pass out and start the next day, forgetting about all this? This all happens on a constant basis. A never-ending cycle. Such is life, right?

My life is far from terrible. It is the best it has been but I feel a part of me is gone that may never return. Maybe I just haven't found my true focus or a person to make me realize I can do even more than I do on a routine basis. The fact that ANYTHING different makes me feel great is a sign that I'm a bit too lost in my own world of trying to achieve and do nothing else but just that. The escapes are few and far between however and while I really do enjoy the things I get lost in and do, I become too lost. So lost in fact, I may as well be just another machine.

Mega Man 3 vs Mega Man 2

NOTE: THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE POSTED ON MY BIRTHDAY AND APPARENTLY I NEVER PUT IT THROUGH!!! **FACEPALM**

Alright people, here's the drill. Today happens to be my birthday, so there will be a article on Mega Man. Shocking, eh? There will also be a weekend article. This may or may not actually be the first one on a Saturday or Sunday. Who knows. Let's get this started. We shall start this with the following off the Mega Man 3 Wikipedia page.

Development on Mega Man 3 began at Capcom over a year after the release of Mega Man 2. The lead supervisor for the first two games quit his job at the company during that gap of time.  Artist Keiji Inafune, credited as "Inafking", considered Mega Man 3 as one of his least favorite entries in the series due to "what went into the game and what was behind the release of the game." He had "preset notions" about successful development because of the team's good experience with Mega Man 2 and found that his new superior "didn't really understand Mega Man the way his predecessor did". During the game's production, the developers lost the main planner, so Inafune had to take over that job for its completion. Inafune recalled the final two months of development as particularly turbulent, when he had to take responsibility for assessing and dividing up tasks among the team members who were not meeting deadlines. The team was forced to put Mega Man 3 on the market before they thought it was ready. Inafune concluded, "I knew that if we had more time to polish it, we could do a lot of things better, make it a better game, but the company said that we needed to release it. The whole environment behind what went into the production of the game is what I least favored. Numbers one and two – I really wanted to make the games; I was so excited about them. Number three – it just turned very different."

"Slide, Slide!"

Mega Man 3 was the first game to introduce the slide ability. I tend to be a guns blazing type of player. When the slide was introduced, this meant faster movement. Why just walk when you can slide? The slide made you able to go under certain part of stages but also would allow for sliding under bosses or evading enemies. It added a bit more to the "jumpin' and shootin'" style of gameplay we became used to with the previous two entries. You can't slide in Mega Man 2. Would it be better with the ability to slide? Probably not. It wasn't made with that in mind but I can say I rather be with a slide than without.

Game Length

This is one of the longer entries in the series to beat and its tradition was carried onto future games. The games became longer after this point. You would have the bosses, something in between, which varies from game to game, and then the Wily stages. So what exactly does this mean for Mega Man 3, the game that started this? Onto my next point...

Two games in one...btw...that includes Mega Man 2

Okay, so it's not Mega Man 2. You won't get to hear the music or play the kickass stages. What happens is that after you beat the eight Robot Masters in MM3, you fight eight more which happen to be the MM2 bosses. You get to pick four stages. Each stage has two bosses a piece, each one containing not one but two Robot Masters from Mega Man 2. Each stage contains "Doc Robots" that mimic the actions of the Mega Man 2 robot masters everyone knows and loves. These stages would basically be a second version of the stages played before. Since there are only four, this meant a second version of Spark, Needle, Gemini, and Shadow Man's stages. After you did this...

PROTO MAN!

Proto Man actually plays a role in this game. You fight him in various stages, later on as "Break Man" and he even saves your ass at the end of the game. He was the first Robot creation of Doctor Light, technically speaking (No. 000). Also, he has a epic yellow scarf and a cooler helmet than the main character. Sorry Mega Man.

Stages/Music

Make no mistake, I certainly respect Mega Man 2 for what it is but the fact is this. No matter how many times I play these games back to back, when I was a kid and now as an adult, my opinions has not change. I simply enjoy both the stages AND the music better than Mega Man 2. Feel free to flame me.

Mega Man 3 contains my favorite Robot Master, Magnet Man. Something about him just screams "Hey, I'm a badass" to me. He's pretty quick in the actual fight itself as well. Outside of that, I find Mega Man 3 a more difficult game than Mega Man 2 as well. Mega Man 1 and 2 were both awesome games but your plasma shots did more damage than they should. You really didn't need the enemy weakness to win. Regular shots were a viable option. In Mega Man 3 and onward, your plasma shots didn't do as much damage, making "Buster Runs" harder than they are in the previous two games. One of the things I did as a kid was try to beat all bosses without the enemy weaknesses and use only the standard plasma shots (not the Mega Buster or the charge shot as some call it). Don't get me wrong, Mega Man 5 and 6 were a bit on the easy side but even so, "Buster Runs" were harder from 3-10. I enjoy a game with more of a challenge and this game was it. Once you got the Metal Blade, the game was over. You can run through the game with that. Now you COULD say the same for Shadow Man's Shadow Blade in Mega Man 3 but there is one key difference. Metal Man is easy to take down and you can easily make him the first boss you beat. Shadow Man is harder to take down due to both his pattern as a Robot Master and the fact that your plasma shots again do less damage in MM3 than in MM2.

Mega Man 3 to me offers what 2 did for most. Just better, with more of a challenge and a overall longer gameplay experience. Now as far as better stages and music, that's something I know is up for debate, but this is my opinion after all as it has stood since I first played both games back in the NES days.