Ten years is a long time. Things change, things stay the same and as humans we like to revisit and reminisce. That’s what we’re doing here.

A decade ago Squaresoft (now Square-Enix) released what was arguably the RPG that would define the genre for a long, long time to come. Final Fantasy VII brought together great storytelling, amazing (for the time) visuals and pretty excellent gameplay to make something that gamers the world over still talk about reverently. I still have conversations with people about where and when they were when they started playing, what was going on when certain key events came about and how many weeks it took them to breed the elusive Gold Chocobo.

My wife is not a gamer. She’s picked up a few since we started dating and then married. Currently she’s taking on Puzzle Quest and My Sims. She listens to us talk about FF VII and apprently was intrigued by the story but didn’t want to play the game. So, we compromised: I’ll play FF VII again (for only the third time, actually), she’ll watch and then we’re going to write this story. Being the 10th anniversary of the release is just a happy coincidence, but it’s great timing. I’m going to focus on things like how well the gameplay has held up over the years, a comparison of the visuals then and now, the similarities and differences in FF VII and modern games and probably a fair amount of nostalgia. My wife will be chiming with the newcomers perspective.

Since the game comes in at around 70 hours to complete we’re going to break this up into separate articles. Consider this your introduction, the next installment will cover the first disc and so on. Hopefully we’ll finish the whole thing sometime in February or March.

Until the next time: Courage!

Update: I’ve taken down the donation box, and have transferred the money to Jordan via PayPal. You guys were incredibly generous, and we raised almost $600 for the surgery fund! I cannot thank you enough. But seriously…thank you.

Asking for help is something most of us are reluctant to do.

Asking for money is something most of us are ashamed to do.

But right now, I’m doing both.

I’m not asking for your help and your money for me. For those of you who don’t know, our friend Jordan is facing an unexpected surgery tomorrow. He’d been suffering from pain in his upper right abdomen for some time, and about a week ago, he finally gave in and went to the emergency room.

He was told that the pain was being caused by his gallbladder and that he might need an operation to take care of it. But although he had applied for insurance coverage, his policy doesn’t take effect until January 2008. Jordan opted to try to wait until the new year before having the surgery. He came home, tried to change his diet to help, and we’d been hoping for the best.

But last night, something changed.

The long and the short of it is that he had to return to the emergency room. His family learned that his gallbladder has to be removed. Jordan is sick, in incredible pain, and hasn’t been able to keep food down. There’s no way around it. There’s no waiting until January for the insurance to cover his medical bills.

And that’s the story.

Anyone who’s spent even a little time in the hospital knows how expensive it is. Surgery is tremendously expensive, and medical bills can financially devastate a family. This is a wonderful family. I consider them part of my family. And whatever we can do to help them, I want to do it.

So here’s the part where I ask you for help. Most of you don’t know Jordan but I hope that won’t stop you from considering making a donation. The expenses for the hospital visits, diagnostics, and the surgery will be thousands of dollars. Those are thousands of dollars that he and his family will have to find a way to come up with.

What we want to do is help them find as many of those dollars as possible.

Many of you have probably already donated to charity or volunteered this holiday season. But maybe you can spare a little more. Or maybe you haven’t been presented with an opportunity to give this year. If so, any donation you might make will be so very very appreciated. Every dollar you can give is one more that Jordan and his family won’t have to find.

I have set up a donation fund through my PayPal account. There is a lovely link button at the top right of this page, and it will stay there until we’ve collected every penny you folks are willing to put in there. It is a completely secure transaction, handled entirely by PayPal, and I can assure you that every single dollar in that account will go directly to Jordan’s medical bills. You don’t have to be a PayPal customer to make a contribution–you can use a credit or debit card as well.

I know that there are selfish scams and unscrupulous people pandering for money in every corner of the internet. To that end, if you have any questions or uncertainty about donating, please feel free to email me by clicking here and I will gladly do my best to address your concerns. It might be a small consolation, but it’s the best I can offer.

Whether you feel like sending money or not, your prayers mean more than anything. If you would take the time, please keep Jordan and his family in your thoughts.

To those of you who have already been so incredibly generous and made a donation - thank you! And to everyone else who will make a donation - thank you, too!

Really. Thank you so much.

By Pminton

Being a gamer around the Christmas season is like being Augustus Gloop in the Wonka factory minus the Oompa Loompas. Seriously, there are so many things I would love to play but there just aren’t enough hours in the day. If I didn’t have to work I might get through them all.

This time of year every game company wants to get their product out by Christmas. That means that every game I’ve been looking forward to is coming out within two or three weeks of each other. For the past few weeks I’ve been trying to figure out a way to play World of Warcraft, Super Mario Galaxy, Rock Band, Guitar Hero III, Portal, Team Fortress 2 and Legend of Zelda: The Phanom Hourglass at the same time to maximize my gaming. So far all attempts have been unsuccessful. Picture it: A dude with a DS stylus in his mouth and the DS itself attached to a harmonica neck brace, drumsticks taped to his feet, a GH III controller in his hands rolling his face around on a keyboard that is controlling two computers (one with Portal running and the other with World of Warcraft). You understand my conundrum.

I sat down the other day to make a schedule so I wouldn’t leave anything out. It turned into a 2 hour Excel-spreadsheet session with a lot of cross-referencing, re-doing and swearing. Honestly I think that I would have to move to a 37 hour day, stop sleeping and maybe even stop blinking. Just since I started writing this article four more games have dropped that I feel I must play. This shows no signs of slowing until well after the New Year. I may very well have died and gone to gaming hell. I get to play 20 minutes of a game and the Gaming Devil comes by, cracks a whip and I have to move on to another game never to finish the first. Not only that, but I have a long whip-mark on my back.

The problem gets compounded by having to go Christmas shopping for folks (which I usually enjoy), attending my mother’s graduation from Master’s study (grats, mom!), working, spending time with family and friends, etc., etc. I found myself getting angry about having to do anything. I was getting terribly irritable. I actually snapped at my wife because she couldn’t make Firefly come back to television. I was beginning to resent Real Life (not the excellent comic by Greg Dean). I was becoming a jerk.

But, inevitably there comes a moment of clarity. No matter what, when my emotions get too extreme I have these humbling, head-clearing moments. This time it came in an email from a friend. Her brother–also a dear friend of ours–had to go to the Emergency Room and is going to need some unexpected and expensive surgery. Unfortunately, his new insurance policy doesn’t take effect until January 1st, and this surgery won’t be covered.

Running the risk of this post turning into schmaltz, I still have to say it: there are more important things in this life than Mario Galaxy and World of Warcraft. Family, friends, being alive to see another Holiday season and maybe most important: helping people. My video games will all still be right there waiting as long as I need them to; the chance to spend time with friends and family might not be. If I miss a Mana Tombs run, I can get on board the next one. If I miss a gathering with people dear to me, I can never recreate those moments.

So I want to take a moment to ask for help from you. We want to be able to help our friend with his medical bills, but as you’ve probably guessed, writing a blog doesn’t pay all that well. We can’t do a whole lot alone, but we’d like to ask for your help in raising whatever money we can.

If you haven’t already made a charitable donation this holiday season, please take this chance to help someone who needs and deserves it. Absolutely anything is a huge help, and the smallest donation is as welcome and appreciated as the largest.

Look to the top right of this page and you’ll see a PayPal donation button titled “The Surgery Fund”. That’s where you can give. It’s completely secure, and everything donated will go directly to the family of our friend to help with medical costs. We’ll be making a more formal post about this soon, but it’s never too early to give a little.

If you’re like me and the biggest problem you have this holiday season is not finding enough time for video games, then things aren’t too bad, right? Please consider giving. Any amount will be very much appreciated. Maybe you’ll find your moment of clarity.

(Also, if you don’t, it’ll make kittens cry and Santa will probably leave a festive lump of canine turd in your stocking. Seriously, I just talked to him. It’ll happen.)