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Thank you! I was very blessed to work for this company at 16 years of age! I got hired because I had been living in Redmond Washington in the 90s and was a huge square fan. I sent in a reply card to them and they called me one day asking if I would be interested in testing Secret of Mana?! Umm yes please. It was really cool there were about 12 of us similar ages and we went to Square every day for like a week during the summer to test it. They fed us pizza and we got to make some contributions. I named a couple of enemies (Snap Dragon and Tsunami (formally Mr. Water) Also got a free copy of the game when it was over and some merchandise. They kept calling me back to test and it culminated with Final Fantasy 6. I got to bring my brother and sister with me and play through it. They had me take a game play phone call during this time and then after the beta test they hired me. My brother discovered the relm sketch glitch but they didn't fix it for some reason. Working for Square as a game play counselor was really amazing. I got to play video games all day, test unreleased games, hang with the us developers, visit Nintendo etc. I even contributed to Chrono Trigger by naming Ayla. Frequently work with Ted Woosely and I want to confess that I borrowed his final fantasy v music cd and didn't return it.

This comment is too wonderful to get lost on the forum pages. From user @cleansed: Mr. Gabbard, thank you for all the work you did to help get this game (and guide) out into the world, and thank you for sharing your story!

Right, but it isn't as if anyone's passed any laws against the "dirty old man trope" in anime, or passed laws saying that it's illegal to mention gender in a videogame. It's just changing mores of certain countries, and businesses reacting in whatever way they feel will net them the most profit. If a business feels they can sell more product by censoring something, they probably will. They aren't on a soapbox crusade, they're just trying to make a buck. In Japan, one of the quickest and easiest ways to make more money is to slap some "fan service" into your product, increasing its appeal. Their frustration comes about when they try to export that product to a country where that sort of thing acts to limit the potential audience, rather than increase it. They say sex sells, but in America, at least, that isn't always true, depending on what the product is and who the target audience is. Of course. It was just making the point that every culture has different levels of conservatism and cultural norms. Japan scoffs at American conservatism that forces them to hide the revealing cleavage of their characters if they want an E rating on their games, while some Americans might look at Japan's lack of legal recognition for gay couples as a conservatism whose time for change is past due. Luckily, every country gets to decide its own morals, cultural behaviors, and laws for itself. Though again, once international business becomes involved, we have no choice but to work with cultural differences as best we can.

I gave my son all my boxes of Game informer EGM and Nintendo power magazines. I have one box from the 80's if I remember correctly. I don't know if he liked the car I gave him for his 18th birthday or these magazines better.

People can be offended, nobody is stopping them from being. However, just because they are offended shouldn't mean it should stop other people from enjoying something they find non-offensive. Of course I am just talking about media. Whatever thing happens in media or art should not be be used as an excuse or to fuel real-life crimes. That goes for sex and violence. Art shouldn't really have boundaries as it isn't real and there are no victims as you said, despite how very twisted and offensive it can be. I disagree with Japan's anti-same-sex marriage law, but let's not act like the G7 is some group of saints.

I for one welcome Japan's media's overt sexualism overall. It is better than America where everyone acts like repressed Puritans and has moral panic over anything that could be considered offensive.

I'm glad I was almost always a generation behind the times.

Loved the PSP! Thanks for the upload!

glad I skipped it

That generation almost everyone had to buy an hdtv along with their new system. What an expensive time to be a gamer.