I'm the opposite, because I find that I enjoy the story a little more if I'm not trying to optimize the gameplay. In the second play-through, I already know about the story so optimizing, seeing how quickly and efficiently I can play (or how I can survive on a harder difficulty) is the challenge that keeps me…

Albeit condescending, I was amused by the first link.

haha nice

That does help, a lot. I'm gleaning that it's one of those phenomenons where knowing more does not help you understand it, as there is nothing to understand, as it's basically a first world bit of nonsense.

Aww the 90s. I miss the 90s.

I can do lots of things, actually, but thanks for asking! Sometimes I like to reply in the moment, and interact with fellow Kotakuites. It's nice!

Aww I remember planking. It was stupid, but anyone could do it. ... Ahh, i'm beginning to understand the harlem shake.

The more I learn about this, the less sense it makes. I might be getting old.

I didn't know what it was until today. After 10 minutes on YouTube, I agree with you completely.

Ah, well, that's probably for the best.

Uh, I'm not cool enough (or conversely, entirely too cool?) to know what the hell the Harlem Shake is.

Eh, I'm not convinced people are skewing the Kotaku poll.

I think so too. Steak and Shake restaurants served it for years after Surge disappeared from shelves. I'm guessing it was some very old syrup, but I did not care. If I ever come into money, that's among my goals: buy the license and recipe and resume Surge production.

Oh man, me too. I'm gonna need some of those black rimmed glasses...

Caffeine was probably making your panic attacks more likely, but a little caffeine is thought to be healthy.

Surge was the best soda ever.

Well so far, the Kotaku informal poll has roughly the same results. I thought that was a biased figure from GameStop, assuming that they were asking their customers.

Well, this talk was awesome. Sometimes I'm annoyed by forced choice in games, but I think that's because it's done poorly. Though I'm not sure that I value my choice as a better choice objectively, I have definitely noticed that when there are too many choices I usually buy, or choose, nothing. I think that…

I'm not convinced you read anything beside the stats, but in any case: I beat Sacred Stones and briefly played Shadow Dragon before playing Awakening. I was trying to illustrate that the story could be completed with most any character, event the ones you first start with. Characters can die and you can continue…

WIN