2012: Year of the disappointing story?

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Barrock

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#1  Edited By Barrock

Seems to be a bit of a theme for the year. Mass Effect 3 (Or at least the ending), Darksiders II, Resident Evil 6, Syndicate, Dishonored, and Assassin's Creed III in my opinion all had disappointing stories.

Any titles that I forgot?

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BeachThunder

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#2  Edited By BeachThunder

Year of the hyperbolic threads?

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zeforgotten

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#3  Edited By zeforgotten

Haven't played RE6 (because I just don't care about Resident Evil games anymore) 
But for me personally I haven't run in to a story that really disappointed me at all. I was even one of those people who understood the ending of Mass Effect 3 and didn't need the DLC to draw me a picture and hold my hand while explaining exactly what happened. Because the little kid at the end had already told me just exactly what was gonna happen. And when it was explained that the Mass Effect story was like a Diamond it starts at a point, spreads out and then it has to get it all together again I had hoped more people would understand it. Turns out they didn't. 
 
The other games were also fine when it came to the story. 
Maybe I just didn't set my expectations ridiculously high for what is know as "just a video game" ? I dunno

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abendlaender

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#4  Edited By abendlaender

Spec Ops The Line and Walking Dead beg to differ. I'd say these two games alona have a better story than any game from 2012 and 2011

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ESREVER

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#5  Edited By ESREVER

I thought the common theme was that this year was great for Storytelling... or does that just apply to endings? Whatever, I played VLR, and that game's story and ending are nuts! The good kind of nuts.

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Aetheldod

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#6  Edited By Aetheldod

@ZeForgotten: Just about the ME story being like a diamond... that is what sucked duder and what we were promised was exactly nothing like that. Also come on is not about understanding the endings ... is about making good endings and not half assed crap (like every effin vidja game does).

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Video_Game_King

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#7  Edited By Video_Game_King

I'd say that LA Noire, Katawa Shoujo, Skyward Sword, Radiant Historia, Persona 4, Tear Ring Saga, and a ton of other games I've blogged about this year would beg to differ.

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Barrock

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#8  Edited By Barrock

@BeachThunder said:

Year of the hyperbolic threads?

If I had said The Year of the Worst Endings Ever!!!!! you'd have me.

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Tesla

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#9  Edited By Tesla

This being the year of the disappointing story implies that previous years were better, when in actuality video game stories have never really been that good. Each year only a handful of games are released that one could say has a good story, without adding the caveat "for a video game". This year is no different.

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Barrock

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#10  Edited By Barrock

@Tesla said:

This being the year of the disappointing story implies that previous years were better, when in actuality video game stories have never really been that good. Each year only a handful of games are released that one could say has a good story, without adding the caveat "for a video game". This year is no different.

I dunno, I've just found myself completing a game and walking away from it more disappointed story-wise a lot more than say last year. Last year I enjoyed Gears 3, Dead Space, LA Noire, Saints Row, Portal, Bastion, etc. This year? Walking Dead.

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zeforgotten

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#11  Edited By zeforgotten
@Aetheldod: Last interview I watched with Casey Hudson before the release of Mass Effect 3 just had him promising "an end to the trilogy"  
That's about all he promised and not some jobber on their forums either, just him in an interview on TV. But I guess there might've been people out there who easily took those words to mean "YOU CAN TOTALLY WRITE YOUR OWN STORY IN THE GAME! OMG OMG OMG!!!" nothing like that was ever promised though. The ending was fine and answered the questions that I had about everything that had happened during those games (and the books). So again, just so we're all perfectly clear here, in my opinion, the game didn't need the "let's hold your hand and explain this"DLC.
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ShadyPingu

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#12  Edited By ShadyPingu

I wouldn't say so. Game stories have kinda always been written in crayon. ME3 was just such a lightning rod for controversy that it's been easy to imagine it fitting into some sort of pattern.

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Tesla

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#13  Edited By Tesla

@Barrock said:

@Tesla said:

This being the year of the disappointing story implies that previous years were better, when in actuality video game stories have never really been that good. Each year only a handful of games are released that one could say has a good story, without adding the caveat "for a video game". This year is no different.

I dunno, I've just found myself completing a game and walking away from it more disappointed story-wise a lot more than say last year. Last year I enjoyed Gears 3, Dead Space, LA Noire, Saints Row, Portal, Bastion, etc. This year? Walking Dead.

I agree that there does seem to be less interesting stories this year. I guess I'm just always disappointed in the number of games with good stories, so this year doesn't feel much different to me.

Still haven't finished Dishonored, hopefully that one doesn't let me down!

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JoeyRavn

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#14  Edited By JoeyRavn

I thought it was common knowledge that 2012 was the Year of the Bow.

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Rebel_Scum

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#15  Edited By Rebel_Scum

@ZeForgotten said:

@Aetheldod: Last interview I watched with Casey Hudson before the release of Mass Effect 3 just had him promising "an end to the trilogy"
That's about all he promised and not some jobber on their forums either, just him in an interview on TV. But I guess there might've been people out there who easily took those words to mean "YOU CAN TOTALLY WRITE YOUR OWN STORY IN THE GAME! OMG OMG OMG!!!" nothing like that was ever promised though. The ending was fine and answered the questions that I had about everything that had happened during those games (and the books). So again, just so we're all perfectly clear here, in my opinion, the game didn't need the "let's hold your hand and explain this"DLC.

I couldn't agree more with both of your posts in this thread. The original ending was fine as it gave me questions to think about what happened.

: Sometimes the best endings are the ones that make you think by not showing the full picture e.g. The Cube, Blade Runner, Twin Peaks, Memento IMO.

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johncallahan

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#16  Edited By johncallahan

I thought that Syndicate was great. In terms of the rest of those (with the exception of Dishonored). I'd say that it's more a year for disappointing games. I had much less fun playing all the games up there you listed, and I'd say THAT was more out in front as opposed to their stories. Plus like people have said, Spec Ops: The Line, The Walking Dead, and even Black Ops 2 in a small way have had fantastic stories.

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Barrock

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#17  Edited By Barrock

@jonny126 said:

I thought that Syndicate was great. In terms of the rest of those (with the exception of Dishonored). I'd say that it's more a year for disappointing games. I had much less fun playing all the games up there you listed, and I'd say THAT was more out in front as opposed to their stories. Plus like people have said, Spec Ops: The Line, The Walking Dead, and even Black Ops 2 in a small way have had fantastic stories.

I've not played Black Ops 2, but Jeff mentioning it's got a great campaign made me a lot more enthusiastic about it. I've also not played Halo 4 yet, but that's only part one in a trilogy. Fingers crossed for Far Cry 3.

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AngelN7

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#18  Edited By AngelN7

@BeachThunder said:

Year of the hyperbolic threads?

THIS! Man most people here spend way too much time complaning about videogames ...and everything is "the worst ever?"

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CrossTheAtlantic

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#19  Edited By CrossTheAtlantic

@Aetheldod: @ZeForgotten: I don't really have any of the ire people seem to have towards Mass Effect 3, but it should absolutely be a lesson in over promising. They certainly said it would be an end to the trilogy but stuff linked in threads like these (warning: Bioware thread) is evident of perhaps hyping the game up too much to the point where they were never going to be able to deliver on said promises.

When you take stuff like

At this point we’re taking into account so many decisions that you’ve made
as a player and reflecting a lot of that stuff. It’s not even in any way
like the traditional game endings, where you can say how many endings
there are or whether you got ending A, B, or C..... - Casey Hudson

and add in a suuuuuper dedicated fanbase and all the other complications of game design, it's gonna get messy. Hopefully, their a little more reigned in on the PR next time because besides a disappointing ending, I found that, in the moment, the story of Mass Effect 3 was quite effective.

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awesomeusername

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#20  Edited By awesomeusername

@Video_Game_King said:

LA Noire, Skyward Sword, Radiant Historia, Persona 4, Tear Ring Saga,

I see what you're doing...

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LordXavierBritish

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Spec Ops the Line, Walking Dead, Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward, Dark Souls: Artorias of the Abyss

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phrosnite

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#22  Edited By phrosnite

Oh shut up with the story/ending stuff already. If 2012 is a year for anything it's a disappointing year for video games overall. So many games delayed and those who came out are disappointing.

The only two games I loved this year are Mass Effect 3 and Dark Souls:PtDE. Only two games... 2012 is so bleh. Not to mention all the other crap that happened this year. I got kidney infection, so many big-time devs left their studios, games underperforming and now my video card decided to act all-weird so I won't be playing games for a while... X_X

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zeforgotten

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#23  Edited By zeforgotten
@CrossTheAtlantic said:

@Aetheldod: @ZeForgotten: I don't really have any of the ire people seem to have towards Mass Effect 3, but it should absolutely be a lesson in over promising. They certainly said it would be an end to the trilogy but stuff linked in threads like these (warning: Bioware thread) is evident of perhaps hyping the game up too much to the point where they were never going to be able to deliver on said promises.

When you take stuff like

At this point we’re taking into account so many decisions that you’ve made
as a player and reflecting a lot of that stuff. It’s not even in any way
like the traditional game endings, where you can say how many endings
there are or whether you got ending A, B, or C..... - Casey Hudson

and add in a suuuuuper dedicated fanbase and all the other complications of game design, it's gonna get messy. Hopefully, their a little more reigned in on the PR next time because besides a disappointing ending, I found that, in the moment, the story of Mass Effect 3 was quite effective.

There are way more endings than I could come up with. 
but that's mostly with small stuff that had happened in previous games. Would Tali be dead? would I even have Garrus with me to the end? would Mordin Solus be there? For me, all of my dudes from ME2 were there because I saved them all, the ending would've been different had none of those dudes surived and only my FemShep.  
 
So I wasn't promised anything else than what I got. One of the endings. 
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Barrock

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#24  Edited By Barrock

@AngelN7 said:

@BeachThunder said:

Year of the hyperbolic threads?

THIS! Man most people here spend way too much time complaning about videogames ...and everything is "the worst ever?"

Err... I thought I steered clear of any sort of hyperbolic language. I'm not trying to declare this the worst of anything, just saying I've been disappointed a lot this year when it comes to stories in games.

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Video_Game_King

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#25  Edited By Video_Game_King

@awesomeusername said:

@Video_Game_King said:

LA Noire, Skyward Sword, Radiant Historia, Persona 4, Tear Ring Saga,

I see what you're doing...

What?

I'd say that LA Noire, Katawa Shoujo, Skyward Sword, Radiant Historia, Persona 4, Tear Ring Saga, and a ton of other games I've blogged about this year would beg to differ.

You mean that?

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LordXavierBritish

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@Video_Game_King: Did Katawa Shoujo come out this year? I forgot that happened.

It seems like a life time ago.

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deactivated-5cc8838532af0

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Focus less on the 2012 stuff and I think AC 3 has a great story. Also Pandaria but that's an MMO and WoW so it doesn't count.

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CrossTheAtlantic

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#28  Edited By CrossTheAtlantic

@ZeForgotten: I'm not disagreeing, but the way they talked about the ending was both vague enough and grand enough in scope that they were inevitably building up a hype that I think was going to drown them regardless of whatever they did. I'm just speaking to it in terms of maybe lessening the hype cycle or at least being more specific/honest about it.

Plus, I'll forever be grateful for having the Indoctrination Theory stuff to chuckle at. Did that continue past the expanded ending?

Anyways, OT: I think this year has actually been pretty strong for narrative in video games. I think certain multi-game resolutions have been disappointing, but there are plenty of self-contained games that have been strong. Though, I just finally got around to finishing the Deadly Premonition Endurance Run so I don't think any story this year is going to compare to, uh, whatever that was.

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awesomeusername

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#29  Edited By awesomeusername

@Video_Game_King said:

@awesomeusername said:

@Video_Game_King said:

LA Noire, Skyward Sword, Radiant Historia, Persona 4, Tear Ring Saga,

I see what you're doing...

What?

I'd say that LA Noire, Katawa Shoujo, Skyward Sword, Radiant Historia, Persona 4, Tear Ring Saga, and a ton of other games I've blogged about this year would beg to differ.

You mean that?

Yes.

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#30  Edited By Lelcar

I loved Final Fantasy XIII in every regard and in my opinion it has some of the best character development and overall in the series. So, naturally, I was excited for FFXIII-2, unfortunately for me I thought that XIII-2 took a shit on everything storywise and the characters were extremely annoying. So, FFXIII-2 is the most disappointing story for me.

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Cloudenvy

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#31  Edited By Cloudenvy

@Video_Game_King said:

I'd say that Katawa Shoujo

Good one! Let's not get into this again, though.

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Video_Game_King

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#32  Edited By Video_Game_King
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#33  Edited By Animasta

@LordXavierBritish said:

@Video_Game_King: Did Katawa Shoujo come out this year? I forgot that happened.

It seems like a life time ago.

I've tried so hard to forget it myself; luckily I've finally played more than 10 games this year so it doesn't have to be on my GOTY list.

and OP, not especially? Binary Domain, Devil Survivor 2, Persona 4 Arena, Hotline Miami, Analogue...

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GERALTITUDE

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#34  Edited By GERALTITUDE

If you walk into every game expecting nothing you'll always be pleasantly surprised. Consider that mantra.

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zeforgotten

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#35  Edited By zeforgotten
@CrossTheAtlantic: The day we see PR not hyping up a game is the day everyone will suddenly grow wings and get 10 billion dollars into their bank accounts.  
 And no, the Indoctrination thing is one of the few things that was just touched on with the Illusive Man. 
So basically that part is still "Wait, he was Indoctrinated all the time?!" and then "Ok nevermind, let's not talk about that ever again" which is kind of a funny. 
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Mystyr_E

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#36  Edited By Mystyr_E

but then not bring up games like games like Asura's Wrath, Journey, Xenoblade Chronicles, Walking Dead, Sleeping Dogs, Dust: An Elysian Tail, Mark of the Ninja, Zero Escape, and even Halo 4 had a great campaign.............so no I don't.

Seems more like confirmation bias than anything

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Cloudenvy

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#37  Edited By Cloudenvy
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Video_Game_King

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#38  Edited By Video_Game_King

@Cloudenvy: @Animasta:

Grr. Grr at your hatred of Katawa Shoujo! By this year's end, you shall learn the error of your ways. *leaves on mysterious evil laughter*

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Baillie

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#39  Edited By Baillie

@ZeForgotten: What annoyed me about the ending was the fact it was building up to something that turned into nothing. I was wanting to have a conversation with the reapers, like we did in previous games. I was wanting to see how my choices throughout the three games would somehow, even slightly, affect the ending of the game. I didn't want much, I just wanted to feel like there was a reason there was so many choices.

The side stories/characters kind of wrapped up due to my choices, but most of it was decided either there and then or within that game. I'm fine with the ending, I just found it very bland. Talking to a child - who has no character development, whatsoever, then walking into a certain coloured light makes an explosion of the same colour stop the reapers and destroy the mass effect fields. It just seemed rushed.

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Ravenlight

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#40  Edited By Ravenlight

@Video_Game_King said:

@Cloudenvy: @Animasta:

Grr. Grr at your hatred of Katawa Shoujo! By this year's end, you shall learn the error of your ways. *leaves on mysterious evil laughter*

They're just not man enough to picnic.

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Video_Game_King

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#41  Edited By Video_Game_King

@Ravenlight:

That's because is a girl and posts tons of GIFs of anime girls.

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#42  Edited By Etnos

I'll say 2012 year of the retail is going to hell! ... finally, kk thanks bye!

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Cloudenvy

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#43  Edited By Cloudenvy

@Video_Game_King said:

@Ravenlight:

That's because is a girl and posts tons of GIFs of anime girls.

Pffft, we were just man and lady enough to actually play good VN's this year!

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Video_Game_King

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#44  Edited By Video_Game_King

@Cloudenvy:

Of course you were. You played Katawa Shoujo.

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Cloudenvy

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#45  Edited By Cloudenvy

@Video_Game_King:

I did! And it certainly did not belong in the "good" category. Let's make a deal, I'll settle for calling it boring instead of bad, does that work for you?

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L44

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#46  Edited By L44

What about Journey or Dear Esther or Spec Ops The Line or The Walking Dead or Dishonored or Dust: An Elysian Tale or Papo & Yo or Black Ops 2 apparently.

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AlexanderSheen

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#47  Edited By AlexanderSheen

@Cloudenvy: Sorry, but I'm with @Video_Game_King on this one.

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Ravenlight

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#48  Edited By Ravenlight

@Video_Game_King said:

That's because is a girl and posts tons of GIFs of anime girls.

That's not an excuse!

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Cloudenvy

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#49  Edited By Cloudenvy

@AlexanderSheen: So you're brainwashed too, I see...

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Video_Game_King

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#50  Edited By Video_Game_King