To anyone that says Ness is mute, how then, did he manage to order a pizzas over the phone?

Here's to red hats and victories through 2 matches.

*mild EarthBound spoilers*

Ness is a mute.

He is a silent hero by nature. That's not a character flaw or anything, it's just the formula for RPG main characters in the mid 90s. For instance, Jeff and Poo have a lot of dialogue, but they became rather quiet when the player was controlling them. This was done for a reason. However, calling Ness a mute is inaccurate. He doesn't have a lot of dialogue, but he does have dialogue. I would compare him to Will from Illusion Of Gaia, not Crono or Link.

You need character to develop. Ness isn't a character. He, like Crono, like Ryu of BoF 1-4, like Link, is soulless avatar, void of personality, creativity, or energy.

I think Ness's actions speak for themselves, but if you need actual dialogue, because you need to be spoonfed everything, you hear of Ness's personality frequently. Paula comments on dreams about Ness and how he is "always like she imagined he would be." Frank Fly describes Ness, and how he always has a "bright and shining face." Everdred, the Runaway Five, Dr. Andonuts, and others also comment on what Ness is like.

"'Ness, activate the Phase Distorter 3 by your own hand, thereby following your own destiny. Only a few people know of your amazing courage, but the number of people you save through that bravery is immense. I feel very fortunate... to be present at the beginning of this monumental undertaking..."

You can also read into Ness's background and personality with the visions he sees at each Your Sanctuary location, which are examples of wonderful foreshadowing for Magicant, one of the best parts of the game, and the part of the game that reveals the most about Ness as a character. To see how he interacts with childhood memories, visions of everyone he knows, and a conversation with himself, etc. That and how everyone talks to Ness over the course of the entire game reveal all you need to know about his personality.

For a "lack of creativity," I'm really hard-pressed to find any other character like Ness. Who else can stand up to any and all evils, against THE evil itself, yet suffer from homesickness? Who else exorcises their evil persona from themselves in a dream world where they realize their true power?

Arguing with me about EarthBound = a really bad idea.

How are we doing on vote totals, BTW?

Who cares? Honestly.

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2nd Place, Spring Contest 2005
My Video Game World Records: http://www.twingalaxies.com/index.aspx?c=22&p=35289

I think side-polls were what cost SMB3/MG and Metroid/Pac-Man nearly 20,000 votes...who's to say it's not costing Ness/CJ less than 1,000?
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Hillary Clinton: We need to treat violence in video games like we treat tobacco and alcohol.
Lewis Black: Namely as valued contributors to our reelection fund.

Ness 54.94% 33370
Carl Johnson 45.06% 27370
TOTAL VOTES 60740

And the lead hits 6000.
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Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Contest 2005 Championship
Round 1: (7) Geno

Lucid Faia... thank you for that.

Don't look now, but I tthhiinnkk Ness is startin' to take the day-vote (I would say after-school vote here, but, uh...no school).
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Hillary Clinton: We need to treat violence in video games like we treat tobacco and alcohol.
Lewis Black: Namely as valued contributors to our reelection fund.

Sigh...looks like my first loss...in ROUND 2...Oh well, this teaches us something...

Never underestimate the power SSB and SSB:M (great games BTW) can have on cult characters.

Its making me start to regret picking Vivi over Zelda...
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"Opinions are like butts, little girl. Everyone's got one and nobody thinks their's stink." -Lunar 2:EB
*Claims KG's Eclair & Millia Rage*

Everybody's talkin' 'bout how Nintendo's impressing with the high vote totals and all, but we haven't seen a Square character perform yet, nor will we for another few days. Wait 'til after the Zebes Division before we get out of control with this, at least, though I'd prefer to see it wait for awhile longer than that.
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Hillary Clinton: We need to treat violence in video games like we treat tobacco and alcohol.
Lewis Black: Namely as valued contributors to our reelection fund.

Well, we have four Square characters in the Zebes Division (if you count Riku), so we'll get a good idea of that, especially considering we'll actually have Nintendo vs. Square with Ganon/Yuna.
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Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Contest 2005 Championship
Round 1: (7) Geno

Needless to say I will just kick myself forever if I happen to lose my prize-eligible bracket perfection on Kefka vs. Vercetti, where I have the kick-ass 'blank' winning. Stupid, stupid last minute changes suck.

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RIP: Tnote827 - 4/4/2005
Sp2k5 - 77/80 (stupid Master Hand)

From: yoblazer33 | Posted: 7/20/2005 10:38:18 AM | Message Detail
Oh, and for the people claiming Ness is cult, he isn't. A cult character doesn't get the majority of his/her/its strength from one of the most mainstream games on this site. The same would hold true if the Ice Climbers, Captain Falcon, Marth, and Roy made the contest. Earthbound is cult, but Ness certainly is not.

Yes, exactly...I cannot understand why anyone would call Ness a cult character. Pretty much everyone has heard of Ness.


And this talk of Nintendo being powered up because of these first two matches is ABSURD. Mario performed 0.21% points less than his Oracle expectation. And I picked Ness to win this match in my bracket—not because of "strategy", but because my risk-neutral expectation was that Ness should win. If you believe that Vercetti is stronger than CJ (which seems like a natural assumption to me), it was difficult to arrive at CJ > Ness.
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www.SC2K5.com

Huh... Carl's really stinking it up. Whatever. I already made the leaderboard for the third contest in a row, and it's only one point. Still a nifty match, though.
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The two halves of the Yorae Dragon duel once more in Godlike... which will survive? Find out at www.rpgdl.com.

Ness 55% 34742
Carl Johnson 45% 28431
TOTAL VOTES 63173

Carl Johnson keeps pressing toward Jak.
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Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Contest 2005 Championship
Round 1: (7) Geno

this contest rocks anyone who disagrees well just doesn't care about this contest
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Kilroy:There fate will be in each other's hands as they decide whether to share or to shaft

Sigh...looks like my first loss...in ROUND 2...Oh well, this teaches us something...

This will be my second Match 2 loss (the first was Fox/Pikachu).
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Today's subliminal thought is:

Ness 55.01% 34883
Carl Johnson 44.99% 28527
TOTAL VOTES 63410

Ness is at his highest percentage, passing none other than 55%. :p
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PETITION: Ability to preview contests to moderators before posting it. http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessage.php?board=7&topic=19643565 (199 Signs!)

I clicked and saw 55% to 45%

nice

why do second match tend to srew quite a few people in general.
alucard/ganondorf screwed me fox/pikachu screwed a bunch of people and so did andross/sigma. but this match just takes it to another level.

i think the second day of contest is cursed
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Kilroy:There fate will be in each other's hands as they decide whether to share or to shaft

Did Morrigan/Spyro the Dragon mess a lot of people up, too? What about Metroid/Pac-Man?
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Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Contest 2005 Championship
Round 1: (7) Geno

I wasn't around for 2k2, but Metroid/Pac-Man was flooded with crying n00blets. XD

There were so many topics saying "Pac-Man is too influential how could he lose to this Metroid thingy this contest has no crediblity wahhhhhhhhhh".

It was hilarious. XD
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PETITION: Ability to preview contests to moderators before posting it. http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessage.php?board=7&topic=19643565 (199 Signs!)

42.28% got Spyro/Morrigan right.

76.22% got Metroid/Pac-Man right.
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Hillary Clinton: We need to treat violence in video games like we treat tobacco and alcohol.
Lewis Black: Namely as valued contributors to our reelection fund.

Interesting. I'll have to keep this second day of the contest thing in mind.
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Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Contest 2005 Championship
Round 1: (7) Geno

Ganon gets to face all three of the FFX crew.
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This signature avaliable for rent.

2nd day does seem cursed...though I did get Sigma right...
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"Opinions are like butts, little girl. Everyone's got one and nobody thinks their's stink." -Lunar 2:EB
*Claims KG's Eclair & Millia Rage*

"Second day of the contest," nothing. It's usually an 8/9, this time it's a 4/5. It's simply two closely seeded characters going at it, which usually means that more people will screw up.

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2nd Place, Spring Contest 2005
My Video Game World Records: http://www.twingalaxies.com/index.aspx?c=22&p=35289

The only one Ganon will be lacking is Rikku.
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Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Contest 2005 Championship
Round 1: (7) Geno

Ganon/Rikku next year, of course
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This signature avaliable for rent.

yep second day is cursed
all contsets involving CHARACTERS have screwed at least 35% of bracket makers.
so what title would be appropriate for such a day
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Kilroy:There fate will be in each other's hands as they decide whether to share or to shaft

yep second day is cursed
all contsets involving CHARACTERS have screwed at least 35% of bracket makers.
so what title would be appropriate for such a day

First match involving two closely seeded characters that isn't an obvious blowout therefore many people can pick wrong Day.
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This signature avaliable for rent.

Ness 55.08% 35505
Carl Johnson 44.92% 28960
TOTAL VOTES 64465

Ness 55.08% 40130
Jak 44.92% 32733
TOTAL VOTES 72863


That's gotta hurt.....
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Hillary Clinton: We need to treat violence in video games like we treat tobacco and alcohol.
Lewis Black: Namely as valued contributors to our reelection fund.

hey who did everyone pick to be the winner of this tournament?

To the people that have Ganondorf over Auron: how high would Yuna have to score on Ganondorf to make you second-guess yourself?
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ALL YOUR VOTES ARE BELONG TO...Pac-Man?

i dunno, I'm a huge FFX fan and even though i hated doing it, i had to choose Ganon over Auron with Link's new game comming out.

Yuna would be expected to get about 34% on Ganondorf, though that was pre-FFX-2.
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Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Contest 2005 Championship
Round 1: (7) Geno

yea, was it just me or was FFX-2 a little dissapointing? but i still think Ganon will take Auron.

If Yuna gets 39+%, I'll start to worry...but no matter the case, I still expect Ganon to win in a close match.
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Hillary Clinton: We need to treat violence in video games like we treat tobacco and alcohol.
Lewis Black: Namely as valued contributors to our reelection fund.

Ganon/Rikku next year, of course

Rikku/Ganon in the final four!
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SpC2K5 First Vote Champion
Congrats to yoblazer, the Guru contest winner!

FFX-2 was little more than fanservice, so it depends on how many casuals vote, I guess. The game lowered my opinion of Yuna, so I tend to pretend she wasn't in it.
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Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Contest 2005 Championship
Round 1: (7) Geno

If Yuna gets 39+%, I'll start to worry...but no matter the case, I still expect Ganon to win in a close match.

You really should worry about that, considering that's only 6% lower than what Knuckles got...
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Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Contest 2005 Championship
Round 1: (7) Geno

ganondorf is still quite fresh from the villain contest so people are a little more attached to him so he should get roughly on yuna what zero will get on ryu. right?
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Kilroy:There fate will be in each other's hands as they decide whether to share or to shaft

How does Ganon being "fresh" from the Villain contest mean Ganon will score on Yuna what Zero scored on Ryu H? I expect Zero to underperform against Ryu H tomorrow, myself.
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This signature avaliable for rent.

Zero will at least double Ryu H.
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Summer 2005 Contest - 1/2 points
Current Match Prediction: Zero vs. Ryu Hayabusa

I don't think he will.

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A E I OWN U

...CJ is doing worse than Jak now O_o
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The King of all Cosmos' route to summer victory:
Round 1: (4) Tidus... LET ME DREAM :

well ness has embarrased and shamed cj to hell so what kind of pressure is vercetti in?
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Kilroy:There fate will be in each other's hands as they decide whether to share or to shaft

Man, I'm like the only person on the board who liked FFX-2...

I liked X-2 too...matter of fact, I was just playing an old file last night. Finally got around to getting the Mascot dresssphere. I <3 Tonberry Paine.
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ALL YOUR VOTES ARE BELONG TO...Pac-Man?

no, FFX-2 was a pretty good game, i just thought the story line was a little dissapointing and they should have done more with tidus. FFX was just perfect.
but anyways who here liked God Of War? I thought it was awesome, how do you think Kratos will do in this tourny?

At the 14:00 mark, this match has 66,900. At the same time, Mario/Joanna Dark had 66,666 votes. Interesting...
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Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Contest 2005 Championship
Round 1: (7) Geno

Final Fantasy X-2 was okay, except for the fact that it destroyed everything that was good about Yuna's character.

Still, I liked the Shuyin storyline. Baralai was cool, too.
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Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Contest 2005 Championship
Round 1: (7) Geno