WRUP: The sad, lonely life of Bubbleman
by Fox Van Allen 
Sep 9th 2011 at 7:30PM
Part of the "fun" of unemployment is trying to figure out what to do with those extra 40 hours or so of leisure time you get during the week. Sure, there's that whole looking for jobs thing, but that gets pretty old, so I've been playing Mega Man. A lot of Mega Man. Way too much Mega Man.
The music in the series is absolutely phenomenal, especially when you consider the limitations of the NES. There are some rocking covers of the stage themes out there. And, as you can see above, some more ... uh, original reimaginings of them. I guess I've never considered how sad and lonely Bubbleman's life really is. (Sebastian the Crab is a lying little jerk.)
But enough exploration of robots' non-existant emotions. This week, in addition to the usual What are you playing? question, we asked our columnists a very important question: Why is the Harvest Festival your absolute, hands-down favorite holiday?
Adam Holisky (@adamholisky) (gplus.to/adamholisky) This weekend will be all WoW, all warlock lovin' for me. I'm just about done getting him raid ready -- it's taken a little longer than I wanted, but such is life.
The Harvest Festival is my favorite holiday because I got to read the Breakfast Topic on it.
Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey) I'm painting this weekend and probably getting some writing out of the way too. The Harvest Festival is ... um ... well it's just sort of there, isn't it?
Alex Ziebart (@AlexZiebart) (gplus.to/alexziebart) I'll probably be playing more Space Marine this weekend. It's an incredibly fun game, though way too short. I may also do more dungeoneering on my rogue in WoW, but I don't want to burn myself out on the game again running ZG and ZA over and over.
Harvest Fest is my favorite holiday because hey, free food.
Fox Van Allen (@foxvanallen) (gplus.to/foxvanallen) Playing more Mega Man 2 and 3 on the virtual console and Mega Man 5 for the first time ever. It's inspiration for my painting project -- I'll probably finish Flashman and Woodman this weekend.
Best part about the Harvest Festival: that secret world boss that only I know about.
Joe Perez (@Lodurzj) More WoW, more LoL and trying to find time to hang out with the new roommate. Also, comics! the new DC 52 started, and I have about 22 number 1's to go through this month.
The Harvest Festival is awesome because it gives me free food that restores 2% of my mana every tick while I drink / consume it.
Josh Myers (@Elamqt) I have internet again! Naturally, I'll be attending a wedding and working all weekend. For the bonus question -- I liked the Harvest Festival before it got trendy. I'm not sure this year's Harvest Festival can compare to its old stuff, though.
Kelly Aarons (@Cadistra) I'm all moved and such, so this weekend will be working my new job and catching up on WoW because I miss it so. Thinking about starting my new shaman, but we'll see. The Harvest Festival rules because, that's why.
Mat McCurley (@gomatgo) (gplus.to/gomatgo) The same as every weekend: WoW and LoL. Getting acclimated back to the Horde, which has never, ever felt better. My love for WoW has been rejuvinated just by going back to the Horde. Feels good. Feels real good. I did the Harvest Festival once, and that's it.
Matt Low (@matticus) Trying out this new game called Bastion. Picked up the demo for the Warhammer Space Marine game too. Going to give that a spin. Deus Ex is a blast as well! I'm going through it mostly by shooting all the things!
Matt Rossi (@matthewrossi) (gplus.to/MatthewWRossi) I'm spending the weekend plotting. Oh yes, plotting. Planning, even. Perhaps even scheming.
The Harvest Festival is a holiday?
Lisa Poisso (@lisapoisso) Alliance flavor this weekend, since I've been working on my Horde priest lately. I think I'm going to hop back to my legacy Alliance priest for a bit; she's still sitting way back at the beginning of Wrath, but I'd like to see her out and about on the Molten Front.
The Harvest Festival is hands-down my favorite holiday because Fox's Breakfast Topic about it was quick and easy to edit.
Robin Torres (@cosmiclaurel) (gplus.to/cosmiclaurel) I will be playing Sims Social, Tiny Tower, hopefully some WoW and a whole lot of beta that is not Diablo 3. I love Harvest Festival because it's the holiday just before Brewfest and sometimes they coincide.
The weekend is the perfect time to kick back, relax and enjoy some game time. Are you an achievement junkie? Can't get enough raiding? Rolling a new alt? Considering taking the leap into roleplaying? Whatever your favorite way to play World of Warcraft, let us know in the comments what you're playing this weekend!
Filed under: WoW Insider Business
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Stephen Sep 9th 2011 7:57PM
You know, at first I thought this wasn't as gay (as in homosexual) as the Crash Man one, then Mega Man showed up and I was like "Yep, it's still gay." Seriously? Robot slash?
For me, I've given up on alt runs (drunk WoW'ers are not fun) so it's Deus Ex all the way!
reillymckelvey Sep 9th 2011 8:02PM
Could you take your homophobia back to that dank, dark corner of yourself where it belongs and not let it out in public again? Thanks.
Fox Van Allen Sep 9th 2011 8:09PM
it's not gay because robots don't have junk
Stephen Sep 9th 2011 8:22PM
I would, if there were any in there. Let's break this down. I used gay correctly, instead of as a synonym for "stupid" like many do. The video is, in fact, rather slashy (as in M/M relationship or attraction) once Mega Man is introduced. The Crash Man video is nothing but a CMxMM fanvid celebrating their relationship. So, the comparison is correct there as well. Finally, we have the expression of disbelief. I know, Rule 34 and all that, but it's a valid statement.
Now, as for your seeing homophobia everywhere. Let's analyze that. I know, when I was a young little gay boy just learning to live (did I mention that I'm a gay man?) I loved to play the victim and took everything seriously. The smallest slight, and I cried discrimination. It was really all the fad, back then, to see who could claim the most discrimination. Then I woke up and realized that I wasn't queen of the world and that people might actually like to be around someone more if they learn to take a joke. So my friend, what does this say about you? Are you a humorless person who plays victim or are you someone people want to be around because you can actually laugh at life once in a while?
I stand by my comment. This video, while not as gay as much of Hayadin's other work, upon viewing makes me say "Yep, it's still gay."
Stephen Sep 9th 2011 8:28PM
@Fox:
I dunno man, check out 3:02 on that vid. Bubble looks pretty bulgy to me!
Miranda Kali Sep 9th 2011 10:50PM
I don't know, Fox. ...All depends on the robot.
You know what they say... "The size of the Parallel Sequenced Sense-O-Matronic, the size of the Fractalizing Miniaturized Tremor Device."
Take it from an engineer, if you build it they will....
Oh, never mind.
Fletcher Sep 9th 2011 11:04PM
Plug-and-play.
Fletcher Sep 10th 2011 12:08AM
I think "it's not gay because robots don't have junk" is overly simplistic. If I went around cutting the wedding tackle off of gay men, they wouldn't have junk, but they *would* still be gay.
To quote Vashet from /The Wise Man's Fear/; "A penis is very different from a heart".
That these robots identify as male, or at least default to being viewed as male, is evident - Bubble *Man*, Mega *Man*. In which case a romantic relationship between them would make them gay.
A language which possessed a sufficient stock of words without intrinsic gender might translate their names as "Bubble Being" and "Mega Person", in which case their gender identity would be more difficult to discern.
Natsumi Sep 10th 2011 10:30AM
@Fox
What about Junk Man?
theavatarofblue Sep 9th 2011 8:19PM
Fox, what did you do to Tyler? D:
Andrew Sep 9th 2011 9:12PM
What hasn't he done to Tyler?
ionicOneirologist Sep 9th 2011 8:37PM
Whoa, Hyadain is one of the last things I expected to see here. Awesome! ♥ I just... had to comment on that alone, being the incredibly obsessed Megaman fangirl that I am. Megaman music is absolutely the best, forever, end of discussion. In fact, it is now incredibly tempting to go compile a soundtrack of all the Rockman music I own to listen to while I level alts. Because I mean seriously, even the NES music is amazing, and then you get to top it off with stuff like Electrical Communication and Code Crush! Before even touching epic remixes like Hyadain's work, Okkusenman, and Cataclysmic Crash! ;aldkfhklgdhlfkhjladkfgjdlk okay gonna stop squealing now.
Although you totally should have posted the Metal Man Hyadain remix. It's the most badass one. :D Bubble still gets a hug, though.
Anyway I just convinced a friend to get his butt back into Azeroth, and he just picked up Cata, so I'll probably be rolling Worgen with him. I'm going to make the most terrifying looking warlock I can manage. Whee!
Halvan Sep 9th 2011 10:27PM
Did someone say Megaman?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6L9bUouDr8
You can thank me later.
Touphemia Sep 9th 2011 10:35PM
Oh my god, I love Hyadain.
*fangirls*
Kurash Sep 9th 2011 11:26PM
I have to admit that a guilty pleasure of mine is listening to The Advantage, who play nothing but 8-bit Nintendo music as a rock band. Mega Man and Castlevania songs feature prominently and they're awesome!
VioletArrows Sep 9th 2011 11:42PM
My weekend will be spent playing a wide variety of new and old games trying to decide if it's my laptop simply falling behind the times or if it's actually dying. Being that it's a Dell, I'm till trying to figure out how it's out of warranty and yet still kicking at all.
Never been a big fan of Megaman. Closest I've come is I used to read Bob and George for a while before it dragged on and on and on... that and sometimes played Megaman Legends.
And seconding Harvest Festival only being acknowledged because it's right next to Brewfest.
Al Sep 10th 2011 1:19AM
Ah, Mega Man themes.
Back in 95, a few of us were at an all-ages concert. The openers started playing Shadow Man's theme as their sound-check, and I'm still undecided on the shame/nerd-chic level of being able to recognise it.
thinkuknowme Sep 10th 2011 1:41AM
Ah, unemployment. The reason I started WoW to begin with. I used up what little savings I had to save my sanity from long days of writing and re-writing my resume and just ... waiting ... for something to happen.
kmarcy1729 Sep 10th 2011 2:05AM
I was reading the in-game description of the Harvest Festival, and noticed that, this year at least, it coincides with 9/11. Is it Blizzard paying their respects? That's how I'm treating it this year.
Fletcher Sep 10th 2011 4:05AM
WoW's Harvest Festival is based on a RL festival - I believe it's Korean - that's tied IRL to the lunar calendar. So it shifts relative to the Gregorian calendar used in the West. It's coinciding with 9/11 is entirely coincidental.
For a more Western example of a movable feast day, consider Easter - which is defined as the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Northern hemisphere's vernal equinox (except in the Orthodox tradition, where they still use the Julian calendar for ecclesiastical matters and things are even more complicated).