@BboyStatix: Yeah that makes sense. Thanks for the clarification. I was limiting my definition of desires too much. The only problem I can see now is how do we know what that manual is, and what is God trying to say to us. Yes, there is the Bible, but I usually find that to be too full of contradictions and ultimately confusing, but I admit I don't really read it much to begin with. The other thing I can think of is everyday coincidences, like God is trying to give me a subtle message, for example meeting this person I haven't seen in a while isn't just a coincidence.

A continuation of my previous philosophizing. If it's true that God wants to give us the gift of a challenge, knowing full well many will fail and suffer, it's time to consider that maybe God himself isn't all that nice of a guy. If he hasn't done anything to minimize the suffering, he must find it, at the very least, interesting to observe our flaws and failures. Not saying God is sadistic and wants everyone to suffer all the time, but it would make sense he at least sees some evil as good, and prevents this world from being completely boring. So that means God would be like us in a way, who has his own dark side as well as good side. If this is all true, then is a God like this worth submitting ones will to? A God who sees some evil in the world as a necessary balance to the good. Well, that is something more personal, but I'm sure people's answers will vary depending on how much pain they have endured in life, as well as how much resistance they have, both mentally and physically.

A religion where you don't give up your desires? What do you mean by that? First let me say I am by no means disagreeing or attacking you, I agree people should live honest to good lives trying to do good and help each other out, but it's almost impossible to give up our human desires such as sex, food, and other things that bring us pleasure. It's biologically ingrained in our bodies to keep doing something that makes us release dopamine, so to me it doesn't seem morally right for a God to give us these bodies and expect us to just give everything up, and then suffer consequences for not doing so. How come God doesn't just keep us in heaven with him to stop us from coming into contact with all these "desires". The only thing I can think of is to give us a challenge, something to overcome and be proud of, like people who lost weight they gained from eating too much. Is that what you mean?

The problem with that challenge though, is not many people succeed, and it leads to lots of suffering, such as war, rape, torture, and the large gap between the rich and poor. I see what you are saying though. I mean, if people like dictators and selfish kings submitted their wills to god to do good, the world would be a much happier place, for sure. But, wouldn't a god see all this coming, and decide it's not best to let people act upon their desires. I guess it's just a matter of free will then. God wanted to give us a choice. What Im trying to say is in an ideal world, people would give up their desires to make the world a better place. But this isn't an ideal world, this is a world full of hate and selfishness, so why would God just make it like this and expect it to be something entirely different?

Been watching Fate/Zero on netflix and it's an extremely well rounded anime. Great mix of epic action and interesting philosophy on such topics as what makes a king truly noble. I'd say its lacking in character development, but I have yet to finish it so that may change. First episode contains some arguably boring exposition, but after that it really picks up. Another big issue with the show is some vague moments in the plot and background information, and considering it is an adaptation to a visual novel, it probably doesn't explain everything as well as the source. But still a fun watch. 7/10 so far imo.

Probably Taro Yoko. Genius at storytelling and delving into the questions of "what makes us sad?" and "why do people kill?".

in retrospect, haven't there always been games trying to convey a story. Just look at oregon trail, a game that blends choice making into the gameplay, so the story is pretty much the game itself. Although oregon trail is a simulation game, so I guess it's not really a story to begin with. Other story driven older games I've seen are phantasy star, longest journey, baulders gate, planescape torment, various other rpgs and point and click adventure games. The things is, I havent played many of these older games, so whether or not their narratives are actually high quality is still arbitrary for me, but most reviews have praised this aspect of the games. So the way I see it, games have always attempted to expend gameplay for narrative, just in various ways as time moves on.

To me, the story was always the whole thing, which is made up of parts. The parts being the plot, setting, characters, themes, ect. At least that's how I learned it in literature. Maybe it's different in videogames, but I dont think the definition of a story and plot should change with the medium they are in.

As far as racing anime, Redline seems to be the only thing you really need to satisfy. Everything else just seems too outdated

The mature and intelligent kind i.e. Monster, ergo proxy, mushishi, berserk, casshern sins, welcome to the nhk fullmetal alchemist (to me the comedy is used as comic relief, so it's not immature).

okay, I know thats not really a genre. In that case I would have to go with sci fi. So many hidden gem sci fi anime I cant wait to watch.

Sci Fi all the way. But I prefer the more cerebral/arthouse-ish kind. Blade Runner is a more blockbuster favorite, but lesser known favorites are Solaris (Original Russian), and Under the Skin. Cant wait to see Space Odyssey.

I do also like some action oriented ones like Total Recall (Original), and Terminator. Also, the new ex machina looks awesome, I'm hyped to see it.