Is this board dead?

A lot of the questions have already been answered. I was notorious a few years back in another import scene of just providing news and translating news, but jetting once the game was released and all the questions came. Things are still the same with this board.

I helped out with the FAQ when PYS4 was released and I helped out with initial questions, but my motivation died once all the same questions started being asked. I'm not a robot. I want to do other things in my life. Luckily, a lot of those question askers(who came because PS3 is region free) got the hint and either searched the board or figured things out on their own. I didn't know any Japanese when I first started playing import games, so I don't really have much sympathy for guys who complain about not knowing Japanese.

And yes, the traffic on the board is dead. I think it's because of crappy games. Activity will pick up big time once Powerful Major League releases in Japan and the US.

PYS4's been out for a while, and the pawapuros have been a disappointment (or was it already expected even before it was released).

So I haven't touched any baseball games for a while.

So unless something new and good comes out, there just aint much to talk about.

I've actually been playing YakyuTsuku a lot lately. Sega just released YakyuTsuku Online, but I have no idea what it's like. Looks like updated graphics and cut scenes. It's a perfect game for guys like me who yell at the managers when they make stupid bullpen choices. Check out my current line-up.

1. Akiyama OF(Fictional)
Bought him as a FA from Nippon Ham. Broke the single season hits record. Challenges for the batting title every year. 20-30 homer power. One time MVP.

2. Atsuya Furuta C
Drafted him out of college. Approaching mid-30s. Is arguably the best overall catcher in Japan. Gets a gold glove every year and is impossible to steal on.

3. Yasuaki Taihoh 1B
Drafted as a 26 year old. Rookie season. I like to platoon him with a Venezuelan academy recruit against righty starters. Seems to K a lot and not put the ball in play against lefties. Looks to have 30 homer power already, but lacks stamina to play everyday.

4. Shigeo Nagashima 3B
Having an MVP season after doing lots of platooning and showing only 20 homer power for a while. Ridiculously good in the clutch and with guys in scoring position.

5. Ohtake OF (Fictional)
Stole him from Chiba via FA. 30-40 HR power. One time MVP.

6. Miyata OF (Fictional)
Top level power coming straight out of HS. Hit over 40 homers in his MVP season as a 23 year old. Probably peaked already.

7. Masahiro Araki 2B
Crappy stats as a youngster. Saw limited time, but was finally forced to start after I made a 37 year old Junichi Fukura retire. Started off weak, but is finally hitting and defending like real life. Yet to see stolen bases.

8. Venezuelan recruit SS
24 years old. Great arm, great range. He bobbles balls from time to time, so he's a lot like Yuniesky Betancourt. Weak bat like Betancourt, too. Probably going to replace him next year.

9. Pitcher(voted to eliminate DH from Pacific League)

The funny thing about this game is that there is a huge difference between managing yourself and letting the game sim everything. If I sim it all, the bullpen will have ERAs in the 3s and 4s. The way I manage the bullpen, most of my guys have ERAs in the 2s. Kaz Sasaki is my closer and he has an ERA of 1.50 despite walking a lot of guys(still young). My bullpen also has Toyoda, Ushijima, KobaMasa, Okajima, Mori, and some fictional pitchers.

I highly recommend Japanese readers to pick it up.

Hey BigManZam,

Did you teach yourself Japanese? If so, do you have some suggestions for books, websites, etc. that might help a beginner to learn some basic Japanese?

Hey Les. Always glad to help people on issues like this.

I was born in Tokyo and was fully bilingual as a young child. When my family moved to the states, I forgot all of my Japanese. I couldn't communicate with my Japanese family when we'd go back to visit, couldn't read, etc.

I basically had nothing to do with Japan at all until I was around 16 and got into Japanese pro wrestling(of all things). That turned me onto Japanese pro wrestling games, which turned me onto Japanese games, which turned me onto Japanese soccer, which turned me onto Japanese baseball, and it was just a domino effect.

I learned how to read katakana first by playing pro wrestling games. A lot of the moves are English katakana(bodi-suramu, pawa-bomu), so I basically taught myself through constant play. Learning hiragana wasn't far away from that, but I learned that through yakyu and yakyu games. Yakyu also helped me learn basic kanji, which would later become more complex and help me type in Japanese.

I listened to a lot of Japanese rock music. I always had good pronunciation, since I was bilingual before, but listening to Japanese music and watching Japanese TV through torrent downloads helped me even more. I also recommend you to go to Japanese websites once you learn how to read basic Japanese. It'll help your slang and sentence structure.

I don't remember what I read when I first learned the very basics of Japanese sentence structure and grammar. Any introductory Japanese grammar book should do you well. I'm sure there are a ton of sites out there, too. Just Google. With the amount of Japanophiles in the current teenage generation, I bet the number of sites has multiplied many times over.

Keep in mind that I am NOT a good example of how the average person should go about learning Japanese. I taught myself musical instruments in the past and have always been able to learn like this. My family, both American and Japanese(especially), are very confused as to how I learned.

My #1 piece of advice is to immerse yourself. If you can't move over there, make some Japanese friends and surround yourself with the sounds of pronunciation and the visuals of the texts. People who tell you it's too difficult or it's too late to learn such a language are fools. I had an uncle who told me it was too late for me to relearn Japanese, and he looks like a complete idiot now. Good luck to you.

Thanks BigManZam!

Immersion is very important indeed. Watching English/American shows, movies and music sure helped me get to grips with the language. Good idea of the Japanese music and TV downloads, I'll sure do that.

I've ordered some books online (introduction to Japanese, kanji teaching method and a dictionary) so I hope to start soon. Don't have that much time on my hands anymore with a job and all but all those great Japanese-only games, movies, books, etc. sure are a great incentive to keep trying!