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During my first stay in New Jersey late in April and throughout May a year ago, I attempted to list as many games, game systems, anime, and manga in each entry of this blog onto TextEdit for what I originally planned as my 15th-anniversary post. Turned out such a thing was somewhat more convoluted than it seemed prior. For one thing, often, you don't refer to one single game, but to multiple games in or even comprising a franchise (such as Pokemon, Mega Man, or Angry Birds). There are also references to fanfiction of existing works, but not directly to the source material itself. Referring to a character in a given work could be a reference to either that work alone or multiple games that he or she appeared in. Relevant paraphernalia could relate to a single game or anime (such as manuals, player's guides, or posters), or to multiple games (such as Angry Birds merchandise). And, not least of all, a reference doesn't even need to include the work's title, because a work of fiction is more than just the few words comprising that.

Just yesterday, I asked Brian what it is about that whole thing that fascinates me. Namely, when you refer to something that usually isn't relevant (but may have been at an earlier point) but has become such for a given moment. That, combined with the number of reference you make to something that is more actively relevant, as well as other things you refer to within a given time frame.

The example I used was during the aforementioned stay in New Jersey. Shortly before I came home from there, I had Mom mail me my Nintendo 64 so that I could play Getter Love!! (recurringly relevant since 2008) for my last week there. That was the same time period containing one or several reference each to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Fable III, Yoshi's Island DS, Super Princess Peach, Mario Party DS (all first-time references), Metal Slug 7 (still mostly irrelevant in general even after I bought it more than a year earlier), and Chip-chan Kick (mostly relevant during the summer of 2011, decreasingly so since then).

With anime, as an example, no particular time frame is likely necessary regarding anyone in my family. I pretty much doubt they will forget the days when I used to watch Pokemon and Digimon regularly. Combined with that or how much I talk about Lucky Star nowadays, even though no one else here is into anime much, I find it unique when they see me watching something from the library or Netflix in the living room, or when I show any of them any scene in particular from a given anime, or anything to that effect. (They don't even need to know a given show's actual title, because like I said, a work of fiction is more than just its title.)

(Really, though, the concept I was thinking of actually extends to all interactions I have with people, both physically and online, and it applies to stuff in general, not just games or anime. Things like years, numbers, states or countries, episodes of a TV show, characters in a given work, fanfics of a given franchise, scratch card brands, and just about anything else that can be categorized. Brian even named music playlists as an example.)

Brian summed the whole thing up nicely, stating that it's all a matter of introducing new information to communication, but only when it's actually relevant. Inversely to myself, he also mentioned having been somewhat familiar with the Fable and GTA franchises from having played some of their respective games himself with his friends, but is only superficially familiar with Getter Love!! because of me.

(He also did mention that GL sounds like a cool game, so even though he doesn't have nearly so much free time on his hands as I do, I think I'll play one round of that game to host on YouTube. Not just for him, but for anyone else interested, to give them an idea of how the game is played and how I in particular tend to do certain things in it.)