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Hellz yeah!
OMG that is so true. O_o I never thought of that with Kingdom Hearts, but it really is!
I think one of my favorite AUs of all time I read pretty early on in my fanfiction days. It was just so... different, but it was good too! I may've already told it to you once, though I'm not completely sure. It was an AU where, as I mentioned earlier, Kaiba wasn't raised by Gouzaburo. He was still quiet and cold, but he was willing to let other people into his heart than just Mokuba, because he hadn't been broken beforehand. He and Jounouchi were dating, but then the Big 5 assassinated Kaiba in order to take over Kaiba Corporation. They thought the corporation would automatically pass to the vice president, one of them, but it turned out Kaiba had left the company to Jounouchi in his will. So now the Big 5 had to get him out of the way, and Kaiba knew this in death. He ended up striking a deal with the Grim Reaper (because he's Kaiba dammit) to go on living so that he could make sure the Big 5 didn't finish their plan, but the only way he could do it was to manifest on Jounouchi's negative energy. Kaiba was all damaged still (he had been killed in an explosion), and he was kind of like a zombie and was weak, but the more miserable Jounouchi felt, the stronger he became. Because of this, he couldn't tell Jounouchi he was still alive, because then the other would be so happy Kaiba wouldn't be able to sustain himself and return to death. It was pretty interesting, and relatively creative for an AU fanfiction.
Haha, when you talk about your adventure gaming I just can't help but think that you'd enjoy Zelda. XD There are so many big fields and woods and stuff to explore, and though enemies will chase you a bit, it's usually easy to just outrun and ignore them. And you find things by moving stone blocks and pressing buttons and rolling into trees and using certain items in certain spots. You get rewarded for being nosy and prodding. Yes, you'll still have to kill enemies in dungeons and stuff, and interact with townspeople occasionally, but the biggest part of Zelda for me has always been the sense of lone exploration.
Weeaboo: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/weeaboo
Yeah, it's good to have at least *some* interests in common with your significant other so you can, you know, do things together, but you don't have to do everything together, and it's perfectly acceptable for both of you to have your own hobbies that you do alone. I need alone time too.

Wah! gonk
How sad. XD Stupid Kingdom Hearts.
Ah, I see. Well, regardless of if it's your type or not, at least it is good in its own category. =D I should try to find that fic again, as it never finished back when I was reading it. Maybe it did end up finishing without my knowledge, like Inescapable You.
Haha, actually just last night my friend was showing me this game that was pretty much a complete and utter ripoff of the old Zelda games for PS3. It's called 3D Dot Game Heroes and OMG it was so... Zelda-ey, it was painful to watch... Like it looked fun to play, and the game claims to be an homage, but to me, an homage is something that pays a bit of tribute to a game, not something that *completely* rips off every little gameplay feature and cookie from old Zelda games! It pretty much was the same as playing a 2D Zelda game, except it was 3D, uglier-looking, and your sword was bigger. But at the same time I want to play it! XD I don't know how I feel about it.
Yes, people who feel the need to change such trivial things about their partners are probably just overly-controlling and insecure about themselves.

I feel about Mpreg pretty much like you do with Mary Sue; almost always a no-no, but I will allow exceptions where I can excuse or ignore it as long as the rest of the fic is really good and doesn't revolve around the pregnancy. Pretty much feel the same with Mary Sues.
For the reasons you listed, I can allow unoriginality to an extent. Like I definitely see the similarities between Crash and Mario, but I don't see Crash as a ripoff of Mario. But 3D Dot Heroes is like... almost a carbon copy of Zelda. It has the same type of overworld exploration, the same 'conquer this many dungeons and get a new weapon from each one,' the same types of dungeon puzzles (moving blocks, finding keys, etc.), the same weapons (bombs, boomerang, bow and arrow, sword), the same types of enemies (marching creatures with spears who charge at you, giant jumping water spiders, spiked traps that slide across the floor at you), the same evil chickens that attack you if you attack them too much, the same hidden fairy fountains that heal you if you find them... and this was just what I saw for the little bit of time I watched a friend play. This wasn't just unoriginality. It was like plagiarizing an essay and then just changing a few words here and there so it wasn't exactly the same.
And the reason they call it The Legend of Zelda is because saving Zelda is essential to saving the entire land they live in. Zelda's royalty has connections to the spirits and the sages, and in a lot of the games is actually the character to end up sealing the evil away. Also, though 'Link' is his official name, in each game you're allowed to rename the hero, because he represents whoever you want him to be. All princesses of the royal family are named Zelda, so she is constantly reborn for new games, but 'Link' is simply an ever-changing hero that comes to be for the sake of saving her. The game isn't about you becoming a hero, but Zelda needing to be saved so that the entire land can be saved as well. The 'legend' is about all of the different Zeldas throughout history. It's confusing for people who don't know which character is which, but very important for the people who do play the games. XD I couldn't imagine them being named after anyone but the princess.
That's so sad. XP Yeah, I'd rather be alone than do that.

Hahaha, wow, that really is avoidant of mpreg. I don't think there's anything that could immediately turn me from a story like that... I mean, even if it's something I'm completely and utterly against, as long as it's just mentioned and not significant, I can deal with it.
Considering about half of my friends and myself are all beginning to get involved in contributing to game development, I find it just as unjust as stealing art or writing or movie concepts/whatever for your own, maybe even more so, considering how many different elements are put into a game, which means you're making money off the hard work of tons of other people. If someone else put more effort into your game concept than you did without actually working on it, and you're making all of the money, that just morally goes against my sense of justice. It doesn't matter how convenient it is or how good the newer game is; to me it's still the same as taking the easy way out on any other type of art form.
I definitely see titles more as something that opens a door for the game/whatever for you. Like it gives you just a little peak at the theme or concept, and gets you questioning how that title is added onto by other elements. Titles in and of themselves seem like an art form to me. They're meant to attract me to the game, so sparking my curiosity on what the title's significance is is way more interesting to me than the title just telling me what the game is throughout. If I've gotten to a point where I'm playing a game, chances are I already know what you do in the game through reviews/talk/whatever. I don't need the title to tell me the obvious.
And I don't think there's anything offensive about how you view games. Games are games to you, and that's fine. Who cares? As for the Zelda titles, all but the very first game have secondary titles after "The Legend of Zelda." The Legend of Zelda is the first game, then another one is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages, etc. etc. It's so we can tell the games apart. XD I mean I've always found it a pain to distinguish between so many titles with just numbers... like Final Fantasy I, II, III, IV... and it just goes on and on. I get them mixed up. XP

Well, as an avid gamer who has played every Legend of Zelda game, has watched a bit of the Pixel Dot game, and had played tons of other games, I can easily assure you that this was far more of a carbon copy than just unoriginality. Like I can't even think of any other games besides these that seemed like complete carbon copies, except for things like Guitar Hero/Rock Band/DDR. You know, the ones that if you make your own version you can't really change much besides the music.
I mean, I could just link to Zelda and Dot Heroes Youtube playthroughs, but those just don't really do the similarities justice. Dot heroes takes so many Zelda elements from so many 2D Zelda games that you just don't get the full depth of the comparison by watching a couple levels of each. Dot Heroes retains the overall style of the first Zelda game (going from square to square with randomly appearing monsters; very simple, little dialogue, lots of hidden caves, mostly only puzzles in the dungeons), but it takes so much from so many other Zelda games. Like if you watched the first Zelda game and Dot Heroes go through a field together, you might say, "Oh, well Dot Heroes fought monster bees that you have to wait to swoop down to kill, while Zelda fought little guys shooting rocks." but the bees (as well as crows) that you have to fight in that style are in the later Zelda games, and there's just so much of that going on throughout the game, you only notice how much it takes when you've played through all or most of the Zelda games. Honestly the only original things I saw in that game that weren't from Zelda were: You were able to design your own character, the enemies turned into pixels when you killed them, and your sword could get so big when you were at full health it took up half the screen (instead of shooting magic beams). That was it.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I get that it's far more difficult to be original when it comes to gaming. It's a newer form of entertainment. It's still young, and there's a lot more at risk with game development, with how long it takes to make and how expensive games are. And I'm fine with homages too. They're fun and exciting when you notice a reference to a game you love. But that's all different than just... taking everything from a game series and remaking it into your own title. I'm not saying Dot Heroes is a bad game; I really wanted to play, actually. But come on, the line needs to be drawn somewhere on how much of an homage you're making and coming up with your own material! Like Okami is the perfect example. That game was *very* Zelda-like, and has been compared to Zelda a number of times. But it had its own art style, its own plot, its own battle style, its own way of learning new techniques, its own types of sidequests... the list goes on. It was only similar to Zelda in structure, where you have an open world you travel in order to make it to a number of dungeons that you beat to collect stuff that lets you get to the final boss. It payed a couple homages, like Amaterasu holding up items similarly to Link when she would receive them, but everything else was its own and original. You fought by painting ink on things, for the love of...
Ah, but sorry, I'm ranting so much and you're not even that into video games. XD;; Haha, I'll shut up about this issue now at least.

Bah, once again I failed at making important things clear. XP I was explaining the reason the games were named Zelda, but really... that whole 'Zelda is your reason for fighting' thing kind of died down by the third game. It's only the really old ones that sported that mentality a lot. Like it's still about you saving Zelda in order to save the kingdom, and her connection to the spirits and the past, but the later games also throw your hero into all of that. Your character ends up being the legendary wielder of the Master Sword, he is blessed by the Goddesses and able to do things like travel through time and go to alternate worlds because of his connection with the spirits. And by the first 3D Zelda game, you find out that there is actually a constant revival of an old triangle of characters: You, Zelda, and the villain, Ganon. The holy symbol of the goddesses, the Triforce, has three pieces that represent courage, wisdom, and power, and if you have one of those pieces, you gain immensely from it. You find out that your character is the true holder of the courage piece, and Zelda is of the wisdom piece. Ganon takes the power piece, and that ends up eternally connecting him to Link and Zelda. So even though Zelda is necessary for sealing away the evil, which is why you must save her, Link also becomes necessary; he is the only one who can wield the Master Sword, which is the only blade that can take down Ganon. You need Zelda to seal him away, but you need your hero to defeat him in order to make that possible.

Haha, silly Final Fantasy and its many numbers. Then they have all the confusion with the spinoff games, like Crystal Chronicles, X2, Tactics... and they all have their own numbers and sequels. XP

True that. XD
Those pixel enemies were quite um... pixelly.
Yeah, it's sad how broken a lot of of video game's marketing is to begin with. D: It's starting to get better and more accessible with the increased number of handheld systems, as well as downloadable games on the Wii and PS3.
X2 is the direct sequel to Final Fantasy X, and um... well it's about the female characters, and is pretty much like Charlie's Angels in video game form. XD

I saw it once when I was in like third grade. All I remember is a Chinese fighting muffin.