Line #19 WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d7ccf0849f7ab580737062cd7a31c118.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350: Some people say they have difficulty telling whether I recommend a game or not. I know, what morons! ]]
3	->''"Releasing videos on [=YouTube=] is kind of like throwing messages in bottles out into a churning sea made up entirely of messages in bottles: the chance of your message getting noticed and someone being sent out to rescue you is punishingly slim. But every once in a blue moon, someone who owns a big boat made of money finds your message and agrees to let you ride on his big boat made of money if you keep making messages for him. Then the two of you go on adventures with a smart-mouthed talking dog and travel to the land of the gumdrop king and I've sort of forgotten where I was going with this."''
4	-->-- '''Yahtzee''' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOBTN67K0Zw announces]] ''Zero Punctuation''
5
6	The series that created the [[https://youtu.be/P0dXtOVi2yo?t=58 PC Master Race]] meme.
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8	[[Creator/BenCroshaw Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw]], critic and amateur game developer, decided one day to conduct an experiment. He was faced with a demo of ''VideoGame/TheDarkness'' he wished to review for his website and wanted to try something new, so he took Photoshop, Windows Movie Maker, a headset mic, and his sense of humour, and turned them into a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWS9_nrKOPA YouTube video]]. He then [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYQLR7dE5k4 turned]] to ''[[VideoGame/FableI Fable: The Lost Chapters]]''.
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10	Less than a month later, he was hired by Website/TheEscapist, an online magazine with a big boat made of money (see the page quote), to release one of these video reviews a week. And so began ''[[https://www.escapistmagazine.com/category/zero-punctuation/ Zero Punctuation]]''. The combination of [[AccentuateTheNegative caustic]] [[BlackComedy humour]] (admittedly with occasional dashes of [[CompassionateCritic compassion]]), [[MotorMouth rapid-fire delivery]], and [[VisualPun visual gags]] made the show an instant success.
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12	Yahtzee. Also. Had. A. Follow-up. Column. Called. [[https://www.escapistmagazine.com/category/extra-punctuation/ "Extra Punctuation."]] In. Order. To. Explain. His. Views. And. Opinions. On. The. Game. Of. The. Week. In. Greater. Detail. [[OverlyLongGag And. Bring. Up. Points. He. Could. Not. Turn. Into. Jokes.]] The column was dormant for while, with the written version having been discontinued since 2017, but was eventually resurrected in October 2021 in the form of a video series, where his signature fast speech is toned down to a normal pace, [[DontExplainTheJoke with clearer punctuation]].
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14	In February 2011, he also started a column called [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/extraconsideration "Extra Consideration"]] with Bob "[[Creator/BobChipman Moviebob]]" Chipman and James Portnow of ''WebAnimation/ExtraCredits'' (though Portnow was replaced by Jim Sterling of ''The WebVideo/{{Jimquisition}}'' and Destructoid fame after he left the Escapist). The column sadly petered out by early September, but its entire run can still be found [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/profiles/articles/Extra%20Consideration here.]] However, in April 2013, Yahtzee and Jim started up again with the segment ''[[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jim-yahtzees-rhymedown-spectacular Jim & Yahtzee's Rhymedown Spectacular]]'' where they recite slam poetry about the game topic at hand.
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16	In 2015, The Escapist released an official casual game based on the series, ''{{Videogame/Hatfall}}'', which combines quick-fire gameplay with Yahtzee's usual brand of humor. It can be played [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/141474-Play-Zero-Punctuations-Hatfall-Now-Live here.]]
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18	Previews of the next video were shown on ''Series/XPlay'' for a brief period in 2008.
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20	Since the beginning of 2017, Yahtzee has started streaming games after each ''ZP'' episode (usually the game he reviewed that day), and the Escapist [=YouTube=] channel also has several streams of him and his girlfriend playing games. Since 2019, he has teamed up with Jack Packard of WebVideo/RedLetterMedia fame for LetsPlay videos and debates.
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22	On the 7th of November of 2023, Yahtzee formally announced his resignation from Escapist Magazine alongside a slew of other Escapist video creators, who collectively reorganized under Creator/SecondWind. As The Escapist still owns the rights to Zero and Extra Punctuation, Yahtzee's videos continue in the form of ''WebAnimation/FullyRamblomatic'', the original pre-Escapist name of the series, and ''Semi Ramblomatic'', respectively.
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24	Don't confuse with the trope NoPunctuationPeriod, although the show ''is'' named for the fact that he speaks quickly enough to embody that trope.
25	----
26	!!Tropes which ''Zero Punctuation'' provides an example of:
27	[[index]]
28	* ZeroPunctuation/TropesAToD
29	* ZeroPunctuation/TropesEToH
30	* ZeroPunctuation/TropesIToL
31	* ZeroPunctuation/TropesMToP
32	* ZeroPunctuation/TropesQToT
33	* ZeroPunctuation/TropesUToZ
34	[[/index]]
35
36	!!Tropes {{discussed\| trope}} in ''Zero Punctuation'' includes:
37	* OneHundredPercentCompletion: Yahtzee has dismissed the concept before as being for 'unemployed psychotics and Koreans', but nevertheless recognises the accompanying existence of the 'obsessive instinct' that would drive certain people to dedicate time and even money to scratch the itch that the feeling of 'completeness' brings. He cites ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld2YoshisIsland'''s introduction of [[PickupHierarchy tracked level collectibles]] as the origin of what would later become the modern video game industry's exploitation of this instinct via live service games and loot boxes.
38	* AesopAmnesia: His ''Guide to Special Moments in Gaming History'', which is even lampshaded by the opening jingle: "Let's all laugh/at an industry/that never learns anything/tee-hee-hee!" Each video under this subseries includes a section labelled "The Lessons Nobody Learned".
39	* CosmicHorrorStory: Yahtzee is a fan of the genre and has incorporated various themes from it into a lot of his own works, such as the ''Chzo Mythos'', ''Literature/DifferentlyMorphous'' and ''VideoGame/TheConsumingShadow''. That said, in his review of ''VideoGame/TheSinkingCity'', he states that he believes cosmic horror requires a different approach to work in the modern day, as the core philosophy of the genre - [[LookOnMyWorksYeMightyAndDespair mankind's ultimate futility and pointlessness]] [[HumansAreInsects in the face of a vast, uncaring universe]] - isn't as effective when the audience can get the same essential experience just from glancing at their web browsers or social media pages.
40	* DiscreditedMeme: [[invoked]] By the time of his ''VideoGame/KingdomComeDeliverance'' review, Yahtzee had come to regret the PC Master Race meme that he had started. While he still views PC gaming as the superior option, he's grown incredibly disgusted by the [[StopHavingFunGuys gatekeeping]] and [[ItsAllAboutMe elitism]] from certain circles of the PC gaming community. Of course, the entire point of the meme to begin with was to mock the elitists among the PC gaming communities.
41	-->'''Yahtzee:''' [[PrecisionFStrike Fuck you]], toffee-nosed PC Master Race shitheads! I wish I'd named you something else now, like the "PC Gaming Dickslurp-All-Stars"!
42	* EvilVsEvil: Yahtzee notes that most post-apocalyptic games have "[[OrderVersusChaos Nutters vs. Fascists]]" as the factions.
43	* FetishRetardant: [[invoked]] Yahtzee describes Bayonetta's hyper stylistic design as such, most notably her long legs and that if he were to have sex with her he'd need a step ladder.
44	* FranchiseOriginalSin:
45	** [[invoked]] Brings this up with the ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' games in his article "What is the Matter with You People?" Aside from bringing up the reason for the above question, Yahtzee brings up that when one of the player characters was [[KilledOffForReal killed]] in a nuclear blast in ''VideoGame/{{Call of Duty 4\|ModernWarfare}}'', it was a well done shock. In almost every moment like that, the character will survive or somebody will rescue them, so it's especially gripping with the character's struggle to move before finally dying. In Yahtzee's opinion, the next games in the series missed what made that a powerful moment and started killing characters left and right, causing the deaths to lose impact. The infamous "No Russian" level from ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare2 Modern Warfare 2]]'' - while it served the story at the time - came off as a cheap attempt to shock the players just for the sake of shocking them. By the same token, the family killed by a suicide bomber in ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare3 Modern Warfare 3]]'' failed to shock in any sense, because it was expected by that point.
46	** [[invoked]] While not to the same extent, Yahtzee discusses a game mechanics-related example in his review of ''VideoGame/{{Soma}}''. In said review, Yahtzee notes how ''Soma'' still uses the stealth-focused SurvivalHorror gameplay that discourages the player from looking at the monsters hunting after them that was used in ''VideoGame/AmnesiaTheDarkDescent'', the SpiritualPredecessor to ''Soma''. However, he then muses that this worked well in ''Amnesia'' because of the tight, claustrophobic passageways and the panicky atmosphere from the SurvivalHorror story distracting the player from the inherent paradox involved, but it doesn't work nearly as well in ''Soma''. This is because not only is ''Soma'' more of a philosophy-focused game rather than the horror-focused game that ''Amnesia'' was (and so the player will feel less stressed out and more able to ruminate on [[FridgeLogic how unreasonable it is]] to motivate the player to avoid monsters ''and'' discourage the player from being able to tell where said monsters are), but the more open and less claustrophobic level design in ''Soma'' makes it easier for the monsters to unexpectedly find the player, only further compounding the effect.
47	* GrandfatherClause: He's not a fan of games using outdated video game conventions for no better reason than tradition, such as the "lives" systems that persist in ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' titles or even in modern titles such as ''VideoGame/IAmAlive''.
48	* HomeAndGarden: In the episode about ''VideoGame/MetalHellsinger'', Yahtzee criticizes the lack of creativity found in the FireAndBrimstoneHell levels. He compares the experience of playing through them as [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment if being trapped]] in an episode of Creator/{{BBC}}'s ''Series/GardenersWorld''.
49	* {{Irony}}: A personal BerserkButton for Yahtzee is games which do something shitty, only to [[LampshadeHanging roll their eyes]] and state they're doing it "ironically", as if that somehow constitutes a joke. He based an entire cult of loony assholes around this concept in ''Literature/{{Jam}}'' and chewed ''VideoGame/MyFriendPedro'' out for doing it while smacking it with a rolled up newspaper.
50	-->It also does the thing where it goes "[[SarcasmMode Oh look a sewer level, how original]], [[ReadingTheStageDirectionsOutLoud roll eyes]]", and then [[IndecisiveParody proceeds to unironically have a sewer level]], that goes on way too fucking long. ''<starts smacking the game> [[PunctuatedPounding If ya know it's bad, why are ya doing it?!]]''
51	* LastSecondEndingChoice: He calls it the Endingtron 3000, and is absolutely not fond of this trope.
52	-->There's no payoff at all, no glimpse of the world our choice created or what became of the characters, no word on whether your techy support guy ever managed to dislodge that tree branch from up his bum.
53	* MoodDissonance: He dedicated [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Epr6tjvsivk an entire Extra Punctuation episode]] to this, noting how ''VideoGame/SonicFrontiers'' in particular, setting itself in environments that look like ''VideoGame/DeathStranding'', inherently damages its tone by then making you play through them as Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog, "a blue cartoon mouse in sneakers with eyes the size of hubcaps".
54	* MoralMyopia: Not a fan of this trope unless the others who are doing it are taking it to ridiculous levels or are just not on your team.
55	-->Oh, so when they're knocking over [=ATMs=], it's stealing, but when we do it, it's wealth redistribution, am I right?
56	* NightmareRetardant: InUniverse, Yahtzee says that not being scary is the worst flaw a horror game can suffer from, especially if it resorts to NauseaFuel instead.
57	* PapaWolf: Discussed in ''The Evil Within 2'' review which he calls games that revolve around a man saving his child or child surrogate "Yummy Hairy Dad Games" which he says are a swapped version of "rescue the princess" fantasy and are instead catering to the unrealistic fantasy of dads actually being responsible.
58	* PlayerPunch: [[invoked]] ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine''. [[TraumaCongaLine Pretty much all of it.]] To wit...
59	-->''Spec Ops: The Line'' is one of those pleasant surprises that comes along every now and again, a video game story that really got to me, giving me genuine feelings of weariness, guilt, and actual physical sickness. [[SarcasmMode Fun, fun, fun!]]
60	* RiseAndFallGangsterArc: He discussed the ubiquity of this trope in his ''VideoGame/MafiaII'' review:
61	-->I was able to accurately predict the entire story of ''Mafia II'' using only the fact that it's this game about TheMafia. The main character, I foretold with the game's box to my forehead, will start the game licking the mildew off his landlady's crystallized vagina to make rent and will be lured into organized crime by the money, the clothes, the pretty cars, the fast whores, ''etc.'', but after a brief heyday will be ordered to kill a friend, or a friend will be ordered to kill them, and they'll realize that '''CRIME DOES NOT PAY''' (except for all the money, and the clothes, and the pretty cars, and the fast whores ''etc.''). I have never seen a Mafia story where a bloke joins the Mafia and then everything is lovely forever. Why does society insist on demonising organized crime?
62	* SoBadItWasBetter: [[invoked]] Alluded to in his review of ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2023'' where he compares the remade game to the original ''[[VideoGame/DeadSpace Dead Space]]''; Yahtzee notes that while the improved effort being given to the writing and voice acting for ''Dead Space (2023)'' made the characters [[AdaptationalNiceGuy all feel less like pricks]], it also made the characters a fair bit less interesting. Or, to quote Yahtzee himself, "Sensible is nice, but prick is what gets attention!"
63	* SoOkayItsAverage: [[invoked]] In some of the videos, he claims that bland and paint-by-numbers games are in some ways worse than bad games. One of the reasons in this opinion is that there is much less to learn from bland games than from games that fail in interesting ways.
64	* TrueArtIsAngsty: [[invoked]] Zig-zagged. On the one hand, he praised depressing [[EmotionalTorque emotionally gutting]] games like ''VideoGame/SilentHill2'' and ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'', but on the other hand, one of his ''Extra Punctuation'' columns bemoaned the popular trend towards making existing franchises DarkerAndEdgier (after reviewing ''VideoGame/TwistedMetal'' and finding its inconsistent tone rather perplexing), and discovering to his surprise that he found the increasing emphasis on {{Gorn}} in video games a little disquieting with his advancing years. He has also given high praise to games with a notable lightness of tone, such as ''{{VideoGame/Psychonauts}}'' and ''VideoGame/DriverSanFrancisco''. To be more concise: it's not so much the gorn that he hates, but rather when the gorn is utterly tasteless (''VideoGame/TombRaider2013''), or when it's utterly repetitive (''VideoGame/{{Splatterhouse}}''). He also gave high praise to ''{{VideoGame/Undertale}}'' for averting this, being dramatic and genuinely funny in equal measure without either coming across as feeling forced, and using ThePowerOfFriendship in a way that actually worked. Notably averted by him giving ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUsPartII'', a lot of other publication's game of the year, his worst game of 2020 award because he saw the dark elements as nothing more than emotionally exploitational in service of a poor story.
65	* UnexpectedGameplayChange:[[invoked]] Yahtzee isn't fundamentally averse to games juggling multiple gameplay elements at once, but he does consider it a problem if they don't jive well in theme and pacing, instead turning into [[{{Padding}} bloated admin]]. "Jiminy Cockthroat" games that fuse [[WideOpenSandbox open world sandboxes]] with a menagerie of action, stealth, collect-a-thons, and crafting particularly get on his nerves for being radically unfocused, but this can also manifest in milder ways -- he's given flack towards ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard'' and ''VideoGame/DeathStranding'' for having gameplay loops based around [[SurvivalHorror survival]] and exploration, then periodically break the flow for {{Boss Battle}}s built around combat, which he sees as out-of-place considering the context.
66	* VindicatedByHistory: [[invoked]]
67	** In his review of ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonor Warfighter'' and ''[[{{VideoGame/Doom}} Doom 3]]'', Yahtzee described how for everything ''Doom 3'' got wrong, it still was a game that stands head and shoulders above realistic modern shooters.
68	** His Extra Punctuation follow-up to ''VideoGame/FarCry3'' has him saying the same thing about ''{{VideoGame/Bulletstorm}}'' and ''{{VideoGame/Wolfenstein 2009}}''. ''VideoGame/SonicColors'' was similarly slammed harshly the first two times Yahtzee mentioned it, but every other time it's been brought up he's been much more favorable to it, comparing it to ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' as the game in the franchise that got away from all the things that was dragging it down.
69	** He was originally rather harsh to ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsII'', arguing that its narrative was inconsistent and its gameplay boring and unfulfilling. Fast-forward to 2013, and Yahtzee's already saying that it was a much more self-aware and interesting game than its [[VideoGame/CallOfDutyGhosts successor]].
70	** Yahtzee compares ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'' unfavourably to [[ThoseWackyNazis Joseph Goebbels' head]] pasted onto a praying mantis in his ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'' review, but he later says he enjoyed it a lot more than ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' in his "XBLA Double Bill" review.
71	** Also tends to happen whenever he includes a game he wasn't too positive about in his end-of-year Top 5, as was what happened with ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance''.
72	** Yahtzee mentioned during his ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' that despite the game being lambasted at the time for its celshaded graphics, it actually allowed its graphics to age very well over time, to the point of making it difficult for the HD re-release he was reviewing to substantially [[ArtEvolution "improve"]] it.
73	** He had a condensed take on this for his review of ''[[VideoGame/Persona4 Persona 4: Golden]]'', which he was inspired into playing after suddenly falling in love with ''VideoGame/Persona5'', though his opinion at the time was that it was substantially less than what ''[[EvenBetterSequel 5]][[invoked]]'' was in his eyes. Several months later during his dual "VideoGame/{{Bugsnax}} & [[VideoGame/MeatBoy Super Meat Boy Forever]]" review, he mentioned he got to replaying ''4'' in his off-time and found he liked it much more after getting more used to it, even if he still prefers ''5''.
74	* WorldOfSymbolism: He dislikes this trope, especially if it's used as a crutch in lieu of making a narrative that can be taken at face value, if his review of ''VideoGame/SeaOfSolitude'' is any indication:
75	-->What I dislike about games like this and ''VideoGame/{{Gris}}'' is that they're trying to affect the appearance of meaningfulness without actually having any depth. If you look at, say, ''Literature/MobyDick'', it can be [[{{Applicability}} interpreted as a metaphor for a lot of things]][[invoked]] - man vs. nature, order vs. chaos, the struggle to clean semen out of the bathroom rug before your mum gets home - but on the surface level, it's an adventure story about a white whale and a dude with a narc-on, and if you prefer it that way, then that's all it need be. ''VideoGame/{{Gris}}'' and ''VideoGame/SeaOfSolitude'' have no surface level; it's all symbolism all the time, but at least ''VideoGame/{{Gris}}'' has its characters keep their fucking mouths shut so it's open to interpretation. ''VideoGame/SeaOfSolitude'' has no such patience, and Kay's narration is constantly laying everything bare. "Look, there's a thing. It represents thing. Isn't that clever?"
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77	!!For a list of games reviewed by the series (that have pages on this wiki) see here:
78
79	[[index]]
80	* ZeroPunctuation/ReviewedGames
81	[[/index]]

Context WebAnimation / ZeroPunctuation