[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Extra_Credits_8.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:From left to right: [=LeeLee=], James, Daniel and Allison]]

-->''"Because games matter!"''

''[[http://extra-credits.net Extra Credits]]'' is an animated webseries, formerly published by ''The Escapist'' and now by [[PennyArcade PATV]], which is is hosted by James Portnow (writing), Daniel Floyd (narration), Elisa "[=LeeLee=]" Scaldaferri and Allison Theus (art), the latter of whom was replaced by Scott Dewitt after she left to work on other projects. The hosts use the series as a means to cover many issues pertinent to the video games industry, in particular what goes into the creation and development of video games, what video games to achieve to become recognized as a legitimate artform, and creating intellectual discourse on important issues in the video game community.

The series uses a voiceover over top of static, minimalist illustrations and funny pictures culled from various Internet sources, with emphasis on {{Visual Pun}}s. [[FollowTheLeader This aspect is heavily inspired by]] [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation another series]] made famous by ''The Escapist''.

The show strives to be [[EdutainmentShow both lighthearted and humorous while providing an insightful look into the inner workings of the video game industry]], in a topic of the week format, often tackling many of the most prevalent and controversial topics in the gaming industry, such as topics regarding [[RaceTropes Diversity]] in games, [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil piracy]], [[JustOneMoreLevel video game addiction]], and the unreasonable working conditions faced by many game developers. The show also manages to be [[ShownTheirWork thoroughly researched]] on the topics it is covering. This shouldn't be surprising, as James, Daniel, and Allison are all well-immersed in the industry; James is a game designer himself, Daniel is an animator for Pixar Canada (and contributor to [[Music/OverClockedRemix OC ReMix]]), and Allison is a concept artist.

Due to a money-related misunderstanding, ''Extra Credits''' run on ''The Escapist'' drew to a close. After a brief "hiatus" period on [[http://www.youtube.com/user/ExtraCreditz YouTube]], they moved to [[PennyArcade PATV]]. Proof, if needed, that the two groups are on the same wavelength.

''[[FanNickname Pre-Escapist]]'' episodes can be watched [[http://www.youtube.com/user/kirithem here]]. [[note]]Keep in mind that all of those have {{Updated Rerelease}}s available in PATV.[[/note]]

The entire archive from during and after their days at ''The Escapist'' can be watched [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/show/extra-credits here.]]

%% [[Recap/ExtraCredits Episode Guide]] is here.
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!!Tropes which ''Extra Credits'' provides an example of:
* ArtShift:
** In "Innovation", and whenever a guest artist is invited. They generally imitate the style while putting their own twists on it.
** In season 4 they added [=LeeLee=] to their ranks, and while her and Allison's styles are mostly similar, you can see the difference between the two during certain points.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: TheStinger for "Our Oscars":
-->''"Big {{E3}} Developments. New Sony handheld. New HD Nintendo console. And apparently, sports stars don't count as celebrities. I didn't know that."''
* AscendedExtra: [=LeeLee=], previously a guest artist, joined the team in the 100th episode.
* BerserkButton: Poorly-made propaganda games. Well-made propaganda games don't always set their world on fire either, but ''poorly''-made propaganda games inspire [[http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/call-of-juarez-the-cartel epic rants like these]].
** The big problem they have with propaganda games is willfully misinforming the audience. While Call of Juarez can't really be described as propaganda, it is such a disrespectful hack-job of the Mexican Drug War that it deserves everything it gets.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Given the idealistic tone of the series, they rarely criticize games unless they have a really good reason. However, there are a few episodes where they simply tear a game apart, such as the one about ''CallOfJuarez: The Cartel'', which uses lots of heavy-handed language; Daniel flat-out calls it despicable and horrid, due to its lazy design and dishonor of the subject matter.
* BrainBleach: In the first "[[http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/western-japanese-rpgs-part-1 Western & Japanese RPGs]]" episode, Allison does a search for "{{Eroge}} [[VisualNovel visual novels]]" while working on the episode, only to start scrubbing her eyes out with bleach on viewing the results. She's now the page picture for the trope.
* BRollRebus: Done in a similar style as ''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation'', the narrative is accompained by relevant and/or related pictures and drawings.
* BroughtToYouByTheLetterS:
** James is always shown wearing his blue "J" T-shirt.
** Generic characters are shown wearing letter-coded clothing, such as "D" ones for Developers and "G" for gamers.
* CaptainObvious: [[InvokedTrope Mentioned by name]] in the Amnesia episode, [[VisualPun complete with a Captain America like drawing.]]
* CausticCritic: A beautiful [[AvertedTrope aversion]]. While there are things that piss off the EC team, most of their analysis are done fairly, and often conceding to the problems and troubles the other side of the debate goes through. Even their ''CallOfJuarez: The Cartel'' review, which is possibly the most negative and judgmental thing they've produced, always speaks professionally and thoroughly justifies every complaint.
* ContinuityNod: After receiving her shoulder surgery, Allison's avatar has had a [[ArtificialLimbs Bionic Arm]] drawn in some episodes.
* CuteAndPsycho:
** Allison, as she grows more crazed looking as each episode wears on. {{Lampshaded}} repeatedly:
--> "[[OhCrap Uh oh,]] Allison, put the eraser down, I'm almost done!"
** The guest artist Erin too.
* DearNegativeReader: After their two-part series on faith in games, they got a lot of knee-jerk reactions to their position (most of which boiled down to fact that [[YouKeepUsingThatWord they randomly switched between the different meanings of the word faith as though they were all one concept]]). Normally they sit back and leave the follow up conversation to the viewers to kick around, but the argument got so strong that they felt that they had to make [[http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/god-does-not-play-dice another episode specifically to address it.]]
* FemmeFatalons: Allison sometimes draws herself with some pretty nasty claws for the sake of a visual cue.
* {{Foil}}: Near the begining of the "[[http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/microtransactions Microtransactions]]" episode, Daniel says that EC is always trying to be the calmer voice, while a crude picture of [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee]] shows up, angrily saying, "What are you getting at?"
* MirrorUniverse: It's been argued that the show as a whole is a SugarBowl take on WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation, [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal respectively representing]] the polar ends of the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism in respect to how they view the game industry.
* MoodDissonance: In the "Open Letter to EA Marketing" video, Daniel reads out-loud the original mission statement for Electronic Arts, a highly idealistic vision for the evolution of video games as an art form. While he's reading this, he shows clips of EA's various cynical ad campaigns that embrace the worst of gaming stereotypes and do little to advance the medium as an art.
* MustHaveCaffeine: The second artist, Leelee, might be this, judging from the sheer number of coffee cups in the "Energy Systems" episode.
* NotableReferencesToTVTropes: One image in "Starting off right" is a page from TVTropes, talking about amnesia.
* OurMonstersAreWeird: Allison is ''really'' good at that. Often borders on horror.
* PrecisionFStrike:
** In "Art Is Not the Opposite of Fun," Daniel uses this trope while questioning the claim that studying what makes games unique will cause them to become worse or less fun.
--> ''It's the suggestion that we shouldn't explore games further. That all of this inquiry and study and tampering is going to [[DarthWiki/RuinedForever just ruin]] our favorite hobby. And that is a claim that needs answering. It makes no [[SoundEffectBleep f**king]] sense!"
** In "Call of Juarez: The Cartel" towards the end.
--> ''I'm willing to wager there's now at least one person out there who now believes more firmly that [[IHaveYouNowMyPretty Mexicans are stealing our women]] because of this game, and that is [[SoundEffectBleep f**king]] disgraceful. [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech It is a shame to what it means to be a designer, and it belies the responsibility we as a group hold when producing mass media.]] We can do a lot better than this. We can inform, and educate, and entertain, but failing all of that we can at least be honest."
* PromotedFanboy: A few examples. Many of the guest artists are RealLife friends of the others and industry insiders, including [=LeeLee=], but all are fans of the show. While detaching her own webcomic ''Name Game'' from ''The Escapist'', [=LeeLee=] became a rotation artist for EC, since Theus has been unpredictable.
** Also happened to the founding members of [[http://extra-credits.net/forum Extra Curricular]]. Some cases of ShootTheDangerousMinion ensued behind the scenes, as detailed [[http://jrod.jsmedia.tk/post/36734637844/the-story-of-extra-curricular here]].
* PunctuatedForEmphasis:
--> "Do not Tangle. With the kind of people. Who install Linux. on their [=PlayStation=]s. Trust me: You are ''wasting''. Your. ''Time''."
* RaymanianLimbs: The main art style has these for all human characters that are not Daniel behind his podium. Guest artists [[DependingOnTheArtist might or might not follow this]].
* ReRun:
** Almost every episode from the show's run on Website/YouTube was revamped for ''The Escapist''.
** The "Uncanny Valley" episode they uploaded to PATV was the third time they've covered that topic, once for each incarnation of the show.
*** Interestingly, the PATV episode was remade from scratch with a reworked script and animation.
* RunningGag: Allison's shoulder injury is sometimes rendered as a [[VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution Deus Ex style]] [[RuleOfCool cyborg arm]].
* SelfDeprecation: The UncannyValley [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKTAJBQSm10 episode]] pokes fun at the show's art and Daniel's narration.
--> '''Daniel''': Smartass.
* SeriousBusiness:
** A large part of the series's message is that video game developers should take their medium as seriously as other media.
** The importance of balancing gaming with RealLife and the serious consequences of game compulsion was detailed over two episodes, and broke the usual style of the show by having James speak directly.
** The breakdown of ''CallOfJuarez: The Cartel'' is absolutely ''brutal'' in its treatment of the game, condemning it for multiple sins; it starts with how its lazy design indirectly encourages the killing of black people and gets more serious from there.
* ShoutOut:
** In the "Sharing Our Medium" episode, the "[[MemeticMutation PLAY ALL THE THINGS]]" pictures are a shout out to ''Webcomic/HyperboleAndAHalf''.
** And in the end credits of "Let's Talk About Pacing", their encouraging message ended with "Also, Santa is real. And [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Friendship IS magic]]."
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: The tone of the series is extremely idealistic: it views the recognition of video games as art as inevitable, treats virtually all developments in the industry as furthering this cause, and views most obstacles in the way as easily overcome.
* SomethingCompletelyDifferent:
** Game Addiction (Part 2) where James Portnow sits down in front of the camera and discusses his own past in this area. Daniel even comments on how they tried to do it in their normal, academic style of commentary, but James simply couldn't write a good enough script while remaining objective.
** Their episode on the controversial bills SOPA and PIPA had James, Daniel and the owners of various gaming websites speaking in live action, urging the viewer to boycott E3 unless the ESA, which is E3's main backer, withdrew their support for those bills. They followed it up the next week with a conventional episode on it however.
** They did it again with their "Extra Credits supports Firefall" video. There was even some lampshading by the team about it.
** [[http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/funding-xcom-part-1 Funding XCOM]], where they talk about... well, funding a real-life XCOM.
* TakeThat: In "Games You Might Not Have Tried: 16-bit", when Daniel talks about which systems they'll cover.
--> We'll be talking about Super [=NES=] games, Sega Genesis games, and *picture of [=TurboGrafx=]* ...yeah, just the first two.
* TheLastDJ: Despite the portrayal of a SugarBowl community surrounding them, their criticisms of weaker aspects of gaming make them out to be a textbook example of this trope.
* UpdatedRerelease: the UncannyValley episode, mk. 3! Now on [[PennyArcade PATV]]!
** The pre-Escapist videos (and even some of the early ''Escapist'' episodes) are more representative of Floyd's college-requisite JadeColoredGlasses, and have been incrementally re-made with new scripts and new art whenever WritersBlock sets in...
* VerySpecialEpisode: Game Addiction: Part 2. Complete with AnAesop:
--> '''James:''' Life will always welcome you back.
* VisualPun: Very common.

!!Tropes that are discussed by ''Extra Credits'':
* BoringButPractical / DifficultButAwesome: Discussed in the "[[http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/playing-like-a-designer-pt.-2 How to Play Like a Designer, Part 2]]" episode in which they explain that "First Order Optimal Strategies" (which require little player effort but give good results such as the "[[VideoGame/ModernWarfare noob tube]]" or "[[VideoGame/StreetFighter hundred hand slap]]") are necessary to allow new players to have a competitive edge and allow them to gain enough confidence and experience to start using more difficult but ultimately even more effective strategies necessary for more difficult levels or matches. He cautions though that any such thing needs to be carefully developed and thought through, as it can create unintentional {{Game Breaker}}s which might flatten an otherwise expertly plotted difficulty curve.
* BribingYourWayToVictory: Warned against in the [[http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/microtransactions "Microtransactions"]] episode, with a crossed-out picture of Jareth from Film/{{Labyrinth}}.
--> '''Daniel:''' [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Never. Sell. Power.]] This is seriously micro-trans 101, but we still seem to have this temptation to squeeze the maximum amount of money out of our players by selling them things that [[GameBreaker alter the balance of gameplay.]]
* CharacterDerailment: [[invoked]]
** They argue that this happened to [[http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/no-redeeming-value Kratos]] in the ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'' sequels, which was only exacerbated by CharacterExaggeration.
** They also argue that this is basically what happened to Samus with ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'', stating that Samus [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter already had a workable characterization]] that emerged from the mechanics and backstory of the previous games, and that suddenly ramming a new characterization down the player's throat made Samus worse for it rather than better.
* CompetitiveBalance: Discussed in "[[http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/perfect-imbalance Perfect Imbalance]]" in which they, counter-intuitively, suggest that a designer should deliberately introduce an slight element of minor imbalance into play. The idea being that ComplacentGamingSyndrome will set in if everything is perfectly balanced, as players will find the optimal strategies and only play to those. However, with calculated imbalances, players are forced to adjust their strategies as the MetaGame keeps shifting. They recommend a balancing technique of "cyclical balance" as a kind of extended TacticalRockPaperScissors, where Element A is obviously powerful, but has an exploitable weakness to a strategy involving Element B, which in turn has a weakness to something using Element C, etc. ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' is cited as a good example of this.
* CriticalResearchFailure: {{In-Universe}}, they really lay into ''Call of Juarez: The Cartel'' for making extremely basic errors in its portrayal of the terrible Mexican drug wars and indirectly encouraging the grossly racist "they are stealing our women" stereotype -- even though, in reality, the reverse is much closer to the truth.
* CriticismTropes: Discussed in the "[[http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/game-reviews Game Reviews]]" episode. Analysis focuses specifically on the differences between the informational content of typical movie reviews and the informational content of typical game reviews. The former tends toward more contextual information as to how the film compares to other films, while the later tends toward more descriptive information as to what is in the product. While they concede that the descriptive information is essential, if that is all a video game review is, all reviews end up looking alike and it becomes difficult for a reader to glean perspective.
** FourPointScale: Also briefly touches on this, mentioning that to someone who comes into the hobby from outside of it and is more familiar with rating systems for other works such as movies, game reviews would often seem quite misleading when giving numbers.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Discussed in the episode "[[http://extra-credits.net/episodes/hard-boiled/ Hard Boiled]]". They explain why DarkerAndEdgier tends to happen with video game franchises, taking ''MaxPayne3'' which they had just played as an example. Some of the reasons cited are misplaced ideals that Darker and Edgier makes something seem more SeriousBusiness, assumptions about what a young audience wants to buy, and the game industry's {{egregious}} tendency to FollowTheLeader.
* DigitalPiracyIsEvil: Discussed in the "[[http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/piracy Piracy]]" episode. Daniel and James' viewpoint in a nutshell: if [[NoExportForYou it's not available in your country]] or has been [[AbandonWare lost in the sands of time]], then [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes pirate away]]. Otherwise, if you like something, just pay for it, and don't be a dick. The episode addresses the flawed arguments on both sides of the debate:
** For game companies: By releasing their games with annoying {{DRM}}, they just provide pirated games the advantage of being free, and giving them the additional advantage of being unrestricted and less buggy, and therefore is not going to help the developers in the long run.
** For pirates: Any justification you have for piracy based upon the argument that "the game is not worth buying/playing" for whatever reason instantly becomes hypocritical and meaningless once you pirate the said game, because by doing so you have just proved that the game IS worth playing.
* DownloadableContent: They touch upon the process behind the creation of this, particularly the reason for Day-1 DLC, in their VideoGame/MassEffect3 DLC video. They do acknowledge that publishers and developers can abuse this, but state the reasons that sometimes DLC should be necessary to not only keep up the value of the product, but increase the available content in the game, especially in shorter games.
* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: Touched upon briefly in "[[http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/amnesia-and-story-structure Amnesia and Story Structure]]" but taken to its logical extreme in "[[http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/narrative-mechanics Narrative Mechanics]]" where they cite ''MissileCommand'' as a case-study in how a game can tell a story using ''only'' its game mechanics.
* GenderAndSexualityTropes: Discussed in a few episodes.
** "[[http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/sexual-diversity Diversity]]" hints at the several episodes to come.
** "[[http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/sex-in-games Sex in Games]]" introduces the topic, exploring why developers might wish to include sexuality as part of theme or characterization, citing games like ''{{Ico}}'' as an exploration of intimacy even without sexuality.
** "[[http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/sexual-diversity Sexual Diversity]]" uses ''{{Persona 4}}'' as a case-study in how including some [[QueerAsTropes diversity of sexual orientations]] can greatly add to characterization in games.
** "[[http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/true-female-characters True Female Characters"]] discusses how to write female chacters. It also cements a theme through these episodes that writing a character like this requires thinking about what expectations that character's society places on them, and what aspects of [[NotASubversion those expectations they choose to embrace]] and [[AvertedTrope what they choose to reject]], saying that someone who rejects every social expectation placed on them is just as sterotypical as someone who embraces every expectation.
* {{GIFT}}: Not by name, but the episode "[[http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/harassment Harassment]]" lays out some ideas on how these people can be expunged from the gaming community.
* InMediasRes: Discussed in the Amnesia episode (see Three Act Structure below), and in the Starting Off Right episode.
* TheLoad: In the episode "[[http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/minority Minority]]", they point to this has one of the bad uses of children in games, comparing it to Clementine from ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'', who is a useful ally.
* NostalgiaFilter: The topic is touched upon in "Videogame Music". Daniel ponders why gamers are more fond of the old NES themes, despite the better resources available to video game composers these days. Like most topics, he [[TakeAThirdOption chooses the middle road,]] stating that there's still great soundtracks being made today, while encouraging composers to stay grounded in their roots and create a [[EarWorm strong melody]] that will [[LevelOneMusicRepresents endure for years after the fact]].
* NotSoDifferent: The Video Games and Religion videos suggest that science and religion are this, as both are ultimately rooted in faith (in science's case, that previous observations and theories are in fact correct, often despite knowing that new discoveries may render them inaccurate after all, as often happens.)
* PowerCreep: Discussed in the appropriately-titled episode "[[http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/power-creep Power Creep]]" as an issue that tends to subtly sneak into [[LongRunners Long Running]] persistent games, be they {{Collectible Card Game}}s or [[MassivelyMultiplayerOnlineRolePlayingGame MMORPGs]]. They cover why this issue is ultimately bad for business, bad for the player, and how to mitigate it.
* ThePowerOfTrust: Discussed as its importance between the consumers and the producers of any technology that requires users to share personal information for the sake of functionality during the "[[http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/not-a-security-episode NOT a Security Episode]]" episode.
* RaceTropes: Touched upon in the episode "[[http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/race-in-games Race in Games]]". In particular, they look at how the context of race-relations can inform the player about a character, using ''LANoire'' as an example. They elected to go for that perspective rather than a "how to write racial minorities" bent because they were concerned that would only lead to stereotypes. They went on to say that many of their suggestions about how to handle GenderAndSexualityTropes apply to RaceTropes as well.
* RealIsBrown: Poked fun at several times.
-->"You see, there's nothing inherently wrong with cutscenes. The fault lies in how we've been using'em. The cutscene [[TropesAreTools is a tool]]; asking games to forever abandon the cutscene is like asking the carpenter to give up his square, or the painter to never use grey or brown... or the game to never use grey or brown." (''followed immediately by a [[VisualPun picture of]]'' VideoGame/GearsOfWar).
* StealthParody: Discussed briefly at the end of the "[[http://extra-credits.net/episodes/hard-boiled/ Hard Boiled]]" episode, where they suggest that the ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' series has become self-aware of how over the top they have gotten through SerialEscalation, and the end text of the episode recommends playing ''Modern Warfare 3'' with the mentality that it is a send-up of modern shooters.
* {{Technobabble}}: The subject of [[http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/technobabble an entire episode]]. They link it to the difference between the extremes of the MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness, with [[Mohs/SpeculativeScience hard science fiction]] on one end and [[Mohs/ScienceInGenreOnly future fantasy]] on the other, saying that the really inaccurate use of technobabble tends to come when an author cannot commit to a fantastical idea and tries to tenuously ground it with sciencey-sounding language. They then go on to briefly define a few commonly used ideas in physics to give viewers a slightly better understanding of those terms.
* ThreeActStructure: Discussed in the Amnesia episode, particularly with video games and their habit of [[InMediasRes starting in Act 2]].
* TokenMinority: Mentioned in the diversity episode as a bad solution to accusations that there aren't enough female, black, or other minority groups.
* TrueArtIsAngsty: Discussed in the episode "[[http://extra-credits.net/episodes/hard-boiled/ Hard Boiled]]", where they show that just because ''MaxPayne3'' is DarkerAndEdgier than its previous entries in its series, doesn't inherently make it more artistic.
* UncannyValley: [[invoked]] Discussed in the pre-Escapist episode [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKTAJBQSm10 "Video Games and the Uncanny Valley"]]. Brought up again in the Halloween Episode, [[http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/symbolism-101 "Symbolism 101"]].
* UnfortunateImplications: [[invoked]]They note how poorly thought-out game mechanics can accidentally send very dangerous messages if designers aren't careful and responsible. As an example, they cite the convention of making certain races and groups the enemy in recent mainstream shooters, which risks dehumanizing them in the minds of players who are required to slaughter them in droves without question. They single out ''CallOfJuarez: The Cartel'' as an example of a game that does this, devoting an entire episode to ripping apart the UnfortunateImplications within it.
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