Extra Credits

We don't have a thread for this?

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits

this show has almost single handedly restored my faith in video games as a medium, and more people need to be aware of it.

We did have a thread for this, where did it go? Oh yeah, I haven't seen today's show yet, but yeah, I watched Danny Floyd before he was cool!

I liked the shout out in the last one to his pre-escapist days.

This was actually the first one I turned off without going to the end. I know the story surrounding the development of this game, there was not that level of care put into it. It is not about human war, the planets are Krytol and Zardon (Word of God). It was not thought about deeply. This episode was simply them projecting their thoughts into a designer who did not think that deeply about the concept of their game at all.

Death of the Author, Indigo.

That's pretty funny, Indigo, because if you had watched the whole video, it actually quotes the creator as saying he had nightmares about nuclear war which was inspiration for the game. Nice try though.

edited 17th Dec '10 5:11:25 PM by TimeDawg

Why are my posts invisible?

edited 17th Dec '10 6:56:41 PM by Madrugada

I thought they said he had nightmares about nuclear blasts after he finished game.

Its in the manual.

"It is interesting to note that while the arcade game set no specific time or place, the original design cast the six cities in the game as six major cities on the west coast of the United States: Eureka, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and San Diego. However, the manual for the Atari 2600 version of the game provides an entirely fictional back story for the game, presented here."

I have no idea how reliable that is, but so says strategy wiki linked to by the other wiki.

"Aliens from the planet of Krytol have begun an attack on the planet Zardon. The Krytolians are warriors out to destroy and seize the planet of Zardon. Zardon is the last of the peaceful planets. The Zardonians are skillful and hardworking people. Their cities are built-up and rich in resources. It is truly a planet void of crime and violence.

Zardon has built a powerful defense system. Several antiballistic missile bases have been established within the cities of Zardon. The Zardonians are ready for this attack, and are prepared to fight to save their cities.

As base commander it is your responsibility to protect and defend six cities on the planet of Zardon. The Krytolians have begun firing interplanetary ballistic missiles. They are aiming at your cities and missile bases. Your only defense is to fire back with antiballistic missiles. But watch out, the Krytolians are sly, they also have cruise missiles. Cruise missiles look like satellites, but they are just as deadly as the interplanetary ballistic missiles.

Use your antiballistic missiles (AB Ms) to stop the enemy before your happy and harmonious planet is destroyed."

You missed the part directy beneath it.

Are you guys talking about Missile Command?

EDIT: Yes, you are. Hate to get on a tangent, but if I was in charge of a remake of that, I would probably have a mode where you only need to hold out long enough to evacuate everyone and you get the occasional resupply of ABMs.

edited 18th Dec '10 1:13:22 PM by RocketDude

Yes. I read that. I didn't see how the specifcs were relevant to the discussion. Either real world nuclear war was in mind when it was made, or it wasn't. And it seems it was, and the zardon and krytol story came later.

And it's a story that doesn't seem to fit considering it's not actually possible to stop the enemy and return your planet to glorious harmony.

Extra Credits turned from decent critisism to "MAXIMUM Circlejerk time!!!" in 3 episodes. I expected better, sadly, and I liked it at the start...

It would be nice of you to explain what you're talking about.

Funny, I thought that's when it started to hit its stride.

edited 20th Dec '10 5:30:54 PM by thawkins

Circle Jerk: A discussion of Confirmation Bias and self congradulatory discussion.

AKA The last 2 episodes. Perhaps they will stop sounding like videogaming is some sort of Narmtastic Meditation next issue.

Can you really call it confirmation bias when they're analysing a text?

I mean, Death of the Author, so they don't need word of god confirmation.

They're doing decent analyses and they've backed up their claims with examples from the text, and an interesting analysis of the techniques used to portray those ideas.

That's sounds like a valid interpretation then.

We don't have enough people analysing games on the same critical level as other mediums and the majority of the ones that do are pretentious jerk offs that don't back up their claims with valid examples from the text and make gross claims that have no substance (e.g. that stupid Portal Feminist interpretation).

I think Extra Credits are doing a great job and I don't see how the last two vids make them circle jerks.

See that Portal Feminist thing you mentioned there? Yeah, exactly the same dumb the narrative episode used.

They could go through the same episode calling PACMAN a deep explorational satire into greed and the economy.

Basically, they are making a story out of nothing.

Whatever helps you sleep at night, system.

This episode was kind of nice, and I say any plug for Loading Ready Run is a good vid in me book.

Except it's not even death of the author. They have support from Word of God. And support from the game itself.

If Pac-Man was an exploration of greed and the economy then there would be some consequence to eating all the pellets, and the ghost pellets don't really fit that narrative.

As for Portal being a femminst masterpiece...well It's certainly feminine, and it's certainly subversive as an FPS, in that most of the usual tropes aren't found, but that particular argument is taking things to a really weird level. When you're arguing that the Portals themselves are giant glowing vaginas, I think you're on the wrong path. And destorying the companion cube is NOT freeing yourself from a male father figure; he is your friend, and this motivates revenge against Gla D Os on it's behalf.

Nothing within the game itself contradicts the argument that Missile Command is about Nuclear War. If it isn't, then what would you change to make Missile Command about Nuclear War?

newest ep is up

Awwwww.

^couldn't agree more.

What are you people talking about? There never was an interpretation that Portal was feminist, AFAIK, but there was an interpretation that it was for Lesbians.

I personally liked the Innovation episode best.