Extra Credits

Ah, true enough.

I mean the naming of source I can sort of give a (weak) pass coz a lot of videos don't do it. I get annoyed with the... for lack of a better term "Sensationalisation" of history.

Like, I feel compelled to compare this video with Crash Course Mythology, which, while annoying with the stupid Toth character bit, actually tells you the story, and contextualises it in culture. (And I don't even think Crash Course Mythology is even that good, but it at least tries)

You're better off going to Overly Sarcastic Projuctions as they do myth better and their art is better IMO.

- Making alliances with a pagan viking named Eric Bloodaxe,what could possibly go wrong?

Oh, so that's what Halfdan was doing.

A new episode of Extra History has been released. They're talking about the beginnings of the Mali Empire.

This guy a had a huge influence a lot of authors,but he's largely forgotten,extra credits is working to change that,they've even published a book with his stories called A Dreamer's Tales

Link here

This week.

A non-game related episode about municipal design.

edited 18th Apr '18 11:08:46 AM by RhymeBeat

If this is meant to win back the crowd after that horrendous defense of lootboxes....

...

...well, mission accomplished. This was a really good video. Good on y'all, EC.

Haven't watched the mainline the series in a while but they defended lootboxes?! Why?!

Perfectly reasonable arguments that, unfortunately, are not as strong as the arguments of the people opposing them, mostly boiling down to "games be expensive, yo"

AAA games are too expensive and prices haven't keeping up with inflation, meaning extra monetization schemes such as lootboxes and other micro transactions. That is a bad argument for a variety of reasons, but I think it is important to note they didn't defend any specific lootbox game, certainly not Battlefront 2, and conceded that it can be harmful. So it is not like they went full on the corporate apology.

I still think their arguments are stupid, though, for reasons are gave in this thread some pages ago.

edited 18th Apr '18 1:02:36 PM by Heatth

Because its not economically feasible to release AAA games that are larger, longer, more graphically impressive than what's come before, and requiring longer upkeep for online servers and such at the same price point without cutting corners, which generally results in backlash, or using micro-transactions or DLC, of which lootboxes have been relatively successful in terms of people actually buying them.
They also discussed how lootboxes need to be carefully managed to keep them ethical and avoid causing issues or backlash.
My two cents is that lootboxes themselves aren't necessarily bad but many recent uses are unconscionable.

There are a lot of problems with EC's arguments for lootboxes (which are mostly self-serving and demonstrated to be false with many games that manage to be quite profitable without them), but one of the big ones is they exist solely for the benefit of the company and not the players. They don't do anything to make the games they're in better; quite the contrary, most of the time they have a very negative impact on the game's design.

They also mentioned Hearthstone as a game that does lootboxes (that is, booster packs) properly. Seeing as I used to play Magic the Gathering, and that I've been playing Fire Emblem Heroes over the last year (another game that relies on random pulls), I can definitely see the appeal of being strategic with the few random drops you got, or feeling like your team/deck is unique to yourself.

The catch being, none of these examples are AAA. They're all free-to-play games, which is why people are fine with relying on booster packs/random pulls. As such, we get the impression that "high AAA development costs" and "proper ways to use lootboxes" are mutually exclusive affairs.

I suppose the ideal way forward would be to apply lootboxes to a FTP game, and use the revenue to fund complete AAA games (so, what FEH turned out to do for Nintendo). I don't think EC actually made that argument, though.

Continuing on their Norse myth videos,they're going into details about the worlds that make up the Nine Worlds

Part 2 of their Mali series,following Ibn Battutah as he explores the Mali Empire

edited 21st Apr '18 10:39:09 AM by Ultimatum

Ibn is one rude dude. Then again, there's always this one guy who visits another country and acts disrespectful over another country's culture.

Ibn isn't a name on its own - it's literally translated as "son of".

edited 24th Apr '18 3:00:31 PM by DrunkenNordmann

Extra Sci Fi episode about Hugo Gernsback,the hugo award is named after him

Facepalm! Oh my God. I feel embarrassed since i learn about this before but forgot about it.

New episode of Extra Credits talks about how ''B-games" (the video game equivalent of B-movies) are needed due to their tendency not only to push limits and transgressive ideas, but also expanding what the mainstream audience finds acceptable.

An episode about Mansa Musa, the richest guy in history.

You know, it's kinda funny how some people seem to have a real problem with an African king being considered the richest person in history, judging by the half-baked arguments made by people in the comments section this time around.

And yes, I made the mistake of reading it. In my defense, I haven't slept - so chalk that up to a sleep-deprived lapse in judgement.

edited 28th Apr '18 11:03:24 PM by DrunkenNordmann

Extra Sci Fi focuses on Lovecraft

edited 1st May '18 5:44:03 PM by Ultimatum

I found the episode informative, though I winced at saying Lovecraft "expressed racist views". That is some pandering-politician level of euphemism; his racism was so visceral and reflexive, and so shoehorned into many stories, that readers at the time were disturbed. Some of his horror, especially the Arthur Jermyn story, have little effect today because they amount to "What if whites had once interbred with other races?! Ever thought of it?"

But they are right to focus on Howard's legacy. Not only is it more mixed and with more to say, but it left far more influence than Lovecraft's. Lovecraft's racism can be taken out of most of his stories and they would improve, and that is what most later writers have done. But Howard left a whole mentality of thinking of a setting (which is far more involved than inserting strange beings into the real world) in terms of races, and that is still alive today, especially in role-playing settings. And fantasy wargames.

You literally cannot talk about H.P. Lovecraft without talking about racism, which is true of so few writers, because his being massively racist is basically the core of how he wrote his whole work.

Not to say that necessarily taints the work nowadays except for when it is explicit, but if you're trying to understand how he made it, then you need to understand how massively frightened he was of other races because that fear is what he ended up channelling into his horror works.