He's running of steam because he's running of things to talk about. Or at the very least, doing so while under a constrictive schedule (haven't forgot about his "other" web series).
That game ain't rightEh, there's really only so much to think about regarding video games.
Really, though, why would anyone call him an egotist? What the hell? He acknowledges his faults (usually with a handy "humility" sign) and generally recognizes that he can be wrong sometimes. His videos are to inspire discussion, not to imply that he is always correct.
Awesomely random and randomly awesome. My anime list.Ok, first of all, I am a big fan of the overthinker, mostly bercause he resonated most of my gaming philosophies and even expanded from and upon them, so I'll admit to shitloads of bias here.
second, that first video of his on screw attack? Egotistical because he called himself "highly intelligent"? really? Hell, anyone with a moderately proficient working knowledge of a computer and a few extra venues of interest already qualifies as "fairly intelligent" to me (which should include about most, if not all, of tropers here by the way), highly intelligent is a mere hop-skip away here, add to the fact that he also cites himself as bitter and capricious among other things; one step forward, two steps back. Being proud of your merits does not an egotistical individual make.
Third, most remarks he makes are presented in a civil fashion, any time he isn't civil, it's usually aimed at people who are either fairly misinformed or (quite ironically) being big egotistical bastards.
"Put the days together, and they start to do some damage. If the mean is in the middle, then I know that I will manage."unfortunately, I find that these strawmen are not really made up, I recall a recent survey that actually placed Gears of War and Halo as the best franchises in the history of video games; this faction of "hardcore" gamers is well admittedly existent abundantly these-a-day, in exactly that sort of tone and mentality, they're pretty much acceptable targets by this point, I'm not saying that there aren't people who find that Halo is the best (not biggest, best as in quality best) franchise ever in the history of games while having alot of experience with past franchises (I don't know them all), I'm just saying that I haven't met any of them yet and I'm willing to assume that the GO hasn't either, added to the fact that signs do point that they are an extremely rare breed.
More to the fact is that along with inexperience and misinformation, personality and social background also plays a good part in determining the "tastes" of the hardcore gamers, something also elaborated by the GO.
Also just because there isn't anyone to reply back to him live doesn't mean he's being unjust to whoever he lambastes nor does it even necessitate them being straw-men; the opinions here have to be weaker versions of the actual debating opinion, and if they are well represented then they are not straw men by definition. Remember, this is taking into account that the strawmen here are citing that Gears of War is the best game ever, and usually dismiss anything that isn't conforming to Liefeldian standards, so we run into the problem that these are strawmen opponents because unfortunately, the opponent just happens to be an actual straw man.
That is of course, the "hardcore" gamers view, I don't recall any others off the top of my head.
edited 22nd Jun '10 12:34:52 PM by Viredae
"Put the days together, and they start to do some damage. If the mean is in the middle, then I know that I will manage."....wait what? These people consider Halo and Gears of War as the best games ever.....so? These would be people who prefer scale in storyline and well balanced and variable multiplayer while retaining a relatively accesible barline and without requiring multitasking, merely focusing on each matter as it happens. All you've stated is that there are people who think those franchises are the best. I think Halo is one of the most boring things I've ever experienced (And I once sat through a real time non lapsed how-art-is-made documentary), but I'm not gonna say they all sound like very very poor immitations of Linkara's 90's Kid. There are extremely good reasons for people to like those games, which he refuses to acknowledge - hence, the voice is Strawman.
edited 22nd Jun '10 4:30:13 PM by IndigoDingo
I said that these people see these franchises as the best when clearly they haven't played anything else; and considering the background and age of that particular group shows that they haven't indeed played any games before the time these games got popular A.K.A. the twelve year olds and "jocks" for a lack of a better term have not really played the other "great" franchises to make this decision, thus the use of the term "misinformed".
I'd be more willing to believe these views if this demographic had wider views and experiences in video games and did not outright dismiss them as "gay" (again for lack of better terms and quoting the GO's own words), but for all we have right now, the people who played video games earlier than the previous generation are the minority right now, and it wouldn't be a problem if not for the fact that it is having a negative effect on the development industry.
And the fact that you're trying to pass off Halo with fancy words really doesn't help; the fact that those words can also come out as "Hollywood budget, multiplayer, and easy to play" as the reason why this game is "the best franchise ever" points to the fact that these people clearly have little to no background of the quality that other people want to see, but the problem is that they are the driving force of the industry right now; if they had little impact then nobody would mind (well, some elitists would but that's besides the point), but when they drive the industry in a direction of low quality and Liefeld-esque style (and we know how that turned out for comics), I think it's fair play to use harsh words.
And if you think that they aren't as represented, then explain the clear focus of the industry on games featuring more and more Real is Brown, the '90s Anti-Hero (Even Yahtzee agrees [1]
), and general Nineties approach spreading these-a-days, also worth mentioning is the hate on Linearity in games, incessant and obsessive focus on realism (again quoting the GO, god forbid you realize you're playing a game), and the increasing number of sloppy single player campaigns.
edited 23rd Jun '10 1:27:13 AM by Viredae
"Put the days together, and they start to do some damage. If the mean is in the middle, then I know that I will manage."Hold on. Are you blaming Halo for Real Is Brown? Is there even any brown in Halo?
the future we had hoped forI'd say it stems from you not paying any attention. Its amazing how any game that can't boast being ultraviolet and doesn't shove a bloody interior decorators sample book down your throat every second is automatically labelled as being comprised of nothing but grey (When someone put Red Dead Redemption into that category, people have clearly lost all contact with what it means). As for Liefeldian design, I count 4 franchises that do that - one of which uses it because you're supposed to hate him, therefore pretty much directly subverting it.
See, what I'm seeing is people who can't play a genre seeing said genre evolve naturally, as others have before, and starting to complain with no knowledge whatsoever, saying every game is the same.
I'd say this is no worse for the industry than the fucking plague of platformer characters that we had to endure during earlier years, or the pandemic of fighters slightly later.
Edit: Okay, I have to do this
edited 23rd Jun '10 2:39:34 AM by IndigoDingo
And God forbid you might have fun in realism. It's not like Operation Flashpoint and Halo are aimed at the same audience.
You're speaking as if that didn't happen every gaming generation.
Indeed, the industry has alway been dominated by one specific genre for a certain period of time. Kind of go like this:
Pong clones>Space Invader Clones>Pac-Man Clones>(???)>Platformers>Shoot 'em Up>Beat 'em Up>Fighting Games>3D Platformers and RPGS>FPS
edited 23rd Jun '10 3:12:54 AM by Glowsquid
First of all, I'm sorry if it seemed like I was blaming Halo solely for Real is Brown, that wasn't my intent, my point was that it was one of the notable franchises in the genre that has popularized this style, and Halo is simply one that expanded this style; it was a starting point.
Oddly enough, this pretty much illustrates my point, the people who've been playing since the days of, say, the pac-man clones have naturally played up and through to the FPS, while the FPS players have played.... The FP Ses, once more, "misinformation" based on lack of experience, and being the majority, the industry is afraid of changing a formula they know will work %100 of the time and they will use it instead of aiming their energies into creating something even slightly innovative.
Also, in the SNES era we had three big genres at least, the platformer, the RPG, and the fighter, and if you're willing to get into the PC territory, the RPS games. Now, strictly in the US, 2 out of 3 consoles' main features are mostly FPS, Japan is basically unchanged from the prior big three genres, but when the single hit RPG out of the US is Mass Effect? and no decent platformer has come since the PS 2 (such as Sly Cooper, Jak and Ratchet & Clank, ), with the same effect repeating for this E3? there's a problem.
But the problem that arises is that realism is being treated as the solution to all gaming problems, I'm not against realism, but when it overrides the common sense to improve in all directions, I take issue.
Wanna talk Mario? Then since this is a franchise debate, you forgot to include Mario Golf, Mario Kart, Mario Party and Paper Mario, so that brings up our points up to:
Well Written storyline (Paper mario, and if you overanalyze Mario games, Mario in general; GO explains it better, fittingly enough) Multiplayer (Mario Kart, Mario Golf, Mario Party, and New Super Mario Bros.), Ease of play (psh. Any Mario game), Epic Scale (technically, Mario Galaxy :p ), Accessibility (I'm not gonna let my kid (hypothetical, admittedly,) play Gears of War with me, but guess what I am going to let him play?),
And if you include the Wario games? Well, i believe the comparison shows that on term of internation "size" that Mario trumps in this category, but since the american industry doesn't care about international, and focuses on domestic, the biggest franchise to follow changes from the genre shifting Completely accessible Mario to the FPS Only "Macho" Marcus Fenix.
Also, have this very stupid (truly idiotic) notion that as time goes by, we learn to improve, and that means that we don't regress to focusing on a single aspect of a game and leave the other 5 or 6 aspects because of "following the leader", but apparently, just suggesting that we might be going the wrong way and pointing that maybe, those older, obviously "classic status" games might hold some hints, just fall on deaf ears.
edited 23rd Jun '10 5:45:08 AM by Viredae
"Put the days together, and they start to do some damage. If the mean is in the middle, then I know that I will manage."Because its completely fucking stupid. Classic is a complete misnomer. The term is antique.
By the way, truly stellar job completely missing the entirety of the point. I mean, thats a great parody of how someone like him would react. Cause no-one could truly think hopping from planet to planet holding your arms out could really be compared to an apocalyptic battle holding the fate of all life in balance in terms of epic scale of consequence of actions, or minigames to deathmatch and capture the flag for pulse pounding multiplayer.
Oh, and in case you missed it, Little Big Planet, aka the best platformer ever made, came out this generation.
This is why you like TGO - because you don't have any clue whats going on! FPS is the sole focus? What the hell is wrong with you? Hack and Slash has become a huge focal point this year, a genre that never could have existed on the SNES. Racers are popping up running the gammut from realistic to cartoonish to chrome plated to blood caked. We even have things like Heavy Rain which defy all forms of genre containment. He have RPGs, JRPGs, FPRPGs. Open world, Closed world, stealth hybrid, full on attack, scheduled, free form, cyberpunk, old west, everything under the sun, from A! To! Z! JUST! LOOK!
EDIT: HALO HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BROWN! IT IS ONE OF THE MOST COLOURFUL SERIES THERE IS! LEARN WHAT YOU"RE TALKING ABOUT! GAAAAAAAAH!
edited 23rd Jun '10 6:07:10 AM by IndigoDingo
Except no, not even there. Halo is about the furthest thing from Real Is Brown. The main character is bright green, the enemies and environment are various mixture of pink, purple and blue, the brownest thing about the franchise is Sgt. Johnson. Hell, one of the biggest complain I've seen against the franchise is how fluo it is.
Nice to know sports and racers don't exist.
Because Oblivion, Fallout 3 (may have some FPS elements, but still) and Dragon Age were such massive flops.
You've got to show me examples of a movement to make games as a whole more "realist" outside of the FPS genre.
Paper Mario is often praised for having a "good" storyline, but see that's not true. The *plot* itself is cliché (find the Eight mystical Mac Guffins before the bad guys and kill the Big Bad. How original!) and predictable. The true strenght of Paper Mario is the excellent dialogue.
Ideally, accessibility should only refer to the learning cuve and such. Gears Of Wars is very accessible
Ironic you say that, because the Japanese industry is often critisczed (by among other guys, Kojima himself
) for being too stagnant and focused on itself. The grass is alway greener on the other side I guess.
EDIT:
Hack 'n' Slash really are just the evolution of the Beat 'em Up of yesteryears, though.
I know I and many others woud place it as a (less crappy) take on the FMV Game.
edited 23rd Jun '10 6:22:41 AM by Glowsquid
The connection between both cases is pretty tenuous. For Hack and Slash and Beat-Em-ups, I can certainly see the connection, but stuff like the enemy size and variability, how fluidly they control, how much more variable they are ( a punch button, a kick button and thats it, versus four different grapple attacks), the movement and all that, well, it feels like calling modern sports games the natural evolution of Pong. I guess technically, but they've come so far it doesn't feel right. Its like, whats the connection? You're a guy beating people up. I can see how much Bayonetta owes to Street Fighter 89.
As for Heavy Rain and FMV's, an FMV with more than one path isn't really an FMV is it?
edited 23rd Jun '10 6:31:47 AM by IndigoDingo
Heavy Rain is basically a Visual Novel with better production values and Quick-Time Events.
edited 23rd Jun '10 6:33:56 AM by Ponicalica
the future we had hoped for

I believe that noting that one is a massive egotist does not absolve one of it. Its simply acknowledging a flaw while making no effort whatsoever to try to change it.
See Zero Punctuation for a few good dozen examples.