Extra Credits
May 5, 2011 10:57 AM   Subscribe

 
Oh, I've been following these for a while. The gaming community frequently drives me to despair (see: virtually any major gaming release, news or controversy), so it's great to see a bunch of people with a genuinely thoughtful take on things.
posted by anaximander at 11:04 AM on May 5, 2011


Previously.
posted by BeerFilter at 11:15 AM on May 5, 2011


Okay, so far I've only watched the one on creating female characters, and I can say that this is excellent.
posted by Navelgazer at 11:26 AM on May 5, 2011


I think I prefer the bridled (as in put to work) vitriol of Yahtzee, also of the same site.
posted by LD Feral at 11:36 AM on May 5, 2011


Another vote for Extra Credits. They take games seriously, tackle important issues for games as an art form, and make their points clearly, concisely, and passionately.
posted by Grimp0teuthis at 11:42 AM on May 5, 2011


According to RockPaperShotgun, Daniel Floyd, the narrator of these videos (who now does the videos with a dedicated artist and a game designer) wanted to make a media studies presentation in college that was inspired by Yahtzee's style that featured video games. His first video and a few other early ones are on YouTube, although they've been remade/revisited for Escapist with the full team.
posted by mccarty.tim at 11:52 AM on May 5, 2011


Just watched the Achievements video, and compared to this article by an actual developer, the Extra Credits video was shallow and simplistic, discussing almost no useful metrics for what makes a good achievement or even how to understand them. If that's one of the best videos you can dredge up, I think I'm going to leave this off my list of things to keep up with.
posted by TypographicalError at 12:00 PM on May 5, 2011 [1 favorite]


TypographicalError, check out the one on Choice and Conflict before you decide you're done with it for good.
posted by Navelgazer at 12:05 PM on May 5, 2011


Haha, this guy has a voice like someone who has literally used a bathroom at some point. I bet he owns office supplies.
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 12:34 PM on May 5, 2011


>the Extra Credits video was shallow and simplistic...

I think your expectations were too high. Extra Credits is meant to just to start conversations and get people thinking seriously about videogames in an entertaining and accessible way, rather than to compete with articles that delve into deep theory. Escapist Magazine has a lot of longer-form content in text articles, if you want to scratch that itch.
posted by Grimp0teuthis at 12:49 PM on May 5, 2011


Related, the Smithsonian has announced the results of their selection process for their upcoming Art of Videogames exhibit this afternoon.

Predictably, the process was flawed, picking four games of different genres from each notable system of each generation, as if each system were equal and did all genres equal service. As a result, there's no Mega Man 2 or Metroid because that slot had to go to Super Mario 3, but it should still be interesting, and at least one of my all-time favorite games, Final Fantasy Tactics, secured one of the coveted slots.
posted by Navelgazer at 12:58 PM on May 5, 2011


I'm a big fan of pseudo-academic discussions and analyses of games. The guys who make Kingdom of Loathing recently started up a podcast called Video Games Hot Dog which is also pretty fun.
posted by painquale at 3:11 PM on May 5, 2011


Late to this party.

As a indie game developer, Extra Credits makes me really happy. While Yahtzee is certainly more entertaining, I think Extra Credits often hits harder on issues that are important, especially with regards of where, perhaps, the industry should be going. It might be a bit pretentious for one person to stand up and say, this is what's wrong with gaming - but I happen to agree with their views, and I think perhaps many out there do.

Their commentary on EA marketing is a very good example of good, dare I say it, journalism.
posted by Han Tzu at 12:20 PM on May 10, 2011


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