Jimquisition: A Game By Any Other Name

[Jimothy Sterling]

A Game By Any Other Name

What effect does a game's name have on the quality of the actual software? According to some gamers, everything! The idea that a game is bad because its name places it into an existing series is rather rife in the community, with recent Silent Hill and Devil May Cry entries providing a fertile bed of misguided anger.

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[Balkan]

Jimmy , I fucking hate the intro song , please change it

 

[Jimothy Sterling]

Your "just like in Moulin Rouge" comment made me laugh hysterically. Thanks for that!

 

[Something Amyss]

"THank Godwin's Law for me!"

Awesome.

I was ready to disagree with Jim on this, but he makes some good points. The only major contention I have is that naming something after a series is sometimes a bad idea solely because it impacts the market.

Also, the new Dante looks like a douche, but my opinion of the game is not swayed by that. The game doesn't look all that appealing but I will probably get it if enough people like it. He'll still look stupid, however.

 

[LG Jargon]

Great video, Jim. I just have one small complaint...

If that was a direct sequel to The Fifth Element, why aren't you running around in a wife-beater with a shaved head, blasting aliens and fucking Milla Jovovich? I demand answers!

 

[Kitsune Hunter]

Thank You Jim another good video as usual, I was hoping you would address this issue as I love Devil May Cry and i'm looking forward to DMC, but the insane fan purists are really starting to annoy me with their crys of RUINED FOREVER just because Dante doesn't have white hair anymore and no matter how much you tried to reason with them, they don't listen and apparently I'm not a true fan in their eyes.

Thank God for you sir

 

[Gizmo1990]

In regards to DMC I agree that calling it crap based on the way 'Dante' looks is stupid but I still think it will be crap. Based on the trailers I have seen 'Dante' sounds like a 12 year old who just lernt the word Fuck and while the combat does look stylish it seems to be a lot slower.

I also have no faith in Ninja Theroy as I have never enjoyed a game made by them and they seem to be run by a complete douche bag. They say that the game is set in a parallel universe but that was obviously pulled out of their arse once they saw the fanboy backlash.

But as Jim has pointed out there are many retards out there who claim a game is crap based purly on what it is called or if their favorite character happens to have a different haircut to the last game and all I can say about them is that natural selection has some power lifting to do.

 

[infinity_turtles]

Gotta say Jim, I disagree... To a point. As far as I'm concerned, the entire point of a series of games is so that people know what to expect and can become attached to a setting without worrying that it'll change into something they hate/don't enjoy. That can be massively disappointing. As far as personal experiences go, I think Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter is a pretty good roguelike, but when I first played it the game made me feel horrible. I love the other Breath of Fire games, BoF3 having been the game that made me fall in love with RPGs, and I'd been really looking forward to a new one. Expectations do alter your experience. And setting expectations is, from this consumers perspective, the point of brands.

In addition, even spin-off games can change the way you perceive titles in the main series. Art style is usually minor as far as this goes, but by making a Silenthill game, even a spin-off, a combat heavy dungeon crawler where all the classic monsters have stats, you demystify and sap the horror from other titles. Now, the degree that people take this tends to be pretty stupid, but I see a reason for people to be upset. If you want an drastically different game in tone, style, and gameplay, you should probably be attaching it to an original IP, because if you draw heavily from what that already exists but change that much, you will be altering future experiences fans have with the setting.

 

[Imp_Emissary]

Interesting way to look at it Jim. Judge something on its quality, and not surface things like just the looks or name.

Hmmm.....Why does that sound so familiar?

Any way, hope ya get better. I didn't really hear much of a difference with your voice, but I didn't really notice when Yahtzee got sick/got a new mic and everyone else thought he was on death's door or something.

 

[Ickabod]

Am I the only one that was hoping Jim had some word on a 5th Element sequel?

 

[Mr. Omega]

I love spin-offs. It's a way for IPs to do all sorts of different things without risking alienating the fans of the actual games. Some of the best games I've ever played were spin-offs.

the Paper Mario/Mario and Luigi games
Mario Kart
the Persona series
Final Fantasy Tactics
Megaman X/Battle Network/ZX/Legends/Whatever

I wonder what it would have been like if these games were coming out today with gamers' current mentality...

And yeah. 4:00 onward is a nice summary of a big contributor to the "stagnation of game series": the fact that gamers complain whenever someone does try to do something different. And a nice counter-argument.

 

[Neonsilver]

I'm not a fan of the silent hill series or dmc.

While I have to agree that hating a game just because it's different from it's predecessors is stupid, I have to say that it doesn't seem that dmc gets hate just because it looks different.
From what I've heard about the 2 games you mentioned the silent hill game is somehow connected to the silent hill series, but dmc is a game that doesn't seem to have any relationship with previous games. It plays in a different world, dante is a different character.

Both games should get a chance to shine, but dmc doesn't seem to be a spinoff, it looks like a different game that got the dmc name to increase sales.

It happens to often that a known name is put on a game just to increase sales and that caused an immediate defense stance in the community when a game looks like that.

 

[GamemasterAnthony]

Definitely agree with this. Now if only we can get the game INDUSTRY to listen as well since some of them seem to suffer a bit from sequelitis (and not the awesome videos by Egoraptor either) and want to do same ol' same ol' with their series rather than branch out and try something different in the same series like with the new SH and DMC.

 

[cornmancer]

I used to think like that when Nuts and Bolts came out, but then I realized that I would never have touched it if it wasn't called Banjo Kazooie, and I fucking loved that game.

P.S. So pumped for DmC even if it has the stupidest acronym in gaming history and some bad character design.

 

[Bato]

I think what people mean is that if the developers weren't working under the rule and lore constraints of an already existing universe then the developers would excel instead of throwing in [Plot element from first game].

I believe it somewhat because some games just plain suck because they tried to cram in past elements into an otherwise different game and it feels very unnatural and I get the sense that the Developers just wish they were making something else.

That Silent Hill game looks good to me though. Not scary in the least, but fun.

 

[geizr]

Play what you enjoy. To hell with the whiners. Move on with life.

 

[tmande2nd]

I HATE people who think a series is ruined FOREVER if it changes anything.

Dragon Age 2? Voiced PC? RUUUUUUUIIIIIIINNNEDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fallout 3? NOT ISOMETRIC? BETTTRRRRAYYYL!!!!!!!
Oblivion? NO SPEARS! HERESY!
etc etc etc.

Some change is bad yes, but a lot of the time people go WAY to far.