Poll: Does anyone else feel like "Extra Credits" is full of shit?

[Casual Shinji]

The show just didn't really have much range beyond talking about the "whimsical, flower power majesty of games".

It never got pissed off at something, or took a real direct stand. It was always willy-nillying with the issues it covered, and it got very tiring to sit through utimately.

 

[Lono Shrugged]

I always took it with a grain of salt, but kinda resented the fact the end of every episode they would appeal to games players far and wide to rise up and cast off the shackles of society and embrace your fellow man/fem/trans in a gigantic show of the unity engine (or something) I used to close my eyes at that part because I was half expecting the wank to shoot out my monitor and hit my face.

I also remember the bearded super hero (James?) was meant to be this hotshot games developer who would roll into games studios fix EVERYTHING and spend the rest of the time handing out sunglasses before peeling out of the parking lot while the staff re-enact the last scene from the movie Shane.

I caught an episode on the Penny Arcade where a greasy faced being mumbles and sobs on the camera about how video games nearly ruined his life and gave his cat diabetes or something. All of a sudden my mental picture of this guy as a guru of games was kinda ruined and I find it hard to stomach watching them lecture me on psychology when they don't seem to have a handle on it themselves. (I don't think your problems had anything to do with games) It felt calculated and exploitive, like the guy was trying to get some sympathy sex at the next convention.

To sum it up, when Jim from Jimquisition shouts at me about games I feel like he's taking the piss a bit and doesn't take himself too seriously. With EC it's like breakfast on a tuesday with my parents and I am hung over.

 

[willofbob]

uhh... they ALL actually work on games. It's their day-job.

 

[Meatspinner]

Somewhere between them saying Fallout:NV has a bad amnesia plot (it didn't have one) and telling us the need for creativity yet at the same time saying that we must adhere to "The Hero's Journey" lest we be cast in the fire, I stopped taking them seriously.
Yes the later backpedaled on those statements (like so many others), but that doesn't exactly fill me with confidence.

 

[Konatacalypse]

Nope.

I consistently agree with what they have to say.

There's no denying that they can lay on the pretentiousness a bit thick though. Also, some people find them to be condescending.

Pretty much this.

They are optimist in an industry/community run by pessimist.

I always took it with a grain of salt, but kinda resented the fact the end of every episode they would appeal to games players far and wide to rise up and cast off the shackles of society and embrace your fellow man/fem/trans in a gigantic show of the unity engine (or something) I used to close my eyes at that part because I was half expecting the wank to shoot out my monitor and hit my face.

I also remember the bearded super hero (James?) was meant to be this hotshot games developer who would roll into games studios fix EVERYTHING and spend the rest of the time handing out sunglasses before peeling out of the parking lot while the staff re-enact the last scene from the movie Shane.

I caught an episode on the Penny Arcade where a greasy faced being mumbles and sobs on the camera about how video games nearly ruined his life and gave his cat diabetes or something. All of a sudden my mental picture of this guy as a guru of games was kinda ruined and I find it hard to stomach watching them lecture me on psychology when they don't seem to have a handle on it themselves. (I don't think your problems had anything to do with games) It felt calculated and exploitive, like the guy was trying to get some sympathy sex at the next convention.

To sum it up, when Jim from Jimquisition shouts at me about games I feel like he's taking the piss a bit and doesn't take himself too seriously. With EC it's like breakfast on a tuesday with my parents and I am hung over.

Well looky here, a wild example appeared.

 

[sanquin]

uhh... they ALL actually work on games. It's their day-job.

Exactly. Well, one is a games journalist, another worked at some known names and is still working at one. I also don't get why they should give all those examples and pick games apart. Their episodes aren't about what games are good or bad. They're not a review show. And they do often give examples of what games did something right or wrong, they just don't go into huge detail about it.

I find it funny though that a bunch of random people on the net that DON'T work in the games industry, are criticizing people that DO work in it and make a show about game mechanics and how to do things better. Sure they can be a bit too optimistic and dreamy, and their own opinion about what games should be often shows even if they try to keep it out. But that's no reason to bash them like this.

 

[Lono Shrugged]

Well looky here, a wild example appeared.

A wild example of?

 

[DanielBrown]

Kind of, yeah. I only watched a few episodes because the show seemed so popular, but I only thought it was pretentious preaching.

 

[johnnnny guitar]

I liked their earlier videos but now they just feel massively pretentious and condescending I don't know how I went from liking their earlier videos to hating them with a passion.

Then again on the flip side I went from hating Jim sterling to loving him (even if I don't agree with him on everything)

 

[deadish]

I don't always agree with what they say, but that's just the nature of it when you explore and discuss a topic.

It's important to understand that everything they say is their opinion and their perspective.

As for walking the talk, James is a consultant who has worked at many development houses.

Why don't he start his own company you ask? Well, the burden of running a full development house is not for everyone. Not everyone is Gabe Newell.

Developing games is a lot of hard work, there tons of things to worry about in game development. Having a good idea about what needs to be done and pulling it off are 2 completely different things when it comes to large scale projects like games - yes, even indie games are relatively large scale now; thatgamecompany almost imploded making Journey,

http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/08/14/how-thatgamecompany-struggled-to-save-journey

they were very fortunate they had a very understanding publisher, Sony - surprise, surprise.

 

[WoahDan]

I usually agree with what they have to say, but every now and then they'll say something flat out wrong. They make mistakes like anyone else but at least they are interesting (usually).

 

[SweetShark]

They can be guilty of both pretentiousness and naivete, but I still mostly like them. While I might not always agree with them, they at least bring good discussion.

^^^

This actually.
Even you know that some of the things you hear for a specific subject is wrong and you believe otherwise, they at leats justify why they believe so.
They don't just say something without having a solid reason for their part. I like them for that.

Think what would happened if Extra Credits WAS ALWAYS RIGHT but never justify their reason.
It would be very boring, don't you agree?

Another example is the reviews of specific reviewer like Spoony One. Most of the times he is full of craps, but at least have a reason why he believe that.
He is not like "OMG! THIS GAME IS A BETRAYL AND THE DEVELOPERS MUST FEEL BAD!!!"

[of course latetly Spoony act like an assh*le without having a reason why and he speak like a retard without thinking, but this is another story for another time....]

 

[Fawful]

I think you may be watching the show with a different set of expectations to what they actually provide. But each to their mothers cats, or something.

As for the mechanics of Loneliness, it does have them. You control a dot, if you move that dot towards other dots the other dots fade away. They were just using Loneliness as a simple hands-on example to present their point of view that wouldn't cost the viewer anything other than five minutes.

I do kinda think that they have been rushing things a bit though, if they didn't need to release a new episode every week it might give them more time to better convey what they're trying to say. But eh, I'm probably still going to watch the show.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

No I don't think they are a full of shit I do thing they are pretentious and wrong from time to time and sometimes their videos grate on my nerves. An example, of was the JRPGs not being RPGs because of reasons. I was annoyed at this because they gave away their opinion near the start with a single image in the video and it then bored the fuck out of me as I knew the same old tired argument they would make. They did not make a new argument other than point out the eroge novel thing and then tried to make it sound like they were a bad thing, At leas they did in my opinion but maybe not intended that way.

 

[Threeseventyfive]

Yes.

They are, have been and will eternally be 100% full of shit.

/thread

 

[GundamSentinel]

Full of shit? No.

Naive, pretentious and condescending? They are often guilty of that. They also have a habit of kicking in open doors. Still, I've often enjoyed what they had to say and the problems they point out even though they don't offer any realistic solutions. It's always good to see things from a different point of view.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

A bunch of pretentious idiots yapping about art all the time. They even took Bioware's side on the whole Mass Effect 3 issue. After that there is no redemption for them in my eyes.

Here's a bunch of people who actually think that Bioware made an artistic choice when they made that abomination of an ending. That's how retarded they can be.

 

[Legion]

Nope.

I consistently agree with what they have to say.

There's no denying that they can lay on the pretentiousness a bit thick though. Also, some people find them to be condescending.

This really. I'd frequently watch their videos and find myself agreeing with what they said, but occasionally sigh at the way they went about explaining their point.

Much in the same way as the Jimquisition and Zero Punctuation really.

That said, I have not watched any of the videos made since they left the Escapist.