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Giant Bomb X | Built-In Automatic Death Thing For Secret People

It's really weird how much this got hyped up. Like it was something amazing and mysterious before the game came out.. and it was just a context button at the start of the game.

Huh, I don't remember seeing anything of the sort. Just someone posting a screenshot on Twitter and people having a laugh at it on podcasts.
 
Against my better judgement, I'm taking a page from the book of Dan and getting on the DDP Yoga train.

Just giving you a hard time, Dan. ; )
 

jaina

Member
It was an opinion piece written by Zach Gage (dev of Ridiculous Fishing) and published on Polygon. You might not agree but I don't like when this is generalized to the whole site. Even if you're in the camp of pretty much always disagreeing with Polygon's reviews / opinion pieces.

I, too, would like a Columbo game, Alex.

Vinny's Columbo impression is terrible, lol.

I only know Columbo from several parodies, and I have indeed seen better ones. But the quicklook itself is great, I devoured it and put Sherlock Holmes on my wishlist.
 
I like the Kotaku piece about the stealth kissing. Some people just don't want game criticism I guess. To some people, thinking critically about a game is equal to stirring up controversy.
 

Myggen

Member
I like the Kotaku piece about the stealth kissing. Some people just don't want game criticism I guess. To some people, thinking critically about a game is equal to stirring up controversy.

I'm guessing you're talking about the Polygon piece?

And no, you can disagree with a piece of criticism without being against game criticism in general. I welcome all criticism of the medium and think it will only make it better, but at the same time I'm allowed to say that I think that that Polygon piece was both badly written and made much out of pretty much nothing.
 
I like the Kotaku piece about the stealth kissing. Some people just don't want game criticism I guess. To some people, thinking critically about a game is equal to stirring up controversy.

Let the criticism come. Let's talk about games I love doing that.

Let's not have it be terrible trash and headline attention grabbing.

I genuinely believe there is not one person in games journalism that can handle real well written, concise, intelligent, thought provoking criticism and analysis. Most of them are extremely young, few went to school for it, most have spent their entire career in magazines meant to sell things, or websites made to get clicks and very few have actually attempted or shown that that is the direction they would like to go.

It's extremely hard to do. It's a rare thing to find for movies, books or plays which is why writers will stay in one place for long periods of their life and work for the New Yorker or The New York Times.

I guess you could say I'm complaining about having lots of poor attempts, and how could they get better if they don't practice! I dunno, but I don't want to waste my time reading their practice. Wake me up when it's good and I'll take it seriously.

The other issue is of course what you're aiming at is whether the audience would be there to support it. I don't know that either.
 

danm999

Member
I like the Kotaku piece about the stealth kissing. Some people just don't want game criticism I guess. To some people, thinking critically about a game is equal to stirring up controversy.

I'm all for criticism, it just has to be well founded and insightful. That Polygon piece is neither.
 
it just strikes me as clumsy grasping at the video game equivalent of literary analysis. which, somewhat embarrassingly, is what my bachelor's degree is in. I just look at that article and cringe thinking of some of my 1st and 2nd year papers. You can't convince me that whole subject is interesting beyond the initial hypothesis.

I mean, maybe it would be if it was actually intentional and not just developers trying to think of a clever way to introduce mechanics. there's nothing to support that they're drawing lines between love and violence, or a larger metacommentary about reducing all ranges of human emotion to the same rote series of button presses.

and maybe that's why we're faced with a generation of people raised on games who can't differentiate between fiction and threatening someone's life and wellbeing, because after all, it's just button presses.

Shadows of Mordor is not about that.
 

Wunder

Member
it just strikes me as clumsy grasping at the video game equivalent of literary analysis. which, somewhat embarrassingly, is what my bachelor's degree is in. I just look at that article and cringe thinking of some of my 1st and 2nd year papers. You can't convince me that whole subject is interesting beyond the initial hypothesis.

I mean, maybe it would be if it was actually intentional and not just developers trying to think of a clever way to introduce mechanics. there's nothing to support that they're drawing lines between love and violence, or a larger metacommentary about reducing all ranges of human emotion to the same rote series of button presses.

and maybe that's why we're faced with a generation of people raised on games who can't differentiate between fiction and threatening someone's life and wellbeing, because after all, it's just button presses.

Shadows of Mordor is not about that.

did you change your avatar
 

Zaph

Member
Let the criticism come. Let's talk about games I love doing that.

Let's not have it be terrible trash and headline attention grabbing.

I genuinely believe there is not one person in games journalism that can handle real well written, concise, intelligent, thought provoking criticism and analysis. Most of them are extremely young, few went to school for it, most have spent their entire career in magazines meant to sell things, or websites made to get clicks and very few have actually attempted or shown that that is the direction they would like to go.

It's extremely hard to do. It's a rare thing to find for movies, books or plays which is why writers will stay in one place for long periods of their life and work for the New Yorker or The New York Times.

I guess you could say I'm complaining about having lots of poor attempts, and how could they get better if they don't practice! I dunno, but I don't want to waste my time reading their practice. Wake me up when it's good and I'll take it seriously.

The other issue is of course what you're aiming at is whether the audience would be there to support it. I don't know that either.

Yup. This is the same reason why I didn't care if gaming sites covered GamerGate or not - the breadth and sensitivity of the subject is way out of game journo's league. It's no surprise that most of the really interesting reads came out of mainstream non-gaming sites.

The industry (as a popular medium) is in its infancy and that's clearly reflected by the quality of critique it receives. Hell, we're still at a point where most of the press just uses it as a stepping stone to get into dev or publisher side because nobody considers it a lifelong vocation.
 
If this COD screenshot will not result in a hilarious discussion on the Bombast I will be really disappointed. Have to cross post it here.

wrong image

B1dfgAvCEAANFDu.png:large
 

Myggen

Member
Anyone got any info on when the review embargo on COD: Advanced Warfare lifts? The internet is telling me November 3rd at midnight PST, but I have no idea if that's correct. Really interested in Jeff's take on the game, it might be the game that gets me into COD again...maybe. Probably not.

wrong image

lol
 

Xater

Member
Anyone got any info on when the review embargo on COD: Advanced Warfare lifts? The internet is telling me November 3rd at midnight PST, but I have no idea if that's correct. Really interested in Jeff's take on the game, it might be the game that gets me into COD again...maybe. Probably not.

Yeah it's tonight.
 
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