The Player 1 Podcast Topic

Noo, still? In 2015? If so, that's sad

I dunno why it's such a bad idea. If you have overwhelming critical acclaim, you deserve a bonus. I don't see the issue. If you don't like it, well, bonuses don't have to be given out...
 
I dunno why it's such a bad idea. If you have overwhelming critical acclaim, you deserve a bonus. I don't see the issue. If you don't like it, well, bonuses don't have to be given out...

The reason why I hate it is because Obsidian lost out on ALL their bonuses because New Vegas's Metacritics was 1 below 85. Just a single point and Obsidian gets fucking nothing.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/ob...as-metacritic-score-studio-head/1100-6366337/
http://kotaku.com/5893595/why-are-game-developer-bonuses-based-on-review-scores

This sucks because it would then prompt developers to make their games for Metacritic scores, similar to movies being made as Oscar Bait just to grab those bonuses.

I would slightly tolerate a more gradient curve (bonus per point), but it's still susceptible to the problem above.
 
The reason why I hate it is because Obsidian lost out on ALL their bonuses because New Vegas's Metacritics was 1 below 85. Just a single point and Obsidian gets fucking nothing.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/ob...as-metacritic-score-studio-head/1100-6366337/
http://kotaku.com/5893595/why-are-game-developer-bonuses-based-on-review-scores

This sucks because it would then prompt developers to make their games for Metacritic scores, similar to movies being made as Oscar Bait just to grab those bonuses.

I would slightly tolerate a more gradient curve (bonus per point), but it's still susceptible to the problem above.

I really don't see any problem. It's a shame that their game - that I loved more than most reviewers - couldn't get them a bonus, but it is what it is. They did not deliver a higher metacritic. There are things about New Vegas where, if fixed, would have helped it's score and would have made it a better game, and I say that as a huge fan of Obsidian and New Vegas in particular. I just don't see the problem with incentivizing this.
 
I really don't see any problem. It's a shame that their game - that I loved more than most reviewers - couldn't get them a bonus, but it is what it is. They did not deliver a higher metacritic. There are things about New Vegas where, if fixed, would have helped it's score and would have made it a better game, and I say that as a huge fan of Obsidian and New Vegas in particular. I just don't see the problem with incentivizing this.

The problem extends far beyond New Vegas' own problems. Metacritic's importance isn't THE problem, it's a symptom of a deeper one. Publishers use it to basically curbstomp developers into unfavourable terms.

Of course, many games can't get funded without a publisher. They effectively have all the power since they got the money, but the least they could do is not be dicks. It's also the reason why a lot devs are going to Kickstarter (like Obsidian), though it is definitively a riskier proposition for the customer to buy-in to a concept rather than a final product, it has already yielded some great games.

And this isn't even getting into the problem of review scores and reviewers.

If you can't see the problem, then I guess there's nothing else to talk about *shrug*

Or this could all just be a single really bad case. Who knows?


Schreier is good peoples.
 
I don't see a problem with a publisher wanting a certain thing - unreasonable as it may be, it's totally up to them if they want to help fund and publish a game. I agree in this day and age with budgets being what they are it's -INSANE- how much money people need to make things how they want, but...gamers did this!
 
I'm just going to post a comment from another thread, regarding review scores and Metacritic.

I've long felt that the problem with review scores is that they're too granular. I think a five-point system (no half points) is the sweet spot because it offers a broad-strokes representation of how a reviewer feels.

But I also think it addresses some of the issues that seem to be rampant about reviews and scores

- a less precise score means that a little reading may be required.
- addresses issues about the whole scale not being used (Is there a noteworthy difference on a 10-point scale from 1-4? Those are all probably ones on a 5-point scale)
- Less queasiness about lower scores (I think people view a 3/5 differently than a 6/10).

Look at IGN's descriptions: 6 range is "OK," while 5 range is "mediocre"... those are so close to the same thing, is there any value to that difference? (Likewise everything from 0-3 ("Disaster" to "Painful")

RE: Metacritic, I like it as a quick reference. I don't make purchasing decisions on it, but I think it's a helpful resource -- though it's not just about the scores, the review blurbs let me pick and choose what reviews to read and help me evaluate the outlying opinions and whether they're relevant to me. It can steer my exploration around a game.

I've long thought Schreier is wrong about Metacritic. If publishers and developers are agreeing to terms revolving around Metacritic and those terms harm the industry, that's on them.

You might disagree with that... but his idea that aggregating scores hurts everyone (including gamers?) I don't buy it.
 
Adult Swim is truly the new Ubisoft announcing new games while their launch of Oblitus today is resulting to crash-to-desktop for some customers.

Chris Johnston is a poop programmer and something-something Nintendo sucks.

I really wanted to play Oblitus god damn Greg's porcelain brow I really did
 
Adult Swim is truly the new Ubisoft announcing new games while their launch of Oblitus today is resulting to crash-to-desktop for some customers.

Chris Johnston is a poop programmer and something-something Nintendo sucks.

I really wanted to play Oblitus god damn Greg's porcelain brow I really did

I am not a programmer nor have I ever claimed to be.

BUT - thanks for the tip on that fix. The *REAL* programmers are checking it out now and hopefully we'll have a solution soon.
 
I am not a programmer nor have I ever claimed to be.

BUT - thanks for the tip on that fix. The *REAL* programmers are checking it out now and hopefully we'll have a solution soon.

That's exactly what someone who programmed ALL of the game would say to avoid being fired! I'm on to you, Chris Johnston!

Anyways the real devs responded and said they found the error based on my temp fix and are pushing a patch soon.

People go buy Oblitus!
 
great show guys, missed the first 25mins though, so i have to go catch up.

glad you're back mik.

i was really hoping greg would mess up the outro and tell us about the voice mails. :P
 
Having Mike back was great.

Greg also was on fire with the jokes.

And Rich is too positive. I thought this was about video games.
 
Looking forward to listening with Greg and Mike. I find they have some of the most interesting discussions, for me.
 
Episode 434: 50 Shades of Phillips

This week! Guest Rich Grisham joins Greg and Mike (gasp!) for some good talkin'. Thrill to conversations about The Order 1886, Rock Band, games as a service, VR headsets, Life Is Strange, The Wolf Among Us, Apotheon and more! Join us, won’t you?

Audio: http://traffic.libsyn.com/playerone/03_03_15-Episode434.mp3
Blog: http://www.playeronepodcast.com/434
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/player-one-podcast-video-games/id202883543?mt=2
Youtube: http://youtu.be/6ddtFTubR64
Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/p1podcast
 
The guy wanting a strategy without frills can try Military Madness. The original game is a TG-16 and the remake is only in PS3, Xbox Live and Wiiware.

Is like Advance Wars, but each unit is very important because you can't produce new ones, only conquest factories that has other units stored. This factories can repair units too.

The terrain and position has a huge influence in the battle.

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MilitaryMadness3-685x385.jpg
 
I like Rich Grisham but damn man, you and Greg both, dive into Life Is Strange with no reservations. Just do it, goddammit!
 
The guy wanting a strategy without frills can try Military Madness. The original game is a TG-16 and the remake is only in PS3, Xbox Live and Wiiware.

Is like Advance Wars, but each unit is very important because you can't produce new ones, only conquest factories that has other units stored. This factories can repair units too.

The terrain and position has a huge influence in the battle.

687474703a2f2f7265736f757263652e6d6d676e2e636f6d2f47616d65732f5769692f6c617267652f4d696c69746172792d4d61646e6573732d332e6a7067


MilitaryMadness3-685x385.jpg

Truth. Still play this game with friends to this day. Easy to learn, tough to master. Bought the PS3 version but haven't played it yet.
 
It was a pretty good episode, but did CJ actually edit together the original theme song? While that Garageband track was definitely part of it, it sounded different to me. Could just be that it was so long ago.

I always like hearing things I agree with, so it was nice to hear Greg and Mike talk about Metacritic. I don't love "buy it/don't buy it" as a review score, but I do wonder what Metacritic would look like if it adopted a Rottentomatoes style meter that decoded a review's content into "likes it/doesn't like it" and used that data to generate a score.
 
Good-ass episode though overall. Rich laughs at THE CORNIEST SHIT but it's genuine, I really like the genuine laughter out of him.
 
It was great to have Mike back, now we just need to get all four of you together and have a real ass episode!

And I dug the old intro music, I was feeling all nostaligic haha. There was a 1UP podcast that used that same garage band music as an intro too right? Was it 1UP Yours or one of the other ones?

Edit: CJ has to be hyped for that Rock Band 4 announcement, I know I am. I'm so glad that the old instruments will be supported.
 
On the topic of Metacritic and New Vegas, the bigger tragedy there is that the game didn't reach its target score mostly because of bugs. And the biggest responsible for them were Bethesda themselves, as they moved up the launch date of the game and they were the ones who handled QA for it. (though why reviewers put New Vegas to task over those issues and not Skyrim I'll never know).

There are some very interesting posts in this thread highlighting some really nasty practices by Bethesda.
 
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