sephfire
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Posts posted by sephfire
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Three more days ... I'm not gonna make it ...
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But we gots ta have a burning for this week's witch hunt ...
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I think in the end I preferred the article over the video. There's a lot of filler (e.g. just you behind a lectern) and stock/Googled images, some of which fit the context only loosely (a jumping cat to illustrate "subtle"?). Some of them are actually pretty distracting, to the point I have to actually pause the video just to figure out how what I just saw is connected to what I just heard (e.g. charts and xkcd strips). If you really wanna be like Yahtzee, I'd suggest less "lol" pictures and more original art/animation. And one way to keep the images relevant is to imagine you're playing a game of Pictionary...without the words, are people still going to know what you're talking about?
More importantly though, not every noun has to have a corresponding picture.
It doesn't surprise me that these videos are exhausting to make, because they're exhausting to *watch* too. One thing I noticed is that you use several images over a short period of time for words that just synonyms for a single concept (e.g. "interested," "engaged," "care about"). Slow down, bro! One image per concept is usually sufficient. Although sometimes using a lot of similar words is a clue that you're actually repeating yourself, so in those cases you could just cut the fat and move on. Less words, less pictures.By the way, I resent your using Number Munchers as an example of "sucking all the fun out" of games. That game was AWESOME.
This is actually very helpful feedback. I was a bit concerned about some of these issues myself. I'll see if I can improve in some of these areas next time around.
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This one sounds really familiar, but I can't pinpoint it. I have a feeling some of these are doujin remixes, which would make sense because they're something most of the western audience wouldn't be familiar with, unlike OCR.
I actually thought the same thing, especially with the rock mixes. Several of them really have that doujin vibe.
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Most every one I listen to just sounds like a midi rip and wouldn't have taken that long to make. But then there are those which suddenly take a leap in quality which make me suspect he's borrowing from somewhere (if the shear number of mixes hadn't tipped us off to that already). I'm willing to bet he's at least padding that list with other peoples' work, but I don't know from where.
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Man I miss that guy.
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Very good stuff... tangential learning is certainly powerful, I've experienced it many, many times myself.
However, one problem is that many topics simply cannot work with this method, and you even cited one perhaps without realizing it: Math Blaster. Once you get past simple arithmetic, do you really think there is any non-standard educational method of helping the player learn about, say, Calculus? Trigonometry? Accounting? Engineering? At best, you can encourage the player to look up a few things when they're done playing (or link from directly within the game, as you suggested) but to meaningfully teach most topics, video games with the philosophy of "fun first" can't really work, IMO.
Definitely true. Tangential learning is a great way to get people engaged in a topic and start them down the path of learning, but you can only teach so much that way before you have to resort to more traditional education. But real interest in a topic can significantly help the learning process, and that's what tangential learning can be great for. It won't take someone all the way down the long "path of knowledge", but it will make sure they hit the ground running (so to speak).
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Most of the actual ideas and writing here is Portnow's doing. He sent some drafts of his article to me which I rewrote to fit my format better. You can see his source article at the link above. I suppose you can think of him as the original author, and I am the guy who wrote and directed the film adaptation.
I did write the previous two videos, though.
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The topic: the potential for games to teach without sacrificing entertainment value.
After my last video "lecture" (the one about sex in games) got such a surprising amount of attention, Activision game designer James Portnow approached me about collaboration. And collaborate we have. Of course, we were kind of indirectly collaborating anyway ... I quoted him in my last video at least four times. The guy writes some really interesting articles on game design. I highly recommend looking him up.
edit:
And, an extra special THANK YOU to CarboHydroM and housethegrate for unwittingly providing my intro and outro music!
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That is an interesting series of videos. I wish he hadn't tried to duplicate the Yahtzee voice. His "low and fast" is just hard to understand and dull to listen to. But I can appreciate the effort he's gone to to expose Gamestop's business practices. I mean, that's 90 minutes of video. I do less than ten minutes for every one of my similar videos and it drains me.
His execution might be lacking, but I hope the videos get plenty of attention. I know it won't put a dent in the steamroller that is Gamestop, but it's the thought that counts.
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Heavies are wicked fun to play on Fastlane. Turbine is ok, but I'd be fine without it too.
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Does anyone remember which video makes the FFX Yuna vs. FFX2 Yuna comparison? I'm trying to find it and am not succeeding.
I don't think Yahtzee has made that comparison in any of his videos. I made a small Yuna X/X-2 comparison in one of my videos, though, and they're pretty blatantly ... ahem, inspired by Zero Punctuation, so maybe you saw it there? I only briefly alluded to it, though, so maybe you're thinking of some other video entirely.
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Engineer and Spy both get harder to play the better the playerbase gets. I remember the first sentry I built on the first floor of 2Fort. It wasn't a very strategic placement, but it racked up seventeen kills in no time. Seventeen. I rarely get a third of that these days.
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Ok, if you happen to see a guy named catf00d in the server before it fills up and he gets booted, that was me.
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I have caved. Downloading TF2 on my wife's PC as we speak.
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That is as random as it is awesome.
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In general, I haven't been as impressed with Guitar Hero's offerings compared to Rock Band, but this feature does look pretty cool. They've really put some time into it.I'm interested to see how much it adds to the game. I can imagine some devoted gamers coming up with some really polished covers. As a remixer with no access to decent guitar, I want to try composing a guitar part in game and using it in a remix.
Thank god the peripherals for GH:WT and RB2 will be cross-compatible. That alone has given me enough motivation to try out World Tour.
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Care to point out any other platformer that had better graphics before DKC's release? And I don't mean from a subjective, artistic standpoint. I mean another platformer with pre-rendered, "3-D" graphics (something that hadn't been done before in a platformer).
Care to point out another platformer that had a series of floating, round containers that shot out it's protagonist like a canon, and it was player-controlled?
Care to point out a game that came out in 1994 that had a more influential soundtrack?
Care to point out a game released in 1994 that had more charm (i.e. a fake credits, or should I say kredits, scene)?
Now hush.
How laughable. You consider your opinion of the game's qualities to be objective! I am getting so fricken fed up with posters who think their opinion should be upheld as fact!It's funny cause it's true.
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My wife just got a new PC and I'm strongly tempted to buy TF2 again.
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Where did it say he was drunk?
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Poor guy. I hope his recovery goes ok. A wrecked hand could really take a toll on an acting career.
Although I guess it never stopped this guy.
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I lost it right around "*clap clap* OI!" I don't know how he manages one of these every week.
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Give me a wonderful computer and I will play TF2 with all of you until you are sick of me.
Also, I would like to not pay for it.
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Man, I remember when I was on Wayne's little editing staff. I should check in on the guy again sometime.
Rock Band 2
in General Discussion
Posted
From what I've read, it's improved. The strum bar is supposed to feel a lot better, it's wireless, the frets feel less "clicky" ... I guess we'll see.