Architect Address March 2022 (Patreon)

Hi everyone! It’s me, back with another Architect Address, that thingamabob where I talk about some of the videos that have been released recently, what’s going on with the channel and all that good stuff. After the bumper extra special architect address last time I’ll try and make this one a bit quicker but we do have two interesting videos to discuss so who knows.

First up is THE BIG DISCO ELYSIUM VIDEO ooooooh sweet mama this video is a longun, it’s by far the video I’ve put the most time and effort into and it nearly destroyed me, but god damn I refused to let it beat me and it’s finally out. Seriously, I know I touch on it in the video but the whole journey of me gradually coming back to the video and getting a bit further each time dovetailing into my overall reading of the game is not a coincidence and I think it lends my take a bit of a unique vibe.

As for what I actually ended up putting out, I sort of have mixed feelings on it which I suppose is to be expected but I think I did spend a little bit too long laying backstory groundwork and explaining the surprisingly convoluted mechanics of the mystery, particularly with the running back and forth with Klaasje section. I think if I didn’t structure the video chronologically I could’ve quite comfortably got it down to maybe 45 minutes. However, I think there is some benefit in approaching these big videos within the context of how you actually play them, and drawing a consistent narrative line from start to end so maybe it was for the best.

I think if I could’ve changed one thing about how I put the video together I would’ve had more space for just voiced dialogue and a focus on actual quotes but that would’ve made the video even longer. I can’t really speak to the viewing experience as the person who made the damn thing but I’m very conscious of the idea that Disco Elysium is conveyed almost entirely though text and it’s got to be very difficult to pay attention to what I’m saying AND read the text I’m explaining at the same time. I think I do a decent job of making the video fairly listenable, because I know that’s how a lot of people take in that content but equally… it’s not exactly a visually stimulating video no matter what I could do.

Surprisingly, despite my doubts, this video has received almost universally positive feedback which is very nice to see, and more people even watched it than I expected to. Err, sorry to say it though for all the people asking for more videos like this and that this one is their Favorite, I ain’t doing another one for a little while because good god this took it out of me. Wow.

The other video I released recently was a little thing called “is it possible to make feeling weak fun?” and err, yeah I think the elephant in the room on this one - and the reason why it feels a little disjointed in places is because I originally was going to talk about some kind of serious games with actual real-world themes like This War of Mine which it turned out were going to be in poor taste to make light of and say are fun when a country is getting invaded and civilians are actually getting killed. Yeah. That’s why I sort of awkwardly segue between various topics and there seems to be some stuff missing from the video.

Before even that though, the entire video was originally going to be about games as work I guess you’d call it? Games that aren’t really out to create a fantastic escapist experience but to simulate some sort of job, complete with all the bits that make jobs boring, but also satisfying. That’s why there’s so much talk on Death stranding and Viscera cleanup detail, because they’re sort of the core of the video - even if they’re not quite as obviously about feeling weak as the likes of, say, Sifu.

Speaking of, I think I lavished Sifu with quite a bit of praise in this video which I’m not sure is entirely deserved. It’s… an okay game buut it certainly isn’t going to dethrone the likes of a soulsborne game anytime soon. Besides the intended frustration that comes from its core mechanics, it’s just very very hard to read the combat and doging/blocking feels really bad. I think it’s an interesting example of a game that’s *actually* too hard, instead of just being sort of unapproachable like a souls game or a platinum brawler.

I dunno, it’s a game I have complex feelings on that I might come back to at some point, but it sure as hell FEELS very difficult and unfair in a way that other games that are technically more difficult don’t - it’s an interesting psychological thing that’s clearly kind of intended but might be a bit of an overreach.

In performance news, this one did unaccountably… well? I’m like 90% sure that this is a result of the fact that I cynically namedropped Elden ring juuust a little bit but also it seems to be having good feedback in general. I’m not sure why because to me it seems like a very fragmented video that basically talks about a lot of things I’ve already mentioned but hell if people are liking it then people are liking it! I’m not going to complain!

Well, that’s all that I can think of when it comes to conversation topics so I think i’ll leave it there as a bit of a short one - it’s totally not because I want to get back to playing a certain videogame - I think you can probably tell which one. Bye!