Questions & Answers: August 12th, 2020 (Patreon)

The Great Leveler Asks
What is a story telling trope you want to die? Do you have a moment when you realized you were tired of seeing this trope? 

Too many. 

I'll spare you a rant about saving the world, I already did a video on that, but, seriously, fuck flash forwards. Alpha Protocol gets away with it because the character you're talking to in the Interrogation room actually changes his dialogue according to your actions.

But Shadow of the Tomb Raider jumping to a plane crash that happens less than an hour in to the game? Come on!

There's an excellent introduction to Walt Williams' memoir (lead writer of Spec Ops: The Line), where he recounted getting a call from his producers during a voice-over session with Nolan North, that the game's introduction would be the helicopter turret sequence. 

Walt promptly asked "the fuck?"

Being that the introduction was going to happen regardless of what he said, during the VO session, he wrote down the lines for Nolan North to record, and that's why there's two different pieces of dialogue between the flash forward, and the scene itself in-game.

So I that trope likely stems from Publishers and/or Developers being worried about their game not being exciting enough, in which case, take a note from DOOM, and just make your game interesting right away instead of insulting your audience with laziness.

DaCody Asks
What would be the worst peripheral to use in the shambles competition?

The PS1 steering wheels I broke every three months as a kid. Thank god my Dad also played and empathized, or he probably would've stopped after visiting EBGames for the third time in one year.

Oh, and for those who aren't familiar with the Shambles Championship I partake in.

 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwByts4CkdG2Oc_LO77wD3w 

OzarkTempses Asks
What's your opinion on Subverse?

Last time I was asked this question with friends, I confused it with  Sundered, so I won't repeat that mistake. I'll be curious to see the conversation around the game, though I won't think it'll be nearly as controversial as one would assume. AO-rated games have been on steam for a while now and no one really seems to care.

As for the game itself, we've only seen screenshots to my knowledge, so can't really comment on gameplay or you know what. All I know is if the game continues StudioFOW's reputation of monster dicks, tentacles, and rape fantasies, I'll leave that to the Hentai fans.

Jacob Bartels Asks
What was the first character customization menu that you got lost in?

Oblivion.

It was my first RPG, so that rather came with the territory. Though since then, I often don't spend too much time in character customization menus. My pattern is typically, see if I can get the character to approximate me, often this fails, which results in using the default male or making a female action hero.

The_Surviv0r Asks
Do you think there's a market for single player and more story focus games that take parts inside the world like say League of Legends? I've always enjoyed their small cinematics that focus on the story but I don't play LoL because the gameplay bore me to death and the story is irrelevant in it. Any franchise you'd like to see getting this treatment?

Absolutely. Spin-offs are the perfect opportunity to explore things like that and potentially get people involved with universes they'd otherwise have no interest in. The EVE Online FPS games might've been complete trash, but they were a great a idea with lots of potential.

Holy Shift Asks
What example of violence in art (not just games) really made you uncomfortable/what makes violence in art uncomfortable for you? Personal example as an illustration – Irreversible and it's fire extinguisher beatdown.

Only God Forgives' torture scene in the club by the Officer. Far too drawn out for no real purpose other than to witness a character's pointless suffering. It's rare that violence in media gets to me, because it is at the end of the day fantasy, but things like that and gorefests such as SAW don't interest me as they more create disgust than tension. Though I am aware in SAW, that's very much the intent. It's meant to make people in the theater go "OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

Matthew Viq Asks
What is your current stance on the PS3/360/Wii generation in comparison to the most recent generation of consoles (PS4/Switch/XBOX)? Do you feel that major publishers still have it in them to release quality games that come out of nowhere i.e. Spec Ops: The Line?

With Prey, Nier, RE7, Control, Sekiro, Fallen Order, and more, yes, absolutely, but just like the 7th generation, they've squandered their potential in this effort to raise funds by using their record breaking profits to publish fewer games rather than more, making returns over a period of years via micro-transactions.

With titles like Star Wars: Squadrons on the way and the increase in more middle market titles, I'm really hoping we can be an evolved version of the past where things aren't so reliant on mega franchises, or if they are, to at least allow experimentation within them.

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