UPDATE: as of 9/13/11 this video is now at THIS LINK
The Playstation Network Blackout should teach gamers and the games industry a hard lesson. (Busy night, more written thoughts later, for now... enjoy!)
You're getting better at the nutty gag-based stuff. If you don't want to go and hire actors from the local community college, I think you should try and get a hold of some of your local fan-base. It would be better to see you interact with other humans than with special effects.
Personally, I don't like the idea of the cloud. I don't like the idea of not being in charge of my own fies 24-7, or that all it takes is one bad hack and all of my stuff is gone, or that all I would have is essentially a screen with a modem attached rather than a computer I can manage myself. I like my games like I like my books and movies: in my hand, owned by me, and not at the whim of some server or facility who knows where.
I like my online services free and optional. If they want me to pay more money to use a game or anything that I've already purchased (I'm looking at you, subscription-based MMOs) they'll have to get their money elsewhere. If they want me to be online to use something I would have to pay for anyways for just to keep an eye on me, they can kiss my cash goodbye.
Maybe it's because I'm the type of person who doesn't need internet everywhere I go to feel like I'm connected, or stylish, or whyever people feel they need smartphones and 3G connections constantly. But whatever it is, I don't buy into this. The cloud can go frost over in the antarctic for all I care.
Bob, I think you need better integration between story and gameplay. :-) I can't help but think this might be more effective if the analysis and the narrative tied together better. With this video, we got a few minutes of your usual insightful commentary, then you abruptly switched to the Bunnyface storyline, then jumped back & forth again. So basically we're thinking about your commentary, getting interested in it, then we have to wait and watch another storyline that has nothing to do with the analysis except you being central to both. It'd be like if I was watching Al Pacino in the Godfather, then half-hour in it switches to the documentary Looking for Richard where Al Pacino talks about Shakespeare and theatre, before jumping back to the Godfather.
Actually, I think some of the Anti-thinker videos pulled this off--especially GA's near-breakdown due to Link to the Past-inspired nostalgia. That felt more organic to me, giving GA some character development while providing more insight at the same time.
I like how you're sort of taking your time constraints from your blogs at The Escapist and working them into here. All of your recent videos have been pretty short, but not without reason I guess. Not every topic needs to be a filibuster. You've covered all the bases in terms of the console market, its components, and its flaws. So what's next?
While I personally only ever play the Phantasy Star MMO's for any significant length of time I do have to wonder why more MMO's don't have an offline mode like some of the Phantasy Star games. I've gone through nearly the entirety of PSP2 in Ad-Hoc with my buddy while the PSN was down. Obviously a ton of features are lost offline, but if you want to play with your buddies with nobody else interfering you're out of luck, and if you can't afford internet or it goes down temporarily, or something's wrong with the servers you should still be able to play and either advance the story or grind a bit.
Some people will argue that you shouldn't by a game like Call of Duty if you don't want to / can't go online. I agree to that to an extent, in that you should try to do some research before purchasing anything.
But then the game is not multiplayer only and it's not advertised as multiplayer only, so unless they drop the price and gut out the single player completely, it's still bullshit to have a 2hour single player campaign.
One of my favorite online set ups, and one that I think is a great idea is Demon's Souls. Are you online when you turn the game one? Well you are playing online now, don't like? Too fucking bad. Are you offline when you turn the game on? You sure you don't want to go online? Okay, well enjoy this still-awesome game anyway.
The idea of the cloud is nice, but let's face it, people like OWNING their property. It's why I find a service like OnLive so risky due to the fact that if the entire company shut down all the games on it would vanish. It also doesn't help that companies like Activision keep shoving online multiplayer down our throats while basically giving the finger to any sort of substantial offline content.
Let me steal a page from another critic I often enjoy watching and ask this question;
Without describing what he does or what he looks like, can you describe the Game Overthinker as a character?
I'm sure Bob is a nice and interesting enough person in real life, but the Game Overthinker character in these sketches is a lousy and uninteresting character. What about him is supposed to be make we want to empathize with him or care about him? As MST3K said in the Sidehackers episode, "Just because they sidehack doesn't mean we like them." Similarly, just because the Game Overthinker makes good commentaries on video games doesn't mean we like him _as a character_.
Bob, ask yourself this; What have you done to make your audience care about the Overthinker as a character? What makes him interesting? What is his growth? Hell, take a page from Cambell and tell me what his hero's journey is/was. The Overthinker went through this long long plot before but in what way did he change as a character? What did he learn? How did he grow? Because to me he was the exact same character he was at the end as he was at the beginning. Basic story telling says that's a bad thing.
Also, I'd bet that in terms of dialog and possibly screen time The Game Overthinker has had more minutes before the camera in just these arch episodes than Shia labeouf's character (had to google it) Sam Witwicky had in Transformers. But what has Bob done with all that time? Bob rightly criticizes those movies for having empty shells of characters, but in what way is the Overthinker Character _not_ an empty shell?
Bob take up this challenge: Tell me how you've developed the Game Overthinker character better than Michael Bay developed the Sam Witwicky character. Because truth be told, I think Michael Bay, as sucky as he is, developed his character more than you have or probably will develop yours.
But hey, I'd love to hear you prove me wrong so tell me how Bob has developed the Game Overthinker better than Michael Bay developed Sam Witwicky. If you can't do that, you need to seriously rethink putting the drama tag back in the slot.
I miss episodes that were just commentaries. Sigh. Have to sit through 7 minutes of dull narrative to hear what I liked about his first 35 to 40 videos. Not to mention having to skip 2 minutes ahead everytime because of that atrociously long intro. This show doesn't need an intro. Just put up the title cards and start talking to still images again. Please. Make narrative stuff a separate series. I'm close to giving up.
Well, what can I say, it was a good episode until the bunny grind the talk to a screeching halt.
Here's a plan, a "Non Story" version of your show, where those who could care less about all this bunnyface nonsense could get the show in a easy to digest form that doesn't involve having the talk interrupted by a story that is so desperately trying to be into the show.
I skipped over every bit of this insipid little story of yours so I could get to the fucking point already.
Yeah, I know this isn't the "Bob-Gets-Right-To-The-Fucking-Point" show, as it never has been, but I think less than half of this entire episode was your opinion (which I have nothing to say on since I don't own a PS3 and my internet connection is fairly stable) while the rest of it was a bunch of ancillary bullshit we all got tired of about ten minutes into your Anti-Thinker tangent.
Your episodes before the Anti-Thinker are good, thought-provoking stuff. But please, Bob. I'm begging- no, I am prostrating myself before you.
Stop.
Doing.
This.
Storyline.
Bullshit.
It isn't cute. It isn't funny. It doesn't work as a parody. It doesn't work as satire. It doesn't work as a parody of satire, as I do believe you once called it. It's embarrassing and cringe-worthy.
Bob, you are a genuine triple-threat. You've got Escape to the Movies. You've got the Game Overthinker. You've got American Bob now. I fear that you're going to lose a big portion of your audience not only for the Overthinker but for your other shows as backlash if you insist on pushing this storyline bullshit on it.
Okay I think your definitely over-exaggerating when you say COD is only two hours. Most people beat it in around 6-7 hours. And while it's short, it's always high quality, fun, and never just "slapped together," like Bob claims.
I definately think this is a better way of incorporating the extra plot footage.
Really, the problem with the Anti-thinker saga was for HIS three episodes, we were just covering what we knew you thought, and with some extra douchebaggy jab. Then the quest episodes, really the grind episode was already half discussed in other episodes, and the retro episode was just really a stepping back from episode 11's discussion, only the farmville episode was new material. Episode 50 was fun in a cheesy silly way, but really the biggest problem was it brought nothing really new to think about despite seven episodes.
This episode however, had a story, AND new discussion about current events. VERY good. The cheese factor's still there, but it's fun cheese not 'oh god make it stop'. I'd say go for this form. It's a good step if you want include story elements.
Oh, and get someone thinner to wear the jumpsuit, he's way too portly for that role, whoever that is.
(Long-time watcher, first time commenter) First of all, thank you bob, thank you for getting me intrested into these video game commentary/insight shows. And thank you for introducing me to Extra Credits (and by default, The Escapist website). I may not have always agreed with you on your shows, but i've always found your insights interesting. But I just can't take anymore storylines. I'm glad your having fun with them, and i'm sure most people do like them. But, I quit, i'm sorry but i just can't stand them anymore. I'll still regularly watch The Big Picture and your movie reviews, but i'm done watching this show. Good luck, and again, thank you.
I like the concept of this story arc more then I liked this specific episode. I mean, the whole idea of the invasion of the gamin world, and you acting as some kind of Yusuke Urameshi is pretty cool... But I though that in this particular episode the actual overthinking was kinda thin... I mean, didn't you talk about these points before? Cloud? PSN? The problems of online gaming? It worries me because you never, NEVER repeated yourself before, Bob. I get the feeling that what you really wanted was to fight Ann Bobo [;)], and that's ok, but watch out: don't start rehashing overthoughts just fill in the necessary amount of "content" you think your episodes should have. I'm ok (hell more then ok, I'm interested in) with the whole adventure aspect of the show; I'm not ok with repetition.
people who don't like the story stuff don't have to watch - it's what he wants to do. Plenty of other intelligent commentary out there, you're on the internet. Why do you feel like you need this guy's if he's doing things you don't like? If you watch only to complain I say you're taking the existence of the videos for granted. Go make your own and make them how you want. Srsly, being unhappy because of other people's expressions is from a lack of expressing oneself.
Nice opinions on clouds, Bob. (I think that one looks like a dinosaur... And that one looks like a fish!) As was said earlier in the comments, I have a problem with things becoming intangible. It seems too easy for a digital thing to disappear.
Hiya, Bob. While I agree with what others are saying that the integration between commentary and story stuff could be a bit better, you still continue to make some good points all around. In fact, you're kinda echoing what I've been saying to my friends about this whole "online gaming" thing for awhile now.
It's really gotten annoying to me that some people come to expect an online feature of some kind in every game now. One of the best examples I can think of is the recent Golden Sun game that came out for the DS this past November.
In the first 2 games for the GBA, you could hook up with a Game Link Cable and pit your party against someone else's in battle as long as they have the same game. When Dark Dawn was announced for the DS, several fans were expecting there to be the logical extension of that. Namely, pitting your party against someone else's via the Nintendo Wifi Connection.
When it was shown that they didn't include something like that, there were a few who were a bit peeved about that. Not me. I never really took advantage of the feature when it was on the GBA games, anyway. I was having too much fun playing the main quest. I also was just content that Nintendo and Camelot had decided to provide a continuation to this cult classic series.
Anyway, I've rambled for long enough. Keep up the brilliant work, Bob! Can't wait to see more! :)
I wonder how much of this over-zealousness for the cloud by game publishers is because of the fact that console gaming and PC gaming are becoming ever closer (which is part of the process that will end console gaming altogether, as you foresaw in a Big Picture episode). I would guess that a large majority of computers that are used as gaming platforms have near constant internet access, especially given the fact that MMORPGs require it. And since pretty much all of the big-name American game companies develop for both the PC and console, I'd imagine that the idea of “near constant internet access” may be an idea that has seeped into their corporate mindset. Perhaps the heads of these companies make the leap of logic that if so many PC gamers can and do have this capability, then why couldn't they expect the same from console gamers?
Didn't Extra Credits already talk about this? But hey, I guess you were so busy with your fucking storyline that you didn't get the chance to properly comment on it, huh?
Whatever, I don't own a PS3, but I've heard all about this. Sucks to be them, is all I can really say...
Wait... is THAT where the "*My actual ringtone" supposed to be? Isn't of being placed randomly at the beginning? Seriously, get yourself a fucking editor. A GOOD ONE!
Why the frick would the commissioner of call some nerd who's got an Internet show? Or is the "Game Overthinker" supposed to be some awesome cool hero that defeats anti-thought and evil in this universe? ...You're not that good at "creating your own character", you know. Cute bunny, though.
...Actually, the commissioner's desk looks terrible. It's obvioust that you just copy-pasted all the things on the desk and shot everything else on camera. Know why? Because the desk moves, but the things on it don't. Get yourself a Tripod.
One thing: I just wanted to throw this out there after seeing the Cheep-Cheep jump out. I don't understand why you're doing these storylines. There ARE people who like them (I can't imagine why), but they don't really ADD anything to your videos. I remember you saying that you wanted to "step up your game" once you joined ScrewAttack, but I don't see how this is "stepping up your game". It's more along the lines of "distracting viewers from the main point". If it's what you want to do, then I can't really complain. It's your show, you're not getting paid to do it, but all I'm saying is that it proves your not cut out for this sort of thing, as your inexperience show. Linkara does a better job then you, and no everyone likes HIS storylines either.
The part with the cloud Puffy I actually liked, because I can see your going for straight-up parody, since you made that hilarious connection to Superman 4, and it's quite true.
And now to what REALLY matters, the overthinking. I love your insight on online gaming. I've never been an online gamer myself. My only online experiences were with Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart Wii. I actually play MKW's online mode regularly... When the disk is actually being read...
The Llama metaphor is SUPER hilarious! XD
8:29, I'm assuming the Overthinking is over and now it's time for Bob to indulge in his own personal hero time... Woo-hoo, I guess?
Wait... Bo Abo-bo? I've never played Double Dragon, but I've seen (a review of) the movie, and THAT'S what Bo Abo-bo is?! Stupid name...
So wait, the Commissioner saw the fight in Minnesota... AND BELIEVED IT?! ...Well, yeah Commssioner, I'd say you ARE stupid.
Wait, now there's more overthinking while you're beating up that guy? What strange juxtaposition...
Actually, remember when CDs were a new thing? Remember when the games industry jumped on the bandwagon? At first they thought the best way to show off the capabilities of CD games was to add live action segments to them. And that didn't turn out so well... I guess this deal with the cloud and the PSN blackout is a similar deal.
Actually, it's hard to pay attention to what you're saying when you keep cutting you you beating up on that guy...
Alright, so you've established that video game characters are escaping into the real world. Are you ONLY going to do NES era games? Will you do SNES era games? Will you actually go into three-dimensional games? Or is that currently "out of your league" as it were? You're obviously not going to stop with this, so the best I can do is hope you'll indulge in something OTHER than the obvious.
Wait, Joe Liberman is a ninja? WTF?! This is starting to get into politics, and I just don't want to go down that route... Oh no wait, it's not Joe Liberman, it's "Jack Liberson". I guess it's a combination of Jack Thompson, Joe Liberman, and a ninja... STILL think a pirate would make a better senator. He'd either fit right in or actually be more honest and good-natured then the other senators. Also... Is that a woman doing that voice-over?! Or did you actually alter your voice so good (for once) that it actually doesn't sound like you?!
That pyromaniac looks like he doesn't like Jack Liberson... I wonder why? Also, judging from his eyes and eyebrows... He's NOT played by Bob! How awesome is that?! That Bob got someone else to play along with his stupid little internet show?!
As was stated, you really need to mesh your overthinking and your story telling. This one felt all over the place.
You start by talking about the pond, and then go completely off-base with the PSN discussion. It has NOTHING to do with the rest of the story, and feels really phoned-in. Everything overthought in this episode is just re-hashed from earlier episodes (especially "Cart before the Cloud").
Above, Mike R said that the Overthinker himself is a hollow, shallow character. While I don't consider this to be necessarily true, I do find it quite difficult figuring out exactly [i]who[/i] the Overthinker is. Who is he supposed to be? You yourself talked about this in regards to Sonic in your earlier (and arguably one of your best) episodes. Is he a hero? A reluctant anti-hero? A crime solver? A thought-provoking philosopher? I'm lost. At times, he seems a bit goofy, interacting with the game world around him. At others, such as when he's talking on the phone with the Commissioner, he's serious and stoic, and yet when he's overthinking, he can go from practical and logical to angry and near-manic.
There is no consistency. And while I'm cool with storylines, I need consistent characterization. Your plot is strong and your themes apparent, but you really need to take a step back and decide who the GO is.
As it stands, he's kind of a bipolar douche-bag Gary-Stu. He's good at everything and everybody loves him. Honestly, he reminds me a lot of Duke Nukem. In my opinion, that's not necessarily a good thing.
Extra Credits did a really good early episode (might have been their first) on consistent narrative. Give it a look, because that's where you're failing.
Listen Bob, I'm a fan of yours, but even I must admit when you're doing something I'm not enjoying. Please hear me out, as I have strong reasoning for what I'm saying.
I think you're being incredibly close-minded and hypocritical with your stance of, "Don't like my storyline bits? Too bad, deal with them." In fact, it's pretty relevant to the particular issue you were discussing in this very video.
You say it's unfair to non-online gamers to focus so much on the online aspect of games rather than on the meat of the games themselves, and you're doing precisely the same thing to your many fans who have said they really don't like the storyline formula your series has taken. You're alienating a large portion of your fanbase by focusing so heavily on the (frankly, awful) storyline aspect of the show and focusing so little on the true OVERTHINKING aspect of the show, the very thing the show is named for and started as! It's become a different beast, just like multiplayer gaming has become. However, whereas most people do have online capability and play online, most of your fans don't seem to be on board the storyline train, so it's actually a bit worse off in your case than in gaming's case.
Trust that I'm a fan, Bob, and I don't like telling someone I like and respect that they're fucking up. But your episodes don't even hold the same weight as they used to because we're forced to focus not just on the strong points you're making, but also on this totally asinine storyline that many of your viewers would sooner not even bother with. The weakness of the storyline is taking away from the impact of your message, and that's really hurting the quality of your videos. I can't even show the episodes to my friends anymore just to say, "Man, look at what this guy is saying! He's brilliant! Isn't he just so spot on?!" because now to get the meat of the episode, they have to wade through the muck of the storyline. It's clouding up the Overthinker concept, not making it better. There's too much going on in the recent videos for them to really have any impact anymore.
Think of recent Overthinker episodes as the Transformers movies, which I know you don't care for: too much going on, too much taking away from the original concept, too busy, trying too hard, and forgetting what this is all supposed to be about in the first place: transforming robots, or in your case, getting people to think about games on a deeper level and to take video games more seriously. How CAN we take you seriously anymore if, while we're trying to focus on the impact of your points, we're forced to watch you fly around on a cloud or fight a thug. The poor special effects detract even more, and I mean no disrespect by saying that. It's just a hard truth. It's hard enough watching some guy do silly things while trying to listen to, and assimilate, what he's saying, but it's even harder to listen and assimilate while watching him do silly things with poor visual effects on top of it all.
Please, Bob, reconsider what you're doing to your series and your fans. By effectively telling them to shove it when they complain (a legitimate and well-reasoned complaint if you ask me), you risk losing fans, losing traffic, losing your luster, and eventually being stuck with a handful of yes-men fans who will love any and everything you do without having any real impact on the gaming community or industry anymore. The storyline thing is hurting you. Please, listen to your fans and either cut it out, or make it stronger. I ask you this as a sincere fan who wants to see you get back to the glory days of the Overthinker, when I'd show off your videos as much as I could to people who'd never heard of you. Now I'm embarassed to be caught watching this stuff, and I wish I didn't have to say that.
Not much I can say that hasn't been said already...
There are things that are bad, but there is more than enough of the good to make me come back for more. Just listen to the commetns and keep improving. I've never been a fan of the change in direction, but I have yet to dismiss it as so many others seem to.
I can't shake the impression a lot of people who go "A LARGE PORTION OF YOUR FANBASE HATES THE STORYLINE STUFF" are assuming that commenters here are an evenly distributed sample of his fanbase, and thus the opinions of that sample are representative of the whole.
There could for all you know be an equally large sample of his fanbase happy to watch and laugh when his B-movie production values stand out or when his videos amount to two fat guys bumping into one another for half an hour (no offence intended, Bob) who don't comment at all. If there is, I'd be happy to count myself among them.
I agree with you 100%. You did a better job at expressing how I felt better than I could have.
Actually, I might have said that, if given some time to think before I post... But I'm the kind of guy who wants to get his opinions out there ASAP. Guess that kind of goes against what the GO is SUPPOSED to be about...
Clearly a large number of his fans are voicing complaints, because on his GameOverthinker website, he makes comments like "any and all write-in votes for "turn series back into a generic slideshow" will almost-certainly produce the opposite of the desired effect ;)" which shows he must get a lot of those comments.
That was me, Feffy. I had to make an account to comment on this, and when I posted it showed my name as "Unknown," after which I had to go to my settings and fix my display name.
I disagree with the idea that the person who buys Call of Duty should be angry that the game is 60 bucks and they don't want online. While yes, I think a online only disk would be a good idea, I think anyone who doesn't know the online is factored into the value is foolish, video games have always been a hobby for the informed, if you go into it ignorant you'll soon learn a hard lesson that research is important factor in purchases (even without internet, as a sale rep - unless you buy at walmart). I don't know if its still prevalent in America, but here in Canada rentals are still a option.
Don't get me wrong, 60 dollars is overpriced, and I would like to see them come down, I don't begrudge them for being so high. I understand its steep for many people. But every triple A game is 60 dollars this isn't exclusive to Activision. So while I don't agree with how Activation does business*, I don't believe they are to blame for consumer ignorance.
*my reservations are mostly towards how they over saturate the market til a franchises dies, and how they treat developers, NOT how they charge customers as I believe they are in the right to charge whatever customer demands lets them get away with.
Bob, I love just about all of your stuff, but as one independent film-maker to another, I highly recommend you get a tripod if you can. At the very least it would make your composite shots look a hundred times better. I also have to agree with Joe that the blend of Overthinking and Story Arc could be improved, at the very least to have a sense of consistency. Otherwise, Awesome as always!
I've resigned myself to having to deal with the story bits to get to the meat of the show; if that's the way you really want things Bob, that's how it'll be. But I have to say, it gets harder and harder.
You open up with some discussion of the PSN outage and what it really means, and as we start to get into it... it just drops, entirely, mid-thought-train, and cuts to a rabbit on a desk talking about something completely unrelated. Then after a couple of minutes, cuts right back to the now-thoroughly-derailed thought train, and tries to pretend the tracks are still there. It gets harder and harder to sit through these bits.
But, that said, you're spot-on with the "we always have to have online" line of thinking. When Bioshock came out a lot of people ragged on it for having no multiplayer, completely ignoring that it was and still is one of the best single-player experiences since Half-Life 2. And then the second game just HAD to have multiplayer, and suffered for it.
i don't feel very strongly about either the content or the storyline on this particular episode, so i'll just leave that issue with a simple "thanks for what you do."
BUT, I will make an observation. Your comments sections used to be full of people debating the issues. yelling at you for saying things they disagree with, or piling on to your arguments. Now, it seems all anybody's talking about is the method of your shows, and there's essentially no conversation about your points. I think you should consider which way you want it to be.
My only gripe here is that you made no mention of the fact that after The Cloud comes, single player mode should not be neglected. Some people don't like multiplayer.
Otherwise, wonderful points. As usual, you put things that piss me off in a much more eloquent fashion than I ever could.
This should be a sign to you bob... look at the comments section of your videos. Remember when they used to be full of glowing compliments and thought provoking discussions about the points you were making? now aside from the odd comment, you are getting criticized, and harshly. sadly, you deserve it. I want to like this, but your fans are making better, clearer points than your videos are. you need to stop this. I used to be on the website everyday, this used to be my favorite game commentary show, now I only watch it when I have absolutely nothing else to do. Thank god you pointed your fans toward extra credits, because they're doing what you should be doing: something simple and meaningful. You're letting your ego get the best of you bob, dont let it be your downfall.
46 comments:
Good points as always.
You're getting better at the nutty gag-based stuff. If you don't want to go and hire actors from the local community college, I think you should try and get a hold of some of your local fan-base. It would be better to see you interact with other humans than with special effects.
Personally, I don't like the idea of the cloud. I don't like the idea of not being in charge of my own fies 24-7, or that all it takes is one bad hack and all of my stuff is gone, or that all I would have is essentially a screen with a modem attached rather than a computer I can manage myself. I like my games like I like my books and movies: in my hand, owned by me, and not at the whim of some server or facility who knows where.
I like my online services free and optional. If they want me to pay more money to use a game or anything that I've already purchased (I'm looking at you, subscription-based MMOs) they'll have to get their money elsewhere. If they want me to be online to use something I would have to pay for anyways for just to keep an eye on me, they can kiss my cash goodbye.
Maybe it's because I'm the type of person who doesn't need internet everywhere I go to feel like I'm connected, or stylish, or whyever people feel they need smartphones and 3G connections constantly. But whatever it is, I don't buy into this. The cloud can go frost over in the antarctic for all I care.
Woot! New Game Overthinker!
Bob, I think you need better integration between story and gameplay. :-) I can't help but think this might be more effective if the analysis and the narrative tied together better. With this video, we got a few minutes of your usual insightful commentary, then you abruptly switched to the Bunnyface storyline, then jumped back & forth again. So basically we're thinking about your commentary, getting interested in it, then we have to wait and watch another storyline that has nothing to do with the analysis except you being central to both. It'd be like if I was watching Al Pacino in the Godfather, then half-hour in it switches to the documentary Looking for Richard where Al Pacino talks about Shakespeare and theatre, before jumping back to the Godfather.
Actually, I think some of the Anti-thinker videos pulled this off--especially GA's near-breakdown due to Link to the Past-inspired nostalgia. That felt more organic to me, giving GA some character development while providing more insight at the same time.
Looking forward to more GO videos.
I like how you're sort of taking your time constraints from your blogs at The Escapist and working them into here. All of your recent videos have been pretty short, but not without reason I guess. Not every topic needs to be a filibuster.
You've covered all the bases in terms of the console market, its components, and its flaws. So what's next?
Just an addon to what you were saying.
While I personally only ever play the Phantasy Star MMO's for any significant length of time I do have to wonder why more MMO's don't have an offline mode like some of the Phantasy Star games. I've gone through nearly the entirety of PSP2 in Ad-Hoc with my buddy while the PSN was down. Obviously a ton of features are lost offline, but if you want to play with your buddies with nobody else interfering you're out of luck, and if you can't afford internet or it goes down temporarily, or something's wrong with the servers you should still be able to play and either advance the story or grind a bit.
Some people will argue that you shouldn't by a game like Call of Duty if you don't want to / can't go online. I agree to that to an extent, in that you should try to do some research before purchasing anything.
But then the game is not multiplayer only and it's not advertised as multiplayer only, so unless they drop the price and gut out the single player completely, it's still bullshit to have a 2hour single player campaign.
One of my favorite online set ups, and one that I think is a great idea is Demon's Souls. Are you online when you turn the game one? Well you are playing online now, don't like? Too fucking bad. Are you offline when you turn the game on? You sure you don't want to go online? Okay, well enjoy this still-awesome game anyway.
The idea of the cloud is nice, but let's face it, people like OWNING their property. It's why I find a service like OnLive so risky due to the fact that if the entire company shut down all the games on it would vanish. It also doesn't help that companies like Activision keep shoving online multiplayer down our throats while basically giving the finger to any sort of substantial offline content.
Let me steal a page from another critic I often enjoy watching and ask this question;
Without describing what he does or what he looks like, can you describe the Game Overthinker as a character?
I'm sure Bob is a nice and interesting enough person in real life, but the Game Overthinker character in these sketches is a lousy and uninteresting character. What about him is supposed to be make we want to empathize with him or care about him? As MST3K said in the Sidehackers episode, "Just because they sidehack doesn't mean we like them." Similarly, just because the Game Overthinker makes good commentaries on video games doesn't mean we like him _as a character_.
Bob, ask yourself this; What have you done to make your audience care about the Overthinker as a character? What makes him interesting? What is his growth? Hell, take a page from Cambell and tell me what his hero's journey is/was. The Overthinker went through this long long plot before but in what way did he change as a character? What did he learn? How did he grow? Because to me he was the exact same character he was at the end as he was at the beginning. Basic story telling says that's a bad thing.
Also, I'd bet that in terms of dialog and possibly screen time The Game Overthinker has had more minutes before the camera in just these arch episodes than Shia labeouf's character (had to google it) Sam Witwicky had in Transformers. But what has Bob done with all that time? Bob rightly criticizes those movies for having empty shells of characters, but in what way is the Overthinker Character _not_ an empty shell?
Bob take up this challenge: Tell me how you've developed the Game Overthinker character better than Michael Bay developed the Sam Witwicky character. Because truth be told, I think Michael Bay, as sucky as he is, developed his character more than you have or probably will develop yours.
But hey, I'd love to hear you prove me wrong so tell me how Bob has developed the Game Overthinker better than Michael Bay developed Sam Witwicky. If you can't do that, you need to seriously rethink putting the drama tag back in the slot.
I miss episodes that were just commentaries. Sigh. Have to sit through 7 minutes of dull narrative to hear what I liked about his first 35 to 40 videos. Not to mention having to skip 2 minutes ahead everytime because of that atrociously long intro. This show doesn't need an intro. Just put up the title cards and start talking to still images again. Please. Make narrative stuff a separate series. I'm close to giving up.
Well, what can I say, it was a good episode until the bunny grind the talk to a screeching halt.
Here's a plan, a "Non Story" version of your show, where those who could care less about all this bunnyface nonsense could get the show in a easy to digest form that doesn't involve having the talk interrupted by a story that is so desperately trying to be into the show.
I skipped over every bit of this insipid little story of yours so I could get to the fucking point already.
Yeah, I know this isn't the "Bob-Gets-Right-To-The-Fucking-Point" show, as it never has been, but I think less than half of this entire episode was your opinion (which I have nothing to say on since I don't own a PS3 and my internet connection is fairly stable) while the rest of it was a bunch of ancillary bullshit we all got tired of about ten minutes into your Anti-Thinker tangent.
Your episodes before the Anti-Thinker are good, thought-provoking stuff. But please, Bob. I'm begging- no, I am prostrating myself before you.
Stop.
Doing.
This.
Storyline.
Bullshit.
It isn't cute. It isn't funny. It doesn't work as a parody. It doesn't work as satire. It doesn't work as a parody of satire, as I do believe you once called it. It's embarrassing and cringe-worthy.
Bob, you are a genuine triple-threat. You've got Escape to the Movies. You've got the Game Overthinker. You've got American Bob now. I fear that you're going to lose a big portion of your audience not only for the Overthinker but for your other shows as backlash if you insist on pushing this storyline bullshit on it.
I could be wrong and I hope I am.
You know, in retrospect...you're doing a GREAT job 'keeping the balance', seeing as the world literally explodes during each intro. XD
ConanThe3rd: "Here's a plan, a "Non Story" version of your show, ...etc"
...You mean like his other three shows?
Okay I think your definitely over-exaggerating when you say COD is only two hours. Most people beat it in around 6-7 hours. And while it's short, it's always high quality, fun, and never just "slapped together," like Bob claims.
I definately think this is a better way of incorporating the extra plot footage.
Really, the problem with the Anti-thinker saga was for HIS three episodes, we were just covering what we knew you thought, and with some extra douchebaggy jab. Then the quest episodes, really the grind episode was already half discussed in other episodes, and the retro episode was just really a stepping back from episode 11's discussion, only the farmville episode was new material. Episode 50 was fun in a cheesy silly way, but really the biggest problem was it brought nothing really new to think about despite seven episodes.
This episode however, had a story, AND new discussion about current events. VERY good. The cheese factor's still there, but it's fun cheese not 'oh god make it stop'. I'd say go for this form. It's a good step if you want include story elements.
Oh, and get someone thinner to wear the jumpsuit, he's way too portly for that role, whoever that is.
(Long-time watcher, first time commenter)
First of all, thank you bob, thank you for getting me intrested into these video game commentary/insight shows. And thank you for introducing me to Extra Credits (and by default, The Escapist website). I may not have always agreed with you on your shows, but i've always found your insights interesting.
But I just can't take anymore storylines. I'm glad your having fun with them, and i'm sure most people do like them. But, I quit, i'm sorry but i just can't stand them anymore. I'll still regularly watch The Big Picture and your movie reviews, but i'm done watching this show. Good luck, and again, thank you.
Bob,
Bobobobobobobobobob...
I like the concept of this story arc more then I liked this specific episode. I mean, the whole idea of the invasion of the gamin world, and you acting as some kind of Yusuke Urameshi is pretty cool... But I though that in this particular episode the actual overthinking was kinda thin... I mean, didn't you talk about these points before? Cloud? PSN? The problems of online gaming? It worries me because you never, NEVER repeated yourself before, Bob. I get the feeling that what you really wanted was to fight Ann Bobo [;)], and that's ok, but watch out: don't start rehashing overthoughts just fill in the necessary amount of "content" you think your episodes should have. I'm ok (hell more then ok, I'm interested in) with the whole adventure aspect of the show; I'm not ok with repetition.
people who don't like the story stuff don't have to watch - it's what he wants to do. Plenty of other intelligent commentary out there, you're on the internet. Why do you feel like you need this guy's if he's doing things you don't like? If you watch only to complain I say you're taking the existence of the videos for granted. Go make your own and make them how you want. Srsly, being unhappy because of other people's expressions is from a lack of expressing oneself.
Nice opinions on clouds, Bob. (I think that one looks like a dinosaur... And that one looks like a fish!) As was said earlier in the comments, I have a problem with things becoming intangible. It seems too easy for a digital thing to disappear.
@MikeR,
One guy making millions for nothing, and the other guy getting what 15 minutes are two different things.
Good episode GO I will say this you need more friends. So you don't have to do every single character.
Hiya, Bob. While I agree with what others are saying that the integration between commentary and story stuff could be a bit better, you still continue to make some good points all around. In fact, you're kinda echoing what I've been saying to my friends about this whole "online gaming" thing for awhile now.
It's really gotten annoying to me that some people come to expect an online feature of some kind in every game now. One of the best examples I can think of is the recent Golden Sun game that came out for the DS this past November.
In the first 2 games for the GBA, you could hook up with a Game Link Cable and pit your party against someone else's in battle as long as they have the same game. When Dark Dawn was announced for the DS, several fans were expecting there to be the logical extension of that. Namely, pitting your party against someone else's via the Nintendo Wifi Connection.
When it was shown that they didn't include something like that, there were a few who were a bit peeved about that. Not me. I never really took advantage of the feature when it was on the GBA games, anyway. I was having too much fun playing the main quest. I also was just content that Nintendo and Camelot had decided to provide a continuation to this cult classic series.
Anyway, I've rambled for long enough. Keep up the brilliant work, Bob! Can't wait to see more! :)
Darn, I was really hoping that the guy in the red hoodie would be a shy guy :)
Heh, Republicrat. I see what you did there.
Skip to 1:47 if you want to avoid the intro :)
I wonder how much of this over-zealousness for the cloud by game publishers is because of the fact that console gaming and PC gaming are becoming ever closer (which is part of the process that will end console gaming altogether, as you foresaw in a Big Picture episode). I would guess that a large majority of computers that are used as gaming platforms have near constant internet access, especially given the fact that MMORPGs require it. And since pretty much all of the big-name American game companies develop for both the PC and console, I'd imagine that the idea of “near constant internet access” may be an idea that has seeped into their corporate mindset. Perhaps the heads of these companies make the leap of logic that if so many PC gamers can and do have this capability, then why couldn't they expect the same from console gamers?
Didn't Extra Credits already talk about this? But hey, I guess you were so busy with your fucking storyline that you didn't get the chance to properly comment on it, huh?
Whatever, I don't own a PS3, but I've heard all about this. Sucks to be them, is all I can really say...
Wait... is THAT where the "*My actual ringtone" supposed to be? Isn't of being placed randomly at the beginning? Seriously, get yourself a fucking editor. A GOOD ONE!
Why the frick would the commissioner of call some nerd who's got an Internet show? Or is the "Game Overthinker" supposed to be some awesome cool hero that defeats anti-thought and evil in this universe? ...You're not that good at "creating your own character", you know. Cute bunny, though.
...Actually, the commissioner's desk looks terrible. It's obvioust that you just copy-pasted all the things on the desk and shot everything else on camera. Know why? Because the desk moves, but the things on it don't. Get yourself a Tripod.
One thing: I just wanted to throw this out there after seeing the Cheep-Cheep jump out. I don't understand why you're doing these storylines. There ARE people who like them (I can't imagine why), but they don't really ADD anything to your videos. I remember you saying that you wanted to "step up your game" once you joined ScrewAttack, but I don't see how this is "stepping up your game". It's more along the lines of "distracting viewers from the main point". If it's what you want to do, then I can't really complain. It's your show, you're not getting paid to do it, but all I'm saying is that it proves your not cut out for this sort of thing, as your inexperience show. Linkara does a better job then you, and no everyone likes HIS storylines either.
The part with the cloud Puffy I actually liked, because I can see your going for straight-up parody, since you made that hilarious connection to Superman 4, and it's quite true.
And now to what REALLY matters, the overthinking. I love your insight on online gaming. I've never been an online gamer myself. My only online experiences were with Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart Wii. I actually play MKW's online mode regularly... When the disk is actually being read...
The Llama metaphor is SUPER hilarious! XD
8:29, I'm assuming the Overthinking is over and now it's time for Bob to indulge in his own personal hero time... Woo-hoo, I guess?
Wait... Bo Abo-bo? I've never played Double Dragon, but I've seen (a review of) the movie, and THAT'S what Bo Abo-bo is?! Stupid name...
So wait, the Commissioner saw the fight in Minnesota... AND BELIEVED IT?! ...Well, yeah Commssioner, I'd say you ARE stupid.
Wait, now there's more overthinking while you're beating up that guy? What strange juxtaposition...
Actually, remember when CDs were a new thing? Remember when the games industry jumped on the bandwagon? At first they thought the best way to show off the capabilities of CD games was to add live action segments to them. And that didn't turn out so well... I guess this deal with the cloud and the PSN blackout is a similar deal.
Actually, it's hard to pay attention to what you're saying when you keep cutting you you beating up on that guy...
Alright, so you've established that video game characters are escaping into the real world. Are you ONLY going to do NES era games? Will you do SNES era games? Will you actually go into three-dimensional games? Or is that currently "out of your league" as it were? You're obviously not going to stop with this, so the best I can do is hope you'll indulge in something OTHER than the obvious.
Wait, Joe Liberman is a ninja? WTF?! This is starting to get into politics, and I just don't want to go down that route... Oh no wait, it's not Joe Liberman, it's "Jack Liberson". I guess it's a combination of Jack Thompson, Joe Liberman, and a ninja... STILL think a pirate would make a better senator. He'd either fit right in or actually be more honest and good-natured then the other senators. Also... Is that a woman doing that voice-over?! Or did you actually alter your voice so good (for once) that it actually doesn't sound like you?!
That pyromaniac looks like he doesn't like Jack Liberson... I wonder why? Also, judging from his eyes and eyebrows... He's NOT played by Bob! How awesome is that?! That Bob got someone else to play along with his stupid little internet show?!
As was stated, you really need to mesh your overthinking and your story telling. This one felt all over the place.
You start by talking about the pond, and then go completely off-base with the PSN discussion. It has NOTHING to do with the rest of the story, and feels really phoned-in. Everything overthought in this episode is just re-hashed from earlier episodes (especially "Cart before the Cloud").
Above, Mike R said that the Overthinker himself is a hollow, shallow character. While I don't consider this to be necessarily true, I do find it quite difficult figuring out exactly [i]who[/i] the Overthinker is. Who is he supposed to be? You yourself talked about this in regards to Sonic in your earlier (and arguably one of your best) episodes. Is he a hero? A reluctant anti-hero? A crime solver? A thought-provoking philosopher? I'm lost. At times, he seems a bit goofy, interacting with the game world around him. At others, such as when he's talking on the phone with the Commissioner, he's serious and stoic, and yet when he's overthinking, he can go from practical and logical to angry and near-manic.
There is no consistency. And while I'm cool with storylines, I need consistent characterization. Your plot is strong and your themes apparent, but you really need to take a step back and decide who the GO is.
As it stands, he's kind of a bipolar douche-bag Gary-Stu. He's good at everything and everybody loves him. Honestly, he reminds me a lot of Duke Nukem. In my opinion, that's not necessarily a good thing.
Extra Credits did a really good early episode (might have been their first) on consistent narrative. Give it a look, because that's where you're failing.
Listen Bob, I'm a fan of yours, but even I must admit when you're doing something I'm not enjoying. Please hear me out, as I have strong reasoning for what I'm saying.
I think you're being incredibly close-minded and hypocritical with your stance of, "Don't like my storyline bits? Too bad, deal with them." In fact, it's pretty relevant to the particular issue you were discussing in this very video.
You say it's unfair to non-online gamers to focus so much on the online aspect of games rather than on the meat of the games themselves, and you're doing precisely the same thing to your many fans who have said they really don't like the storyline formula your series has taken. You're alienating a large portion of your fanbase by focusing so heavily on the (frankly, awful) storyline aspect of the show and focusing so little on the true OVERTHINKING aspect of the show, the very thing the show is named for and started as! It's become a different beast, just like multiplayer gaming has become. However, whereas most people do have online capability and play online, most of your fans don't seem to be on board the storyline train, so it's actually a bit worse off in your case than in gaming's case.
Trust that I'm a fan, Bob, and I don't like telling someone I like and respect that they're fucking up. But your episodes don't even hold the same weight as they used to because we're forced to focus not just on the strong points you're making, but also on this totally asinine storyline that many of your viewers would sooner not even bother with. The weakness of the storyline is taking away from the impact of your message, and that's really hurting the quality of your videos. I can't even show the episodes to my friends anymore just to say, "Man, look at what this guy is saying! He's brilliant! Isn't he just so spot on?!" because now to get the meat of the episode, they have to wade through the muck of the storyline. It's clouding up the Overthinker concept, not making it better. There's too much going on in the recent videos for them to really have any impact anymore.
Think of recent Overthinker episodes as the Transformers movies, which I know you don't care for: too much going on, too much taking away from the original concept, too busy, trying too hard, and forgetting what this is all supposed to be about in the first place: transforming robots, or in your case, getting people to think about games on a deeper level and to take video games more seriously. How CAN we take you seriously anymore if, while we're trying to focus on the impact of your points, we're forced to watch you fly around on a cloud or fight a thug. The poor special effects detract even more, and I mean no disrespect by saying that. It's just a hard truth. It's hard enough watching some guy do silly things while trying to listen to, and assimilate, what he's saying, but it's even harder to listen and assimilate while watching him do silly things with poor visual effects on top of it all.
Please, Bob, reconsider what you're doing to your series and your fans. By effectively telling them to shove it when they complain (a legitimate and well-reasoned complaint if you ask me), you risk losing fans, losing traffic, losing your luster, and eventually being stuck with a handful of yes-men fans who will love any and everything you do without having any real impact on the gaming community or industry anymore. The storyline thing is hurting you. Please, listen to your fans and either cut it out, or make it stronger. I ask you this as a sincere fan who wants to see you get back to the glory days of the Overthinker, when I'd show off your videos as much as I could to people who'd never heard of you. Now I'm embarassed to be caught watching this stuff, and I wish I didn't have to say that.
^
what he said.
Oh and Bob,
In response to your constant bitching about COD games only made for people with online access I have this video to show you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r881se-RHRo
A.I. Combatants. Check and Mate
Not much I can say that hasn't been said already...
There are things that are bad, but there is more than enough of the good to make me come back for more. Just listen to the commetns and keep improving. I've never been a fan of the change in direction, but I have yet to dismiss it as so many others seem to.
GL HF, I'll be here for the next ep as well :)
Hoping this time the site shows my screen name rather than "Unknown" on my post...that above comment was me, EBsessed, from the Escapist forums.
I can't shake the impression a lot of people who go "A LARGE PORTION OF YOUR FANBASE HATES THE STORYLINE STUFF" are assuming that commenters here are an evenly distributed sample of his fanbase, and thus the opinions of that sample are representative of the whole.
There could for all you know be an equally large sample of his fanbase happy to watch and laugh when his B-movie production values stand out or when his videos amount to two fat guys bumping into one another for half an hour (no offence intended, Bob) who don't comment at all. If there is, I'd be happy to count myself among them.
@ xXx The Beast xXx
I agree with you 100%. You did a better job at expressing how I felt better than I could have.
Actually, I might have said that, if given some time to think before I post... But I'm the kind of guy who wants to get his opinions out there ASAP. Guess that kind of goes against what the GO is SUPPOSED to be about...
@Ketsuban
Clearly a large number of his fans are voicing complaints, because on his GameOverthinker website, he makes comments like "any and all write-in votes for "turn series back into a generic slideshow" will almost-certainly produce the opposite of the desired effect ;)" which shows he must get a lot of those comments.
Please, Bob. Hear what @unknown said. I'd like to talk about how I, being a fan, am worried, but he expressed it better than I could.
That was me, Feffy. I had to make an account to comment on this, and when I posted it showed my name as "Unknown," after which I had to go to my settings and fix my display name.
I disagree with the idea that the person who buys Call of Duty should be angry that the game is 60 bucks and they don't want online. While yes, I think a online only disk would be a good idea, I think anyone who doesn't know the online is factored into the value is foolish, video games have always been a hobby for the informed, if you go into it ignorant you'll soon learn a hard lesson that research is important factor in purchases (even without internet, as a sale rep - unless you buy at walmart). I don't know if its still prevalent in America, but here in Canada rentals are still a option.
Don't get me wrong, 60 dollars is overpriced, and I would like to see them come down, I don't begrudge them for being so high. I understand its steep for many people. But every triple A game is 60 dollars this isn't exclusive to Activision. So while I don't agree with how Activation does business*, I don't believe they are to blame for consumer ignorance.
*my reservations are mostly towards how they over saturate the market til a franchises dies, and how they treat developers, NOT how they charge customers as I believe they are in the right to charge whatever customer demands lets them get away with.
@Display Name
Yes, and those shows are all excellent. I would like to think the conclusions are easy to come to.
Bob, I love just about all of your stuff, but as one independent film-maker to another, I highly recommend you get a tripod if you can. At the very least it would make your composite shots look a hundred times better. I also have to agree with Joe that the blend of Overthinking and Story Arc could be improved, at the very least to have a sense of consistency. Otherwise, Awesome as always!
I've resigned myself to having to deal with the story bits to get to the meat of the show; if that's the way you really want things Bob, that's how it'll be. But I have to say, it gets harder and harder.
You open up with some discussion of the PSN outage and what it really means, and as we start to get into it... it just drops, entirely, mid-thought-train, and cuts to a rabbit on a desk talking about something completely unrelated. Then after a couple of minutes, cuts right back to the now-thoroughly-derailed thought train, and tries to pretend the tracks are still there. It gets harder and harder to sit through these bits.
But, that said, you're spot-on with the "we always have to have online" line of thinking. When Bioshock came out a lot of people ragged on it for having no multiplayer, completely ignoring that it was and still is one of the best single-player experiences since Half-Life 2. And then the second game just HAD to have multiplayer, and suffered for it.
i don't feel very strongly about either the content or the storyline on this particular episode, so i'll just leave that issue with a simple "thanks for what you do."
BUT, I will make an observation. Your comments sections used to be full of people debating the issues. yelling at you for saying things they disagree with, or piling on to your arguments. Now, it seems all anybody's talking about is the method of your shows, and there's essentially no conversation about your points. I think you should consider which way you want it to be.
My only gripe here is that you made no mention of the fact that after The Cloud comes, single player mode should not be neglected. Some people don't like multiplayer.
Otherwise, wonderful points. As usual, you put things that piss me off in a much more eloquent fashion than I ever could.
could not agree more. still one of the most prolific voices on gaming today
This should be a sign to you bob... look at the comments section of your videos. Remember when they used to be full of glowing compliments and thought provoking discussions about the points you were making? now aside from the odd comment, you are getting criticized, and harshly. sadly, you deserve it. I want to like this, but your fans are making better, clearer points than your videos are. you need to stop this. I used to be on the website everyday, this used to be my favorite game commentary show, now I only watch it when I have absolutely nothing else to do. Thank god you pointed your fans toward extra credits, because they're doing what you should be doing: something simple and meaningful. You're letting your ego get the best of you bob, dont let it be your downfall.
Post a Comment