261: Zero Punctuation: Achieving the Cross-media Transformation of Ludological Hermeneutics

Shamanic Rhythm

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Lizardon said:
Very good job sir. I hate those people who try to deconstruct everything to try and find the symbolism.
As someone who practically does this for a living, I'd like it on record that we're not all over-analysing wankers who use pretentious verbosity to sound unnecessarily intellectual and thus distract the audience from the fact that the point being made is about as tenuous as they come. When you meet a really intelligent academic who doesn't speak in postmodernist garble, it's actually really inspiring to learn what writers may have been attempting to convey on a subconscious level. That's why I stuck with it.
 

the1ultimate

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Juxtaposition and Cognitive dissonance are powerful tools, and I found the first half of the review instructive, however the second half attempted to construe Zero Punctuation as critique which was desperately applied Freudian Psychology thoughtlessly to all games, thus removing it from any context it might have appealed to, even were it quite as applicable to things designed by an organisation and not merely taken from the mind of an individual.

That said, this review aptly presented many of the antics employed by Zero Punctuation. However many Zero Punctuation fans may feel that the jokes suffer from their explanation, and there is only so much one can read into blatant sexual innuendo, swearing and crude drawings.
 

tkioz

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May 7, 2009
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My brain hurts and I'm having flash backs to the year I did philosophy...
 

Zenron

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May 11, 2010
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I read the first paragraph and really couldn't muster the effort to read anymore, so I came here, and I'm pretty glad to find out it was a joke. I remember someone doing the exact same thing on a forum in an attempt to sound smart, only in that case, it didn't actually make any sense...
 

unoleian

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Well, that was a downright dense and largely pretentious article. I love it! I think I'll have to go read that once more...and make sure I got all that right the first time...

ed- What makes that really funny, it reads almost identically to any "in-depth" artist crtique or gallery review I've ever read. If you word something densely and obscurely enough, it sounds transcendently intelligent and revolutionary no matter how many times you slice it.
 

rileyrulesu

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ugh, where did this person learn to write? The transitions are so boring. (The first rhetorical approach..., The second rhetorical approach..., The third rhetorical approach...) Cmon, that's third grade stuff!.
 

Luke Cartner

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CitySquirrel said:
After the Rebecca Mayes video, I expect everyone to say he only invoked Yahtze's name in order to get page views.

This might be framed as a joke, but it is not entirely without merit. Deconstructing "to try and find the symbolism" is really just a way to look at peoples underlying assumptions.
Except his article was far more amusing and far less baffling than Rebecaa Mayes video, which even Yahtzee (atleast this is the impression I got from his twitters and blog comments) didn't seem to understand.
 

Luke Cartner

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rileyrulesu said:
ugh, where did this person learn to write? The transitions are so boring. (The first rhetorical approach..., The second rhetorical approach..., The third rhetorical approach...) Cmon, that's third grade stuff!.
I would say technical writing in university, the article reads like a technical document, which makes sense as that appeared to be the author's intention.
 

TheMadDoctorsCat

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my_ledge_ends said:
I'll save you time, marioman - it's a joke article. He's basically saying that Yatzhee accuses Dragon Age of encouraging genocide while simultaneously critiquing the male ego as insecure and homophobic. It's a load of hogwash obfuscated by turgid dialogue intended to infuse the reading with a certain sense of highminded sophistication befitting the cultural descent into the ascending integration of highmindedness befitting the proper age we are now entering as demonstrated by said article (c wut i did thar?).
I concur.

Although it does have a pleasant side-effect. ++INTELLIGENCE!

(That's "!" as in "exclamation", not as in "not".)
 

The Random One

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Ha, great 'article'. Is Max Steele a real person? If so, he should have a showdown with Andrew Hussie [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=003752] over the most nebulous text that is still readable. Or maybe just actually beat each other to death.

If he is a real person he should also get me a Miskatonic University hoodie.

It's too bad he didn't do this on the entire ZP body of work, who knows what we'd find once we analyze all that at once.
 

f1r2a3n4k5

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This: http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm. And even if it was a joke, it was less than humorous.
 

thenamelessloser

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tautologico said:
The collaboration with Alan Sokal in the bio was a nice touch :)
I actually thought it was probably serious until I read the last part about working with Sokal... I actually rewatched the Dragon Age review and looked up Max Steele on wikipedia... though. lol =)

The only problem is that the article actually almost made sense.. It was a bit too coherent and the language wasn't actually used that poorly. The thesaurus wasn't used enough to come up with enough obscure language either I think. It was actually I think pretty well written for a joke article. But after all, some of the best satire makes some people think it may be serious (or be serious in intent) such as "A Modest Proposal."
 

Falseprophet

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An effluent dissertation on the metafictional authoritarian Social Darwinist narrative present through much of the literary genre of epic fantasy, in the vein of Norman Spinrad [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Iron_Dream]. Indubitably, sirrah!

That was awesome, "Max Steele".
 

sunpop

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Oct 23, 2008
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I hope the giggle gotten from making this article was worth killing off half the readers by way of head explosion from the first paragraph.
 

ark123

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Feb 19, 2009
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JeppeH said:
ark123 said:
He just wrote an article with a lot of unnecessary intellectualism so you guys would theorize on how this is funny.
But it's just not. When you have to explain the joke, you've failed as a comedian (Louis C.K.)
When you have to have the joke explained the joke was not meant for you.
By that reasoning everything is always funny. I mean, you haven't asked every person on earth, right?
When a joke isn't funny, the comedian misjudged his crowd.
A few sycophants will grin and say "HEHEHE BIG WORDS, HURRRRR", but most people won't bother reading it, and the ones that do will find it's void of Teh Funneh.
 

ark123

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The Random One said:
Ha, great 'article'. Is Max Steele a real person? If so, he should have a showdown with Andrew Hussie [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=003752] over the most nebulous text that is still readable. Or maybe just actually beat each other to death.

If he is a real person he should also get me a Miskatonic University hoodie.

It's too bad he didn't do this on the entire ZP body of work, who knows what we'd find once we analyze all that at once.
You, sir, get an Internet for referencing Miskatonic University.