E3 Killjoy
- Thread starter Shamus Young
- Start date
Wasn't this article called "E3 Killjoy"? It seems to me that the whole aim of it was a comical deflating of over-inflated expectations of the games seen at E3. Of course, there's that old saying about jokes that you have to explain, so there you go.
It amused me, for whatever that goes for.
It amused me, for whatever that goes for.
I'm not entirely sure what you were trying to do there. Maybe you assumed that my statement was implying that the game was going to be utterly and unequivocally awesome? I was just pointing out something the developers are making efforts to do.Fineldar said:
I have a few problems with this article, Mr Young.
First of all, your plugs are utterly shameless, Shamus. You've linked to your own personal website at least six times in this article. I understand that supporting yourself as a writer makes sense, but link after link to different articles written by you is hardly a show of objectivity, not that I expect that to be your actual aim here. You write as an advocate and provocateur, and that is what makes what you have to say interesting. It is still not encouraging or convincing to do this so overtly. If you must be shameless, be prepared to point out that you are shameless and laugh about it. A reader will then feel like you respect them enough to not try subliminal messages to get them to read more of your stuff.
Second, and this also brings your accuracy into question: your support of a Telltale game is obviously slanted by your design of a Telltale comic. If you already think something's awesome, and have thought so for twenty years, with your fandom going to the point of designing something in its image, then you're only going to expect the best from the same developer. Developers do not live up to such expectations consistently, no matter how independent, dependant, small-time or big-time they are there are possibilities for huge screw ups with each game, even future remakes. You may end up right on this series, but you are gambling with your word here.
Third, you could try not messing up the italics tags in the self-description line at the end, especially when you've come up with such a killer last line. I suspect you'd want HTML there, not forum code a la Invisionfree.
Fourth, you go on to say several games that will probably be good. That wasn't a wise choice, as they make your list of examples of games that will probably be bad somewhat irrelevant.
These things don't stop the piece from being a good article. As I said, it's provocative and there are definitely some shades of truth and noble advocacy in there. Just be careful not to screw up the illusion that you totally side with your own argument in all these ways. Or better yet, consider both sides of an argument rather than siding with one you don't truly agree with.
Be real with us. We can think back.
First of all, your plugs are utterly shameless, Shamus. You've linked to your own personal website at least six times in this article. I understand that supporting yourself as a writer makes sense, but link after link to different articles written by you is hardly a show of objectivity, not that I expect that to be your actual aim here. You write as an advocate and provocateur, and that is what makes what you have to say interesting. It is still not encouraging or convincing to do this so overtly. If you must be shameless, be prepared to point out that you are shameless and laugh about it. A reader will then feel like you respect them enough to not try subliminal messages to get them to read more of your stuff.
Second, and this also brings your accuracy into question: your support of a Telltale game is obviously slanted by your design of a Telltale comic. If you already think something's awesome, and have thought so for twenty years, with your fandom going to the point of designing something in its image, then you're only going to expect the best from the same developer. Developers do not live up to such expectations consistently, no matter how independent, dependant, small-time or big-time they are there are possibilities for huge screw ups with each game, even future remakes. You may end up right on this series, but you are gambling with your word here.
Third, you could try not messing up the italics tags in the self-description line at the end, especially when you've come up with such a killer last line. I suspect you'd want HTML there, not forum code a la Invisionfree.
Fourth, you go on to say several games that will probably be good. That wasn't a wise choice, as they make your list of examples of games that will probably be bad somewhat irrelevant.
These things don't stop the piece from being a good article. As I said, it's provocative and there are definitely some shades of truth and noble advocacy in there. Just be careful not to screw up the illusion that you totally side with your own argument in all these ways. Or better yet, consider both sides of an argument rather than siding with one you don't truly agree with.
Be real with us. We can think back.
As for as I understand, the Monkey Island remake is done by Lucasarts, Telltale will make an original Monkey Island episodic game.
I also have to disagree on Heavy Rain - Fahrenheit was an atmospheric and utterly immersive game that fell flat in the last third. This is already more then I can say about most other games out there so I'm inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt, especially since they seem to realize what the did there wasn't the wisest move.
And while you can of course blame Peter Molyneux for ramping up expectations sky-high and then failing to deliver on his promises, his games are still fun and the gravest annoyances about them isn't that they are truly bad but there is massive wasted potential. So while I don't look forward to the masterpiece of video games that will revolutionize the market forever, I still look forward to a potentially fun game.
On the other hand I agree that Thiaf died with Looking Glass and inserting faux leetspeak into the title doesn't serve to contradict that image. And Old Republic will be yet another MMO, nuff said. The one thing that made KotoR such a good game was story and atmosphere and the one thing that can ruin atmosphere faster then anything else is a largely retarded and illiterate community.
I also have to disagree on Heavy Rain - Fahrenheit was an atmospheric and utterly immersive game that fell flat in the last third. This is already more then I can say about most other games out there so I'm inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt, especially since they seem to realize what the did there wasn't the wisest move.
And while you can of course blame Peter Molyneux for ramping up expectations sky-high and then failing to deliver on his promises, his games are still fun and the gravest annoyances about them isn't that they are truly bad but there is massive wasted potential. So while I don't look forward to the masterpiece of video games that will revolutionize the market forever, I still look forward to a potentially fun game.
On the other hand I agree that Thiaf died with Looking Glass and inserting faux leetspeak into the title doesn't serve to contradict that image. And Old Republic will be yet another MMO, nuff said. The one thing that made KotoR such a good game was story and atmosphere and the one thing that can ruin atmosphere faster then anything else is a largely retarded and illiterate community.
BioWare has already stated that grouping is not an essential part of SW:TOR, if that is your concern. They said that grouping would be "recommended", but it is not required to play the game. If it's your cup of tea then you can play it like KotOR III,IV, and V.Anaphyis said:
As for your concerns of atmosphere breakage, it doesn't take a lot of effort to ignore a PC text box. I can attest to that.
This is obviously not Tron 2, but Tarzan 2, just with the A's having been taken out.shMerker said:
If you are looking for a serious, non-biased writer, I am not your guy. I do satire, Op-ed, ranting, comics, speculation, and absurdism. I am not delivering news. I'm writing opinion. Some people dig what I do. If you don't, that's cool too. But don't confuse me with a journalist.Samurai Goomba said:
Those links are not "plugs", they are links to my previous thoughts on the matter, in case you care to read them. Sure, I could NOT link my site, and then in the comments someone will ask, "Hey! why didn't you like XXXX?" Or they will accuse me of denouncing a game without playing it. And then I'll end up posting the link in the comments, where most people will miss it. And then someone else will post the same question, because most people don't bother to read previous comments. Putting the links IN the article is the Right Thing To Do.
That stuff about the Jedi is a really good point, but if I had to choose between a world where everyone is a Jedi or Jedi suck, I would choose Jedi suck.
The Jedi overpopulation thing is something that I hope they have considered.
Almost EVERY publication of something related to Star Wars has SOMETHING to do with Jedi - and even those that don't have something Jedi related (like Republic Commando).
The thing that worries me the most is that players (and lets face it, only 10% or so players of an MMO participate in the forums / beta) will EXPECT the class to be overpowered.
For example a Smuggler and Jedi go into a duel (both the same level); if the films are to be believed even the most nooby Jedi can take out a few clone troopers (ie, EP3) with ease - so I would imagine that most people will instantly assume that the Jedi will win, and win without any contest from the smuggler (a few deflected blaster shots and the smugglers head goes flying).
But in an MMO BOTH classes need to be relativly equal. Yes its never going to be 100% but a Smuggler player should be able to beat a Jedi player (and vice versa).
The problem with Star Wars (compaired to other games / MMOs / fiction) is that they have a heavy bias towards Jedi. Yes they have other books and stories etc that dont centre around them but the majority of the fiction does. This means that the popularity of this type is much higher than any other, and although other classes will be played I would guess that upon the release of the game, a clear 90% of players will be Jedi.
One of the ideas I posted onto the TOR forums was to allow the Jedi to provide ALL roles - similar to the WoW paladin (tank, healer & dps).
This means that even if the game is overpopulated with Jedi, at least they can be 'made' to fit the different group roles and not over burden one role any never have any players for the others.
Also because of this flexability it also means that they WONT (or shouldn't) be as effective tanks / healers / dpsers as the 'pure' classes (such as Priests [heals], Rogues [dps] or Warriors [tanks])
Almost EVERY publication of something related to Star Wars has SOMETHING to do with Jedi - and even those that don't have something Jedi related (like Republic Commando).
The thing that worries me the most is that players (and lets face it, only 10% or so players of an MMO participate in the forums / beta) will EXPECT the class to be overpowered.
For example a Smuggler and Jedi go into a duel (both the same level); if the films are to be believed even the most nooby Jedi can take out a few clone troopers (ie, EP3) with ease - so I would imagine that most people will instantly assume that the Jedi will win, and win without any contest from the smuggler (a few deflected blaster shots and the smugglers head goes flying).
But in an MMO BOTH classes need to be relativly equal. Yes its never going to be 100% but a Smuggler player should be able to beat a Jedi player (and vice versa).
The problem with Star Wars (compaired to other games / MMOs / fiction) is that they have a heavy bias towards Jedi. Yes they have other books and stories etc that dont centre around them but the majority of the fiction does. This means that the popularity of this type is much higher than any other, and although other classes will be played I would guess that upon the release of the game, a clear 90% of players will be Jedi.
One of the ideas I posted onto the TOR forums was to allow the Jedi to provide ALL roles - similar to the WoW paladin (tank, healer & dps).
This means that even if the game is overpopulated with Jedi, at least they can be 'made' to fit the different group roles and not over burden one role any never have any players for the others.
Also because of this flexability it also means that they WONT (or shouldn't) be as effective tanks / healers / dpsers as the 'pure' classes (such as Priests [heals], Rogues [dps] or Warriors [tanks])
Few probations handed out here to some newer members. Maybe said newer members need to watch what they say and how they say it, having an opinion might be ok, but there's a time and a place to be a dillhole and these forums aren't that place.
On topic, he makes some good points, but the MMO community in this generation of games is much less concerned with canon and being pro-social so that effect will be felt in just about any MMO.
On topic, he makes some good points, but the MMO community in this generation of games is much less concerned with canon and being pro-social so that effect will be felt in just about any MMO.
So what? I'll still buy the games based on wether I find them fun or not.
And why all this pessimism? Maybe they won't suck. "Oh nos the makers of thiAf are total retards for using l337 in the title so the game must be crap even before I've seen any of it!!"
Grow up.
And why all this pessimism? Maybe they won't suck. "Oh nos the makers of thiAf are total retards for using l337 in the title so the game must be crap even before I've seen any of it!!"
Grow up.
Good article and fairly true, but I was looking forward to Uncharted 2 and The Last Guardian so ho hum.
Shamus, you saucy meanie-pants, stop calling attention to these games' retarded shortcomings! That's not part of the schedule. Here's the schedule:
-E3 glitz, unabashed praise (but not enough to go around, so some neglect as well)
-Airheaded previews full of Photoshopped screenshots
-Metacritic says 'ho hum'
-Commercial failure
You're jumping the gun here.
-E3 glitz, unabashed praise (but not enough to go around, so some neglect as well)
-Airheaded previews full of Photoshopped screenshots
-Metacritic says 'ho hum'
-Commercial failure
You're jumping the gun here.
Everybody keeps forgetting about the wonderful days of Pre-CE SWG, when you actually had to WORK YOUR GODDAMN ASS OFF to become a Jedi, and were rewarded for months of mastering jobs with a nerdragingly overpowered one that only a fraction of the playerbase ever achieved. The best part was Jedis were clearly overpowered, but still feared Bounty Hunters, who were tailor-made to hunt Jedi. It was AWESOME.
Then Sony showed up and the 30 or so classes that were set up in a nice branching structure got reduced to 9 classes available at character creation, with Jedi right in the middle.
Screw you Sony.
Then Sony showed up and the 30 or so classes that were set up in a nice branching structure got reduced to 9 classes available at character creation, with Jedi right in the middle.
Screw you Sony.