Escapist News Network: Quick's Picks

Graham_LRR

Unskippable, LRR, Feed Dump
Nov 13, 2008
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Chesterfield Snapdragon McFisticuffs said:
Quicks Pick's, are you a dig at Pach-Attack? Because that's totally what I saw, and it was brilliant.
See directly above.
 

DTWolfwood

Better than Vash!
Oct 20, 2009
3,716
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omg i hope that email was real! if it is then the segment is too damn funny XD
 

Matt_LRR

Unequivocal Fan Favorite
Nov 30, 2009
1,260
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irishdelinquent said:
omg, did I see a Ben Affleck action figure from Dogma in Matt's office?! Sweet!
Ben Aflek and Matt Damon actually, I have both angels.

-m
 

Maibus

New member
Aug 8, 2009
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Ok gentlemen, me and a team of top scientists have discovered an incredible way to watch these videos, we figured out a long time ago when the Escapist would put adds with motion you click on that it would lag the video until the add was over, the remedy: just enlarge the video, it makes the ENTIRE screen the video and you can see better in my opinion, it even works with this new system that I'm not particularly a fan of. Next on this team of top scientists' to-do list: making Modern Warfare 2 fun. We don't expect all of us to come back.
 

widowspeak

New member
May 20, 2009
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The only things that could make ENN better than it already is:

1)More segments with Paul.
2)Keeping Quick's Picks as a semi-regular segment.
3)Making sirfragsalot.com into a real si. . .Holy crap! It exists! When did this happen? HOWCOULDIHAVEMISSEDTHIS??!? http://sirfragsalot.com/

Top-notch work, folks. Keep it up. :)
 

Decabo

New member
Dec 16, 2009
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GrahamS said:
Decabo said:
The reason I watch this show is because I used to like it. The earlier episodes I thought were quite good. But recently, they've felt phoned in. Look at this one: Paul's report was just a pie chart with no real joke to it, and the Quick Pick's thing was artificially lengthened by reading out the message in its entirety, and it didn't even have a punchline, it was just sort of... there.
I appreciate the feedback.
I can also assure you that we're putting as much work into the series as we ever have. More in fact.
The recent format changes (like more stories, and a greater variety of stories) were an attempt to make sure things weren't getting stale (since we felt they sort of were). It takes more writing, and more graphics work every week.

I wrote the pie-chart segment, and I thought retailers spending their markup on Pony Rides was really funny.
I didn't write Quick's Picks (which was a direct parody of Pach Attack, see below), but the humour in it wasn't "punchline" humour.

So, I don't really know what to tell you. I disagree, obviously, but I doubt I can change your mind.


Pach Attack:
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/episode-102-pach-attack/61971
To me, ENN shines most when you're putting a creative spin on a common videogame topic. The Sonic episode was brilliant in my opinion, because it took something we've all seen before (Sonic games being called crappy) in a new direction, and it was really funny. To me, the Pie chart segment was sort of like a Family Guy joke, just sort of randomly thrown in. You could've replaced pony rides with ballet lessons, Barbie dolls, or cotton balls, and it would've made the same ammount of sense.

Expanding on the concept behind the Sonic thing would be a great idea in my opinion. A rehab center for WoW players, for example, would be pretty funny to me.

For what little it's worth, I've liked just about all of your work, and have seen every video you've had on the Escapist, so it's not like I don't like your comedy or anything. This is just one person's opinion.
 

Jer_LRR

ENN Reporter & Photoshop Wizard
Sep 30, 2009
38
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Decabo said:
To me, ENN shines most when you're putting a creative spin on a common videogame topic. The Sonic episode was brilliant in my opinion, because it took something we've all seen before (Sonic games being called crappy) in a new direction, and it was really funny. To me, the Pie chart segment was sort of like a Family Guy joke, just sort of randomly thrown in. You could've replaced pony rides with ballet lessons, Barbie dolls, or cotton balls, and it would've made the same ammount of sense.

Expanding on the concept behind the Sonic thing would be a great idea in my opinion. A rehab center for WoW players, for example, would be pretty funny to me.

For what little it's worth, I've liked just about all of your work, and have seen every video you've had on the Escapist, so it's not like I don't like your comedy or anything. This is just one person's opinion.
It's a tough line to walk--I appreciate the feedback, having written both the 'Black and Blue Streak' story, and this week's 'Quick's Picks' bit. What it comes down to is everyone likes something different, and we can't please everyone all the time. With the reaction we've seen for 'Quick's Pics', its obvious a lot of folks like it, so we'll probably go back to it eventually--but we can't use it too often or it'll get stale. Similarly, some emails we've got indicated folks were hoping for a continuation of the RPG terrorist story this week, but that's just not the nature of the format--and frankly, breaking the fourth wall like we did last week is something that's fun occasionally, but gets old super quickly. We try to mix things up so that nothing feels stale, and that does mean mothballing good ideas for a while sometimes to spread them out--funny story: we almost didn't do 'Black and Blue Streak' because it was tonally very similar to the previous week's 'Natal Scandal'.

The nice thing about series like this is if you don't like one week's episode, you might like the next one; the curse is that if you really like one week's episode, you wont necessarily get the same buzz off the next one.
 

Decabo

New member
Dec 16, 2009
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Jer_LRR said:
Decabo said:
To me, ENN shines most when you're putting a creative spin on a common videogame topic. The Sonic episode was brilliant in my opinion, because it took something we've all seen before (Sonic games being called crappy) in a new direction, and it was really funny. To me, the Pie chart segment was sort of like a Family Guy joke, just sort of randomly thrown in. You could've replaced pony rides with ballet lessons, Barbie dolls, or cotton balls, and it would've made the same ammount of sense.

Expanding on the concept behind the Sonic thing would be a great idea in my opinion. A rehab center for WoW players, for example, would be pretty funny to me.

For what little it's worth, I've liked just about all of your work, and have seen every video you've had on the Escapist, so it's not like I don't like your comedy or anything. This is just one person's opinion.
It's a tough line to walk--I appreciate the feedback, having written both the 'Black and Blue Streak' story, and this week's 'Quick's Picks' bit. What it comes down to is everyone likes something different, and we can't please everyone all the time. With the reaction we've seen for 'Quick's Pics', its obvious a lot of folks like it, so we'll probably go back to it eventually--but we can't use it too often or it'll get stale. Similarly, some emails we've got indicated folks were hoping for a continuation of the RPG terrorist story this week, but that's just not the nature of the format--and frankly, breaking the fourth wall like we did last week is something that's fun occasionally, but gets old super quickly. We try to mix things up so that nothing feels stale, and that does mean mothballing good ideas for a while sometimes to spread them out--funny story: we almost didn't do 'Black and Blue Streak' because it was tonally very similar to the previous week's 'Natal Scandal'.

The nice thing about series like this is if you don't like one week's episode, you might like the next one; the curse is that if you really like one week's episode, you wont necessarily get the same buzz off the next one.
With kind and adequate responses from both you and Graham, I feel guilty for the bluntness of my initial remark. It's kind of like what happened with you guys and Uwe Boll. I'll try to keep my feedback constructive.

Thanks for the feedback on my feedback.
 

Strave

Gallant Gentleman
Feb 5, 2009
21
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"London seeking to strengthen cohesion between communities"? Interesting TinyURL usage there, guys...

Well, I may not have been 100% behind the format change, but either it's starting to grow on me, or they are getting even funnier. Either way, I'm really starting to enjoy the faster paced stories now.

Giving Matt an occasional segment to rant for a little while is brilliant. It suits him perfectly. And Paul's pie-chart segment was quite funny, too; though I can see how some people would dismiss it right into the "LOL-SO-RANDOM" category. People just have different styles of humor that appeal to them, but that's okay.

As an aside to all those complaining about the ads: I really feel that any site that gives users this much free, high-quality material, and that actually PAYS the people that provide the content, can advertise in whatever way they deem fit. And I really enjoy not having to wait through ads for every video I watch. So long as it doesn't affect the content - which it doesn't appear to be doing - it really doesn't affect me.

Last bit of fanboy drivel to the LRR Crew: I really love how you guys actually consistently respond to your feedback, even in places like here, where you would have to read through countless posts without much content. And posts with way too much content (prime example). It really goes above and beyond expectations for, well, pretty much anyone on the internet.

Well then, back to lurk the LRR Forums! Tally-ho!
 

Jer_LRR

ENN Reporter & Photoshop Wizard
Sep 30, 2009
38
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Decabo said:
With kind and adequate responses from both you and Graham, I feel guilty for the bluntness of my initial remark. It's kind of like what happened with you guys and Uwe Boll. I'll try to keep my feedback constructive.

Thanks for the feedback on my feedback.
No harm: no foul. Look at all the discussion that came of it -- we're all better off in the end :)!
 

HolidayBrick

New member
Nov 18, 2009
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This may be weird, but I'd really like to know if I got this right,

The stack of games next to Matt in Quick's Picks (from what I can tell) is:

The Simpsons Movie
Kameo: Elements of Power
Eternal Sonata
???
??? (Maybe Bad Company, but I doubt it)
Blue Dragon
Beautiful Katamari

Just something I noticed...
 

mjc0961

YOU'RE a pie chart.
Nov 30, 2009
3,847
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Maybe they need to print the M on the box bigger so stupid mothers don't buy the game for their "sun" anymore. :)
 

Vohn_exel

Residential Idiot
Oct 24, 2008
1,357
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Haha, I have to say this was probably my favorite ENN yet. I keep forgetting to watch these though, so maybe I'm just under LRR crew nourished :p