Extra Credits Team Debuts New Video Series "James Recommends"

[John Keefer]

Extra Credits Team Debuts New Video Series "James Recommends"


You may remember Extra Credits from its time on The Escapist. If so, you'll want to check out a new video show from the creators of that series.

A new video series has debuted featuring Extra Credits creator James Portnow, where he takes to YouTube to offer up his suggestions for independent games to play. The inaugural episode of "James Recommends" focuses on a "dark, atmospheric Puzzle Platformer" called The Swapper, where Portnow said the game should best be played in the dark, late at night when you can "get immersed in the dark quiet world."

Portnow's Extra Credits used to run on The Escapist and he has a large following of fans. If you are already a fan, check out the new series. If not, check it out anyway, since the series is all about playing interesting games you may not have heard of before.

And you like games, right? Right???

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[Story]

Actually, I hate games. >:c
...
But seriously, I'm surprised the Escapist is covering this as a story. I guess there's no hard feelings?

As for the series, I love Extra Credits so I have to check this out some time.

 

[zalithar]

I just have to point this out; it's not 'the swappers,' it's 'the swapper.'

I sometimes get the feeling, that I spend too much time on the trivial things.

 

[Coliumbos]

Interesting new series. While I'm still disappointed that PA dropped its video content, EC ha only really gotten better over the years.

Must point out that it's James PortNOW not NOY, though, just to satisfy my inner Grammar Nazi.

 

[Dendio]

All I know is Extra credit asked the escapist community for aid when their artist needed hand surgery. We gave them donations in good faith and then shortly afterwards they left us for penny arcade

 

[anANGRYkangaroo]

All I know is Extra credit asked the escapist community for aid when their artist needed hand surgery. We gave them donations in good faith and then shortly afterwards they left us for penny arcade

That is only part of the story. Money was being raised for her hand surgery, yes, but there was a great amount of miscommunication between EC and the Escapist.

The Escapist thought that they would be getting a much larger portion of the money raised than what EC thought, and so there was a discrepancy between how much money should go to who. Due to the frustration of (in their opinion) losing a great portion of the money raised for her surgery, EC went independent on youtube, only to be picked up by PA shorty thereafter.

 

[Remus]

All I know is Extra credit asked the escapist community for aid when their artist needed hand surgery. We gave them donations in good faith and then shortly afterwards they left us for penny arcade

Can we not drag that out here? It was a looooong time ago, it was a hot mess, the end. There was a lot of wrong done on both sides and to see fault in one, you have to recognize fault in the other. I hold no grudges either way, else I would not be posting here.

 

[Greg Tito]

Can we not drag that out here? It was a looooong time ago, it was a hot mess, the end. There was a lot of wrong done on both sides and to see fault in one, you have to recognize fault in the other. I hold no grudges either way, else I would not be posting here.

Hear hear, Remus. Well said. Whatever happened was before my watch, and was so long ago it shouldn't have any bearing on what both EC and The Escapist are doing now.

Greg

 

[Aerosteam]

It's always good to hear about former Escapist contributors still kicking, like D&A.

All I know is Extra credit asked the escapist community for aid when their artist needed hand surgery. We gave them donations in good faith and then shortly afterwards they left us for penny arcade

Don't... don't bring that up please.

 

[Scorpid]

Can we not drag that out here? It was a looooong time ago, it was a hot mess, the end. There was a lot of wrong done on both sides and to see fault in one, you have to recognize fault in the other. I hold no grudges either way, else I would not be posting here.

Hear hear, Remus. Well said. Whatever happened was before my watch, and was so long ago it shouldn't have any bearing on what both EC and The Escapist are doing now.

Greg

Hey grandpa, have you ever thought about asking them to come back to your site. I loved their work and I think they'd elevate the already important discussions we all have on the site.

 

[Saltyk]

Man, I am soooo far behind on Extra Credits. I used to look forward to them on The Escapist, but I don't really visit Penny-Arcade. If they were still here, I know I'd still be watching them.

And to go back and start trying to catch up would be a while as I'm certain I'm a good 50 episodes behind.

Can we not drag that out here? It was a looooong time ago, it was a hot mess, the end. There was a lot of wrong done on both sides and to see fault in one, you have to recognize fault in the other. I hold no grudges either way, else I would not be posting here.

Hear hear, Remus. Well said. Whatever happened was before my watch, and was so long ago it shouldn't have any bearing on what both EC and The Escapist are doing now.

Greg

Gotta say that I am happy that there doesn't seem to be too much hard feelings. I haven't a clue if those bridges have been burned, but it's still good to see that one can work professionally. It's far rarer that it should be.

 

[L. Declis]

To bring it back to the actual video, I'm... not impressed.

I have never liked the whole "look at me talk to you" format of reviewing; no one is interesting enough on the internet to stare at for several minutes. It's the same reason I dislike the news thing they have on the Escapist. I prefer you use footage or images in a style of Moviebob or Sterling's reviews. Even in the Jimquisition, at least Jim has enough charisma to talk for a minute.

Two; I understand James does lectures at universities. If so, I am not surprised. He mumbles, umms, ahhs, repeats himself and so on. He even does that "I think I'm kinda funny so I'll laugh nervously at my own jokes" thing. This is fine at a uni. But on your own video program?

If you're going to do this kind of thing, you need to learn how to edit your videos and be willing to either 1) Repeat it until you stop messing up or 2) Build in points where you shut up so you can edit around your mistakes. Those bits when the video takes over the screen? You should have used that to edit out the video. As it is, it just sounds unfocused, made up on the spot and painful to listen to, especially when combined with him mumbling into his chin.

I think Extra Credits does fine as it is; let him do the research, but let Daniel handle the presenting because James just isn't suited to it.

Now, I could get petty, like wondering if there is some kind of school that him and the Vlogbrothers went to where they force you to sit in front of bookshelves for hours on end, but I'll leave it there.

However, the Swapper does look very interesting, and that was a very good choice to present. James also gave very interesting reasons to play it, and it's a decent sell without being pushy, so kudos for that.

 

[Greg Tito]

Hey grandpa, have you ever thought about asking them to come back to your site. I loved their work and I think they'd elevate the already important discussions we all have on the site.

Baby steps.

 

[C14N]

To bring it back to the actual video, I'm... not impressed.

I have never liked the whole "look at me talk to you" format of reviewing; no one is interesting enough on the internet to stare at for several minutes. It's the same reason I dislike the news thing they have on the Escapist. I prefer you use footage or images in a style of Moviebob or Sterling's reviews. Even in the Jimquisition, at least Jim has enough charisma to talk for a minute.

Two; I understand James does lectures at universities. If so, I am not surprised. He mumbles, umms, ahhs, repeats himself and so on. He even does that "I think I'm kinda funny so I'll laugh nervously at my own jokes" thing. This is fine at a uni. But on your own video program?

If you're going to do this kind of thing, you need to learn how to edit your videos and be willing to either 1) Repeat it until you stop messing up or 2) Build in points where you shut up so you can edit around your mistakes. Those bits when the video takes over the screen? You should have used that to edit out the video. As it is, it just sounds unfocused, made up on the spot and painful to listen to, especially when combined with him mumbling into his chin.

I think Extra Credits does fine as it is; let him do the research, but let Daniel handle the presenting because James just isn't suited to it.

Now, I could get petty, like wondering if there is some kind of school that him and the Vlogbrothers went to where they force you to sit in front of bookshelves for hours on end, but I'll leave it there.

However, the Swapper does look very interesting, and that was a very good choice to present. James also gave very interesting reasons to play it, and it's a decent sell without being pushy, so kudos for that.

I kind of agreed, although I don't see what's wrong with sitting in front of a bookshelf (not everyone has a studio in their house) and a nervous laugh is really just a personal tick. It was a first episode and I expected some teething issues though. The next video did address some of these issues though. He said he's not planning on hitting it big as some kind of Youtube star, he's just putting these out there as a take-it-or-leave-it kind of opinion so he doesn't want to spend ages writing scripts and editing the videos. That being said, I do still think he needs to practice a little, talking to a camera is different to talking to a crowd and he probably should have tried it out more alone. It could also benefit from him just writing down a few specific points he wants to make (not a complete dialogue) in advance because there did seem to be times when he seemed to trail off wondering what to talk about. This is something everyone who speaks publicly does, whether they're a politician or a teacher or a stand up comedian.

That said, the Dragon's Dogma video that followed was a bit tighter and gave us full screen footage, I expect this series will improve with time and experience.