Toilet said:
When I watch Extra Credits now I usually cringe at how their artsy pretentiousness is played straight and they actually take what they say seriously. Also James oversells himself, he is the "CEO" of Rainmaker Games which is pretty much a title that lets him gallivant all over the place advising, talking and writing about videogame development of which he has little to nil experience. The dude is a sleazy conman who only seems to want to stroke his own ego.
Here's a perfect example of why I think so many people feel EC is pretentious.
English majors are often criticized for their overanalysis of books. Those outside the major are like "There's no way the writer came up with 'this this symbol this motif that'", etc., as they feel English majors overglorify their favorite medium. English majors likewise find that most other people don't understand their points because they don't live working with the medium everyday. Of course, you also see film critics go through the same thing (I think MovieBob regularly has to deal with this and he regularly rants about, if need be).
Attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed
It's also why I am feeling a little miffed that "pretentious" is the term everyone has chosen to use.
Really guys? You're acting like having some kind of idealism is somehow BAD for the industry. While I do like Sterling's show, while I do sometimes not watch some of EC's shows if they don't interest me, and while I do see where people are coming from when they say EC is a "preachy" show...I am pretty annoyed that people somehow are treating the heavy scrutiny of gaming as a culture from any place other than the consumer's point of view, the non-"artsy" view, is somehow "pretentious".
If that is so pretentious, then what do you want games to be? Do you want the medium to go forward or not? Because all other mediums have been influenced in various ways by the "artsy" view as well as the "common" view.
Or am I suddenly misunderstanding the argument of what makes EC pretentious? Because I want to really hear how the "artsy" view is somehow automatically pretentious.