Poll: Who still watches Extra Credits?

Woodsey

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Aug 9, 2009
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Only watched it a bit. I often found it was too preachy about gaming, with not enough episodes focused on actual games. The episode on God of War was a favourite for example, because it was about stories and storytelling in games, which I've got a huge hard-on for. The "games as art" argument itself bores me to tears.
 
Aug 17, 2009
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The episodes where they talk about gaming-relevant things are still good. The recent videos about Scientific topics were to tangential for my taste, though.
 

personion

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Dec 6, 2010
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Yeah, I actually waited patiently for their episodes and when they went away I followed them on youtube. But when James hi jacked the show, as you said, I lost interest as well, unsubbed and didn't bother anymore.
 

Esotera

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i7omahawki said:
Esotera said:
No, simply because there was a gigantic decline in the quality of the episodes in the first month. And I remember getting really annoyed about how they based about three episodes on the idea that games aren't addictive.

Which is totally wrong according to the evidence. Which is when I lost respect for their opinions & stopped watching.
Did you even watch that show?

They differentiated between ADDICTION (as in physical addiction, like nicotine, alcohol, heroine chemical dependancies) to COMPULSION. Which is a very important distiction to make. Games are addictive in the sense that people continue to play them in ways which are destructive to their everyday lives, but they don't do so because games contain certain chemicals. They are psychologically addictive, absolutely not physically addictive. Hence the word 'Compulsion' which dispels the easy-to-make confusion.

Any behaviour at all can be compulsive, you can be compelled to wash your hands over and over, watch TV all day, masturbate, eat toilet paper, anything. But these behaviours are different from smoking a cigarette, which directly interferes with the synapses between nerve endings, causing a biological, physical addiction to a substance. Obviously these two are different, and that is what the entire episode was about.

TL;DR? Well then, watch the goddamn episode next time before whining.
With alcohol & nicotine & all other drugs, they effect the nervous system in some way that is pleasurable. Usually boosting dopamine or inhibiting serotonin. Games operate on the same mechanism, but you don't consume/ingest them. (I've already made a post in this thread citing a study that has shown evidence for this, you can find the abstract on pubmed. There's more evidence out there, but I can't be bothered to cite it just for people who assume that because I didn't like an episode, I didn't watch it.

Games effect neurochemistry, just as drugs can. If you can provide an argument with evidence to back it up, then I'll accept your point of view, but until then I'll call you out on it, just like I have with Extra Credits.
 
Jun 7, 2010
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Yeah, I still watch it. Not as religiously as I did when it was on here though. I think it's gone downhill a bit since they moved to penny arcade, I don't think the topics are as interesting as they used to be.
 

Versuvius

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Apr 30, 2008
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The over romanticising of gaming, gaming culture and game development irks me. Thats about it. That and many of their episodes are just...speculative tosh.
 

monkey_man

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Jul 5, 2009
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Balls. I'd forgotten about them, and I liked that show. I just have so much stuff to watch, all these series and series and por-*cough*
series. yeah.
 

DementedSheep

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Jan 8, 2010
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Oh right, extra credits. *goes to watch the last few episodes* I watch them occasionally when I get around it and if I remember.
ABLb0y said:
I don't watch it anymore. Not after they called me racist for liking Call of Juarez: The Cartel. Let me straighten this out: I like it because it's fun to play with my friends, not because you can shoot Mexicans.
They called the developers racist or if not racist just that they made a game with unfortunate and racist implications and were spreading misinformation thru lack of research and lazy design. They did not say liking the game makes you racist. It doesn't make you racist unless you like it because of the racist shit.
 

Dunkerloop

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Eh, I'll admit to not watching/being interested in any of the Game Addiction/Sci Fi episodes (Never watched through the All James Episode on Game Addiction), but I still watch them (Something else I'll admit to: I never watched them on the escapist, but started watching them after I saw them on Penny Arcade, a site which I do visit reguarly)
 

Supertegwyn

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ChupathingyX said:
Meh, I used to watch it here but I always thought it was way too pretentious at some points and very preachy. Sometimes they would make good points but every now and then something they say would either be totally wrong.

I checked out some of the their new episodes and I agree that the game addiction episode was boring and pointless.
This. I have always found Jame's voice to be very annoying and preachy. I'm glad they have left the site.
 

Reincarnatedwolfgod

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Jan 17, 2011
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yes on penny arcade every Thursday

the money donation thing that i never gave them a penny so it does not affect me. they claim they will start a indie game fund and i hope it works out assuming they really mean it.
 

AdmiralMemo

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Dec 15, 2008
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Okysho said:
AdmiralMemo said:
Okysho said:
Where's the goddamned voice acting episode!?
They mentioned in their Desert Bus interview [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRyKYSa1jaU] that they're still working on getting actual voice actors for that episode.
That was almost purely for humorous purposes. I actually sent them an e-mail asking them if they would like a contact for a voice actor within the vancouver BC area that I know.

Never got a reply... maybe I should send it again...
I don't think it would help, though. They've got a few thousand emails to go through in their GMail box. They did say in one video that they're no longer going to reply to every email, but they're reading them all. I would suspect that they simply haven't gotten to your email yet.
JoJoDeathunter said:
Ummm... what? It's not one word against another any more, we know what happened now:

1) James allowed Escapist to owe money since they were tight on cash
2) Due to the Alison issue EC raised $100000 approx from community
3) Escapist wanted a share of the cash raised
4) James said no and got into an argument about the owed money
5) Escapist paid up everything they owed but EC left anyway

I blame EC because the Escapist backed down from their demands and paid what they owed, but EC still left anyway. If they really cared about their fans they wouldn't have jumped ship so fast.
Alright. Where do you have proof that the Escapist sent the money? As far as I know, neither party has released the emails that were promised to be released.

Also, you're missing a few steps in your timeline, as well as erroneous in others.

A more accurate timeline would be like this:

1. James knew the Escapist was in a financial bind and allowed them to owe money.
2. Allison's shoulder injury happens, along with James' brother having a messy divorce.
3. James does not have the money to help with either of those things.
4. James asks the Escapist for $20,000 out of the money he's owed, so he can help with those things.
5. Escapist responds, saying they don't have all of it, but they do send him what they can.
6. Escapist sends James a few thousand dollars through PayPal.
7. As this is inadequate to cover the cost of Allison's surgery, so Escapist suggests that James try Kickstarter.
8. Kickstarter responds, stating they don't do charity.
9. Escapist suggests RocketHub, which agrees to allow the fund.
10. James starts RocketHub fund, open for 60 days, looking for $20,000. (Way too long, but they didn't know that at the time.)
11. Escapist makes an agreement with James, saying they'll promote the fund with Publisher's Club memberships, as well as an option to do the 1,705 t-shirts for $36,450.
12. James declines the t-shirt option, saying that it's too much and they'll do it themselves.
13. James continues to have trouble getting a straight answer out of the Escapist, so he hired a "business development manager" to try to do so.
14. The RocketHub donations go well beyond what anyone had even conceived.
15. The business manager goes to the Escapist with a deal: give EC their IP rights back and the money currently owed for EC episodes would be considered null and void.
16. Escapist claims that they have rights to 75% of the RocketHub donation money, considering the debt paid and that James now owes them $9,500. (Not directly, but by putting the money into more episodes of EC without the Escapist having to pay them.)
17. Escapist sees that Russ Pitts is scheduled to be at a convention that James is also at, so they decide this would be a good time to meet James face-to-face and try to work things out.
18. James' and Russ' schedules were too packed for them to meet about this.
19. James gets his lawyer to deliver an ultimatum: we want our money or IP rights, within a week.
20. Escapist claims to pay all $20,000 James is owed, but James claims he hasn't seen a dime since the PayPal money.
21. James leaves the Escapist.

The only step where a fact is really called into question is step 20. Did the Escapist pay James? They say they did. James says they didn't. Both sides have claimed that they're game to publishing the email exchanges that occurred, but neither side has done so. James says he wouldn't have needed the "breach of contract" notice if the Escapist has either paid him or given back the EC IP rights.
Akyho said:
Allison has her medical issues which was major. The community throws enough money to cover her medical in no time. Excellent! However... you can still donate... the bar is going up and up.... now we are 3x the medical bill. I was thinking they should have took that down sooner. It kept going and going and going. I was getting anxious. They were profiting way too much.
As previously mentioned, the problem was that they couldn't take it down after reaching their goal [http://ocremix.org/forums/showpost.php?p=801500&postcount=433], due to the way that RocketHub works. This is why they asked the EC community what to do with the money, and threw around the "Indie Games Fund" idea. This idea was met with much support from the community.
Akyho said:
Then I found out that James made an Indie Games company or sorts, followed with "I am glad I can now live my dream as a games developer" speech. They hit my "stop listening to them" button. It was wrong. I cannot agree with them at all. I watched an episode or so. I started to get angry at it all.
Well, your argument here doesn't hold water, because you could have put in your opinion when James asked the EC community what to do with the excess money. You could even have gotten a refund if you donated and didn't like what they were doing with the excess money. So, you can't complain about this part.
 

Akyho

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AdmiralMemo said:
Lots just doing this to get your attention.
There is just so much to say about both sides. I didn't donate so my voice is smaller there. I followed the EC/Escapist thing and I never found the place to give my opinion of the idea.

Overall it was ALL a mess. I personally as one person have stepped back went "Its a mess.....I am not getting involved I don't like ANY of it. I give up." So basically Voice or no voice. I kept mines to myself. And to me personally I have decided I don't want to watch EC.

I will not tell someone to not watch EC I would more likely give more positives. However it has all soured for me. I just cannot enjoy it personally. So dont worry about me talking bad about EC I just dont like how it all happened on both sides and I still dont have all the info. I have more info from the EC but not the Escapist and Overall I don't care. I am not involved so I stand back and leave everyone to themselves.
 

Frankie Villanueva

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Nov 10, 2010
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It's probably because we all stopped getting on The Escapist. EC was the reason I came here from YouTube, and I follow them on the Penny Arcade thing. (I just follow the links on YouTube). Honestlly, There's not much left for me here. I did discover Criticle Miss and Great reviews but I find that I rarely come back. That and most of the community on The Escapist and I don't really see eye-to-eye in our taste in games. That and it's hard to relate to most people on here. Most of them (not all, but most) Dislike JRPG's, CallofDuty, Anime, fighting games and most of what's "popular" in the gaming community. (exept for Skyrim, we all love that game) Plus, it's hard to find people to relate to, most (again, not all) people here are sensitive, in assertive and probably lost their virginity in their 20's. There's just not a whole lot here for ,e and people like me anymore.
 

Raiha

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Jul 3, 2009
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the most thought provoking web show i have found so far. why would i stop watching?
 

kebab4you

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Jan 3, 2010
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100% agree with those 2 game addictions episode, they was very awful. However, I very much recommend you pick the show back up again since the episodes after that was fun to watch.
 

LetalisK

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May 5, 2010
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I still watch it. For some reason. Its preachiness drives me nuts, but I still watch it. It's a compulsion!