Whatever Happened to Extra Credits?

[Puddleknock]

Extra Credits was the feature that brought me to The Escapist in the first place and though I've stay long after they have left the site I still watch their show over at Penny Arcade every week.

I personally like the way they approach the topic of games, the show makes me think about different aspects of games that I wouldn't otherwise. I don't even find it that pretentious, a lot of what they say is rational and reasonable (the addiction episode aside, I hated that one).

As for the argument between them and the escapists, I didn't really follow it too much and it seemed to be that neither side handled the situation well and they parted ways. Unfortunate but not the end of the world.

 

[Atmos Duality]

One bad contract after another...it's what really caused Extra Credits to jump ship to Penny Arcade.
The whole Fundraiser debacle was just the last straw.

What I don't get is how this site isn't turning profits despite the incredible traffic it generates; I regularly can't log on on Wednesdays or the weekends without experiencing significant lag.

Perhaps it's not my place to ask, but what the hell are the advertisers paying them? Peanuts?
They have clearly made their presence known, I'll say that much.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

My opinion of them? They made an ok show with several overly pretentious episodes and also feature a rather annoying bunch of speakers.

I stopped caring for them when James started complaining about a lack of funds after just taking the huge surplus of cash he just got from the charity and deciding to open a company, in a recession mind you, that is just going to drain his pockets faster. He is a good man, I don't doubt that, but this move made me doubt his ability to handle finances.

 

[albinoterrorist]

]I guess I'm just wondering what happened, is there bad blood? Did they just fall off the map? did they move? and if so what have they been up to for the last many months.

In addition to Penny Arcade, they've also got their own website.
Just put Extra Credits into google. Should find it fairly easily.

Don't get me wrong, missle command is a pretty fun game, you protect 6 cities from a variety of missiles, a real classic. But extra credits were saying the moral choice in sacrificing cities in order for other cities to survive and how that affects the player, not only is this a load of bollocks, but I'm sure no one is going to feel bad about a few pixels getting blown up, the game is 30 years old!

Please never play DEFCON, good sir.
I can't handle the thought of you completely missing the point of such a work of art.

 

[carlj]

Yeah, Vivi22, here's the thing: one of the hallmarks of being an adult is realizing you may need health insurance, and before you develop that $20K condition. Adults do stuff like buy insurance and sock away some money before launching on a business to make cartoons about video games, full time.

No puppy kicking involved. Just not a fan of sanctimony in most of its forms. And the drawing of the cartoonist with a sling at the end of the episode and then passing the hat the next... way too manipulative, transparently so. "Help fund Allison's surgery or we won't be able to bring you more of our moralizing about how there aren't enough transgendered culturally-diverse women with bipolar disorder in video games," was just way too Oral Roberts, "hand over $8MM or I'm going to die," for my taste. Sounds like one step from "here, go hand out flowers and copies of the Bhagavad Gita at the airport so we can continue our mission of making the world safer for Strawberry Shortcake and Donkey Kong."

As for the falling out over the beggin... er, "fundraising," I'm pretty sure the partners of my firm would take a dim view of my interrupting a deposition to announce that I'd started a really nasty herpes flare up that morning and would be passing my coffee cup around for everyone to contribute for my next Valtrex fix. So, while I'm sure there were lapses on both sides, setting up the collection plate at your place of work was one of them.

 

[Vivi22]

Yeah, Vivi22, here's the thing: one of the hallmarks of being an adult is realizing you may need health insurance, and before you develop that $20K condition. Adults do stuff like buy insurance and sock away some money before launching on a business to make cartoons about video games, full time.

Here's the thing, and it's part of the reason you come off as little more than a condescending asshole: neither of us knows the full story about Allison's situation. Knowing you may need health insurance, and being able to afford it are two very different things. Even being able to get sufficient coverage with pre-existing conditions as I understand it can be either prohibitively expensive or outright impossible. And no, saying someone should simply find another job is not always a valid suggestion as doing so may be either impossible if one is already working more than full time hours as many artists do to try and make ends meet and you're talking about taking a second job, or extremely time consuming, and possibly fruitless in the case of trying to find a new job, given the economy in general has been absolute shit for years now. You don't know how realistic it is to be able to find another job that pays better in Allison's field, so suggesting it as the end all prescription for all that ails society is outright absurd.

Good for you if you happened to go into a field that pays well and are lucky enough to have a job that let's you afford health insurance. Not everyone is so lucky, and for many it's not a matter of choosing not to buy insurance, but rather, a matter of accepting the job they have or being on the street because there is nothing else.

As for the falling out over the beggin... er, "fundraising," I'm pretty sure the partners of my firm would take a dim view of my interrupting a deposition to announce that I'd started a really nasty herpes flare up that morning and would be passing my coffee cup around for everyone to contribute for my next Valtrex fix. So, while I'm sure there were lapses on both sides, setting up the collection plate at your place of work was one of them.

This analogy is flawed. They didn't "interrupt" anything. What they did was announce a fundraiser to their community via the vehicle that is there show to help one of the people involved in making it. It would be no different than people at your firm choosing to start a fundraiser for an employee who may be ill or have a family member who's ill and mention it to clients. You seem to take offense to them asking their fans for assistance as though they were strong arming people into giving them money, but no one was forced to do anything clearly, so why don't you get over yourself.

 

[Sandytimeman]

to be honest I think EC was in the right, we've seen alot of good shows quietly get discontinued like Lisa Folies that were in support of EC which leads me to believe alot of their claims of being owed back pay, and Escapist making a grab for the money were kind of true. I still love the community and other shows they have so I still stick around, and hey I'm glad to watch EC every week over on PA which also picked up ENN from the LLR crew. So they are in good company over there.

 

[Fat Hippo]

My opinion of them? They made an ok show with several overly pretentious episodes and also feature a rather annoying bunch of speakers.

I stopped caring for them when James started complaining about a lack of funds after just taking the huge surplus of cash he just got from the charity and deciding to open a company, in a recession mind you, that is just going to drain his pockets faster. He is a good man, I don't doubt that, but this move made me doubt his ability to handle finances.

His facial hair tells you all you need to know about his ability to handle finances.

I actually really like Extra Credits and still watch it over on Penny Arcade, but James does look like a Hippie/Stoner.

 

[Smooth Operator]

There was bad blood over money, they left the Escapist, you can still find them on Youtube and Penny Arcade.

But I sort of get the feeling the whole thing is coming to a conclusion, the episodes have gotten stranger and their releases increasingly irregular.

 

[Images]

I applaud the community fundraiser to raise money for the operation. Once the operation was paid for however that extra money shouldn't have gone into a private project with just EC's say so whilst expecting their regular pay. Escapist would have been right to go "any extra cash you received, keep it (minus a small percentage seeing as hey you're on OUR site) but that money is going to count towards your owed salary".

This site is based on the community, yes their revenue is gained through ad revenue but that is made by us regularly hitting the site. That donation money was an investment by us Extra Credits fans on The Escapist to continue watching Extra Credits on the Escapist, NOT so they could fund other schemes.

 

[albinoterrorist]

Don't get me wrong, missle command is a pretty fun game, you protect 6 cities from a variety of missiles, a real classic. But extra credits were saying the moral choice in sacrificing cities in order for other cities to survive and how that affects the player, not only is this a load of bollocks, but I'm sure no one is going to feel bad about a few pixels getting blown up, the game is 30 years old!

Please never play DEFCON, good sir.
I can't handle the thought of you completely missing the point of such a work of art.

And why should I not play DEFCON?

You'll never understand the pain of losing Cairo's 25 million people, despite all your best efforts at defense.
...
STOP SOBBING AT ME, WOMAN!
I TRIED MY HARDEST! ;~;

 

[Popeman]

I think you misunderstood my first post I'm not saying I don't like a good morality situation, If DEFCON has emotional weight in your decisions and feelings of consequence, than it's all good. I saw a gameplay vid and honestly, it looks pretty good, might give it a shot sometime, don't misunderstand me, I enjoy videogames that challenge you morally.

For what it's worth man I agree with you. It's the fable argument of why should we care. I am not motivated by the moral dilemma in the game It might be there and you can make a convincing point that it is there but why should I care? I have no reason to care what happens to random fable NPC #325 as a I do random missle command city #4.