"Zero Punctuation" and "Dev Diary" by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw - The only thing worth watching on The Escapist

[CasketBase]

Since when was Yahtzee a good game critic to begin with?

I dunno, I still remember one of his articles way back when on the Escapist, the one about measuring a game's ability to engage or something. Part of the old "fun" debate. He argued in favor of using three criteria: context (story & aesthetics), challenge (self-explanatory) and gratification (can be achieved in a lot of different ways, e.g. sound design and VFX making your kills in an FPS feel good, a Metroidvania boss giving you a permanent character upgrade that changes the way you move around the game's world and provides a power spike, etc.) instead of the nebulous and more subjective "fun".
That was a pretty interesting take that stuck with me personally. Another one that sticks out is his old "a [final] bossfight should test the player's understanding and grasp of everything the game was trying to teach them" or some shit along those lines. Also a pretty important fundamental point to keep in mind if one is making an action game, and RPG, an FPS or whatever.
He used to understand things better, or was more passionate about the whole gaming/gamedev online discourse in general at some point, IMO.
Haven't watched any of his shit in ages, though. Last time I heard Ben's voice was on MATI, when Null showed him discussing Jim Sterling's HRT adventures. What's his current status as a modder/game developer? Did he even make anything else after half-assing Consuming Shadow? I've played the free beta version of that, it was OK mechanically as far as I remember, but I thought he'd be better off paying a pro artist for some decent sprites and bolting them on if he wanted to sell that one for money on Steam.

he'd probably even like Goodbye Volcano High

If he still had teeth he'd do a GVH/Snoot Game double feature and dab on both to rile everyone up and get trending for a minute or two. Would be good for his career, too.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

Since when was Yahtzee a good game critic to begin with? The fucker was always shit at this, hence why he tried to brand himself mo a comedian.

Some of the Hotline Miami 2 criticisms he had were fairly solid I thought, if entry-level, though none of it was really groundbreaking. That bug with the doors I only noticed in a few early levels, though, I felt the issues with the Hawaii levels were much more of an issue.

I never understood how in gaming it became such a trend to talk on how good it is for media to be made disposable because "don't have time to get food/invested". If you outgrew the hobby then do the noble thing and quit.

The thing is that there's always shorter games, where you could play for half an hour and still feel like you did something, but that's not something to brag about.

Frankly I've found most of the simple puzzle "experience" type games to be too far up their ass to be a good, viable genre. INSIDE I felt had its moments but none of it would be fun without having the inevitable death you'd run into if you weren't careful...and even then, they're only fun the first time.

Dunno if this was uploaded. But, gotta love his dig at the Sonic franchise with some MovieBob type logic.

Fuck this guy for calling SimCity 3000 "dry and boring" and then going on to kiss the ass of Papers, Please yet again.

 

[Captain Syrup]

looking back its crazy how much work went into Sonic CD when your average tard playing would only experience 25% of it

CD was a head scratcher, no doubt. The entire gimmick is time travel, yet there’s a method (giant ring) that skips it completely.

Sonic 2 on game gear got this right. Gather all the Emeralds, and you unlock an entirely new zone.

 

[BetterFuckChuck]

Fuck this guy for calling SimCity 3000 "dry and boring" and then going on to kiss the ass of Papers, Please yet again.

He wants to be seen as artsy, not realizing that anyone who knows anything about art doesnt value anything gaming wise because it's essentially eight hours interacting with something in the same way is not worth respecting when a two hour film can get across the same themes

 

[Tommy John Surgery]

On today's episode of low-hanging fruit slop, courtesy of Nick Cucklandra and co.

 

[30+GameOvers]

On today's episode of low-hanging fruit slop, courtesy of Nick Cucklandra and co.

Of course he doesn't even blink at the thought of a black samurai and implies that the fanfiction written about the pet monkey was all true. I have a feeling "Jimminy Cock Throat" is his bull's nickname for Yahtzee, with how much nigger semen he likes swallowing.
That aside, even he admits the game is boring, the pet monkey adds nothing and is entirely out of place. He even calls for collapse of AAA and Ubisoft all together, so I guess broken clock is right twice a day.

 

[The tired cat]

He even calls for collapse of AAA and Ubisoft all together, so I guess broken clock is right twice a day.

Nah, he just needs to parrot Jimbo. I said it once and I'll say it again, Yahtzee ain't a "woke" or whatever asshole. He's an asshole journo who tells you what you wanna hear. Plus, he had a hatred for Ubisoft and the AC series for a while.

 

[Tommy John Surgery]

Of course he doesn't even blink at the thought of a black samurai and implies that the fanfiction written about the pet monkey was all true. I have a feeling "Jimminy Cock Throat" is his bull's nickname for Yahtzee, with how much nigger semen he likes swallowing.
That aside, even he admits the game is boring, the pet monkey adds nothing and is entirely out of place. He even calls for collapse of AAA and Ubisoft all together, so I guess broken clock is right twice a day.

I would say someone like Nick might have told him not to join the culture war bludgeoning of Ubisoft, but Nick is one of Mercante's personal attack helicopters so he'd probably greenlight a Yahtzee politisperging himself as the old conservative British man has turned into a Californicated Cuck.

 

[Evil Peter Griffin]

Last time I heard Ben's voice was on MATI, when Null showed him discussing Jim Sterling's HRT adventures.

Please link it that sounds interesting.

 

[CasketBase]

Please link it that sounds interesting.

I just meant that time when Null showed Jim's appearance on Second Wind's podcast, the one where Jim goes on about "his body thinking it's pregnant" because of HRT, and Yahtzee just awkwardly responds with "oh no" and "all right then".
I apologize for making it sound like a separate/more interesting incident.

Links, since you asked.
Jim's thread discusses it starting here.
MATI episode & segment in question, if you're interested in Mr. Moon's take on the matter.

 

[Pierre D'Olnique]

What a truly revolutionary take. Almost like generating something is by definition iterative.

 

[Evil Peter Griffin]

Art is in the eye of the beholder and this is art to me.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

View attachment 7195440
What a truly revolutionary take. Almost like generating something is by definition iterative.

Would Yahtzee using AI to generate sprites that don't look like ass make his games soulless?

 

[Pierre D'Olnique]

Caught my eye in the credits of the latest SemiRamblo. Naturally a tranny freak can't help himself but use faggot characters to bump his name to the top. Thankfully, the mighty underscore beat him.

 

[Linkalin]

Would Yahtzee using AI to generate sprites that don't look like ass make his games soulless?

Speaking of AI, he literally used AI as a plot point excuse for the finale for one of his trilogy book he wrote “Will Save The Galaxy Series”. I enjoyed the first and second book because it was more or less a semi self aware of retired villains and hero in an age where villains and hero doesn’t matter because teleportation is available to solve every problem.

I felt that the book ending was too meta, since it was written 1-2 years ago when AI was a thing and I thought it’s been rewritten just so Yathzee could have a sting on AI problem instead of focusing more on making fun of story tropes.

Spoiler: The Ending of the Third Book

Essentially, the main running mystery of the book was a mysterious writer who had been writing stories based on many retired heroes, that was hated because all the money produced by the sales was not distributed to the said heroes. The protagonist took in the writer name throughout the story due to how lucrative it was, but obviously danger comes biting him because of this.

In the end of the book, the writer is revealed to be an AI that has been using stories of real heroes because they can (I believe the AI was just given a test by its creator at the beginning). Somewhere along the line the books become so meta that that the AI somehow has the need to write its story into reality by causing havoc.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Speaking of AI, he literally used AI as a plot point excuse for the finale for one of his trilogy book he wrote “Will Save The Galaxy Series”. I enjoyed the first and second book because it was more or less a semi self aware of retired villains and hero in an age where villains and hero doesn’t matter because teleportation is available to solve every problem.

I felt that the book ending was too meta, since it was written 1-2 years ago when AI was a thing and I thought it’s been rewritten just so Yathzee could have a sting on AI problem instead of focusing more on making fun of story tropes.

Spoiler: The Ending of the Third Book

Essentially, the main running mystery of the book was a mysterious writer who had been writing stories based on many retired heroes, that was hated because all the money produced by the sales was not distributed to the said heroes. The protagonist took in the writer name throughout the story due to how lucrative it was, but obviously danger comes biting him because of this.

In the end of the book, the writer is revealed to be an AI that has been using stories of real heroes because they can (I believe the AI was just given a test by its creator at the beginning). Somewhere along the line the books become so meta that that the AI somehow has the need to write its story into reality by causing havoc.

Sounds like "AI is bad, Mkey". You'd think by now Yahtzee would realize being a a self insert in his own fiction is a good way to be laughed at.

 

[The tired cat]

Sounds like "AI is bad, Mkey". You'd think by now Yahtzee would realize being a a self insert in his own fiction is a good way to be laughed at.

Tell that to his MogBorg book, where his self insert was a smug-know it all-dickweed and everyone around him was a village idiot.

 

[Linkalin]

Sounds like "AI is bad, Mkey". You'd think by now Yahtzee would realize being a a self insert in his own fiction is a good way to be laughed at.

I do think his save the galaxy is very self inserty. But I think his other series which was Differently Amorphous about a Britain discovering magic is real and needing to handle the “political correctness” of having another minority that could use spell kind of funny.

I think that series felt like a self criticism of left ideology from a lefty? But I do think he wrote it in a way that he is criticizing far far left from his own position. The first of this series is written I believe in 2019 and I think the left of him isn’t that bad. But I think the next book would be the finale (if he is planning for trilogy) and I wonder what would be the main “message” that he is trying to do now that he is very very left from his video. But I feel like it would be similar to the end of the “Will Save The Galaxy” book where he just take a jab at current things instead of writing something more timeless.

The reason I think the woke hasn’t got him that much back then was there is one character that is the head of the MIB who is very conservative and trying to slowly help magic folks bit by bit every year, because she believed that sudden change is too chaotic. Which is what happened to the story since people found out that these monsters are doing parade for their mistreatment. But, it could be interpreted as “this character belief hindered change” so I don’t know which one Yathzee intended. It is a pretty fun book.

The second book funnily enough tackles child idol and criticizing parents who use their children for monetary gain (RYAN REVIEW WORLD) which I think coincide with him having a baby. So again, his writing is a bit influence by what’s happening right now.

If I have to take a guess, he might put a “Donald Trump” esque character that wanted to represent the normal folk who is now oppressed by the people who can cast spell. Then it will sorta tackle like concentration camp and racism. Then if I’m super lucky, I would guess this character plot twist was that he is a magic user and is essentially leading a movement of grift. Which I HOPE is not where it is going because I’m sick of hearing orange man bad in every part of my life.

 

[Tommy John Surgery]

Ok, the Dahmer joke got a giggle out of me

 

[30+GameOvers]

View attachment 7235428
Caught my eye in the credits of the latest SemiRamblo. Naturally a tranny freak can't help himself but use faggot characters to bump his name to the top. Thankfully, the mighty underscore beat him.

The only Rayne I know is Bloodrayne. If the troons got ahold of her, there will be blood(pun intended), I was hoping she would be obscure enough to be left alone.

Ok, the Dahmer joke got a giggle out of me

Of course, he liked the story(and the writing) of the game made specifically for game journos. What a surprise!
Honestly, We Happy Few looked more interesting, at least the premise was interesting and the game was only fumbled in execution. This just looks like soulless DEI slop that we get by the dozen.