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Holy shit. As far as game announcements go, it'll be REALLY hard for the rest of PAXEast to top this. WayForward? You are the hope of us all.
Friday, 22 March 2013
Off To PAXEast
I'm officially en-route to the weekend at PAXEast folks, so if you're there feel free to say hi and if not follow my Twitter @the_moviebob in case I say or see something interesting while there. If you're at the show, check me out at the Escapist Movie Night panel on Saturday 3/23 at 9:00pm in the Merman Theater.
Thursday, 21 March 2013
SUPPLEMENTAL: "I'm Sorry (But EA Should Be Sorrier)"
So, then.
In the making of this series, March has basically been a gigantic non-starter. A blizzard scuttled at least two weeks of shooting, then another storm and subsequent ceaseless wind/rain pushed it further - serves me right, I guess. So, since I obviously won't be getting any work done on this front with PAXEast going on this weekend; I sat down and flipped on the camera early this morning (like 3:00am or so) to do a quickie "hey, sorry, here's what's up" vlog that wound up being a little rambling (unscripted) and eventually turned into a minor rant about EA, SimCity and the state of the industry. Decided to give it a semi-edit and upload, but don't worry - this sort of "tired-looking man talking to camera" motif won't become the norm around here.
In the making of this series, March has basically been a gigantic non-starter. A blizzard scuttled at least two weeks of shooting, then another storm and subsequent ceaseless wind/rain pushed it further - serves me right, I guess. So, since I obviously won't be getting any work done on this front with PAXEast going on this weekend; I sat down and flipped on the camera early this morning (like 3:00am or so) to do a quickie "hey, sorry, here's what's up" vlog that wound up being a little rambling (unscripted) and eventually turned into a minor rant about EA, SimCity and the state of the industry. Decided to give it a semi-edit and upload, but don't worry - this sort of "tired-looking man talking to camera" motif won't become the norm around here.
Sunday, 17 March 2013
D&D Arcade Games Coming to XBLA/PSN
Well, whaddaya know? Capcom decided to do something decent for retro-gaming; broken clocks and all that: Their two classic (and somewhat rare) "Dungeons & Dragons" beat-em-ups - "Tower of Doom" and Shadow over Mystara" are coming to XBLA/PSN. Supposedly, this will be "officially unveiled" at PAXEast. It's being called a port, which I hopefully assume means it will be the original games with the original graphics - not another "HD remake" disaster like "Turtles In Time Re-Shelled".
Good show, Capcom... sure would be nice to have a WiiU* port with off-TV play, though. Just sayin.
*Yes, peanut gallery, that would be your cue to remind me that I am biased Nintendo fanboy and that it would be stupid to put these on WiiU because nobody cares about the WiiU which is a good thing because now the combined forces of nostalgia, filthy casuals and Japan can stop ruining gaming. Don't let me down, kids.
Good show, Capcom... sure would be nice to have a WiiU* port with off-TV play, though. Just sayin.
*Yes, peanut gallery, that would be your cue to remind me that I am biased Nintendo fanboy and that it would be stupid to put these on WiiU because nobody cares about the WiiU which is a good thing because now the combined forces of nostalgia, filthy casuals and Japan can stop ruining gaming. Don't let me down, kids.
Tuesday, 12 March 2013
OVERBYTES on Tropes vs. Women
Now available for viewing by all, an overall appraisal on the first episode of "Tropes vs. Women in Video Games" and it's attendant controversies.
P.S. People who continue to insist on harping about production costs are directed to THIS post.
P.S. People who continue to insist on harping about production costs are directed to THIS post.
Thursday, 7 March 2013
Tropes vs. Women launches first episode (UPDATED!)
Oh hey, remember that kickstarted webseries that people freaked out about because a woman was talking out of turn about man things, then decided it was actually a "scam" that would never actually come out when that didn't convince people that she was the antichrist?
Well, it came out. Here's a link. I'll chime back in later with what I actually thought of it.
UPDATE II: The newest episode of "OverBytes" is a thorough "review" of the show. All audiences can watch it right now.
UPDATE I: At the suggestion of user "Nixou," I'm re-posting (with corrections) my response to one of the more consistent issues people seem to have re: the cost of producing a show like this (aka "how does THIS cost $150,000??) as follows:
Here's the thing: I (and I'm speaking strictly of my self-produced/funded stuff like TGO and American Bob here, not the Escapist gigs) and others working on the YouTube/Blip series side of this medium are generally A.) Making this stuff FOR the amateur/indie circuit and B.) using primarily materials we already have or can be "donated" either by ourselves or aquaintances. In my specific case, I'm not outputting OR shooting in HD, the shows themselves are not of "broadcast caliber" and I don't pay professional wages to the people who help out. If I did, the INCREDIBLY low-ball $6,000 pricetag she originally set (don't forget: the donations were so HUGE because people kept donating as a "screw you" to her detractors) would MAYBE cover 2 - 3 average-scale TGO episodes, tops.
I've noticed that people in general have a skewed view of what independent video/film production actually costs because a lot of guys on the indie/fanfilm scene (no, I won't be naming names) like to brag about how low their production budget is - the problem being that A LOT of the time these are guys who have "day jobs" in the professional film/video business and thus access to equipment and facilities that they would otherwise be paying substantial sums to rent or lease; or they don't include what they would normally charge a client for their services in their own productions, OR they have friends in similar circumstances who are "donating" their time/services and not listing what that would cost on a real job. For example: If "Game OverThinker" had the EXACT same schedule and final-quality but I was paying real industry-standard fees and wages for locations, facilities and crew; $10,000 would be a low-ball estimate for every episode.
Having watched the video itself: She's shooting and outputting in HD/broadcast-quality (this has clearly been designed for classroom/seminar presentation moreso than the web video) and most the MASSIVE amount of game footage looks to have been captured from either original sources (I'm assuming MAME or download-service copies for the retro stuff) - which requires both expensive equipment and the expense of the systems and games themselves. Also, I don't know if she does her own graphics and animation, but her transitions all look like original work; and even if she did do them herself the "going rate" for that kind of work can get pretty damn high especially if you plan to buy or license it in perpuity.
ALSO: I don't know what else she does for a regular living, but I DO know the relative man-hours of putting a project like this together and they are substantial - thusly, if the ONLY thing all the Kickstarter money did was pay her bills and living-expenses (via supplmental income) while she cut down on her regular paying work so that she could free up the time to actually play/record the games, write the script and make the video I'm frankly perplexed that she ever somehow thought a paltry sum like $6,000 was going to cover it. She's currently operating out of San Fransisco, one of the most expensive places to live - even modestly - in the United States; so when you factor all that in... trust me, the expenses for this kind of production are much more substantial than most would imagine.
Well, it came out. Here's a link. I'll chime back in later with what I actually thought of it.
UPDATE II: The newest episode of "OverBytes" is a thorough "review" of the show. All audiences can watch it right now.
UPDATE I: At the suggestion of user "Nixou," I'm re-posting (with corrections) my response to one of the more consistent issues people seem to have re: the cost of producing a show like this (aka "how does THIS cost $150,000??) as follows:
Here's the thing: I (and I'm speaking strictly of my self-produced/funded stuff like TGO and American Bob here, not the Escapist gigs) and others working on the YouTube/Blip series side of this medium are generally A.) Making this stuff FOR the amateur/indie circuit and B.) using primarily materials we already have or can be "donated" either by ourselves or aquaintances. In my specific case, I'm not outputting OR shooting in HD, the shows themselves are not of "broadcast caliber" and I don't pay professional wages to the people who help out. If I did, the INCREDIBLY low-ball $6,000 pricetag she originally set (don't forget: the donations were so HUGE because people kept donating as a "screw you" to her detractors) would MAYBE cover 2 - 3 average-scale TGO episodes, tops.
I've noticed that people in general have a skewed view of what independent video/film production actually costs because a lot of guys on the indie/fanfilm scene (no, I won't be naming names) like to brag about how low their production budget is - the problem being that A LOT of the time these are guys who have "day jobs" in the professional film/video business and thus access to equipment and facilities that they would otherwise be paying substantial sums to rent or lease; or they don't include what they would normally charge a client for their services in their own productions, OR they have friends in similar circumstances who are "donating" their time/services and not listing what that would cost on a real job. For example: If "Game OverThinker" had the EXACT same schedule and final-quality but I was paying real industry-standard fees and wages for locations, facilities and crew; $10,000 would be a low-ball estimate for every episode.
Having watched the video itself: She's shooting and outputting in HD/broadcast-quality (this has clearly been designed for classroom/seminar presentation moreso than the web video) and most the MASSIVE amount of game footage looks to have been captured from either original sources (I'm assuming MAME or download-service copies for the retro stuff) - which requires both expensive equipment and the expense of the systems and games themselves. Also, I don't know if she does her own graphics and animation, but her transitions all look like original work; and even if she did do them herself the "going rate" for that kind of work can get pretty damn high especially if you plan to buy or license it in perpuity.
ALSO: I don't know what else she does for a regular living, but I DO know the relative man-hours of putting a project like this together and they are substantial - thusly, if the ONLY thing all the Kickstarter money did was pay her bills and living-expenses (via supplmental income) while she cut down on her regular paying work so that she could free up the time to actually play/record the games, write the script and make the video I'm frankly perplexed that she ever somehow thought a paltry sum like $6,000 was going to cover it. She's currently operating out of San Fransisco, one of the most expensive places to live - even modestly - in the United States; so when you factor all that in... trust me, the expenses for this kind of production are much more substantial than most would imagine.
Monday, 4 March 2013
Sterling on Cage
Not that I ever thought I'd have performed the definitive "takedown" of David Cage; but if I or anyone else HAD harbored any pretense toward doing so we must now concede that Jim Sterling has now definitively taken the crown on that one:
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