Comments on: Extra Credits

Extra Credits

mccarty.tim — Thu, 05 May 2011 10:57:09 -0800

Extra Credits is a weekly video series on the design, status quo and potential of video games.

So You Want To Be a Game Designer Gamifying Education Achievements Piracy Choice and Conflict Tangential Learning Sexual Diversity

By: anaximander

anaximander — Thu, 05 May 2011 11:04:27 -0800

Oh, I've been following these for a while. The gaming community frequently drives me to despair (see: virtually any major gaming release, news or controversy), so it's great to see a bunch of people with a genuinely thoughtful take on things.

By: BeerFilter

BeerFilter — Thu, 05 May 2011 11:15:32 -0800

Previously.

By: Navelgazer

Navelgazer — Thu, 05 May 2011 11:26:00 -0800

Okay, so far I've only watched the one on creating female characters, and I can say that this is excellent.

By: LD Feral

LD Feral — Thu, 05 May 2011 11:36:47 -0800

I think I prefer the bridled (as in put to work) vitriol of Yahtzee, also of the same site.

By: Grimp0teuthis

Grimp0teuthis — Thu, 05 May 2011 11:42:39 -0800

Another vote for Extra Credits. They take games seriously, tackle important issues for games as an art form, and make their points clearly, concisely, and passionately.

By: mccarty.tim

mccarty.tim — Thu, 05 May 2011 11:52:15 -0800

According to RockPaperShotgun, Daniel Floyd, the narrator of these videos (who now does the videos with a dedicated artist and a game designer) wanted to make a media studies presentation in college that was inspired by Yahtzee's style that featured video games. His first video and a few other early ones are on YouTube, although they've been remade/revisited for Escapist with the full team.

By: TypographicalError

TypographicalError — Thu, 05 May 2011 12:00:50 -0800

Just watched the Achievements video, and compared to this article by an actual developer, the Extra Credits video was shallow and simplistic, discussing almost no useful metrics for what makes a good achievement or even how to understand them. If that's one of the best videos you can dredge up, I think I'm going to leave this off my list of things to keep up with.

By: Navelgazer

Navelgazer — Thu, 05 May 2011 12:05:18 -0800

TypographicalError, check out the one on Choice and Conflict before you decide you're done with it for good.

By: This, of course, alludes to you

This, of course, alludes to you — Thu, 05 May 2011 12:34:13 -0800

Haha, this guy has a voice like someone who has literally used a bathroom at some point. I bet he owns office supplies.

By: Grimp0teuthis

Grimp0teuthis — Thu, 05 May 2011 12:49:17 -0800

>the Extra Credits video was shallow and simplistic... I think your expectations were too high. Extra Credits is meant to just to start conversations and get people thinking seriously about videogames in an entertaining and accessible way, rather than to compete with articles that delve into deep theory. Escapist Magazine has a lot of longer-form content in text articles, if you want to scratch that itch.

By: Navelgazer

Navelgazer — Thu, 05 May 2011 12:58:12 -0800

Related, the Smithsonian has announced the results of their selection process for their upcoming Art of Videogames exhibit this afternoon. Predictably, the process was flawed, picking four games of different genres from each notable system of each generation, as if each system were equal and did all genres equal service. As a result, there's no Mega Man 2 or Metroid because that slot had to go to Super Mario 3, but it should still be interesting, and at least one of my all-time favorite games, Final Fantasy Tactics, secured one of the coveted slots.

By: painquale

painquale — Thu, 05 May 2011 15:11:38 -0800

I'm a big fan of pseudo-academic discussions and analyses of games. The guys who make Kingdom of Loathing recently started up a podcast called Video Games Hot Dog which is also pretty fun.

By: Han Tzu

Han Tzu — Tue, 10 May 2011 12:20:02 -0800

Late to this party. As a indie game developer, Extra Credits makes me really happy. While Yahtzee is certainly more entertaining, I think Extra Credits often hits harder on issues that are important, especially with regards of where, perhaps, the industry should be going. It might be a bit pretentious for one person to stand up and say, this is what's wrong with gaming - but I happen to agree with their views, and I think perhaps many out there do. Their commentary on EA marketing is a very good example of good, dare I say it, journalism.