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ZeButler posted:This is the part where we bring up the fact that Sammy, and the elevator scene, are based entirely off of a real life death, of a woman named Elisa Lam. Have fun with that fact. Nidoking posted:I expect it's this.
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Feb 16, 2019 02:11
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https://i.imgur.com/6L32Ctg.mp4
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Feb 16, 2019 02:13
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No, stop. Don't. Come back.
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Feb 16, 2019 02:23
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diacorn posted:Wait, that scene is what the Elisa Lam thing is about? I genuinely had no idea. I knew there was something in the game about it (which is profoundly tasteless), but I didn't know it was the elevator scene in particular.. It's the start of it, and Sammy becomes the focus of the plot, in a sense.
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Feb 16, 2019 02:45
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diacorn posted:Wait, that scene is what the Elisa Lam thing is about? I genuinely had no idea. I knew there was something in the game about it (which is profoundly tasteless), but I didn't know it was the elevator scene in particular. Yes. The characters will spend a lot of time discussing it afterwards, but the scene itself is based off the Lam video. Apparently it was a big thing in the 2000s era among conspiracy nerds, which is why it's in the game but like... why do this?? Why not do any of the other 95-00 era pop-culture???
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Feb 16, 2019 04:06
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I, too, am offended that the game thinks I'm anything like Alex. "Oh no, I'm becoming like my mother." Yiik: A Mommy Issues RPG SSNeoman posted:Yes. The characters will spend a lot of time discussing it afterwards, but the scene itself is based off the Lam video. Apparently it was a big thing in the 2000s era among conspiracy nerds, which is why it's in the game but like... Because the author was one of those conspiracy nerds. This game exists so he can write about how his stupid theory about an actual death was what happened, because he never resolved his weird obsession. I'm watching both LPs now and I keep thinking about this and it keeps getting more hosed up. Guess I should make a game about it.
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Feb 16, 2019 22:57
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I like to imagine if Alex met Mike Dawson of Darkseed 2 fame, even Mike would be all "Dude, shut the gently caress up".
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Feb 17, 2019 16:41
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Sardonik posted:I like to imagine if Alex met Mike Dawson of Darkseed 2 fame, even Mike would be all "Dude, shut the gently caress up". I demand a Ring Toss minigame
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Feb 17, 2019 23:07
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SSNeoman posted:Yes. The characters will spend a lot of time discussing it afterwards, but the scene itself is based off the Lam video. Apparently it was a big thing in the 2000s era among conspiracy nerds, which is why it's in the game but like... They did make several games about Crazy Frog, though. Echo Cian posted:This game exists so he can write about how his stupid theory about an actual death was what happened, because he never resolved his weird obsession.
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Feb 23, 2019 01:45
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 Long episode today, mostly because I was trying really hard to see if there was actually anything to do in Frankton besides go get equipment. The Arcade is open now, but thus far it doesn't seem to have any bearing on the story.
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Feb 23, 2019 01:57
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I find it weird that the game won't directly do the "You've got mail" soundbite reference or NOT Netscape, but will straight up namedrop actual things like QuickTime and other name-brand things as we continue into the game. (Personally I feel that Real Player would have been the more 90s video player for a spoiled man child like Alex) Also don't worry, Panda's mug in 1080p spooked me too. Combat Lobster fucked around with this message at 02:31 on Feb 23, 2019 |
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Feb 23, 2019 02:21
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https://i.imgur.com/pVksC5t.mp4 I enjoyed the tonal whiplash between having to get talked into saving a woman by a panda, having the protagonist freak out about a friend bringing up said woman, and then deciding to go to an arcade instead. It'd actually be clever in a better-written game that didn't try to force weak jump-scares and whatever the hell those attempts at jokes can be called, but here it's a giant ball of nonsense.
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Feb 23, 2019 04:13
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Every time there's dialogue, I find myself thinking "I'm not sure real people talk that way". A better game would cut out the four lines of monologue where Alex considers telling Michael and show it instead. Interesting note regarding another anachronism: "I Want It That Way" was technically released in the future in the game's timeline - the game takes place on April 4 (now 5) 1999, while the song was released on April 12th 1999 - and yet it's sitting on a record.
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Feb 23, 2019 07:01
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  3spooky5me
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Feb 23, 2019 09:19
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So, there's a person that left a comment on your latest video saying that they're on their third play through and are level 115. My question is, what would compel a person to play this game three times, much less get to level 115?
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Feb 23, 2019 15:24
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ZeButler posted:So, there's a person that left a comment on your latest video saying that they're on their third play through and are level 115. My question is, what would compel a person to play this game three times, much less get to level 115? Maybe if you've been stranded on an island with nothing but this game to keep you busy I guess.
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Feb 23, 2019 15:27
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Combat Lobster posted:Maybe if you've been stranded on an island with nothing but this game to keep you busy I guess. If they're stranded on an island, how would they be able to actually play the game, though?
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Feb 23, 2019 15:34
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The time spent playing the game that much could be better spent monologuing to yourself about your experiences playing the game.
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Feb 23, 2019 16:09
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ZeButler posted:So, there's a person that left a comment on your latest video saying that they're on their third play through and are level 115. My question is, what would compel a person to play this game three times, much less get to level 115? Sometimes I forget to click record on OBS and then I have to play the game a second time and take a maudlin examination of my life this far. I couldn't imagine the black hole of a third playthrough.
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Feb 23, 2019 16:25
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If the game's supposed to take place in 1999 why does the main character look like he just fell out of an instagram post from 2014?
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Feb 23, 2019 19:03
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GrandmaParty posted:Sometimes I forget to click record on OBS and then I have to play the game a second time and take a maudlin examination of my life this far. That's not you voluntarily doing a second playthrough for fun, though. Also, you've seen the level up system. The person in that comment is up to level 115. Just think about it for a second. Now stop thinking about it, before you hurt yourself from the shear WTF.
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Feb 23, 2019 20:13
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ZeButler posted:That's not you voluntarily doing a second playthrough for fun, though. Also, you've seen the level up system. The person in that comment is up to level 115. Just think about it for a second. Now stop thinking about it, before you hurt yourself from the shear WTF. 460 doors
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Feb 23, 2019 22:03
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Yep... Diacorn, when you get to the level up system, think about the fact that there is someone in this world that has reached level 115 in this game.
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Feb 23, 2019 22:20
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ZeButler posted:That's not you voluntarily doing a second playthrough for fun, though. Also, you've seen the level up system. The person in that comment is up to level 115. Just think about it for a second. Now stop thinking about it, before you hurt yourself from the shear WTF. Ulillillia got bored of drowning Tails again.
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Feb 23, 2019 23:42
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Wait, how did that video go viral? I mean, it's the kind of thing that would go virual... but how did the video exist in the first place? Abandoned factories/hotels generally do not have still-working security systems that people check every hour. EDIT: Also was Alex suppose to be that weird blobby thing? That's close to where he would be. Kchama fucked around with this message at 23:51 on Feb 23, 2019 |
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Feb 23, 2019 23:45
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I think the reason Alex isn't bringing up the fact that he was there when Sammy got taken, or at least what the reason would be in a better game, is because "I was there" would open up a can of worms he'd rather not get into, including "if you were there, why doesn't the video show you?" So it's easier to pretend he wasn't there, and is just...weirdly hung up on this, for reasons, because better people think "gosh, he sure is weirdly obsessed with this" than "why isn't he in the video, why didn't he help, maybe he was in on it" and so on and so forth. But, again, I suspect that these are things a better game would bring up, and this one will not.
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Feb 24, 2019 00:40
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So, this is where I think I'll put my full thoughts on the use of the tragedy of a person's death in the creation of this video game. I'll go ahead and quote GrandmaParty's post on the story to provide some of the initial details: GrandmaParty posted:Elisa Lam was a student at the University of British Columbia in 2013. Her body was found in the water tank atop the Cecil Hotel in Downtown Las Angeles in 2013 when hotel guests complained that the water tasted funny. He also pointed out that the developers made a post on Reddit claiming that the “suffering” of Elisa Lam “was influential in the development of the game.” When art tries to imitate life by paying homage to specific tragedies, artists have a tremendous and unenviable task ahead of them in trying to do so without coming across as insensitive or exploitative. In this case, I don't know how they were going to pull that off. The inciting incident for this story, sandwiched between monologues, is a very direct reference that all but acknowledges that the only reason it happened was apparently to motivate our simultaneously terrible and mediocre protagonist to do something with his life, and possibly act as another 90's signifier as it introduced the whole early Internet culture aspect of the game's story. However, in trying to understand a bit more about the history of this game and why it exists, I happened upon something that made things a bit clearer to me. This is an article in Variety in which the creators behind Ackk Studios talk about their mother dying of cancer while the game was being made. Now, I want to say first and foremost that I have the utmost sympathy for our game creators for having to go through that chapter of their lives. If something like that happened in my family I absolutely feel that I would struggle to do any kind of job, and that being able to work with dedication on something so technically demanding as an indie video game of the scope we have seen thus far is an accomplishment, especially under such circumstances. What struck me in reading that article was that it kind of brought some aspects of the game's aesthetic and plot points into perspective. We brought up absurdism and Dada earlier, and what is interesting to me is that those styles of art, as part of the greater trend of postmodernism, were at least in part, responses to tragedy. The Dada movement was a reaction to the outbreak of World War I, as some of its participants saw modernist thinking of their precedents as being what lead to the outbreak of the most destructive war in human history to that point. The meaninglessness or nonsense of the art was deliberate, it was a way of trying to reject the absolute truths and logic championed by the prior Modernist movement. The use of a scene and plot point referencing a completely unrelated human being's passing, thanks in part to the circumstances surrounding it becoming famous for attracting conspiracy theories, is ethically problematic and doesn't make for great art. What does make sense to me is that the game takes on this character of absurdism and the mantle of postmodernism as a way of giving the creators an outlet to process a more personal tragedy. As the developers interviewed in the Variety article state outright, the game was changed partway through the development process by the experience, and the ending in particular was apparently re-done. I still think that a lot of the early game feels very detached and the unsympathetic nature of our protagonist unintended, but it at least gives me pause in my critique of some of the simply less-polished aspects of the gameplay or the unmotivated focus on absurdism. At the end of the day, what I will still say is that the game itself still has many problems and reasons for which I will continue to critique the failures of its writing. However, having a bit of perspective always helps to develop a bit of understanding and sympathy. So I am hoping that this information will help to provide a more complete and thoughtful analysis for anyone who still wants to follow our earnest efforts to LP this game. Thanks as always for watching and reading.
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Feb 24, 2019 17:29
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MechaCrash posted:I think the reason Alex isn't bringing up the fact that he was there when Sammy got taken, or at least what the reason would be in a better game, is because "I was there" would open up a can of worms he'd rather not get into, including "if you were there, why doesn't the video show you?" So it's easier to pretend he wasn't there, and is just...weirdly hung up on this, for reasons, because better people think "gosh, he sure is weirdly obsessed with this" than "why isn't he in the video, why didn't he help, maybe he was in on it" and so on and so forth. The problem is that he doesn't seem actually freaked out by the actual event happening before him. He just had that emotionless holding out of his hand. In fact, he doesn't really react much to it until he sees the video of the event he was in, and he acts, even when completely alone and without anyone around, completely freaked out by the video, not that the events happened before his eyes.
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Feb 24, 2019 20:20
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I guess I can see how you would use something like a conspiracy theory of a person's death to find comfort in the death of a loved one, but I wouldn't go putting it in my game. This is one of those times you need a third party to tell you "whoah there friend you need to slow down." Even if you do find comfort in the memories of discussing conspiracy theories with a community, that doesn't mean your audience will too. It's just not a great idea all around. It's not to say the idea can't work, but I would say separating the reality from your story would do a lot both for your story and for your audience. Also it feels cheap. oh hey here comes another damsel in distress to give our extremely judgmental and unlikable protagonist the necessary drive to improve himself and become a better person. which he doesn't even do until a toy panda yells at him about it. What I'm trying to say is that the folks at Ackk need like three more editors.
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Feb 25, 2019 03:26
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 Extra episode today! It's literally all cutscenes.
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Feb 27, 2019 02:41
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diacorn posted:
Pretty sure those Barkley Shut Up And Jam Gaiden save point rants were all made up.
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Feb 27, 2019 06:10
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Well hey at least you're up 5 Megaelixirs now
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Feb 27, 2019 07:51
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Kchama posted:Pretty sure those Barkley Shut Up And Jam Gaiden save point rants were all made up. Most of them were, but one came from SA. It's not hard to tell which once you know that.
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Feb 27, 2019 11:24
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now that shut up and jam gaiden came up itt I can finally throw out another line to find the answer to a burning question I've had: did the devs actually compose the music in shut up and jam gaiden or was it ripped from various other vidya
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Feb 27, 2019 16:26
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At least some of it was ripped, given how they use the absolutely bitchin' boss theme from Blue Dragon at one point (captioned with "Jesus Christ the guy from Deep Purple sang this") https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUjxPj3al5U
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Feb 27, 2019 16:36
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and also Sweet Georgia Brown
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Feb 27, 2019 17:10
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SSNeoman posted:Well hey at least you're up 5 Megaelixirs now ManlyGrunting posted:At least some of it was ripped, given how they use the absolutely bitchin' boss theme from Blue Dragon at one point (captioned with "Jesus Christ the guy from Deep Purple sang this") Also, Jesus Christ the guy from Deep Purple was on it.
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Mar 2, 2019 02:32
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 ModeWondershot is much too polite to curse on camera, but as anyone who's watched to this point will know, I'm not. The game's somehow giving us even less to work with than usual.
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Mar 2, 2019 02:33
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People vomiting exposition at the player is boring even when the exposition is compelling.
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Mar 2, 2019 03:39
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SSNeoman posted:People vomiting exposition at the player is boring even when the exposition is compelling. It also seems to not realize that exposition inevitably leads to people actually thinking about the universe of the game and wondering, for example, why the military hasn't weaponized keytars in this setting.
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Mar 2, 2019 04:38
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