I had a conversation with Liz last night and she said something that really stuck out to me:
I think I'm starting to outgrow some of them stories. I am starting to crave more mature content and I don't mean racy or full of expletives. I mean more complex stories with deeper character development.
What she said had me thinking about video games. Vaati, a mainstay in the Souls community, makes a lot of comments about artificial difficulty, but there's a different kind of artificiality that seems to be pervading the entire gaming universe. What I'm talking about is the artificiality of the "mature" rating for video games. There are so many games I've played in recent years, that really the only way they were "mature" is that the main character(s) just cursed every time they opened their mouth. Let me tell you something, from the perspective of a gamer, that I think devs need to understand, just because your character curses a lot, that does not make them gritty or edgy. It makes them sound overdone.
It seems to be most common in games that are set in wartime, and I understand there's that whole saying that someone "curses like a drunken sailor." However, even in that saying, there is a distinction being placed on the sailor, namely that he or she is drunken. The idea that every single soldier is so inexplicably inarticulate, that they MUST express themselves by yelling "FUCK!" every single time they open their mouths, is laughable, but it's also pretty upsetting, that the devs that have created this whole world around the characters, couldn't be bothered to try and give them a personality. There is no prerequisite within the "grizzled veteran" archetype that states that they must curse every second. In most cases, I've found that it's actually the opposite really, with a grizzled veteran, they're usually pretty articulate. Why do people think that during the feudal ages in most countries, it was actually the warriors who were shown to be the most artistic? Heck, in Japan and China the instincts of poetry and war are still said to come from the same source.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that game developers have more power than they've ever had before at their fingertips, but they seem to be cutting more and more corners. I can't tell you the number of games I have played recently where changing the difficulty just means you take more damage from enemies. You couldn't even... I don't know, change their colors? Give them one more behavior to show off? All you did was tweak their damage, and that's lazy. I understand with all this changing technology it costs more and more to develop, and publishers don't care if the game is finished or not when it ships, but seriously, the developers themselves should care about what they're releasing.
I'm noticing more and more as I get older that I can't just jump into a game and pretend I live there anymore. I can't be part of the ecosystem in that game anymore because I know too much now, I am stuck on the flaws inherent in it, rather than just trying to be a part of it. Some of that is because I'm older, and that I expect more, but there's also a pretty large component of that problem coming from the games themselves. Don't you want to at least be proud of what you've released?
Perhaps I'm just a hopeless romantic, but I still think that being able to take pride in what you've done should be more important than what you're going to get out of it.
I'm sure there are actually tons of problems with LPs, but the major one for the person filming it is the fact that they have to film it. I was thinking that it was only me that seemed to be encountering this problem, but I recently discovered it was not unique to me. I guess it all depends on the choice of game, but this is a major problem when it comes to recording entire games for me.
I suppose it's a little different when it's a game that's brand new to you, as opposed to a game you've played through multiple times, but I have real issues getting certain Let's Plays done. This doesn't count for games you can finish in one sitting, such as Rushing Beat Shura or Sengoku 2, but when it's a game you're playing for the first time, you often just want to sit and play and enjoy yourself. I learned the exceptionally hard way choosing to play Co-Op first. On top of my personal issues with filming, such as the fact that I had to set up my EasyCap and my PS3 and my laptop just right to get the actual footage, I also had to make sure that my schedule matched up with GrimJak's just right for us to get meaningful footage for our playthrough of Saints Row the Third. I chose the game because I knew I wanted to play it, but there was just so much that kept me from actually getting to play that I began to dread it. In all honesty, the only full playthrough I've done that was not my first play of a game was my run with Adrian with Shadow Matter through X-Men Destiny on X-Treme difficulty.
That want you have to play a new game can really get in the way. You could try just stockpiling footage, but I've never really been one to do that. I suppose that's just the way you'll have to do it if it's a game you really want to play, but I mean, most of us out there on the YouTubs have tons of games to play, and having to set up a game to make sure your recording settings are optimal versus just jumping in and playing one is usually an easy decision to make. That sentiment just builds up over time.
It would certainly be easier if I could just keep my setup ready to go all the time, but I actually like being able to walk around without tripping over any wires, hah. I figured I'd get this out there quick and ask what you guys think about this? What are some ways you've thought of/employed that minimize the stress that accompanies a LP?
If you frequent my channel a lot, you're going to have noticed there's a new little bar on the side! YouTube's finally gotten their Fan Funder feature into beta and you can display it on your channel. My original impression was a channel-centric Patreon type dealie, but it seems more along the lines of a personalized "THROW MONEY AT ME IF YOU LIKE ME" button. I am totally okay with that, if someone wants to help out!
Speaking of people wanting to help out, I just wanted to give my buddy TheBurningPunch a shoutout. He's guest starred on my channel before, but we've never actually played a game together, and I feel like that's something that definitely needs to change, and the sooner the better!
Back on topic though, it seems like there are a few stipulations with the YouTube fan funder. You cannot receive less than a dollar from someone, or more than 500 dollars from the same person in a single day. There's also fees that YouTube takes out based on the donation amount too, so not all of your donation actually goes to the person you want to support. From what I could tell, it seems like the preferred payment method is Google Wallet (Which I personally didn't know existed until a few weeks ago...), but you should be able to use other forms of payment. Just thought I'd give you guys a heads up on what's goin on with that. If you want to see if your channel is able to opt-in to the beta, you can head to your YouTube Settings>View Additional Features.
Now, back to actual channel news, for both my YouTube and my Twitch this time, no less! I've been hatching new ideas for series in addition to what's going up on my channel in the near future. I'm working on the intro for Unfair-Y Tales so I can use it as the opener to all of the videos, which means you can expect the first episode to debut in January. To tide you over, why not sit back and enjoy A Dramatic Reading of a Yearbook Signing? This video serves as the pilot, and it's doing pretty well so far, so I'm excited both to work on and the response to the full series! I've got twenty episodes planned for the first season, but I have plenty more stories than that to tell!
Tethrinblaze and I were joking about how I could make a compilation of all the times GrimJak has messed me/us up in games, and I decided that I probably will start a compilation series of just... Let's call them GrimJak-isms. I will make sure to at least get some work done before I start the daunting task of combing through my videos for all the occasions in which Grim has set me on fire, blown me up, and/or killed me/the rest of the team.
In the near future, I'll have a new set of Victory/Defeat animations for SMITE, this time for the 13 Assassins in the game (NOT COUNTING AO KUANG, BECAUSE HE'S A GODDAMN MAGE, IT SAYS SO RIGHT NEXT TO HIS NAME). I also will do my best to finish off the DMTV Movelist series before I move on to any more tutorials. No more Rumble Fighter BM Tutorials, so I want to devote my... "helping" talents to something else productive! I also plan on getting back to finishing a lot of my older series. On top of that, if you've been paying attention to my channel, I've made a couple new playlists, and that was actually a hint that I plan on adding more videos like those (If you're wondering, those would be the Boss Battles and Beats of Rage Mods playlists)
If you've been to my Twitch Channel lately, you'll notice I updated/added to the list of games I will be streaming in the near future. Some of the games I chose are ones that I think will broaden my audience, while others are for practice. This may give you some clues as to what videos will be coming up on my channel in the near future, so stay tuned! 
