Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Frank West on March 15, 2017, 11:23:43 am
You hold the medical episodes for victor but when it comes to MY wants and MY needs you just go ahead and record without me.
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Sherman Tank on March 15, 2017, 11:46:56 am
*audible beer can opening*
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Emperor Jack Chick on March 15, 2017, 11:48:50 am
holy fuck i'd forgotten about dokaka!
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Sherman Tank on March 15, 2017, 11:50:53 am
I'm only a few minutes in and already I'm pretty sure this ep needs the "nerds", "incomprehensible", and "tag!" tags.
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: nuffkins, of all people, on March 15, 2017, 12:44:37 pm
The author's reading of from VAST NECROHOL wasn't linked in the shownotes. Let's fix that. (http://bwr.ua.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/43.1madden_vastnecrohol.mp3)
This sounds way too similar to the F Plus reading. Her accents can compete with the worst of them.
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Boots Raingear on March 15, 2017, 12:53:40 pm
The author's reading of from VAST NECROHOL wasn't linked in the shownotes. Let's fix that. (http://bwr.ua.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/43.1madden_vastnecrohol.mp3)
This sounds way too similar to the F Plus reading. Her accents can compete with the worst of them. nuffkins?, March 15, 2017, 12:44:37 pm
Okay, so this is completely different text from what we were reading. Both appear to be excerpts from, God help us, a larger work.
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Yavuz on March 15, 2017, 01:31:27 pm
I read ahead to the bio of the author of the first piece, and then just looked at it for at least half a minute and said, "What?" over and over again.
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Puppy Time on March 15, 2017, 03:26:31 pm
Jesus Christ, this Necrohol thing is like someone gave Chaucer brain damage and then put him in a blender with a late 90s internet dweeb.
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: xX_sp00ks_Xx on March 15, 2017, 03:48:48 pm
I went ahead and googled the author at the same time Boots did in the episode, and if the image in the first Google result is her, then that looks a lot like a juggalette, duuuuudes!
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: GirlKisser420 on March 15, 2017, 06:01:08 pm
Jack Chick's reading of Megaman 2 is compelling. He goes all in.
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Neal on March 15, 2017, 08:12:26 pm
I went to grad school with a cadre of guys who were like the subjects in this episode, so thanks for the flashbacks. I think they all washed out, since there's no evidence online of any of them defending a dissertation, but if they did, I'd absolutely link them for you. never mind, found one (http://knowledge.library.iup.edu/etd/330/). Here's the table of contents, for the interested:
Relatively tame just seeing it on the page, but if you spent any time around these guys at all, that's all they would talk about - how they were totally going to turn gaming into a legitimate field of study for their academic careers. There's also a guy from my university who wrote an entire dissertation about Bioshock (http://knowledge.library.iup.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2061&context=etd), doing basically the same spiel.
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: SirSlarty on March 15, 2017, 10:44:10 pm
I went ahead and googled the author at the same time Boots did in the episode, and if the image in the first Google result is her, then that looks a lot like a juggalette, duuuuudes! Spooks, March 15, 2017, 03:48:48 pm
I asked if that one piece "is this about Pokemon?" at the same time as Lemon.
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Sherman Tank on March 15, 2017, 11:09:17 pm
So... I googled Caolan Madden's name and it led me to something that needs to be a future episode: NaPoWriMo (http://www.napowrimo.net/)! National Poetry Writing Month.
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Achilles' Heelies on March 15, 2017, 11:19:02 pm
You hold the medical episodes for victor but when it comes to MY wants and MY needs you just go ahead and record without me. Frank West, March 15, 2017, 11:23:43 am
Well, there is so much more terrible shit we didn't get to, but it's even more tedious!
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Puppy Time on March 15, 2017, 11:57:42 pm
Chapter 1-5: "Hm, not too bad; I can see where you could find something interesting about the depiction of play in the various genres, or even maybe audience interac-"
Conclusion: UUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuuggggggghhhhhhhh
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: bigfangirl on March 16, 2017, 12:10:57 am
I feel like there are ok ways to do video game poetry... and then there's this. Oh goodness. It pains me. Why does everyone hate meter?????
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Cleretic on March 16, 2017, 02:31:52 am
You know, just yesterday I was thinking about how I'd love to write about different people's interactions with character creators. Comparing different approaches--people like me who learn about their inner selves by exploring why they pick what they do, with stuff like Monster Factory that pushes the boundaries of what's even possible, that weirdo that doesn't actually customize his character at all, and probably some others. And then juxtapose those approaches with a game like Fallout 4, that's got that level of character creation but lacks the will to extend that freedom beyond the creator, and explore that clash between what the players and designers might want.
This episode has both taught me that this idea isn't worth pursuing, and that if I did it anyway I'd still be doing more with the notion of 'writing about video games' than people with way better credentials than me are.
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Sherman Tank on March 16, 2017, 02:53:53 am
This episode has both taught me that this idea isn't worth pursuing, and that if I did it anyway I'd still be doing more with the notion of 'writing about video games' than people with way better credentials than me are. Cleretic, March 16, 2017, 02:31:52 am
Honestly I think this episode proved that those better credentials don't mean jack shit.
It's absolutely possible to write academic-type articles or essays or whatever about video games.
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Puppy Time on March 16, 2017, 10:52:31 am
Serioustalk there's plenty interesting to be done academically with vidya gaems, just 1) it's a fetus of a field, so everyone's still flailing around trying to figure out how to do it and 2) a lot of this episode is Fine Arts, which at best is only interesting if you're also a Fine Arts major, and in the majority of cases is only interesting if you're the person who wrote it. In either case, credentials don't mean shit.
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: duz on March 16, 2017, 01:31:46 pm
I feel like there are ok ways to do video game poetry... and then there's this. Oh goodness. It pains me. Why does everyone hate meter????? bigfangirl, March 16, 2017, 12:10:57 am
Because here in America we measure our poetry in feet.
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Sherman Tank on March 16, 2017, 02:31:15 pm
I wonder how many tens of thousands of dollars' worth of college loan debt was involved in those MFA candidates' journey to the world of being a video games poet.
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: FUCKMONSTER on March 16, 2017, 11:03:15 pm
I was so baffled during VAST NECROHOL that I stopped listening to look at the doc. It didn't help. The words were still incomprehensible. Then I think I must have blacked out after that from sheer shock of how bad it was because I can't remember any of the other material in the episode.
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Puppy Time on March 16, 2017, 11:29:49 pm
That was actually made more intelligible than the Middle English that she was working with. It just doesn't make any goddam sense unless you're really into Chaucer.
Well, by "make sense" I mean "sound like words." The whole thing is still navelgazing nonsense.
ETA: Like, it's a combination coping with the serious illness of a loved one and with... possibly abuse (http://bwr.ua.edu/43-1-feature-an-interview-with-caolan-madden/)? Either way, this is only clear when she explains it, because apparently art these days is not actually about communication, it's about throwing your guts in the world's face and leaving them to try and understand what the hell just happened.
That was a terrible metaphor, I apologise.
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: FUCKMONSTER on March 17, 2017, 03:21:40 pm
Sent off the Chauceresque mess to a friend who studies medieval English and her response was "I know Middle English doesn’t have standardized spelling, but literally none of this is correct and I just don’t understand how this happened". I gave it one more glance and realized that if I didn't actually focus on the words, it made some sort of sense, which is terrifying. Also, I can't get away from the knowledge that in FF12, there's no autosave function, no custom naming, and the necrohol is in, but not actually, a swamp. Why must this poetry be so wrong on multiple levels? Why must I have retained this much knowledge of Final Fantasy XII??
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Puppy Time on March 17, 2017, 03:45:45 pm
Apparently it wasn't supposed to even be strict Middle English, but some goofy knockoff her D&D Orc OC talks in.
So that whole thing was her D&D character talking.
Also the "Juggalo" pic is her dressed up as said character on Halloween.
It's a horrible casserole of turbogeek and artsy pretense. At least the Sonic fan characters have a level of unsophisticated charm to them! They're not claiming to be anything but fan characters!
ETA: I... did not realise the level of strong feelings I have regarding this subject.
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: A Meat on March 17, 2017, 04:44:57 pm
Is now the time for me to mention that Lemon pronounced Ljubljana wrong?
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Puppy Time on March 17, 2017, 07:16:28 pm
I was trying not to be the one to do it.
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: EYE OF ZA on March 17, 2017, 09:31:47 pm
Is now the time for me to mention that Lemon pronounced Ljubljana wrong? A Meat, March 17, 2017, 04:44:57 pm
First "pagan" and now "Ljubljana" man Lemon is bad at pronounciation
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Sherman Tank on March 17, 2017, 10:07:05 pm
Is now the time for me to mention that Lemon pronounced Ljubljana wrong? A Meat, March 17, 2017, 04:44:57 pm
To be honest I figured it was wrong but I don't actually know what the right pronunciation even is to begin.
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Puppy Time on March 18, 2017, 01:17:46 am
Is now the time for me to mention that Lemon pronounced Ljubljana wrong? A Meat, March 17, 2017, 04:44:57 pm
To be honest I figured it was wrong but I don't actually know what the right pronunciation even is to begin. She Found Blood in the Sherman Tank, March 17, 2017, 10:07:05 pm
Wikipedia to the rescue! (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Sl-Ljubljana.ogg) :V
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Corn Syrup on March 18, 2017, 04:12:28 am
Wikipedia to the rescue! (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Sl-Ljubljana.ogg) :V Puppy Time, March 18, 2017, 01:17:46 am
Well, sure, if you believe Wikipedia's left-leaning lies. Conservapedia should have it with the correct pronunciation of "uhl-djooble-djanna".
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: accepting change on March 18, 2017, 05:30:58 am
i liked the circling the drain one
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Knitting Machine on March 19, 2017, 02:13:06 pm
I can't tell which I love better: the fact that the one guy wrote out the most generic "artsy" video game but was too lazy to actually make it, or the fact that he has a nostalgia hard-on for the Game Gear.
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Dawnswalker on March 19, 2017, 08:56:03 pm
Number of clips mentioned in this doc: 37 Number of clips mentioned in this doc that mention pay rates for contributing authors: 10
73% of these people are dead from exposure, but to be fair, that was far less than I was expecting when I decided that this post was a good idea.
I decided to be generous and count clips that mentioned contest prizes (but not those that mentioned "sometimes, but not always" honorariums (yes, really.)) I also noticed that very few submission pages discussed which type of rights the clip was buying, or even desired submission formats (this info is kinda important!)
Two clips also take photograph submissions, in jpeg or gif.
Dreginald simply has to be seen to be believed. (http://dreginald.com/)
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: EYE OF ZA on March 19, 2017, 09:52:09 pm
Number of clips mentioned in this doc: 37 Number of clips mentioned in this doc that mention pay rates for contributing authors: 10
73% of these people are dead from exposure, but to be fair, that was far less than I was expecting when I decided that this post was a good idea.
I decided to be generous and count clips that mentioned contest prizes (but not those that mentioned "sometimes, but not always" honorariums (yes, really.)) I also noticed that very few submission pages discussed which type of rights the clip was buying, or even desired submission formats (this info is kinda important!)
Two clips also take photograph submissions, in jpeg or gif.
Dreginald simply has to be seen to be believed. (http://http://dreginald.com/) Dawnswalker, March 19, 2017, 08:56:03 pm
Honestly, at first I thought you were talking about Magazines4Sale.com
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Puppy Time on March 20, 2017, 02:32:02 pm
Dawnswalker fucked up the URL (it's missing a colon) so here: http://dreginald.com/
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Achilles' Heelies on March 20, 2017, 04:18:24 pm
Dawnswalker fucked up the URL (it's missing a colon) so here: http://dreginald.com/ Puppy Time, March 20, 2017, 02:32:02 pm
I would create a doc on all of the "publications" mentioned in this episode, but I'm not sure anyone handle that level of pain.
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Dawnswalker on March 20, 2017, 04:31:04 pm
Dawnswalker fucked up the URL (it's missing a colon) so here: http://dreginald.com/ Puppy Time, March 20, 2017, 02:32:02 pm
I fixed it now!
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Saoirse-Lilith on March 20, 2017, 06:54:44 pm
Dawnswalker fucked up the URL (it's missing a colon) so here: http://dreginald.com/ Puppy Time, March 20, 2017, 02:32:02 pm
This is a site one of you guys made right? Please tell me it's not legit. My brain can't handle that this isn't a joke website.
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Neal on March 20, 2017, 07:08:41 pm
A part of me is tempted to mass submit a bunch of randomly generated text under various pseudonyms with false bios and publications, and see how much actually makes it onto the site.
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Puppy Time on March 20, 2017, 09:32:15 pm
I mean a lot of it is already in the Markov generator range to begin with...
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Shell Game on April 25, 2017, 08:56:55 am
Was the Harvest Moon knock-off supposed to be a creepypasta?
You know, sometimes I think people are too hard on those trying to raise the status of video games as art, but then I'm painfully reminded of shit like this.
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Puppy Time on April 25, 2017, 11:43:44 pm
Nah, if it were creepypasta, the screen would ooze blood or something, and the player would have some sort of nightmare sequence. This was more the "what if escapist fiction... were actually really depressing?! Whoa..." genre of bad writing.
ETA: Also I feel like the presence of examples of terrible work in a medium shouldn't lead to someone writing the entire medium off; the entire collection of MST3K movies don't disqualify film, after all. Let us all simply celebrate the existence of ridiculous things that we can laugh at in addition to the well-made things that inspire our higher passions!
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Shell Game on April 26, 2017, 08:30:53 pm
ETA: Also I feel like the presence of examples of terrible work in a medium shouldn't lead to someone writing the entire medium off; the entire collection of MST3K movies don't disqualify film, after all. Let us all simply celebrate the existence of ridiculous things that we can laugh at in addition to the well-made things that inspire our higher passions! Puppy Time, April 25, 2017, 11:43:44 pm
Oh, I agree. It's just I often run across people who feel very strongly about video games one way or another, and as I consider arguing with people who vehemently oppose the idea of video games as art, I remember THESE sorts of things. (Also I'm being mildly hyperbolic.)
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: MyFaceBeHi on April 27, 2017, 03:18:40 am
I like video games. I have played video games since my sister gave me her C64 way back in the early 90s. However, because I didn't write extremely long dissertations about why knuckles the echidna is an allegory for the democrats then I guess I can't consider myself a "gamer!"
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: GirlKisser420 on April 27, 2017, 04:42:41 am
the thing about the games as art debate is that most sensible people who'd want to prove that would make a Game, rather than vomit some symbols from them into shitty prose. Catridge Lit is a bunch of hangers-on trying to justify their consumption.
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Puppy Time on April 27, 2017, 09:23:04 pm
They're not even proving games to be art, they're just making (shitty) art about games. That'd be like me saying "Captain America movies are art, here's some devart fanart to prove it!"
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: blunge on April 28, 2017, 01:10:02 am
There does seem to be some correlation between shitty work and academic achievement at least as far as creative writing goes.
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Shell Game on April 28, 2017, 05:45:01 pm
I think, at least in this situation, that in creative writing/lit departments these types find their niche by merit of being overseen by people who know very little about video games and therefore allow the writers free reign over content. Most categories outside of the realms lit has traditionally focused on get a pass I imagine.
Title: 246: Compose With Joystick Controllers
Post by: Neal on April 10, 2018, 09:55:56 pm