Sweet Language Based Vindication

Hell is about to freeze over.  The dead are about to rise from their graves.  The moons have aligned.  The Elder Gods are on their way.  Dogs and cats living together, MASS HYSTERIA!  There's an article on Polygon I actually think is really good!

https://www.polygon.com/2017/4/20/15356026/persona-5-translation-localization

Now granted it was written a year ago but I stay away from games "journalism"  so hard that it flew right under my radar.  Read it, now, it's really good.

Just for some context on my end, I played Persona 5 in Japanese roughly around the time of release here.  When the English version came out and I watched some of my friends play it I remember pointing out certain bits of the game didn't really match up with what was being said in the Japanese or that certain lines of dialogue were a little "off".  The nicer people that I know were willing to brush it off as just "oh well Localization!" and others responded by calling me a shitty weaboo piece of shit.

Turns out though I'm not the only one who felt this.  That Polygon article is just one of MANY if you Google it.  I think the one take I get from having a quick look around all the other articles (which I'll read in detail after posting this) say kind of the same thing.  It's not that it's outright bad (mostly) but it's amateurish and filled to the brim with stilted dialogue.

Take that line above for example.  It's a throw away comment in the middle of a fight that you might not really notice when you're playing it but if you take a moment to stop, slow down and think about it, it's a bit strange.  It's not "wrong" per se but it's a bit unnatural.  It's the kind of translation you might expect from an anime fansub group or a small group of passionate fans working on it to bring it to a nice western playerbase.  But Persona 5 isn't that, it's a full priced game (Costing 2000 yen more than your average new game here in Japan, by the way) that had a large team of translators and editors behind it and THIS is what we got. 

One thing that a majority of people still might disagree with me on, a topic I might go into in a later article is the voice work.  Not only was the localization bad but the performance was also atrocious.  I guess it's something we've come to expect with western anime voice actors but while in Persona 4 it was just a bit cheesy and campy in P5 it really ruined some things for me.  For example, in the English version of Persona 5, Ryuji doesn't sound like Ryuji in this game.  It sounds like a guy who played P4 and then tried to do a Kanji Mk2 rather than actually stay true to the personality of the character.  But Japanese voices were an option from the get go with P5 so I guess that's why no one gives a shit.

A good script and a good delivery of that script are important parts of story heavy games like this.  People shouldn't just settle for bullshit just because it's sort of expected of the genre.  ESPECIALLY from a company like ATLUS which we have seen do absolutely incredible jobs of localization with a lot of their other games.  Demand better quality for your hard earned money, goddamnit.

Git Gud or Go Home

So the new Doom got released and despite the less than satisfied reaction with the multiplayer demo, things seems to be going well for it.  I've not played it yet but there's a chance that despite a previous post I made about how its probably going to be shit, it's looking like I was somewhat wrong and that's not a bad thing.  In particular, after watching the first impressions video from TotalBuscuit I'm actually quite excited to get my hands on a copy.  Sure it's a bit modern and streamlined but it seems like the core elements of what made Doom Doom are there so thank god for that.

Anyway, I'm not here to talk about the quality of Doom, I'm here to bitch about games media some more when it comes to the reviews of the game.  Specifically a video review from video game shitrag Polygon.  Apparently they released a review video where the person playing the game absolutely sucked at the game which of course prompted many people in comment sections to laugh heartily and tell the sorry sack of shit that filmed it to "git gud".  Of course, Polygon being staffed almost exclusively by braindead crybabies they took issue with this and started moaning about the response.  This prompted other shitrags like Paste Magazine and Rock Paper Shotgun to write articles saying things like "git gud" is why people don't take gaming seriously or that "you don't need to be good at games to enjoy them"

Well you know what, partly they are right in that sense that you DON'T need to be good at games in order to enjoy them......if you're just a consumer having buying a title for the express purpose of having a good time.  But no, these aren't consumers these are professionals in the industry trying to critique a game and quite frankly you can't do that properly unless you have at least SOME skill at gaming in general.  These are people who GET PAID to give you information on games and you can't give consumers a good amount of information if you suck massive horse cocks at playing games.  It's probably the reason why Polygon likes to harp on about sexism and other non-issues in games because they aren't good enough to make enough progress in a given title to write a proper review.

Let's say you are looking to buy a new car and you go to a car dealer in order to get information on what the best car for you might be.  You arrive at the dealership and start asking the guy questions and he responds with things like "it has pedals and goes forward if you put petrol in it".  You'd probably leave without buying anything and be a little pissed off that he wasted your time.  We're not asking the salesman to be a pro racer but we're asking him to have a degree of knowledge that allows us to make an informed purchase.  Now I know these "journalists" aren't salesmen per se but a review of a game is what a lot of people will base their decision to purchase on so if these people aren't doing their job properly then they aren't helping the consumer make an informed purchase which is what they are PAID TO FUCKING DO.

I'm not asking these people to be pro gamers in the running to win tournaments or top tier speed running gods, just good enough to not be worse than my mum after I cut off her hands and stapled her eyes shut, that's all.  The whole "git gud" mentality that some gamers have is a GOOD thing because as long as it persists then some developers will continue to make challenging games.  Games are easy enough as it is and what we don't need is shit bag games "journalists" complaining on their big websites and making developers think that the market needs even easier shit.

I'd suggest that these idiots take up an easier, more relaxing hobby like Origami but then again they'd probably start publishing articles about how folding in straight lines is homophobic and paper cranes are racist.

The Paid Mods Problem and the Gaming Press

So recently a bit of a shit storm went down over at Valve in the last few days.  While their initial decision was a bit dumb the way they dealt with it was commendable and it shows that the people calling the shots do actually have their head on straight.

So Steam announce that they are going to introduce a paid mods system.  This is where people who make mods for games like Skyrim can charge a little bit of money on the workshop in order to get paid for their efforts.  On paper this seems like a good idea because content creators can make a little bit of dosh for all that hard work and it may even motivate modders into creating better mods because they know that they are going to be charging money.

However, it didn't quite play out that way.  I don't follow the modding scene very much but from what I read and understood both fans and modders themselves weren't too happy with the decision.  Fans were unhappy with the idea of having to pay for something that's been provided for free for YEARS and modders were unhappy with the cut that they got from sales of their work.  There's probably more to it than that but I'll leave it for someone more versed in the modding community to explain that part.

So gamers take to social media, forums and petition sites to rally against Valves decision.  Seeing the outcry from the fans, Valve pull the idea and refund the people who paid for anything.  This also comes with a statement essentially saying that while they feel there's a good idea in there somewhere their approach was wrong and they were sorry.

This is fine, this is consumers and content creators showing their dislike for a direction Valve as taking the Steam workshop and Valve responded accordingly by actually listening to the fans.  I bet Valve customers and Steam Workshop creators and both happy that their opinions are important to the people at Valve and I'm sure business for Valve will improve as a result.

But then come the shitty gaming press

What the fuck is this?   It's an article from Polygon with probably one of the most clickbaity headlines in the history of shitty games writing.  I skimmed through it and the whole thing appears to be quotes from people having a calm and collected discussion rather than abusive behaviour.

Recently there's this weird spin games media likes to put on almost every story where they paint people who play games as abusive, angry and lonely weirdos.  They have completely devalued certain terms because the people who write for these sites have no idea what they mean.

A difference of opinion is not "abuse" or "harassment", it's just a difference of opinion.  The whole problem with the modding scene was discussed and a decision was made, no one was sending serious enough abuse to Valve to make them change the decision with their tail between their legs.

Another example of this is gaming controversy du jour "misogyny".  Misogyny means that you hate women but people in gaming press equate this to being male and enjoying a little bit of fan service.  Now, whenever I hear that word I just roll my eyes and close the article because who ever is writing it obviously doesn't know what misogyny is.

Valve did a good job listening to their community and making appropriate changes.  Games press did a bad job by trying to spin the story but in the end did nothing to prove that the opinions of these so called "writers" belong in the trash can.

Stop Pandering to Idiots

If you've been reading this blog you've seen me rage from time to time about this whole feminism issue.  Well I'm not going to go on another rant about that right now, but I do want to talk about how there are certain people within the industry that need to stop pandering to these idiots.

The above picture is taken from the Polygon review of Dragons Crown, and ignoring the big 6.5 at the bottom I just want to point out the line "over-exaggerated art style alienating and gross in it's depiction of women"

This, my friends, isn't good game reviewing, it's a moron pandering to idiots on the Internet.  Sure, the depictions of women in Dragons Crown is pretty over exaggerated, but so is it's depictions of fucking EVERYBODY.

I mean look at this fucking guy. Hyper masculine, hyper macho dwarf dude with a hammer who's about to go out and bust some heads.  The over exaggerations of characters aren't limited to ass and titties, it's the whole fucking cast that's like this.  But of course, morons on the Internet like to ignore the general art style, point at the amazon's huge ass and titties and cry "sexist"

It's not just Polygon that does it and it's not just aimed at Dragons Crown either.  If you spend any amount of time reading game related stuff it'll pop up somewhere.  This needs to stop, this wave of stupid ass hole feminists is an extremely recent thing and there is no need to write reviews to please them.  There is also no need to pay any attention to them (this includes insulting them) because really they aren't after equality, they are just out to stifle artistic direction.

This whole thing is double important if you're the kind of person who thinks that games are an art form because limiting art just because it might offend someone is stupid and sort of defeats the point of art itself.

Dragons Crown isn't sexist, it's stylistic.  Games aren't sexist, they are being created for a demographic.  These people need to shut up and go away, and these "journalists" need to stop making an issue out of art styles just to drum up controversy and page views.

I seriously can't wait for the day when I can stop talking about this shit.

A Solution to Used Games

This isn't my solution, but I love what was said.

So everyone is flipping their shit over Xbox One not supporting used games and needing to phone home every 24 hours and other shit like that.  At the same time Cliff Bleszinski, the games industries uber twat, went on twitter and said that it's basically impossible for used games to exist with development costs being so high.

But then I went and found an article on Polygon.  This was an interview with Reggie from Nintendo and he basically said that if developers are worried about used game sales, then they should make better games.

I fucking love that Reggie stood up and said that.  I'm no Ninendo fanboy but Reggie absolutely hit the nail on the head here.  The reason games are getting traded in so often and people are buying shit used is because the "AAA" games that get pumped out nowadays are all fucking garbage.  Six hour cover based corridor shooters with tacked on multiplayer is not something your average person wants to keep in their collection for any longer than they have to.

There are probably shit tons of used Nintedo games flying around.  In fact, there were so many Wii games being traded in at my local game stores that about 90% of my Wii games were used.  But what's nice to see is that Nintendo is saying that if there is a problem with used games, it's because they are producing shit games, rather than just blaming the gamers or retail or lying about production costs.  Hell, you could probably cut costs by just taking your time and producing something of quality rather than breaking the bank on advertising for your shitty game.

So well done Reggie, well done for taking responsibility for the shit you produce.  I hope other people start to think like he does and not just start blaming customers when your shit game doesn't do very well. 

If you wanna read the article on polygon, here is the link
http://www.polygon.com/2013/6/13/4426338/nintendo-if-youre-worried-about-used-game-sales-make-better-games