Background: The video game League of Legends (LoL) has recently created a hall of fame for its most famous e-sports players and added the first player to it. In his honour, a "micro" transaction...
Background: The video game League of Legends (LoL) has recently created a hall of fame for its most famous e-sports players and added the first player to it. In his honour, a "micro" transaction is available to be purchased in LoL in the form of a skin for about USD 500. Of course, people are rioting.
I find this to be a very balanced take on the situation. In particular, the phrase the following quote has stuck with me.
I once said the world is full of stupid people. I may have been right the first time, but that's not way to live. A more charitable opinion I hold now is that people don't bring their mental A game to every situation.
Great quote. As an example that applies to everyone, think about advertising. You can attempt to block it out as much as you want (adblocking extensions, alternative apps that block ads from...
Great quote. As an example that applies to everyone, think about advertising. You can attempt to block it out as much as you want (adblocking extensions, alternative apps that block ads from services, etc) but it will get to you somehow (billboards, astroturfing, shopping sponsored recommendations). And even if watching that Coke ad doesn't make you go "mmm I want Coke now," you might end up thinking about it later in the day or later in the week.
They use all kinds of human psychology tricks to manipulate your purchasing behavior. And it gets to us one way or another, at least for some products or services.
In a conversation with a friend about why Coca Cola still does commercials when they are probably one of the most well known companies on the planet, he told me that they tried, and found out that...
In a conversation with a friend about why Coca Cola still does commercials when they are probably one of the most well known companies on the planet, he told me that they tried, and found out that stopping advertisement lowers purchase numbers.
That was insane to me. You'd think that people buy it because they like the taste, but it seems that the advertisement is needed specifically to keep them hooked.
Yeah, it makes sense in a weird way. Anecdotal example, I used to be subscribed to a weird variety of subreddits back when I used Reddit. Some were food related, and the most direct example was...
Yeah, it makes sense in a weird way. Anecdotal example, I used to be subscribed to a weird variety of subreddits back when I used Reddit. Some were food related, and the most direct example was /r/tacobell because I enjoyed learning about the new menu items and what people thought of them.
I was eating at Taco Bell at least twice a month, probably much more. Had pretty significant cravings for particular items.
At one point I recognized that hearing about it sometimes triggered cravings. I unsubbed from that subreddit along with some other food ones. Since then, my Taco Bell consumerism has reduced to once every 3 months or so.
I never watched anything on Escapist except Yahtzee (and even that was a struggle back when they used that awful marker scribble sound on the channel ID, many years ago). I have no idea if all the...
I never watched anything on Escapist except Yahtzee (and even that was a struggle back when they used that awful marker scribble sound on the channel ID, many years ago). I have no idea if all the Second Wind guys are Escapist refugees or not, but at least Cold Take and Design Delve are well worth paying attention to. I think the DD guy takes the schtick a little far, and I've seen some people complain about Frost's "noiration" in comments, but they both bring solid arguments and theory to their videos. Frost in particular does an excellent job of considering the nuance in every situation he addresses while still maintaining a principled stance.
...and when it comes to content creators in a world where any and all topics have been beaten to death, I appreciate how fresh it all still feels. DD, Frost and Yahtzee all repeat themselves,...
...and when it comes to content creators in a world where any and all topics have been beaten to death, I appreciate how fresh it all still feels.
DD, Frost and Yahtzee all repeat themselves, whether it's in jokes, hot takes or subject matter, but that's just how it goes in an oversaturated content environment.
They have to constantly generate content, or the Dark Lord Al Go-Rithm will consign them to the stygian abyss of never being recommended to people. What I find interesting about the whole thing is...
They have to constantly generate content, or the Dark Lord Al Go-Rithm will consign them to the stygian abyss of never being recommended to people.
What I find interesting about the whole thing is that the last year has shown that not only did whoever runs Escapist treat their content creators poorly, they weren't even any good at their job. Both Design Delve and Cold Take are well-developed productions, which makes me think they've been at it for awhile, yet I had never heard of either of them until Second Wind. My mental image of Escapist was Yahtzee, and then a bunch of the sort of self-indulgent pop culture commentary that YouTube was awash in a decade ago. I had no idea there was actually cogent, incisive criticism to be had on the channel, and that's on management, not the creators.
Oh yeah, 100%. Nothing stood out because (It felt) like it was all stream of consciousness spoken blog stuff. Very boring - I need a format if I'm going to commit time to your show.
Oh yeah, 100%. Nothing stood out because (It felt) like it was all stream of consciousness spoken blog stuff. Very boring - I need a format if I'm going to commit time to your show.
I don't really care about format; some of my favorite media are freeform conversational-style stuff. The reason I never delved further into what they had to offer was because the impression I...
I don't really care about format; some of my favorite media are freeform conversational-style stuff.
The reason I never delved further into what they had to offer was because the impression I got–whether accurate or not–was that it was all chubby, bearded, middle-aged white dudes pontificating on their media of choice with no qualifications nor special insight in the industry. If I wanted that I could provide it my own damn self (and in fact did on a couple guest appearances on my friends' podcast, to my mild embarrassment).
Was that the Escapist aside from Yahtzee? No idea. Seemed like it, though. Either that was a failure of adequate marketing or a failure of editorial guidance. It apparently wasn't entirely the fault of the talent, because I've thoroughly appreciated what I've seen on Second Wind.
I'm slowly working my way up to guiltscribing to their Patreon, in case I haven't made that clear.
It's really something all of us who consume media on the regular should be doing. Choose your faves of course -- there's only so much money to just hand out each month -- but it's on us as content...
It's really something all of us who consume media on the regular should be doing. Choose your faves of course -- there's only so much money to just hand out each month -- but it's on us as content consumers to help out.
For me, I'm sure the Escapist had some things to say but their presentation was just too poor. They didn't seem to champion flagship shows off of the website until recently and even then, I wasn't sure what I was digging in to.
I'm not terribly partial to who presents - lots of those middle aged dudes know the history of games front to back - so as long as they're not shitty, I'm into it
Background: The video game League of Legends (LoL) has recently created a hall of fame for its most famous e-sports players and added the first player to it. In his honour, a "micro" transaction is available to be purchased in LoL in the form of a skin for about USD 500. Of course, people are rioting.
I find this to be a very balanced take on the situation. In particular, the phrase the following quote has stuck with me.
Great quote. As an example that applies to everyone, think about advertising. You can attempt to block it out as much as you want (adblocking extensions, alternative apps that block ads from services, etc) but it will get to you somehow (billboards, astroturfing, shopping sponsored recommendations). And even if watching that Coke ad doesn't make you go "mmm I want Coke now," you might end up thinking about it later in the day or later in the week.
They use all kinds of human psychology tricks to manipulate your purchasing behavior. And it gets to us one way or another, at least for some products or services.
In a conversation with a friend about why Coca Cola still does commercials when they are probably one of the most well known companies on the planet, he told me that they tried, and found out that stopping advertisement lowers purchase numbers.
That was insane to me. You'd think that people buy it because they like the taste, but it seems that the advertisement is needed specifically to keep them hooked.
Yeah, it makes sense in a weird way. Anecdotal example, I used to be subscribed to a weird variety of subreddits back when I used Reddit. Some were food related, and the most direct example was /r/tacobell because I enjoyed learning about the new menu items and what people thought of them.
I was eating at Taco Bell at least twice a month, probably much more. Had pretty significant cravings for particular items.
At one point I recognized that hearing about it sometimes triggered cravings. I unsubbed from that subreddit along with some other food ones. Since then, my Taco Bell consumerism has reduced to once every 3 months or so.
Loving Cold Take these days. Second Wind is sooooo refreshing
I never watched anything on Escapist except Yahtzee (and even that was a struggle back when they used that awful marker scribble sound on the channel ID, many years ago). I have no idea if all the Second Wind guys are Escapist refugees or not, but at least Cold Take and Design Delve are well worth paying attention to. I think the DD guy takes the schtick a little far, and I've seen some people complain about Frost's "noiration" in comments, but they both bring solid arguments and theory to their videos. Frost in particular does an excellent job of considering the nuance in every situation he addresses while still maintaining a principled stance.
...and when it comes to content creators in a world where any and all topics have been beaten to death, I appreciate how fresh it all still feels.
DD, Frost and Yahtzee all repeat themselves, whether it's in jokes, hot takes or subject matter, but that's just how it goes in an oversaturated content environment.
They have to constantly generate content, or the Dark Lord Al Go-Rithm will consign them to the stygian abyss of never being recommended to people.
What I find interesting about the whole thing is that the last year has shown that not only did whoever runs Escapist treat their content creators poorly, they weren't even any good at their job. Both Design Delve and Cold Take are well-developed productions, which makes me think they've been at it for awhile, yet I had never heard of either of them until Second Wind. My mental image of Escapist was Yahtzee, and then a bunch of the sort of self-indulgent pop culture commentary that YouTube was awash in a decade ago. I had no idea there was actually cogent, incisive criticism to be had on the channel, and that's on management, not the creators.
Oh yeah, 100%. Nothing stood out because (It felt) like it was all stream of consciousness spoken blog stuff. Very boring - I need a format if I'm going to commit time to your show.
I don't really care about format; some of my favorite media are freeform conversational-style stuff.
The reason I never delved further into what they had to offer was because the impression I got–whether accurate or not–was that it was all chubby, bearded, middle-aged white dudes pontificating on their media of choice with no qualifications nor special insight in the industry. If I wanted that I could provide it my own damn self (and in fact did on a couple guest appearances on my friends' podcast, to my mild embarrassment).
Was that the Escapist aside from Yahtzee? No idea. Seemed like it, though. Either that was a failure of adequate marketing or a failure of editorial guidance. It apparently wasn't entirely the fault of the talent, because I've thoroughly appreciated what I've seen on Second Wind.
I'm slowly working my way up to guiltscribing to their Patreon, in case I haven't made that clear.
It's really something all of us who consume media on the regular should be doing. Choose your faves of course -- there's only so much money to just hand out each month -- but it's on us as content consumers to help out.
For me, I'm sure the Escapist had some things to say but their presentation was just too poor. They didn't seem to champion flagship shows off of the website until recently and even then, I wasn't sure what I was digging in to.
I'm not terribly partial to who presents - lots of those middle aged dudes know the history of games front to back - so as long as they're not shitty, I'm into it