MOON GAMING: CYRIL CYBERPUNK

[Jeb_CC]

I'm sure a lot of people enjoyed the content, they just preferred to see other things is all. ^_^

Sorry that it didn't go very much according to your plan though... it does seem like a nice idea, and I'm sure a lot of work was put into it. But with the way that you've drawn your original audience in, there'd be a majority of users who came to get away from that sort of almost 'let's play' content. Some, not all. But I appreciate the work you've done. Thanks for the video!

[krickit]

Hello, watched the first two episodes, but gave up hope afterwards. It was a bland game, which I don't think could hold me for an hour and a half, even if you brought in jugglers or something. I liked the actual content of the episode, discussing the game and its flaws, with theories as to what on earth is happening. I think it would be better if the episode was ordered into the topics that you went through - your discussions on the games history, gameplay, art direction, then drastically shortened by cutting out long pauses and things, even within sentences. I see that a lot in let's plays and I can imagine the practice gets some flak, but it seems necessary for the pacing of something like this not to be on the level of Cyril Cyberpunk.

 

My more major concern with it would be that your style of humor wouldn't work with the shorter video. I can't think of a solution to that without a drastic improvement in improvisation, So I don't have an answer for whether I want to see more of this series or not. I liked Tom though, with the theories on the backstory of the game.

 

 

I don't think this proves you can't do Let's Plays.

Once upon a time I went looking for let's plays of a game I had played previously, looking for the insight of another on the game. Instead I found a Markiplier series. I watched the first episode and was greeted by the astounding commentary of a series of grunts and chuckles with occasional "fuck you"s. I had a similar experience with a pewdiepie video I clicked on once. I'm not exactly sure how those videos are successful as they are. Then again, I also remember a playthrough of Resident Evil 4 that I actually bothered to watch through for significantly more time, where the player talked continuously in Spanish, which I don't understand at all. Let's plays as entertainment baffles the hell out of me.

[JudasPhysicist]

It wasn't as funny or witty as your other content Ross.

[ScumCoder]

Whoa I wasn't expecting so overwhelmingly negative feedback here in the blog, I mean of course this has lower standard than Game Dungeon, this was supposed to be a less time-consuming series which will allow Ross to spend more time on the movie. I gladly watched all three parts and chuckled a lot, e.g. when Ross told his theory about Toad flipping Mario off I literally had to put the video on pause to ROFL.

 

Also Tom White isn't a bad LP partner IMO, maybe he seems less quick-witted than Ross but his own channel is interesting and I LOL'd hard on some of his videos ("Bazooka Bill" being an example).

 

All in all, if the game itself was more entertaining, this "Moon Gaming" series would have actually been on par with GD, considering the difference in time that Ross has to put in it. Then again, I may be just an omnivorous fan of Ross (e.g. I watched his interview with Tyler McVicker two times just because it was fun).

[thespaghettiknight]

Honestly, all in all, I think Moon Gaming could be very funny if Ross and Tom were scripting the videos, and there was a story going on in the background, about how you're stuck on the moon, being forced to play these games with someone else, like MST3K. The collaboration isn't unworkable by any means -- Tom and Ross have similar comedy styles and interests, and they genuinely seem to enjoy each other's company. Moon Gaming could be a MST3K style riff track -- the main problem was that it was just the two of them playing a boring game, with not much besides that going on.

[GuitarGuyDudeBro123]

Although I can't say I really liked it (I don't really like the lets play format in general) I really hope the negative reception to this doesn't scare you off from trying out new stuff.

 

I think a large part of your fanbase love your work so much because it's not just the same crap everyone else is making. There are a million other people doing lets plays, but how many people out there are creating original and interesting content like Freemans Mind or Game Dungeon? Trying out new ideas is important for any creator, but I think the lets play format itself kind of works against what you've built so far.

 

Then again, maybe I'm biased because I really don't like lets plays...

[Sn1pe]

I just had this crazy idea! Instead of two people playing video games....what if you had two combine officers talking about weird stuff and getting themselves in some crazy situations? We can call this series Civil Protection! I can already see it being a hit heh.

[Icebox]

Let's plays as entertainment baffles the hell out of me.

 

The only ones that pull it off are humorous or informative ones like Spoony's riffs on FMV games or screenshot LPs on the LP archive page.

[Googolplexbyte]

Insufficient "LOL" and/or "hm" per minute quotient @ 2x playback speed. Sample size: 1.

[Sexypotato]

I can't really have a unbiased opinion because i have never been a fan of Lets Plays but if i was to make a suggestion it would be to go a route sort of like the Elder Scrolls and Fallout Lore series by Shoddycast where you make yourself a avatar of some sort that travels around the video game universe talking about the lore of old games.

Edited September 25, 2015 by Guest (see edit history)

[turbodevil]

Hi Ross,

 

I voted 'no' and here's why.

 

Playthroughs. Are. Boring.

 

You. Are. Awesome.

 

Hard to explain it differently. Playthroughs are for people who like to watch something in the backgroung while they are busy wasting their lives.

 

You, Ross, made it different with Freeman's mind, because you gave main character a, well, character, added screenplay and turned it into masterpiece.

 

This episode is well made playthrough. Really it's better than most of what I've seen... But I can't imagine the audience for this. Common 'I watch playthroughs in the background' gamer won't get your jokes. Common 'I watch playthroughs in the background' dude won't care for game that old. He will simply don't care.

 

Not to mention I prefer your jokes in scrpited fasion without random dudes I don't know doing random stuff

 

Hence I voted no.

 

In no way treat it as 'don't do stuff', Ross. Because you do awesome stuff and I can't wait for more! And this video is decent. I just wish you put your talent to better use.

[incorrectdigit]

I'll throw in my two cents (coming out of the woodwork to comment, partly because I think I really need to clarify my vote.) The three votes don't make a -lot- of sense, or more accurately, the third "I'm on Earth." This is what I voted, because there wasn't the option I wanted which was 'reworking the format slightly and a different game."

 

I don't think the idea of moon gaming is a bad one, though it is different, which will always have some backlash at first from regular viewers. Currently moon gaming is kind of between your two most popular types of content, short succinct well written original videos/reviews (game dungeon/original machinas) that are short, and sweet.

 

The other big audience you have is freeman's mind, where you kind of add a twist to what is essentially a literal playthrough of the entire game.

 

This is heavily edited playthrough that is kind of like a longhand game dungeon. The choice of game was bad. It's essentially a bad shareware-like title, where you ran out of things to say about the game shortly after the end of the first episode. There's not a lot of downtime in all 3 episodes, but when you look at the commentary that -is- there, it's very repetitive. Play the drinking game with these 3 episodes:

 

Commenting on blandness of backgrounds.

Game mechanic that is frustrating but without any real insight (teleporters aren't consistent, though we won't say that we'll just say 'what?' maze levels that we won't discuss but get frustrated it's a maze, enemies that kill us super quickly without really discussing why, but we'll comment briefly on how all these things frustrate us!)

Speculation on teddy bear alien society.

 

After you die of alcohol poisoning, take a minute to reflect. Of those three options, only the final one really is trying to give insight into the title. And aside from a couple of relatively small asides (Ross discusses potential financial reasons why the game is in the state it's in. Brief discussion of why they chose the assets they did (ie: the target demographic) but these bits are few and far between. I feel choosing a title you feel you can really discuss all the way through the playthrough is a strong start. Try not to re-tread topics.

 

The being on the moon gag also got really old really quickly, and was kind of creepy. Though that's my very personal opinion on it.

 

My final opinion is: I'm interested in the format, co-commentating/sharing a game. Try to pick a more interesting game that either has a lot to talk about, or is short enough that with good editing there's always something new to talk about. Even at it's best, due to it being fairly differently paced to other content, I'd expect a little backlash from regular audience, but that's to be expected.

 

TL;DR Ross is creepy on the moon, need a better game/unrepetitive commentary, slight rework of the format desired instead of abandoning.

[nobody25864]

The idea for Moon Gaming has potential, but I think you went about it all wrong here. What makes the idea fun would be some guy battling with crippling loneliness trying to run a video game channel, talking about what he likes in the game while he's practically ready to burst into tears. He should be constantly wrestling with his despair, forcing himself to try to keep a cheerful attitude. Bringing on guests, having genuine fun while playing the game, making minor complaints about whatever, that all breaks the illusion.

 

The closest comparison I can think of for doing this properly would actually be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6xiGYiwlTI, or maybe his https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhu1S2JweLw let's play, or his https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr50ELt1ITY. You should be playing just a completely depressing, miserable character.

 

I didn't really enjoy this new video, but I think if you change your approach to this, it could have real potential! Thanks for all the work you put in!

[Xeknos]

I think the only playthrough that really worked was your Carnevil one. Let's Plays, in general, have just over saturated the market so much that I think a lot of people are turned off to them as a whole - this is mostly why I've stopped streaming playthroughs of games, because there's no audience for it.

 

It was an interesting experiment, and this sort of thing can work, but the fact that the other guy wasn't giving you much and that the game itself was pretty boring didn't help at all.

[Nex]

This is the only video that I didn't really like, also the only one I haven't watched to the end. I gave up halfway around the first part because it was so boring, the production value was great, but there was very little entertainment in it, sadly. I don't think you should go over the top, but there was very little in the way of an interesting discussion.

[Trar]

I will say that I think Moon Gaming could work if you come up with stuff to pull during each episode. People here have already suggested two things I think would make it work: you acting really out of touch and bonkers during each episode thereby weirding out anybody with you, and/or random skits in the middle of each episode that send it off the rails. You could make this a Punked/Frog Fractions thing.

[Dr Anthrax]

man its sad to see something you worked so hard on, not go the way you planned. but it doesnt call for an axe and to discontinue it. seems like the biggest issue is the guest which yes he was bland, unfunny and, frankly ive never heard of the guy but i can hardly blame that on you. for me the big issue i personally had was the style itself. your usually reviewing the game and you do a damned good job at it. i understand the need to grow to develop a lets play style of talking which im all for! just next time do it alone and not a three part series. something that can be done quickly. like papers please, a really quick game and great for you to understand talking while playing!

[dad]

The problem is, while I didn't particularly enjoy the video(s,) or the idea of Ross doing let's plays, I didn't HATE it. I actually enjoyed it significantly more than other let's plays, however, I don't think if it were coming out on a monthly interval that would make up for it. I love the whole "on the moon" theme where it gives the impression that being on the moon is not at all what it's cracked up to be, and Ross is clinically depressed and a bit space crazy, but that itself doesn't carry the show.

 

If you want my 100% honest opinion, Ross, this series could be great, and maybe would have got the reception you wanted it to, had you picked a different game. Sorry to say, this was a terrible game for a let's play, especially for the debut episode. Incredibly boring game, doesn't give much to talk about, doesn't look interesting, seem interesting, or induce anything interesting. I feel that if you had picked a different game, people would have enjoyed it a lot more.

 

I wouldn't let the reception get you down, though. Clearly we love your content; otherwise we'd just be trash-talking you and your video would have a metric shit-ton of dislikes. You experimented; that's great. Game Dungeon was an experiment, and everyone loves it. Keep experimenting, maybe you'll hit another Freeman's Mind.

[ghffghdfghdfhdfh]

I'd definitely still watch anything Ross put out anytime because I love his commentary and his perspective as an artist and filmmaker. But honestly I've seen so many "LPs" that the only reaction I got out of the Moon Gaming videos was a little bit of comfort. Not saying that's a bad thing at all, but I probably wouldn't want to watch a whole lot of these just because of my current interests.

[29314]

Once upon a time I went looking for let's plays of a game I had played previously, looking for the insight of another on the game. Instead I found a Markiplier series. I watched the first episode and was greeted by the astounding commentary of a series of grunts and chuckles with occasional "fuck you"s. I had a similar experience with a pewdiepie video I clicked on once. I'm not exactly sure how those videos are successful as they are. Then again, I also remember a playthrough of Resident Evil 4 that I actually bothered to watch through for significantly more time, where the player talked continuously in Spanish, which I don't understand at all. Let's plays as entertainment baffles the hell out of me.

 

All Let's Plays you're likely to find through a google search are really, really, bad. The Pewdiepie style of doing them is terrible but inexplicably popular with millions of children, and they're so easy to churn out that youtube is flooded with low-effort ones.

 

Most serious let's players hang out on SomethingAwful's let's play forum, make videos filled with nonstop insightful commentary, and languish in obscurity.

 

I watch some comedy LPs where people play a really ridiculous game like 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand and make jokes.

I also watch a lot of LPs where someone really knowledgeable and skilled plays a game to 100% completion and shows off everything.

They're mostly useful when I want to see a game but have no interest in actually playing it myself. Incredibly hard games, games with a mechanic I just don't enjoy like stealth, etc.

 

Here's my recommendation if you want to see some quality LPs: http://chipandironicus.com/videos/index.html