Podcast #03 - The Bad Answers Round

[@gseliverstov]

Timestamps 0:00 - Introduction 3:50 - Combat in Silent Hill 10:12 - Violence in video games 18:45 - Games as service 29:03 - Grinding in video games 36:37 - New gameplay mechanics 39:54 - Neural networks 55:34 - Boycotting a publisher 59:58 - What can replace shooting in games 1:06:13 - Thoughts about Remakes 1:19:30 - Conclusion

[@alexruiz5521]

Thx for doing this

[@superapm9620]

Matt, Pin This Man!!

[@Michael-ep7fp]

Super APM he did

[@superapm9620]

Phew, Thank God.

[@CaptainHandsome]

you the real MVP

[@Elgar337]

Narrator: "They never saw Matthewmatosis on the next podcast".

[@LittleWeevil]

IM STILL FOCKING WAITING FOR THE NEXT PODCAST MATT

[@looinrims]

So am I

[@keslerjenkins9683]

same, his podcasts are such good background noise

[@GeneralCanada]

I don't know how up to date you are but there is a programming episode on his Patreon (free)

[@coomer8265]

soon'TM

[@coffeedude]

Me too

[@JohannesEckhoff]

Loot boxes are absolutely gambling. And the age thing isn't the only problem. It's also the matter of disclosing odds and tampering with odds during the game.

[@matthewmatosisextra]

I was a bit dismissive on this point, yeah they should be beholden to some level of transparency.

[@MAYOFORCE]

This applies more for phone games but they should really have a stamina system on purchases instead of actual gameplay.

[@specknacken6507]

"But Anyway" would be a great podcast title too i think

[@mandatorial]

I'd say Bad Answers is a pretty original and decent title for a podcast.

[@L33PL4Y]

Except that it undermines the thought he puts into his statements by being outright self-deprecating. It was a decent title for THIS podcast, but not for the podcast as a whole.

[@Molemitts]

Regarding the grinding question, Undertale, I think thematically approaches the concept of grinding really well. You're only ever required to grind if you're going for the genocide route. As you get further into it enemies appear less and less frequently. You're meant to have the feeling that you are deliberately hunting down and killing every last monster even as their population drops and it's purposefully tedious so as to reinforce the idea that this is a bad thing and you should feel bad about doing it. Probably the only time in a game I felt grinding was an acceptable design choice.

[@rat4992]

Molemitts I was thinking stardew valley does it pretty well

[@CircumSamurai]

In regards to cosmetics affecting gameplay, I once died in PUBG due to a player looking exactly like a pile of garbage on the ground. They were wearing just the right clothing to blend into the floor, with their helmet & rifle looking like loot on the ground. I went to pick up their face & got shot before I could tell it was a player wearing an ugly outfit. Kudos to them, but I'm getting more & more critical of "It's just cosmetic" in games where split-second reaction time & target acquisition are key. Many cosmetic items are probably more likely to get you noticed than help you blend in, like a neon rifle & gloves opposed to more dull default ones. Still, It really makes me unsure of it all when certain items & outfits *do* have a meta-game advantage, especially when they are bought/gambled for with real money. If I remember correctly, the Spy in TF2 had a payed/crate emote that let him hide in a cardboard box like Solid Snake. This gave the Spy an extra way to blend in without using his invisibility. (It was probably nerfed or the meta got too widespread, but the point still stands) I still think it's a good, usually fair way for developers to earn extra income without breaking their backs with work, but I do think it's being taken too far at times & being overused in games where it does little to add to the experience.

[@CircumSamurai]

Some more examples of paid cosmetics somewhat negatively effecting gameplay: In Planetside 2 you can pay real money to paint your character & vehicles with different colors & camos. There are 3 color coded teams, Red, Blue, & Purple, & for the most part their paid cosmetics are kept in theme with whatever faction you bought them on. Oddly enough, all 3 teams have access to neon white & neon pink paint jobs. This means you never instantly know if that neon pink soldier or that neon white spawn-point truck is friendly or not. In TF2 you can paint your items. This means you can join the red team covered in cosmetics painted blue, giving you the meta advantage of possibly making enemies second guessing "Is that a friendly with red painted cosmetics, or an enemy with blue painted cosmetics?" Things like this just add pointless confusion & inconsistency. I like the idea of players looking different, but when all it is is a money sink it just feels dirty. Knowing I have to invest money for the possibility of making enemies double-take, or knowing I died because someone payed money to make me double-take, really detracts from the experience in my opinion.

[@JohannesEckhoff]

Oh the box spy trick is still a thing.

[@thelastgogeta]

Y'golonac Agreed that fighting games having tons of cosmetics can make perception worse but the easy solution for that is to keep costumes that players see based on the player's side, perhaps with the option to remove specific costumes from sight. (Similar to how people don't see silly mods whether nude or furry when they aren't installed) I don't have a solution for it in tournaments when people are on the same machine but it limits the issue to either cases where you can talk to the person next to you (perhaps with enforced rules) or less competitive stuff. I like my silly costumes in fighting games and think they can stick around without rethinking their design.

[@Tempe_]

The spy box taunt never seemed too bad to me, because it was almost always unadvisable to use. That box never shows up in environments otherwise, or any other cardboard box for that matter. It's shape is totally unique, even it's sillouette. Still, a new player might could be tricked by it, and believe it to be a prop, but even then there's a massive amount of self stun before you can act and a noticeable voice quote. It's never more effective (especially against newer players) than the disguise kit all spies carry. Add that it fits perfectly with the humor of the game and I see it as a straight-up, fun, beneficial addition to the game. :). It might interest you to know that the taunt is banned in competitive play, though. :P

[@aqualitymagentachickenmask3298]

Ninjamurai What’s more than the box taunt is when VALVe had the brilliant idea of giving premium item sets ridiculous advantage. The Saharan Spy set completely removed decloak sound on the Dead Ringer (an item who’s distinct sound is its biggest drawback) which allowed any spy to topscore in any VALVe server for $11.99

[@pawlogates]

"another podcast will be done soon for sure"

[@LeonMassey]

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the AI question ( 40:01 ) now that it's actually a more tangible tool. Obviously it's become quite divisive, but considering you've got your fingers deep in the development pie now I'd be interested to see if it's changed and why.

[@infiniteeight8685]

As someone on the other end of the generational gap you were talking about, you're not alone in being baffled by people turning their nose up at older games. This is obviously purely anecdotal but as a "hip" teenager myself, a lot of my friends will outright refuse to play a game that looks even a bit dated. Barriers to entry don't mean much to me, but they seem intimidated by PS1-era games the way you or I would be intimidated by Dwarf Fortress. If you ask me, the excessive remake "craze" seems [at least partially] to cater to that type of person, who can't handle a bit of age. I don't like to say stuff like that because it makes me come off as a "wrong generation" type, but I felt it was worth adding to the remake conversation. It's always good to try and go after the originals if possible. Ports, not remakes.

[@Shinmera]

Disclaimer: I don't have any insight on the precise kind of traffic you're looking at for a popular, main-stream game server. This is just conjecture based on my experience running servers in general. Server costs are mostly about colocation in data centres. You are right in that a server for a typical FPS game does not need to do very much. Other games like Eve, Minecraft, etc. that offer a large, shared world to many people are much more costly to host, as they need to do much more computation and verification server-side. Generally though, in order to reduce latency, you need lots of servers in different areas over the world. It's also very easy to underestimate how many people are playing, and that each player needs a stable, persistent connection to a server that takes up constant resources. I am quite sure though that the profits these kinds of games make are vastly bigger than just the server costs, and the bulk of the money will go into salaries for maintenance and development staff.

[@matthewmatosisextra]

Thanks for giving your take. Seems like even those problems would be mostly solved by using something like AWS which I'm pretty sure some games do.

[@shade0636]

I've only found this person's online content a week or two ago and they're already one of my favorite content creators. The more I watch, the more I think their opinions are extremely reasonable and grounded. We also agree on pretty much everything so that helps.

[@NoahRichard]

Watching this now, it's crazy how strongly the "thoughts about remakes" segment applies to Bluepoint's Demon's Souls - and in something of a grand coincidence, too, since BP's own Shadow of the Colossus remake was the inciting example in this vid. It's really a shame how remaking/remastering something seems to so often involve reinterpreting aspects of a game that never needed changing or "improving" to begin with (usually by people who didn't work on the original).

[@theatheistbear3117]

They should’ve cleaned up the janky gameplay and balancing and should’ve added the missing Archstone. Everything else should’ve stayed untouched. One of Demon’s Souls’ greatest strengths are it’s art direction and music. Changing that is changing what people loved about it in the first place.

[@graveblanket]

I think original Demons Souls had a better aesthetic than Blue Points. But Blue Point made a really good rendition and I much prefer a reimagining of an older game than a resolution bump and shinier textures. The bigger shame is that you can't play online with PS3 Demon's Souls copies without mods. So anyones preference is kinda moot.

[@WarCriminalPhlox]

​​@@graveblanket the biggest problem with all the artistic reimaginings is that now we probably will never be able to play the original one in the future unless we hold on to outdated hardware or rely on emulation, both of which pose issues for the online features, since the remake will almost certainly be the only version that gets preserved and ported into the future with the excuse that "this is demons souls just the same" when it really isn't bc a lot of changes alter not only the experience of playing it but the interpretations and lore (like boletaria being in such a bad state of disrepair and plant overgrowth, and even the high medieval architecture instead of the simpler early middle ages construction of the original, that says something different about what kind of place it is and how long it's been decadent)

[@weebsportsresort682]

MATTHEW, IT HAS BEEN NEARLY FIVE YEARS

[@Polaroid_Cupcake]

What you said about the visuals of Shadow of the Colossus is the difference between graphical fidelity and art style. People seem to confuse these two things very often. Graphics is things like polygon count, pixel count, texture quality, lighting and shadow accuracy, etc... Art is things like color choice, rendering style, aesthetics, character design, and other things like that. I agree that the original game has a better art style although I'm undecided on which version of the game is better overall. The remake runs at a consistent 60 frames per second and fixes the stamina glitch that the PAL version of the original has. 60 FPS is better for those who focus solely on the gameplay; people who like doing speedruns or any other kind of challenge runs. For them I'd recommend the remake, easily. As for myself, I don't think smooth performance is a necessary element of a Team ICO game because the value that I find in them is in exploring the world and getting immersed in the fantastical setting. After all, I was able to enjoy The Last Guardian despite it running at a crusty 15 FPS most of the time. The argument of performance versus graphics (and art) varies from game to game and I don't think it absolutely has to be one way or the other in all cases.

[@Gamegalgegod]

Austin Tucker It only runs on 60 for the PS4 Pro really. But you can still play the original at 60 on the PS3 collection.

[@sahus]

@@Gamegalgegod No, the ps3 version runs at 30 fps.

[@MegaDeox]

If you read comments on fifty year old videos, I just want to say I listened to all 3 podcasts today and had a lot of fun. I think that being more "off the cuff" and not preparing as much would make for a podcast which is more fun for both you and us, and you could do it more regularly without affecting the rest of your work. I hope.

[@Bibzuda7]

Very soon he says and yet its been 2.5 years :(

[@EdgardR.]

That "Thoughts on remakes" is funny now because Metroid Prime's Remastered credits just thanked the original team, it just says "Based on the work of Metroid Prime (Original Nintendo Gamecube and Wii versions) Development Staff"

[@ElderlyPossum]

Loving the more obscure reviews you've been putting out lately, keep it up man.

[@Doodoovessel]

ElderlyPossum I know! It gives exposure to obscure games I've never heard about, but something I don't like are the comment sections of his recent videos. There are a lot of people asking for a Zelda, Mario, or MGS review, and that is just annoying. Mathew should review whatever he enjoys, not what people want.

[@alanritchie7850]

Yeah I enjoy hearing him talk about games I don’t hear lots about. And I like that he is clearly passionate about the games he plays

[@ElderlyPossum]

Nuclearpoweredturtle I'd take it up with him not me man.

[@alanritchie7850]

Nuclearpoweredturtle Matt’s videos are actually coming out like clockwork this year. He is usually sporadic, but he says that ‘he is here to stay’. And so far he has made videos regularly. And I feel the same about Joseph Anderson. No offense to the guy, I just don’t like his format. Long videos don’t bother me

[@Doodoovessel]

Nuclearpoweredturtle He has said he will look at them eventually, but I think it will be after August or maybe even next year. He want to finish his current series, and wants to expose games he loves. The indie games he is reviewing are way more interesting than the generic AAA games, I am glad he is exposing this types of games.

[@matt715]

can’t believe its been five whole years… you said it’ll be back, so i trust you

[@CD-mb4bv]

Was just thinking the other day how long it'd been since my favourite podcast, the still untitled Matthewmatosis podcast, had a new episode.

[@chastermief839]

boy oh boy do i love The Still Untitled Matthewmatosis Podcast Podcast

[@Tamacat388]

Who knew it would be the last one?

[@CaptainHammerPants]

Hey Matthew this has nothing to do with the podcast but I just remembered that having never heard of the game, I bought Ghost Trick purely based on your recommendation video years ago. So belated thanks for turning me on to one of my favourite games I guess!

[@ViperJoe]

Please tell me this isn't the last episode

[@gammafighter]

The problem with "no Russian" is that whatever the other intentions and meanings behind the level, it was absolutely meant to be provocative. It was meant to create a backlash so we shouldn't be surprised it try to justify or defend it when there is a backlash.

[@munfurai8083]

I really hope you will have more podcasts.

[@LeonGuasJir]

I know why you prefer not to get too passionate, but I actually dig that, I usually try to be more focused, consice and calm, but, man, that feeling of knowing that something is wrong and you know why and you can't really do anything about it, really gets me. I would like if the last question that you do on the next podcast (s?) you simply burst out, it's actually interesting listening to your more raw side from time to time. Keep it up man!

[@drownsinkoolaid4203]

For the point about grinding, I would say a decent example is, say, Darkest Dungeon. I will concede right away, as anyone who has completed the game can agree, the game drags on for far too long as it is. However the way the game handles grinding I feel is much more well thought out than many more JRPG styled games. The game is designed to be brutal on the player, and so a lot of players will probably choose to grind early dungeons to level up, but with each run they have the risk of permanently losing a character. Not to mention, any time you start a mission you need to buy supplies. Thus, even if you're using max level heroes against early game enemies you still need to be careful. You can slaughter enemy parties easily, but if you get too cocky about grinding and forget basic equipment, you can die of hunger or stress without fighting a single challenging enemy. Before embarking on a run, you're shown the loot you'll get for completion, but as well you will find random items and loot along the way. So if you want to even the difficulty, you can spend more time and money grinding your characters, playing safe, or make fewer, more dangerous runs early on and either way can pay off, assuming you play the game well. Not to mention as well that grinding kind of goes with the story; the entire game is based around the idea of slowly building up your family's rotting estate, and so the slow grind of the game is inherently rewarding when you are treated to new vendors and better deals on services and the like, as well building your own little private army is pretty awesome too. Starting with a small band of outcasts and strays, and finishing the game with an army of legendary soldiers just wouldn't feel rewarding if the game were short, it only feels satisfying (to me, anyway) for it to be a slow burn that turns into a blaze (without sounding too edgy) over a long period. Pardon my rambly style, just wanted to throw in my two cents about that question :D

[@TheToodinho]

I have to disagree in fact I think the grinding is worse in Darkest Dungeon because you're forced to do it, it makes the game far outlive it's welcome it strenches the game to it's breaking point because you're basically gated to progressing the story until you grind out missions( Been awhile since a I played so if Im incorrect on this let me know) then the game makes you fight the same bosses multiple times but with their stats jacked up, there was one point where most of my characters were max lvl but I couldnt get into the endgame dungeon because the game wanted me to grind out all the other places. By the end I gave up on the game after spending nearly 40 hours on it because the game had become so repetitive I couldnt stomach it anymore, the sheer amount of the dungeon crawling that you have to do eventually just degrades the whole thing, and even if you really like the game and say that's part of the point the game is trying to convey about being the grueling journey the game didnt need that because there are plenty of other features and mechanics in the game that already do that without wasting your time(sanity meter,fatigue,etc)

[@drownsinkoolaid4203]

TheToodinho I see your point, I agree entirely that the game really overstays itself monstrously. Back when it was a 20 some odd hour game it was certainly tighter, where as now most people seem to say around 70+ hours on easy. Don't want to put words in your mouth, but last time I played (month or two ago?) you could tackle the end game whenever you want, but it would really be impossible to beat due to the RNG nature. That said, the game won't stop you from trying if you're feeling up to it. But then again you can grind all day and max out your characters, but unlike a lot of RPGs you don't get that big of an advantage; being max leveled doesn't mean you can stomp through level 3 or 5 dungeons, which is what I find interesting about it. Even if you're doing mindless grinding, the game expects you to still pay attention and be thoughtful.

[@Tardsmat]

Drowns In Kool Aid honestly, I think calling it a "grind" in darkest dungeon isn't right and really puts people in a bad mindset. It's just the gameplay, because that's all that the game is. You don't play it for the tiny story snippets, it's basically a rougelike. Nobody talks about the grind in the binding of Isaac.

[@BertoPlease]

Listening to the Neural Networks question now that AI art is essentially reality now and has been a BIG controversy in all mediums lately is really wild. AI has already been used here and there for video games, one of the more common uses I've heard about is using it to upscale art from older games for HD ports / remasters, which is a very valid usage of it, but now with all the talks of wanting to use AI to replace actual staff in game development, writing, music, etc, it definitely has soured a lot of the potential uses of it for triple AAA companies, because you KNOW they'd do it if they found out they could, capitalism and all that, using new technology for the worst way possible. I think his example of it is very apt, using it for a smaller indie team or devs that can't *afford* to pay someone for it, but only using it as a starting point and not just using that result as what you slap into the game is a good compromise. I would be curious if his thoughts on that would change if he knew AI art usually is just a conglomerate of stolen art from the Internet now. I would assume so but don't wanna speak for Matthew.

[@Michael-ep7fp]

If all you do is play extremely violent games for long periods of time I think it's completely feasible that they could have some desensitizing effect on a person. But I don't think that they cause someone to go out and start shooting up a school either. And if someone already has predilections towards violence, wouldn't they be drawn towards the extreme violence of some games? And I'm not saying that everyone who plays violent games has these predilections just for clarity.

[@matthewmatosisextra]

Great point. It's important to remember that correlation doesn't equal causation. It could be that otherwise violent people are drawn to violent games as a way to act out their urges.

[@Kaucukovnik666]

A major factor in the "violence in games" discussion is the fact that game companies want to have their cake and eat it too. They don't want violent shooters to be treated like porn and lose the advertising strength. Seeing ads for Assassin's Creed in children's magazines doesn't feel right.

[@Kaucukovnik666]

What do you even mean by that? That it's ok to advertise anything to minors, because if they actually get it, it's the parents' fault? That ads shouldn't meet the same requirements that media they accompany have to? Wouldn't you expect a magazine meant for kids to have ads only for products suitable to them? In any other case I'd probably agree with you, but when children are involved, it's not just about demand and supply. They are inexperienced, impressionable and their concept of the surrounding world is a work in early stages of progress. Remember they can look up anything on youtube etc, and many are more tech-savvy than their parents are. They don't need to (legally) own a game to know it through and through. I'm not advocating against gory games, just for clear distinction. Many parents are confused, and just putting the blame on them doesn't help anyone. And unless something is done, the anti-violence zealots will get their way one day, and do something stupid and much more invasive.

[@Kaucukovnik666]

["I'm not advocating against gory games" "They don't want violent shooters to be treated like porn" Pick one.] Pick one? There's no contradiction. Both porn and violent videogames are valid forms of entertainment for an adult person. And there is no reason to treat them much differently when it comes to exposing children to them. Hey, I know. You can't 100% shield them from anything potentially harmful. I wouldn't even want to attempt such utopia. But if you don't see a problem with advertising games like AssCreed in magazines that elementary schools are subscribed to, I can't help you.

[@TOASTEngineer]

Having been exposed to both vidja and real violence; video game violence does desensitize you to video game violence (I remember the first time my character decapitated someone in Fallout 3...) It absolutely does not desensitize you to the real thing. It's completely utterly different.

[@Sadsharks]

I'd love to see your critique of the Shadow of the Colossus remake

[@Gadget-Walkmen]

i love the remake, it's a great well put together one. @gibbdude

[@SteveReenITG]

For what it's worth, I really enjoy hearing you speak passionately in these. In your reviews I appreciate your more rational and analytical tone, but I also find it really refreshing in these when you just speak off the cuff, from the heart. Both are good!

[@JezMM]

Re: Servers and what they entail While my understanding of servers is about on par with yours, your mentioning of Left 4 Dead did remind me of some specifics about that game which may provide a little insight into how many calculations a server is having to keep track of in a modern(ish) game. If you're playing on a laggy connection, it's the hordes of common infected zombies that you'll notice laggy behaviour on first and foremost. I can think of hundreds of blink-and-you'll-miss-it moments over the course of my years playing that game in which a common infected would drop dead out of nowhere because a team-mate shot it, even though my team-mate appeared to be aiming away from it on my screen. I think common infected behaviour was MOSTLY handled client side in that game, with the game "checking in" on their positions as often as it could but not with as high priority as player-controlled characters. Luckily this gelled perfectly with the fiction of the game, since while on a laggy game this would result in common infected zipping about unusually (as you'd expect), in an ordinary, well-connected game, it just makes them run with slightly erratic directional changes from time to time - which is perfectly in character for the common infected. They also mention in the developer commentary how the client-side game communicates with the server all the time for horizontal character placement in the map, but it only communicates with the server for vertical character placement when that value CHANGES, since that is a less frequent occurance with Left 4 Dead's, down-to-earth maps and character movements within those maps. In said commentary, I recall them mentioning how this might seem overzealous, but they REALLY want to minimise how much data is being sent back and forth from client to server as MUCH as possible to ensure a smooth experience. This insight doesn't necessarily lean one way or the other in terms of proving whether servers have to handle a little or a lot (i.e. developers WANT it to be as little as possible but that doesn't mean it's not "a lot" once they're done optimising), but thought it might interest you just as an insight into that particular game. (Also yeah there were official dedicated servers, though I imagine they've really scaled back on how many of those there are now, and most games will connect you to player-owned servers or force you into a locally-hosted game. Worth mentioning that Valve, being their cool selves at the time, never charged for the DLC on this game on PC. Considering Portal 2 followed Left 4 Dead 2 though, I am absolutely certain that a Left 4 Dead 3, if it happens, would put in some arbtirary cosmetic stuff like Portal 2 did, unfortunately). Going back even further to my experience with Phantasy Star Online, I know that old game ENTIRELY handled enemies client-side. Like L4D, I recall situations where enemies would drop dead out of nowhere while my teammates attacked an empty space, or you could even have situations where the same enemy is hitting you on one side of the room while your teammate over the other side is taking damage simultaneously because the same enemy is hitting them on their side over on their screen. All of this is to say, I imagine that things have changed a fair amount since Quake, but I think the key factor with client server communication in games is just how much the developers can "get away with" based on how intense the player interaction is with the elements that have to be kept track of between client and server. In Left 4 Dead, it's not the end of the world if the common horde zombies don't QUITE match up exactly on everyone's screen, but in a game like Overwatch, where EVERYTHING is about how you interact with other real players on a split-second-to-split-second basis - with even details of bodyshots vs headshots mattering, they can't skimp on positional data.

[@joebailey8294]

Just wanted to let you know I tried DMC1 and DMC3 because of your video on the original. Good decision.

[@jacobogarcia8111]

About neural networks needing human input, what if the neural network could simulate or at least take into account personality traits and quirks of creators like Kamiya, and make the games in accordance to them?

[@matthewmatosisextra]

Yep. I started thinking about this after the fact. It still seems to me that human rated feedback is the only way to go but if they have a taste profile built from your listening habits then success or failure in a certain style of music can be weighted accordingly. Big data is scary stuff. I wouldn't be surprised to see this appear in Google's music platform at some point and capitalize on all the knowledge it has acquired so far.

[@L33PL4Y]

Heck, with a platform like Steam, a company could pump out NN (neural network) created games as quickly as they wanted for minimal cost and get easy, fast feedback on each one from the user reviews and how long people spend playing them before quitting. This info can easily be put into the NN's database and would be a simple and efficient way to get the human feedback necessary to get NN games up to standard. I think NN games could eventually become decent after enough human data collection, but I'm not optimistic about the notion; I just think it's an interesting thought and would make for a neat experiment to see what an NN would come up with after being fed more and more human data.

[@itsgeal]

Re: Grinding, it’s mostly just different strokes for different folks, but it also depends on what KIND of grinding you mean. Old-school JRPG grinding was mostly there to stretch out the play time, but more recent games it’s usually more of a means of steadily doling out content in terms of a progression mechanic. Nowadays JRPGs like Persona 5 have grinding there as an option to help keep things fresh, and to help less skilled players gain a power advantage if needed (at least in battle, the out-of-battle grinding is there to reinforce time management). As for stuff like Overwatch, those grinding progression mechanics are there to make it feel like the player is “earning” something for playing the game. Playing the same characters and maps over and over and over can get dull for some people, but the progression and the rewards tied to it help them enjoy the game for longer. There’s also some “one more level” syndrome going on there, where players can think “oh hey, i’m close to the next reward, i’ll just play a little bit more!”

[@IncaSteppa420]

Great stuff as usual mister Matosis. I feel like your ability to stay on topic has mostly improved since the last podcast, which is a welcome improvement as far as I'm concerned.

[@specknacken6507]

Regarding your thoughts on the SotC Remake: A bit of a bummer that you're not gonna do a comparison video about it but i totally understand why you don't want to play it. I watched your New n Tasty video after i played the SotC Remake and thought "Man! So many things he said could almost 1to1 be applied to the Remake! Except the shitstorm from the defenders would be 100 times bigger". Mind you people i enjoyed the Remake for the most part. Things like getting all TA items on one savefile and the way less irritating grip physics on some Colossi (#3 and #15!) compared to the PS3 Remaster make it the version i'm gonna choose if i feel like playing the game. However there's one change i will never get over with and that is the removal of the thunderstorm and soundeffects at the very end of the ending. To me this is the only real change in tone/atmosphere and even story outside of many things that have the usual high chance of getting lost in translation from PS2 to PS4. Doesnt't help that this moment was my favourite one from the whole ending so hopefully you can understand my maybe "nitpicky outrage". Another one would be Wanders facial (or lack of) animations that suprisingly didn't bother me as much but are nontheless an irritating change too when everyone else didn't lose any of their expression from the original (Emon looks better even imo!). What really irritates me though is that so many people apparently didn't give a shit about it. Even more perplexing were the people attacking me for being a "snobby purist". Yes these people exist like they exist in every discussion about a remake of every...fucking thing ever really. But this was the first time for me where the "Defence Side" was as if not even MORE toxic than the purists. They came off as very "narrow minded" (for the lack of a better term) almost like "It has the better grafix so it's betta!!!". It was so frustrating to find a single discussion about it without everyone insulting each other after 5 posts. Again don't do something you actually don't want to do but i'm certain that i'm not the only one who believes you could do the subject matter justice. (Thx to anyone who read this freaking wall of text btw) =)

[@ytoon3031]

There is some others audio changes like the 4th colossus having his pathetic little squeal when you strike him in the neck replaced by the default pain sound Some cutscenes seems to be sped up a bit, which is a shame because it lose some of the weight the colossy have when moving, there is a bit less time put into setting up scenes too Having a trophee that shows up EACH TIME you kill a colossus felt just insulting, first it's a piss poor uses of trophees and second the cutscene when you defeat a colossus is just one of the most beautiful and sad moment in the game, having a prompt with a blip noise showing up uterly ruins the mood and I don't know how it could have possibly pass any testing

[@xCrimson2277]

bro when are you gonna make an MGSV video??? i feel like i cant continue living without a conclusion on your MGS analysis

[@hylic2637]

Still no 4th podcast that you've committed to :)

[@bmer]

After all these years has your thoughts on neural networks changed?

[@ZioBlader]

Interesting thing about Radiant Historia Perfect Chronology: because of "added production values" characters have now voice acting and portraits expressing multiple emotions and reactions. The original game was low-key famous because every character had only "one face", and especially Stocke, the main character, was praised because of his vague, emotionless expression that left a lot of room for interpretations. It was a rather cool, minimalistic choice since you weren't always sure about the feelings and honesty of the cast. Just like you couldn't trust there's a permanent hope in a single timeline, you couldn't trust anyone around you. Perfect Chronology broke this illusion. You can now openly see and hear all the reactions. DS-version: Was character X actually happy when they said that one thing? 3DS-version: I guess there was no reason to think about that... Having only one portrait for characters (and no voice acting) isn't of course anything unique. But it's also common to portray characters with different reaction icons, or using sprites (FF6). Radiant Historia, however, said no to all of these options. And the script of RH also lacked typical quirks of console-style RPGs (the writing isn't "colourful" or driven by emotive words) which supported the choice of minimalistic character-presentation. Added new artstyle, expressions and voice acting could be something Atlus wanted to add in the very beginning. But it begs a question: did the original writers, directors (and the original artist) want this? There's a huge tonal difference between DS- and 3DS-version just because of how the characters are expressed. Did they just want to "buff" Radiant Historia for the new console? Were they aware that some of the limits of DS-version's storytelling had unexpected value? Did Radiant Historia's narrative actually need voice acting and stronger emphasis on character expressions? Is the end result stronger, more impactful after these "upgrades"? Did they understood the original game? This is what I'm always asking when a new remake/remastered edition is released. Radiant Historia was made by a very passionate team of creators. For its main writer RH is what Xenogears/Xenosaga was for Tetsuya Takahashi: an inspired passion project. It is notable how much "passion" can shine even through harsh limitations and compromises. Whether intentional or not, Radiant Historia's DS-version feels more "complete" as a whole, even without the Atlus-remake-brand "New Girl" which is surely what Strange Journey, Persona 4, Catherine, Radiant Historia, Devil Survivor 2 etc. were missing all these years...

[@ThemSensay]

That's strange I remember many reviews criticizing the fact that characters only had one expression. I understand if you like it better that way but I don't think that kind of vagueness adds to the story of the game.

[@ZioBlader]

Yeah, by "low-key famous" I meant that some passionate fans really appreciated the choice. Some people outright stated that limited expression-portraits was a flaw and made some of the genuinely emotional moments silly since Stocke's dull face didn't match his words. But there were also blog-posts analyzing (sometimes maybe overanalyzing) the benefits of one-faced characters. I guess the biggest point wasn't which decision is ultimately better but the fact that it affects the tone of dialogue, characters etc. a lot when you can suddenly witness character-reactions. The story/plot is the same but it changes the flavour of the narrative/storytelling. It changes the feel of the overall writing. Voice acting and expression-icons of course make things more alive and colourful. But my point is the difference itself, the tonal difference between versions. And the fact that I was wondering if the original writers really wanted the original game's tense vagueness to be replaced by open, straightforward reactions that left no room for interpretations. When a character was flustered in the DS-version, they seemed somewhat collected, angry, frustrated, embarrassed etc. you couldn't tell their true feelings. The text itself was enough to make the scene colourful though and the single face portrait didn't feel out of place either. In 3DS-version the character straight up blushes and starts speaking in a quirky manner (based on the added voice acting). Some people will definitely enjoy the latter more, but some people would prefer original's subtlety that overall fits the tone of Radiant Historia more. But the difference itself is meaningful here, the effects of added voice acting and new artwork and the questionable reasons behind those additions. I don't know about all the characters but Stocke's one-faced, vague presentation was most likely intentional. That's why I'm not really sure if Perfect Chronology truly understood the original or makes it justice with its somewhat shallow, seemingly near-sighted additions. That being said Stocke in particular has still very limited range of reactions in the 3DS-version and uses mostly his default face. You can turn voice acting off and buy the original, limited portrait art as a DLC (you shouldn't be forced to pay though) so there's always an option to make things the way you like. You can even turn the Atlus-remake-brand "New Girl" off by selecting "Standard History". So I'm not really complaining either. Just pondering if Perfect Chronology was something Radiant Historia needed. The reasoning behind common remake-additions, the value of DS-version and its decisions and limitations... and how they could be understood, intentional or not.

[@heribertoesquivel7500]

I know this is an old comment, but considering the people behind perfect chronology is still mostly the same as og radiant historia, yes... they wanted all of this from the start, if I remember correctly, long haired Eruca is already in concept art, and Hirata himself (director) said he liked that version the best. this is not the same case like Strange Journey Redux were a bunch of new people changed a bunch of things to appeal to anime fans (they even added some time travel BS and a ridiculous relationship between Lucifer and the protagonist... it''s just bad). I understand not liking the art, but I do think it is a disservice to call (at least in this specific case) it a bad change just because you're personally tired of a certain style. I myself just take it as whatever, some characters look better, some worse (forget Eruca, she's ok... Raynie though... why...) and since the thing I like the most is the actual story, I say it is a good remaster, even the new "mystery girl" and her story isn't bad. The same developers also worked on Devil Survivor 2 Record Breaker and that is actually one of the best, if not the best remaster, Atlus has ever done it is a case by case thing, I do consider very disingenuous just to call all the Atlus remasters bad and call it a day. Sure, things like golden or Redux are utter trash, but Perfect Chronology, overclocked and Record Breaker get a lot flak due to misconceptions that aren't even faults of the games themselves.

[@Krenny]

First off, I love this podcast and hearing Matt's insight to all these topics. Just as much I love reading everyone's thoughts in these comments. So many of these very well thought out and it's obvious Matt has managed to surround himself with a very unique and caring fanbase. I love it. Second I'd like to know what Matt actually disliked about the SotC PS4 Version. I've only ever played the PS3 HD remaster and thought it was fine and seemed to adhere to the original artstyle pretty closely. Is it just the artstyle? Is it the different controls? I'd really like to hear. Third I think these days a lot of games actually pay mostly for the development and support of ongoing games by the sale of microtansactions. Games like CS:GO, Rocket League, Path of Exile and recently Deep Rock Galactic have managed to have years worth of free content solely financed through optional purchases. With only a single small or even zero upfront cost for the initial game. I don't think a lot of these devs could pay for their staff any other way. This doesn't excuse bad practice in a lot of Microtansactions though. I'm personally fully against loot boxes, especially when they are the sole source of an item. At least give me the choice to buy the item I want instead. Additionally I think a lot of cosmetics are far overpriced. No skin is worth more than 20€ and even that I think is too much. 10€ for a single (very significant) cosmetic should be an upper limit IMO. I love Realm of the Mad God (even though mostly because there is no better alternative currently), but 25€ for a single skin of a dozen pixels is more than just ridiculous. Finally I don't know much about animation, but I can imagine that neural networks are already used in animation. Especially 3D and physics I can imagine being done with them. Stuff like cloth and water physics generally have a 'correct' way to be (as opposed to music or artstyle) and I can imagine neural networks helping reduce computing time and resources in these areas.

[@UndeadKing6th]

Question for next video: do you think it's better to wait a couple of months to make sure you will like the game?

[@YARGGG_GG]

49:01 iClone is kind of a program with preset animations that you can combine

[@perguto]

still waiting bro...

[@thehza2592]

The talk about neural networks creating content reminded me of that one Mike Patton (the singer from Faith No More) interview, where he (jokingly) said: "the worst thing about music is that human beings are the ones who have to make it"

[@TheRoarer]

More profanity = More I can tell Matthew cares. Love it.

[@Sylar304]

Hey, I'd love to listen to your podcasts but youtube is horrible for this. If this doesn't bother you can you upload them to soundcloud or something like that please.

[@L33PL4Y]

Why is youtube horrible for it?

[@anycomb814]

One reason, i cant listen to it in the background on mobile

[@TheGamingNobility]

I am glad you pointed this podcast out because I haven’t watched your stuff in a while! Glad to see you have another one planned and the next topics sound very interesting. I was wondering if you would ever appear on the Co-Optional Podcast with TotalBiscuit? I don’t listen to that podcast that often, only when a guest speaker is I am interested in is on there like Joseph Anderson or Super Bunnyhop. It would be great to see you there as I found out about you from the Arbitrary Awards that Totalbiscuit did a couple years ago. Besides that, love the recent work you have done! EDIT: Side note, I don’t mind these shorter podcasts as they are much easier to go through. So don’t force yourself to go for upwards of two or more hours!

[@barbiturate76]

16:45 "If I saw that in real life, I would be *put off* by it"

[@tommero6584]

Henry Settle he'll be like "nah it's not my thing"

[@somedude2748]

Dublin rent wasn't doing you justice? Understandable honestly.

[@matthewmatosisextra]

Apparently it's more expensive than New York now.

[@somedude2748]

Matthewmatosis Extra Met a lad from New York who said the exact same thing, it's really unacceptable.

[@Azroix]

Just binged the entirety "The Matthewmatosis Untitled Podcast" and I feel like I got 12hrs worth of content while only spending 5. Great value for the time investment! 10/10 In regards to remakes, one of my favorite is Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X for the PSP. I'm a huge MM fan and I really felt the remake faithfully recreated the gameplay of the original while upgrading the visual and audio style, expanding the narrative and world of MM as well as offering a second mode to explore the side of another character. All-around a fantastic remake.

[@monopolyjohnson2371]

Matthew, regarding algorithmically generated music, English post-rock band 65daysofstatic have been touring just that. Their ideas for it came about when they were making the music for No Man's Sky. Obviously they're still playing instruments over it to some degree but it might be worth checking out.

[@scrustle]

On the games as service/server costs thing, one thing that always annoyed me about that is how so many games use peer-to-peer for gameplay. They still generally have a centralised server for matchmaking or keeping track of certain things, but actually running the game itself is still often done locally in a lot of games. Not just rendering. Dedicated servers are the exception these days. So we end up getting the worst of both worlds. A hybrid system that means we need the publishers' servers to play, will charge you for the privilege, and will eventually shut down one day making the game unplayable. While also having the inconsistent and poor tick rates/ping of a peer-to-peer system. They take the absolute most from the customer, and give the absolute least back. They could at the very least, when they shut down the central matchmaking servers for a game, leave in some kind of server browser for players to use themselves. Some features would be gone, but the core features of actually being able to play the damn game would still be easily possible, if publishers would just allow it.

[@stolensentience]

On grinding: what do you think of fighting games where you “grind” difficult combos? This goes for just about anything that takes skill. Grinding shots in bball. Grinding reps in weightlifting. Grinding guitar scales, etc. I feel like we should define grinding a little better for the discussion to have any merit.

[@seangdovic4967]

59:58 All games provide an experience that the designer wants to realize. The designer should choose a game’s mechanics based on the experience that he/she wants to create.

[@joebailey8294]

I felt the same way about the SotC remake before I played it. But it really came into its own as I played it more and the differences started to bother me less and less. Things like the lighting and rocky mountains still annoy me but a lot of the added effects lend to the feeling of scale and a lot of the mysterious atmosphere wasn’t as lost as some of the trailers and comparisons led me to believe. This is just to say that I didn’t leave feeling like Bluepoint had horribly tarnished the game. This is just my opinion though and I still prefer the original.

[@Vmac1394]

I would argue that grinding isn't bad if the game is about grinding and the player knows it. Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley are games that are little more than grinding if you break them down to their components. An example of gameplay looks like this: Your character wakes up, you go to the barn, get all the mayo and cheese out of your machines, pet your chickens and cows, pick up all the eggs and milk the cows, put the milk in the cheese makers and the eggs in the mayonnaise machine for tomorrow, pick any crops that are fully grown, replant them, and then go to town and sell all the stuff you harvested. You do this over and over and over but it's a satisfying experience that people enjoy. I think the difference between a Stardew Valley and say Star Wars Battlefront is that Stardew Valley is honest about what it is, the game is advertised as a relaxing game where you live the daily life of a farmer whereas Star Wars Battlefront advertises that you're going to be a jedi mowing plebs down but you need to grind endlessly to unlock even the ability to do that.

[@PyrodynamicGuy]

Just finished and have a couple things I want to mention. You are right in saying that server code is very similar to how it was in the quake era and is cheaper to run, however the majority of server cost is in renting a physical location for the server and paying a specialist to maintain them. You also brought up gambling and said that people have a choice to spend or not spend money which is a common misconception. Gambling addiction is much like a physical addiction to a drug but isn't treated anywhere near the same, which makes it all the more sinister. Finally I just want to bring up the idea of grinding in games used to force a player to practice some component of the game. If in a first person shooter each player had to grind an easier fight to reach a certain level before they could take on the real meat of a game that player would probably have a much better time when they finally do reach that point. Looking forward to your spacechem review.

[@wuwei473]

Well there goes my entire day.

[@davidgeorja]

great icon ;D

[@wuwei473]

David Borja thanks fam

[@CrisisKidd]

Hey Matt not sure if you’ll see this or not, but any chance we’ll see a Dark Souls 3 critique? In your lost soul arts video you said a little about the game comparing it to Demon Souls, and it got me hyped because I live for this sort of stuff. Love all your content, but your long, in-depth critiques are my favorites.

[@Bromirez]

the only reason why I wouldn't play the original shadow of the colossus over the remake is because it's slightly less accessible and runs at like 15fps or something, which is hard for me to ignore.

[@jerm5466]

Give us the 4th entry

[@TamingofSpyro]

About the Silent HIll answer - I feel like making a mechanic feel bad so that the player isn't incentivized to do it, but making it just good enough so it's not a chore, is impossible because game's controls inherently feel dated the further back we go. So Ico being played in the context of its release and today are very different, and how combat felt back then doesn't feel like it does for us now.

[@VodkaVodoka]

There's two notes about grinding that both relate to my experience with Nier Automata. Firstly, actual level grinding. While I was going through the game, I barely fought against random enemies while moving through the map, but did almost all of the side quests that came up. Even this left me completely overpowered against the bosses near end of the game, and removed all of the challenge. But then at the post-game, extra bosses killed me in like two hits and I could barely deal any damage to them. No matter how well I dodged, I'd screw up at some point. I really liked this game though, and wanted to see all the content. But since I had done all of the side-quests, there really wasn't sensible way to gain significantly more EXP. So I had to grind. Thankfully the game had rare enemy that gave insane amount of EXP and there was way force a spawn for them. But doing the whole thing was so quick and easy that you could get to level 99 in matter of minutes, and I soon found out that all the extra bosses were absolutely trivial at that level, even on Hard. So yeah, maybe I was a scrub for not taking on the hard bosses totally underleveled, but it got me thinking. If player is going to have to grind anyway, how should they know when to stop if they still want the game to pose a decent challenge? Maybe the easiest answer is that designers should make the superbosses require max level for player to stand a chance, if the level the game is normally finished with isn't going to be sufficient anyway. Secondly, material grinding. At the endgame when I had cleared all other content and was getting ready to fight the superbosses, I had to gather materials to upgrade all the weapons to max rank, since that's what you do in these games. I think the experience of having to figure out the most efficient material grinding spot was kinda fun, at least. Though I might have had more fun if I could've just bought the materials(at the end you have plenty of leftover money anyway) and gotten the upgrading out of the way in no time at all. Just something I thought about after listening to that part. While in multiplayer games grinding is often just something tied to the infinite progression, in single-player games if grinding is a thing, players will regularly try to come up with most effective ways to do it. Metal Slimes in Dragon Quest, confusing enemies for money in Persona 5... Sure, doing this stuff is repetive, but often there is a specific endgoal in mind, and without abusing mechanics like this it would take much longer to attain that goal, often through similarly dull methods.

[@wasumyon6147]

I remember in the early days of Ragnarok Online, there was a lot of fun strategies you could figure out to grind. I went in to Glastheim with a Priest I met way underleveled to kite undead creatures while the priest set down holy traps to do some power leveling. After a certain level we'd try to come up with different ways to game the system. Nowadays that kind of fun is lost with everything being datamined or locked behind the games mechanics itself.

[@eudaemon4931]

One thing I wanna day in defense of remakes: If there wasn’t a Shadow of the Colossus remake for the PS4, I wouldn’t be able to play it. I don’t know what changes were made to the remake that you don’t like, but it gave me the chance to play SotC and fall in love with it. If one day I got a PS2, I might consider hunting down the original, but as it is, I got a PS4 as a gift and I intend to milk it for all its worth.

[@eudaemon4931]

This doesn’t necessarily contradict your frustration with a lot of actually existing remakes, but I still appreciate that remakes can give owners of newer consoles the chance to play older games, assuming the remake doesn’t botch the game. I can also say that I’m able to play the two good Kingdom Hearts games because they released the remasters in a bundle disc for PS4.

[@tyler-xo3rb]

So the PS4 you were given is the only console you have and you spend no money? Unless you're in an extremely rare situation financially etc., You're choosing to not have a PS2 and a copy of the game. And as an aside, SOTC isn't rare, and you wouldn't have to "hunt" for it.

[@eudaemon4931]

drbansquatch Buying a new console isn’t really in my budget, no. And I didn’t mean to imply the original SotC was rare.

[@nicmanza4657]

@@eudaemon4931 i'm in the same situation, difference is I really wish the original (ps3 version) was also re-released on ps4

[@JakeDeeJake]

One of the reasons Kingdom Hearts is my favorite RPG series of all time, is that they are all designed to be beaten at level 1. Levels are merely there for people who don't want to learn the fight or utilize all of your mechanics. Well 2 Final Mix is anyway, dont wanna give to much credit to 1 or the handheld games.

[@uknownada]

So basically it's your favorite RPG series because of one game doing something well while literally every other game in the series didn't do it well.

[@TheToodinho]

Sorry but you're factually incorrect, there are fights in KH2 that are literally impossible to beat unless you're a certain lvl so the game certainly wasnt designed with that intent in fact you cant even play the game that way even if you wanted to, KH levelling is also particularly important because it locks skills behind it, several games when you lvl up only your stats go up but in KH many vital skills are also made available. Dark souls is a better example of what you said because you can actually play the whole game at lvl 1 and since levelling only increases your stats you can do pretty much everything in lvl 1 as you can at lvl 100(barrying magic and weapons with stat requirement) in comparison if Dark souls followed the KH formula of levelling, rolling or parrying would be locked until you reached a certain lvl.

[@uknownada]

TheToodinho No it isn't, dude. There's been lots of people who beat KH2 at level one. There's literally an ability to ensure you never get experience. KH2's combat system is easy to learn but just intuitive enough that you can utilize any and all abilities effectively.

[@JakeDeeJake]

Sorry, but you're factually incorrect. If you play the game (KH2FM) on critical you get an ability called "0 exp" in the beginning. Allowing you to go through the game gaining no EXP. It's a fun mode you should try it. Or look up a speedrun which ever. All data org speedruns tend to be at level 1 since it's not much a challenge otherwise. There's one in KH1FM on proud too. You can look up people beating Sephiroth at level 1 in both games if you want. 2FM is better designed since you don't get EXP from bosses anyway, but bonuses. You get scan from defeating Axel (1st time) and so on. Those bonus abilities (along with growth abilities since forms dont level up traditionally either) help a lot to still make you feel like you grow without leveling up. Lingering Will on level 1 (meaning no second chance or once more) is insane but very satisfying.

[@JakeDeeJake]

One of the reasons. Being able to beat any boss at any level is more what I meant. For example my playthoughs of KH1 nowadays tend to finish with a much lower level than my first couple.

[@bigscheesy4982]

Really good stuff, ive watched your essays before but just found this podcast series, you have a very interesting way of thinking about things seemingly coming from a place of passion that is realized as immense curiosity and a drive to think more and appreciate more. On the question about violent videogames i feel like i have an idea, although founded on zero evidence or expertise, about why videogames don't make people desensitized to violence. Games are pretty good at displaying violence in most aspects but in most scenarios do not excel in empathy. Specifically most instances of grotesque or heinous acts of violence committed by the player are not on anything most people could consider empathetic. Not to say things in games cannot elicit real emotional response, but the necessary components to for most people are not their. For example when a game has a focus on character writing and really getting you attached, anything that happens to the character you feel partially attached to positive or negative, so the game has depicted them, their world, and your interaction with it, with the right stuff to get you to care. I believe what separates real violence with video game violence is being able to empathize with a real person and not a fictional one because the real person exists, and is just like you. I think that a game could be good enough at depicting a real dynamic person who looks capable of suffering and desperation enough to make it wholly impossible to stomach harming, and in turn engaging in may make you desensitized to witnessing real violence, but i don't think a game like that exists, and a person able to play it and feel indifferent might already be pretty desensitized.

[@BeeChomper]

13:58 I think excessive physical competition can lead to more aggressive behavior generally. Video games can have a competitive element and I would argue games that require precise twitch reflex reactions (not just fast typing) have the required physical element. In perspective though its really minor when you consider the raft of other life experiences that fall under the category of physical competition.

[@MAYOFORCE]

The question involving grinding in video games kinda made me thinking about Final Fantasy VIII. In that game, your stats are determined by what magic you junction to it, and magic can be stacked in copies like ammunition. There are many tricks you can do to increase your stats to absurd levels near the beginning of the game and coast through the story to the end, and the bosses near the end of the game have a near perfect level of challenge for what a typical player would have at that point. Essentially, players who don't know about the game would probably spend their time drawing weaker magics from enemies as the game goes on at a slow pace, while those who explore all the systems of the games are rewarded with higher stats and much faster progression through the story. Despite the game feeling like an all or nothing affair when it comes to exploiting the game's mechanics, I felt like they came up with the blueprint of a perfect anti-grinding solution. If you're reading this Matthew, I highly recommend you give this game a shot if you hadn't already.

[@lorhus8439]

I've got something interesting : When I heard that question about neural networks, I instantly thought of using them for something completely different from what you said, oddly enough. I thought of maybe using machine learning to have the AI in a game modify its own behavior in order to find new interesting ways to, maybe, confront the player if it plays as their opponent for example. Like imagine if the enemies in a game tried to modify their patterns by using metrics like when they managed to hit you or kill you, and when they've been killed or something. I know a little bit about heuristics and algorithms, but maybe I'm overlooking some points that make my idea implausible, I don't know. Any thoughts?

[@TheGamingNobility]

I have been thinking about the loot box controversy with “it’s just cosmetics” a lot really. And one thing brought up was interesting about being able to discern different characters fast and easily. But one example that turned me off really fast from a game was Black Desert Online. That game is where cosmetics thrive and I believe it’s because of the Asian market origins. Armours in-game change your appearance slightly (from what I remember after about 30 or so hours of gameplay), and when I found out that the really cool-looking armours that people had we’re actually just bought for. This was actually strong enough to fully discourage me from playing the game. It had no inherent advantage gameplay-wise, but to see that I had to chalk up some cash to see myself “look” drastically different killed my interest in a way that surprised me. And that’s just the interesting thing about looking different and separating yourself from others. I would go more into it, but I just wanted to leave it that these cosmetics do carry a certain value to them even if they are posed to have no effect on gameplay. That’s coming from a person who generally does not care much for them in games like Overwatch (where I can easily discern different opponents due to how much time I’ve spent into the game and knowing every character per se). But in games like Rainbow Six Siege, a game where I’ve put equal amount of time and interest into, most of the cosmetics break the theme of the game. Playing as an FBI operative next to a Spestnaz soldier is not the likeliest of situations (looked past because it’s about an international counter-terrorist group), but it is even worse when you wearing some random hat and funny skins or such. Anyways, the cosmetic and loot box controversy is definitely something to consider going forward because it is not going to go away anytime soon. It was actually pretty funny to see loot boxes in an anime and hear characters go, “Wow, the loot boxes this time look really good!” That really made me cringe because I don’t know anyone who actually likes the idea of loot boxes.

[@River_StGrey]

Did you ever do any more of these that I could find elsewhere? I really appreciate your approach as a critic, and feel like I'm learning a lot about critical analysis in game design from hearing these, even where I disagree.

[@McRiddles1]

Are you planning to get this on podcast services? I used Pocket Casts on Android and I'd love to get it the same place as all my usuals.

[@matthewmatosisextra]

If I find a hosting site I'm happy with I'll put it up, it's just here for now though.

[@McRiddles1]

Matthewmatosis Extra I love you Matt.

[@nyanfish1]

Hey, it would be really great if you could upload this to soundcloud too! Thanks alot for the content man.

[@roberttausig9170]

I'm following, watching and agreeing with your videos and the points you make in them for years; sometimes I'm surprised how similiar our thoughts on things are, or how easiliy I can follow your train of thought when initially confronted with them. But I find your position on the Shadow Of The Colossus remake hideboundly. It is not fair judging it without playing it; and your attitude surprises me as narrow-minded and too puristic. The comparisons you saw may very well not do the game justice. That does not mean you have to like the SotC remake, but as what it is; a faithful reimagining of the original game, it is a stupendous success. You made good points on the New&Tasty remake, when changes undermine the original vision and themes, or are detrimental to the gameplay, they should be called out. But it is phenomenal how close they stayed to the vision of SotC, so much so that speedruns and exploits therein are shared in a big part between the two versions. I'm sorry Matt, you are wrong on this one. Hearts, Robert.

[@moomoomang]

The conclusion is the best lol

[@Suiki1]

I know you don't like grinding in games, but what do you think of games that are built around it and are free to play to start with? For example, Warframe. I think that game does it really well, due to how fun the game itself it is to play.

[@budspudsy436]

I wonder how much Matthew's perspective on grinding would be altered or reinforced if he had put a good amount time in Monster Hunter World beforehand. A system where the core gameplay loop revolves around you mastering the combat system of your weapon type in order to grind for materials as efficiently as possible, which in turn allows you to make stronger weapons and armor, in order to fight stronger monsters, which have higher chances of dropping rare materials. The appeal of grinding for me is mostly as an excuse to sink more time into games that I enjoy, and It's a system I sunk about 140 hours into (as my first MonHun game) before I got bored of the repetition.

[@wonderguardstalker]

I don’t know why you assume World is the first game that revolves around this

[@Kirobsi]

This is a tad late :) and i have little reason to mention this, but on the topic of good remakes, La-Mulana's is utterly fantastic. The controls were improved dramatically, a few areas were effectively changed entirely (for the better, I'd say) and the music/visual improvements were phenomenal. It was made by the exact same team who made the original and it's such an insane leap in quality. I played the original after putting at least like 400 hours into the remake, and it made me appreciate it so much more. It was already my favourite game too. It also objectively (factually) has the best 2D platformer controls I've encountered. They feel very nuanced and satisfying once you get adept at them, even if they're unwieldy for newcomers. Though I'm probably alone in that, unfortunately

[@gabemewell3643]

Can someone please tell me why someone thinks the PS4 version of SotC is worse than the PS2? I saw some comparison images and the only thing that I can see is that the Colossi have much more noticeable fur in the remake.

[@Felicificity]

Atmospherically the biggest issue is the extremely lush vegetation and small animal life added to the environments to make them more traditionally “pretty” without thought to how the quiet and barren environments in the original contributed to the moment-to-moment feeling of emptiness and isolation in the Forbidden Lands. It was the essence of the game around which a lot revolves, including both the player’s attachment to Agro as one of the very few living things you could call a companion on this journey, as well as the rising excitement at fighting colossi after long expanses of silent empty landscapes.

[@L33PL4Y]

That "bleached, blurry" aesthetic you're referring to is a filter they put over the game's visuals to make it feel more dreamlike and surreal. The remake feels more real and literal, which undermines the way the game was supposed to feel. The filter was put in for a reason.

[@tyler-xo3rb]

It literally looks completely different in nearly every way. You're just one of those people that say they can't see the difference between a PC game on Ultra/144hz and a console game running at 30fps with shit visuals.

[@leafbladie]

Hey Matthew, in regards to your question about gambling and lootboxes, Matthew Oatrick made a good video explaining about how lootboxes best resembles baseball cards rather than gambling. He also talked about how a lot of discussion about whether or not lootboxes are gambling or not resembles past rhetoric involving baseball cards and if they were gambling. I thought you might find this interesting.

[@wonderguardstalker]

I’d say comparing lootboxes to trading cards doesn’t do either much favor

[@JeY_k]

OW is kind of a bad example for explaining server costs; they're continuously developing the game with patches, maps, characters, game modes, and _new_ cosmetics for no additional cost to owners of the game. Many games with a games-as-service model are continuously developing. Little of the money is going to actually hosting the server.

[@JeY_k]

you're correct that hosting the servers is bogus as the only reason for costs.

[@TheLetterH111]

The thing about remakes (especially on consoles) is that theyre often the only way modern audiences will be able to play older games released for hardware that will never be manufactured again, short of emulating (which casual audiences won’t do). I think it’s a perfectly reasonable way of preserving old games, even if nothing is changed or fixed beyond some textures and lighting.

[@lpsp442]

The thing about going after the publisher with your wallet thing is that it can backfire very horribly if the publisher is ruthless - and as we have seen lately, publishers can be very ruthless. All the publisher has to do is dumb down the product for a market or consumer base that's less critical or demanding, picky, discriminating, however you want to put it, and boom, they get their sales just fine, often even *more* than they had before. The original developers and their product get shafted in the face of sales. Knowing this leads to the conclusion that the problem is much deeper than voting with money, which is the overinflation of sales-motivated figures and establishments in video gaming at all. Put simply, the sales and publishing divisions of the modern gaming industry, and most other entertainment giants for that matter, are tumours on the core games development. They are vastly overgrown and have usurped power over how the games themselves are made from the people who actually want to make good games. This is an injustice, and one that has occurred independently to games development outfits over and over again. Games developers seem to have a huge vulnerability, in a nutshell, for slowly getting taken over and exploited by publishers and sales divisions, and this is the root issue that must be addressed in the industry. Games developers are going to have to get smart in order to survive in the industry without seeing their games lobotomised.

[@alanritchie7850]

On replacing shooting in games, how about having parts in a shooter where other in-depth mechanics are used instead. It would be more a hybrid game. I feel this could remove combat scenarios in some games that feel contrived.

[@pinkfloyd36123]

As for the video game violence question, I always like to point out the MASSIVE difference between video game violence and real life violence. As a kid I played shooting games and GTA San Andreas especially and yet a couple years ago when I first saw that Budd Dwyer video (a guy who killed himself on camera) I was completely shocked and horrified. Not to mention I've never been a particularly violent person, so I really don't think video games have a huge effect on violence. All the people I've known who had violent personalities were all raised around actual, real life violence (whether it be in the home or the neighbourhood or wherever) and I think that's the only legit discussion to be had about the cause of violent behaviour. I could MAYBE buy into some idea of desensitization or so called "grooming" through violent media but I've just never seen any actual evidence for it, ever.

[@pinkfloyd36123]

THAT BEING SAID, I've always played other games more than shooter games and I think I could buy the idea that someone playing just shooting games constantly could be prone to more violent or at least erratic behaviour. However, I still don't think games make violent people: I think continued exposure to real life violence does, and video games can only slightly stoke the flame that's already there, so to speak.

[@retractingblinds]

another thing about running servers, renting them was a common practice. The average cost of a 24-slot server for something like a source engine game was about 15 dollars per month. If you hosted this from your own service you can only imagine it must be significantly cheaper. There is no justification for paying for games as a service, paying for servers, etc. It's part of it, but it's a very small part of it.

[@wetigaz]

This might interest you: There’s an essay by the Italian author Italo Calvino written in the 60s called “cybernetics and ghosts” which discusses machine algorithms’ ability to create literature; that machines could construct stories by combining predetermined elements of plot/setting/characters etc; and whether there is potential for a machine to get a sense of the zeitgeist of literature is in order to create something avant garde every now and again. It interested me that your and his points of view on algorithmically generated art had so much overlap, although his essay was written in the sixties about books and yours was written today about video games. I’d urge you to read it even if you don’t give a shit about books. It’s available in english translation, and if you google “cybernetics and ghosts pdf” it should be the first result. Hope you enjoy X

[@puppetmaskerr]

He's vindicated now

[@PopcornBunni]

The Hello Ladies and Gentleman Podcast :D

[@Grape-pg9iu]

in regards to neural networks, in general with “non-quantifiable” things such as music and art, one would usually give the network something to compare it to. for example if perhaps you were looking for a piece of music, you would have something in mind and would input many examples for the network to take into account, and when the program runs over and over, it gradually produces music more similar, and in turn more appealing music. I think this brings up an interesting point about plagiarism though. I saw an interesting network that was basing its music on mozart (i don’t know much about copyright but i believe it’s free to use). if you were basing your music on a more 8-bit style and you input some modern music that fits your taste, even though this technically spits out a whole new song, it was comparing it to another’s song the whole time, do you think would this be considered plagiarism?

[@ckbooks]

I'm firmly of the belief that media can and does affect us, though this is usually in a positive way. The idea of fiction being of cultural significance has been around for centuries, and many people have certain books, games, albums, or movies that they consider formative parts of who they are. Advertising, also, is an entire industry built around the idea of using media to influence behaviour. I'm very much in agreement that it would be naive to assume media can't have negatively formative effects on people if we assume the above to be true. You have to be pragmatic about these things and consider what effect they should have (if any) on the ways we currently consume media. If media can stimulate negative behaviour in some people, do we do something about it? If so, what? The answer as I see it is that any action taken to try and regulate this on the media end is likely to do much more harm than good, straying into the territory of censorship and moral arbitration. I think a far more pragmatic solution, if there needs to be one, should lie in cultivating good attitudes toward mental health and responsible media consumption on the part of our society. Ideally media should be able to express itself as freely as possible to an audience who are cognisant of the influence it can have on them.

[@mino_dev]

This video is like two months old, so I'm not sure if you're still reading the comments, but. I am an ex-F2P-mobile game developer and might be able to offer some insight on "server costs". The vast majority of the funds are not actually used for literally running the servers; in the case of the company I used to work for, I couldn't give an exact number, but it was far less than 5% of our total spending. It might vary depending on what kind of game it is (something like Overwatch probably has a higher need for more server power per player than a mobile game, simply because a certain amount of game logic is being run on the server and requires a constant connection versus occasional pings), but I would be surprised if that figure was particularly high at all. The vast majority of the funds goes toward developing new content (paying artists, programmers, designers etc.), live ops (game masters, customer service, IT to keep the servers running and functional), and what is typically the biggest spending point: marketing (at least it was at my company). Particularly successful games-as-service games sometimes make obscene amounts of money as well. So extra might also go towards generally improving the company(employee bonuses/benefits etc.), saving for rainy days (mobile gaming in particular is an industry of many complete failures propped up by a few overwhelming successes), shareholders and the like.

[@itsallenwow]

The next podcast sounds really interesting and right up my alley! That said, I had a couple thoughts about the remake thing. Firstly, you didn't bring up the fact that a lot of people will be playing remakes because they don't have access to the originals. For someone who was born in the year 2000, Shadow of the Colossus would mean purchasing a PS2 and then finding an original copy, something most people won't be willing to do to play an old game they haven't played before. Second, you didn't mention Nintendo remakes at all. I know you liked 3DS remakes of the N64 Zeldas quite a bit. As did I, in fact I'd say Ocarina's Iron Boots change makes the Water Temple so much more bearable that I now consider it the better of the two versions. For Majora I probably would still take the N64 version because of the way the original moon is way more terrifying, but even then it had changes I liked. One example being improving the Great Bay temple boss, and another being making the save system a little easier to grasp. All that being said I don't know whether you were drawing the line between "remake" and "remaster" in which case I wouldn't bring this up, but I doubt I'll ever play the Gamecube Wind Waker again, after how scaled back the sea is and having access to the sail and making the wind song cancel it's extra animations after the first time you play it.

[@TreuloseTomate]

What's so surprising about AlphaZero is that it not only obliterated Stockfish, the best chess engine at the time, in a 100-game match. It also came up with the common openings and gambits that humans have developed over centuries, and it displayed seemingly human-like creativity. It made material sacrifices for positional long-term gains with what grandmasters would refer to as intuition. You should watch some analyses of the released games (on channels like ChessNetwork or kingscrusher), if you can follow what's going on. Nobody really knows how AlphaZero "thinks", but for some chess enthusiasts it already has created art. It's only a matter of time until a computer can generate authentic images and sounds of any kind, including voice acting. It's all just data.

[@intheairex]

Bad reply here, but here’s my crack at the clarification on games as a service. From what I’ve seen it’s neither server costs or ongoing development costs, but rather a shift in how AAA companies make the most money for shareholders. Rather than companies making multiple games in a year with an average budget, companies prefer making a huge games every couple of years and paying the costs off with mulitple years of ongoing development and monetization. See: Rockstar and EA. It’s important to understand that while the major hits large companies are creating are becoming more and more expensive, programs like EA Originals show that companies are interested in diversifying their revenue streams. So yeah, as far as I can tell the reason for the games as a service model isn’t being used for either of the reasons you mentioned.

[@thomchiovoloni3877]

One approach you could use to train an NN to make music without requiring people to judge is to train another network to judge music by feeding it a large library of songs (good and bad) with some weight attached, and then train the song-writing network using the song-judging network. I'm not sure if this will end up having the issues around uniqueness that you discussed; it could, but it's also possible that our music is more similar than we want to admit. This is not trivial, but it should be doable (to some extent) using current technology, at least ignoring cost. That said, I think this approach wouldn't work well for lyrics. The networks you'd need to generate interesting song lyrics are likely prohibitively deep for the forseeable future. Besides, a "brain" that exists just to write music probably doesn't have anything interesting to say regardless :p.

[@Lightningrodmac]

Level design games like Mario maker is one that is surprising that hasn't sprouted as a genre

[@wonderguardstalker]

Doesn’t really work outside of something as simple as Mario. Zelda and Metroid for example are completely unnecessary and just not feasible depending o how deep you want it to be

[@tyler-xo3rb]

It's actually not surprising at all, considering the amount of people that make actually worthwhile levels is so small. Asking someone to create an engaging Mario level is a lot, whereas something like Minecraft (I think this is a fair comparison) is much more reasonable when you consider that definitely a majority of people play it as a survival game and aren't making redstone contraptions.