At 11/10/10 02:22 AM, PleaseContinue wrote: Is there anywhere I can read this instead of listening to it because I'd rather like to not waste eight minutes when my eyes work perfectly fine.

Probably not, but even if it existed, I wouldn't recommend it. He uses the actual video part of the video to illustrate points sometimes.

At 11/10/10 12:19 AM, Gustavos wrote: Volume 42: Worst Person

Alright. I think he's being a bit overdramatic. FPS is just the popular genre of the time and with new motion controls coming out FPS will certainly be picking up. He seems to be a bit biased with this, he doesn't like FPS games and that's why he's tired of seeing them, but ruining the entire industry is going a bit to far.

Yeah I'm with him, I like 2D and 3D Platformers as well, but let's go back to his day as well as the 90's. During that time platformers were the big things in gaming and you could see countless numbers of them. Why? Because characters like Mario, Mega Man, Simon Belmont, and Sonic made them popular.

Nowadays we have the First-Person Shooter Genre being popular. Why? Because of Halo and Call of Duty, those are the two main reasons why FPS are popular. Keep in mind that after Final Fantasy VII hit RPG's hit really big here in America.

The Big Picture: Combat Evolved?

Bob Chipman started a new show on the Escapist. The same site where he holds his other weekly persona of "MovieBob". Whenever he's not using his platform to talk about games, he'll be using it to talk about movies. But with the release of this new show, he'll apparently start talking about whatever the hell comes up in his mind. Narcissistic? Sure. But remember that it was Escapist that asked him to do it. I mean, I'm sure he's getting paid revenue money anyway.

The fact is, this thread is about The Game OverThinker. And I will only put up an episode of "The Big Picture" when it's about video games or video game theory. Kind of like OverThinker's...thought of the week. This week:

- we learn of his new show and what it entails.
- we hear him make connections between the story writers at Bungie and the Fascists and Neo Nazis of today (and it's reeeeally funny).
- we realize that the faces he uses in this new series will appear in our nightmares.

Episode 43: Double Trouble
Shit. Shit. SHIT! C'mon, WTF?! I really hate to act like this, but seriously. The focus has previously been on musings about a particular topic in video gaming, not on some storyline about a "Game Antithinker" or some crap. The topic of "evil twins" had potential, but I don't like the way he played this one. The Game Overthinker no more needs an evil twin than Lord of the Rings needs catgirls. Unless he's doing this to set up the next episode as a one-off satire of the "hardcore" gamer's stereotypical obsession with blood, guns, guts, violence, gray, brown, and the M rating, I don't see where he could possibly go with this and have it be a positive direction.

I won't call it a shark jump just yet. Those aren't necessarily immediately evident like this is, and I have some faith that the show will recover and have more topic-centric episodes in the future. But I'll say that it's definitely my least favorite episode thus far, and this from someone who usually enjoys when plot and continuity become more important in things.

At 12/16/10 02:47 PM, SoulMaster71 wrote: Episode 43: Double Trouble
Shit. Shit. SHIT! C'mon, WTF?!

I, on the other hand, found it to be quite entertaining. It's nice to see Overthinker more as a character than a voice speaking behind a slideshow. And the scriptwork of AntiThinker? Beautiful. Simply...tits.

It sounds more like that this will be a new show on Screwattack, but that's strange, because he just came up with another new show, The Big Picture (which still does not have its own page like his other platforms so I'll link this page). I would also support the idea of a plot featuring OverThinker as the conscientiously objecting hero he is, trying to stop a doppelganging evil demigod of another universe. Maybe make a whole movie out of it.

I don't know which idea sounds more appealing.

At 12/16/10 11:34 PM, Gustavos wrote: I, on the other hand, found it to be quite entertaining. It's nice to see Overthinker more as a character than a voice speaking behind a slideshow.

Wasn't his series supposed to get people thinking about games in a broader sense? Such a drastic jump from "Bob the Overthinker, commentator" to "Bob the Overthinker, character" distracts from that stated purpose. Maybe this is just the Generation 3 of episodes (referring again to Pokémon), and in a few months maybe he'll do right what I think he did wrong here and maybe I'll learn to like this episode, but at this point I don't see him doing anything with this that I would enjoy, at least not the way I've liked his show so far. I have faith in him, though: whether this works out or not, he'll eventually (probably) get back to the more topic-oriented episodes I enjoy.

It sounds more like that this will be a new show on Screwattack, but that's strange, because he just came up with another new show, The Big Picture (which still does not have its own page like his other platforms so I'll link this page). I would also support the idea of a plot featuring OverThinker as the conscientiously objecting hero he is, trying to stop a doppelganging evil demigod of another universe. Maybe make a whole movie out of it.

I don't know which idea sounds more appealing.

Personally? I still like my idea best, that it would be a one-off for his January 2011 episode, MAYBE resolved with a "Return of Overthinker" in February if he can't fit it in January, and never brought up again. A separate series wouldn't be so bad, but the novelty might get old: how many ways, exactly, can he parody his least favorite varieties of hardcore gamers? Possibly, at the most, he could have Antithinker be a sort of "counterpoint" on occasion when he discusses a hot topic about hardcore gaming. For example, if he were to redo his defense of Kinect, he could have Antithinker be his "opponent" debating how Kinect is a piece of shit that doesn't deserve to exist. I wouldn't want an Overthinker movie about it, or too much focus on the Antithinker as an enemy period, because it distracts from the topic at hand.

The GameAnti-Thinker Episode 1

The OverThinker really is gone, and in his place, his evil twin takes the stage to give us the history of video games, starting from the beginning. As the Overthinker's COMPLETE opposite, this plays out exactly how you'd think it would. He strays off topic more often than he stays on, and indulges himself in voicing his distrust for "cartoony shit games", anime and manga, war games set in the past that do not have the best guns, nerds, and his overall love for Madden and Scarface.

I have to give him props for all the research he did though. I didn't know how all the dinosaurs and dragons died, or about the war between Ninjas and Samurai in Japan. Totally blew my mind.

So, these spinoffs clearly do not fit into the Over Thinker series. But it seems we're going to continue hanging with the Anti-thinker for a while until Bob comes back and retakes his throne. Until then, we may not have any more standard videos (volumes). At least he left us with something that intellectuals and nerds alike can laugh at.

At 1/4/11 09:02 PM, Gustavos wrote: The GameAnti-Thinker Episode 1
At least he left us with something that intellectuals and nerds alike can laugh at.

Oh please. If I wanted a shoddy attempt at humor I'd go watch ScrewAttack try and do news.

Game Antithinker Ep2: Mega Man
I'd have to say this one was funnier than the last one, but not by much and I still don't consider these satirical episodes to be quite the equal of a regular Overthinker show. The last one seemed too disjointed, as Antithinker was trying to put something like 35 years of history into a few minutes while also establishing himself as a stupid, hateful satire of the worst excesses of hardcore gaming. I couldn't easily put 35 years of history into the rest of this post, not that I'd try, without it feeling disjointed. This time, he mostly stayed on a single topic: why he thinks robots suck. And why he thinks Japan and nerds suck. He also took on the whole idea of "retraux", games that pretend to be retro even though they're not. Naturally, since the Overthinker likes that kind of game, the Antithinker hates it.

Overthinker returns at the end of the next episode. Meaning that this will all be over soon, thank God. It's gone on too long already, and there's at least a few ideas (more serious looks at the media origins of different game characters, in particular) that I'd like to see get proper Overthinker episodes.

Lol, wut?

I might be breaking the flow of the current conversation.

Just wanted to say, I watched the Game OverThinker episode about Kirby, and I subscribed as soon as it finished. Gustavos, this is a fine find.

At 1/17/11 07:43 PM, JonBro wrote: I might be breaking the flow of the current conversation.

Just wanted to say, I watched the Game OverThinker episode about Kirby, and I subscribed as soon as it finished. Gustavos, this is a fine find.

I saw your username, remembered who you were right off the bat, and got a bonar during that last sentence.

I never really liked MovieBob, he has his ups and downs but mostly downs.

He chastises video game players and insults his viewers a lot in his shows and acts as if he is above everyone else and tells us the same useless bullshit and tells us the world isn't perfect etc. He's a smug fucking dickbag and he's really biased too and thinks he's the 'voice of our generation'.

Also his hatred of the Expendables and the bad review he gave it was fucking retarded.

At 1/18/11 06:59 AM, FurryDemon wrote: I never really liked MovieBob, he has his ups and downs but mostly downs.

He chastises video game players and insults his viewers a lot in his shows

Insult is going a bit far, but on every lecture aimed at gamers of any kind, OverThinker always took care to apoligize for what he was about to say, or at least put himself in their shoes and thought processes for a moment. The truth is, there's no nice way to tell somebody they're being biased, unfair, stubborn, or short-sighted. Of course his opinion of others are just that, opinions. Thankfully, most of his episodes (except perhaps the recent ones) deal with games, not the people who play them.

and acts as if he is above everyone else

Negative. Example.

and tells us the same useless bullshit and tells us the world isn't perfect etc.

Only before telling us how things can be better

He's a smug fucking dickbag

Negative. Example.

and he's really biased too and thinks he's the 'voice of our generation'.

Everybody is potentially the voice of a generation. The difference with him is he shows literacy and restraint. Not everybody has those qualities when it comes to speaking their ideals.

Also his hatred of the Expendables and the bad review he gave it was fucking retarded.

I seen his review of the Expendables. When he's being a film critic, he's definitely more picky than when he is an "I'll try anything new" video game critic. I couldn't say whether I agree with him (haven't watched the movie), but he has said before (albeit, as the Over Thinker), that he wants people to either agree or disagree with him, because that would involve actually thinking about the topic.

Game Antithinker: Legend of Zelda
Now this is about as good as he can probably do with the Antithinker. Partly because Antithinker's facade of badassery shatters on contact with Zelda games, the same series that's always provided me with what I needed, whenever I needed it. Partly because the satire was kinda funny this time. And partly because the Overthinker is finally returning. At last, we'll be able to get more topic-focused episodes.

You know, I might as well go on my own little rant here, about what all Zelda games have done for me. I like to think that my transition from childhood to adolescence was the first time I beat Ganon at the end of the Oracle saga. Somewhere around that point, my character changed for reasons unknown. Perhaps it was just that I was getting older, but it somehow feels like that fight with Ganon was the "final exam" of my childhood, and by beating him I was able to grow a bit more. Fast forward about five and a half years, and I'm some loser watching pro wrestling. October 9, 2007 was a one-two punch of Newgrounds and Zelda that got me off of watching wrestling and into slightly more varied, less obsessive, and overall more intellectually engaging pursuits. Newgrounds did it largely by having a bunch of stats and something of a crusade to fight, Zelda did it by giving me something to identify with. Antithinker talked about nerds in their later years of high school who were wondering where the time went? Yeah, that nerd was me. It really was almost like I woke up one day and the 12-year-old boy was replaced with a 17-year-old on the brink of adulthood. The dude who gave me my first joint? Out of high school. His older sister had dropped out and was wasting the potential everyone thought she had. The cousin who had introduced me to video games? Married. I suddenly realized that yes, that event a month before had been his wedding, bringing his new wife into our family and changing his life, and to some extent his relationship with the rest of the family, forever. My grandmother? Dead, may her soul rest in peace. One of my best friends from elementary and middle school had transferred (but was still in the area), both of my potential love interests from 2003-2006 had dropped out and become essentially crack whores, and I had a new best friend who can semi-accurately be described as if Cloud from Final Fantasy VII was almost as ugly as I am. Everything changed what seemed like overnight, and I had been too busy watching wrestling to care. So yeah, Ocarina of Time did resonate. Majora's Mask, which I liked even better, provided supplemental development on top of that, and helped me care about people and shit. If my passage to adolescence was the day I beat Ganon for the first time, then my passage to adulthood (to what extent it can be considered to have happened at all) was a two parter: beating Ganon in OoT, and beating Majora.

To a certain extent, Antithinker seems like what Overthinker would have been had he continued on in the vein of a superficial high-school douchebag. Antithinker's comments indeed resemble a high schooler's feelings on the various "nerd" elements of video games, and on how "gay" they appear when seen from a mindset obsessed with badassery. So him showing his weaker side, the one more closely resembling our Overthinker, seemed a little familiar, kinda like my own Ocarina story. Of course, Antithinker has had an extra decade or so to become as much of a masculinity-obsessed asshole as he wanted people in his world to think he was (Overthinker being, what, 28, 29 now, me having beaten OoT at 17), so one game probably wouldn't beat that.

I wonder what Anti-SoulMaster71 would be like?

At 1/18/11 06:59 AM, FurryDemon wrote: I never really liked MovieBob, he has his ups and downs but mostly downs.

He chastises video game players and insults his viewers a lot in his shows and acts as if he is above everyone else and tells us the same useless bullshit and tells us the world isn't perfect etc. He's a smug fucking dickbag and he's really biased too and thinks he's the 'voice of our generation'.

Also his hatred of the Expendables and the bad review he gave it was fucking retarded.

Took you long enough to realize he's a self patronizing up himself douche bag with no rl social skills (advent) and is obviously anti-Christian (he can delete his earlier reviews all he fucking wants but we all know he hasn't changed his opinion and still has fucked up ideas about politics and reform and abortion etc.)

But just take his videos for what they are worth, most of them make up for his problems

Oh yeah and I think he's learnt his lesson about talking about real life stuff in his movie and game videos

At 1/25/11 12:07 AM, SoulMaster71 wrote: Game Antithinker: Legend of Zelda
And partly because the Overthinker is finally returning. At last, we'll be able to get more topic-focused episodes.

Not to get too far into what appears to be a shoddy storyline, I'd like to know how he'll do regular OverThinker episodes while in the Antiverse. I mean, he browses Screwattack via his phone, but are we just going to be seeing episodes pop in like usual until he comes back to this Antithinker business? Actually, that idea sounds tops with me. And he even gave us three sample ideas for episodes that are fresh on his mind!

When I was a young lad...(life story)

Zelda was a big find for me when I was young. But afterwards, I engaged myself with multiple more series of games that opened up my mind and capacity for creative thought. Resident Evil was my first time bravely engaging something I was very afraid of, only to realize that I had been missing out on an entire genre, survival horror. Metal Gear Solid showed me that warfare can potentially go beyond the Call of Dutys and Halos. My first Kirby game, Kirby 64, brought me out of a typical pre-high school depression state. And all thanks to the cutest smile to appear on my tv screen. Bioshock challenges the player's idea of a perfect, self sustaining society, and that the way the human race is programmed, we may never achieve it. Bioshock 2 then argued that utopia is not a place, but a people. Though the messages in the games varied on the player's actions. I see the good karma endings as the only ones with an inspiring epilogue.

All games have the potential to inspire the player or give them a new look on their life, or the world. It is because of this that the industry qualifies as art in the most basic sense. But OverThinker may have been right when he claimed video games are art, but very little of it is art worth mentioning

To a certain extent, Antithinker seems like what Overthinker would have been had he continued on in the vein of a superficial high-school douchebag. Antithinker's comments indeed resemble a high schooler's feelings on the various "nerd" elements of video games, and on how "gay" they appear when seen from a mindset obsessed with badassery. So him showing his weaker side, the one more closely resembling our Overthinker, seemed a little familiar,

I found it kind of funny the example Antithinker used. The playground he played on as a kid being taken down for apartments and such. One moviebob article revealed this story is a mirror or at least based off a real experience from when little Bobby was a kid.

If our "anti-selves" are merely embodiements of our polar opposite ideals, then it's easy to imagine what they're like. Anti-Gustavos has never confronted conflict or accepted punishment for things he had done wrong. He doesn't consider the consequences of what he says or does because that ruins the "feel good" part of doing whatever you feel like. He also has syphilis. Silly goose. But if our anti-selves are the result of us living our lives with all the choices we did not make in the real world, I have no idea who I would be. If he's the contrapositive of my life, wouldn't that mathematically mean he's just like myself but with different experiences? Is that even theoretically possible? Certainly by thinking of who our anti-selves are will help us figure out who we are ourselves.

I wonder what Anti-SoulMaster71 would be like?

Probably putting his collections of thoughts into a news post, but hey, that's speculation.

Episode 47: Farm Team
Well, he's back. Finally. We get to a nice, topic-oriented episode, and I gotta say, the normal format has been missed. While Antithinker got better in that last one, I still preferred the classic format.

In this episode, Overthinker questioned the "line" that we've drawn between casual games and hardcore games. In general, I consider this a fairly insightful episode, but it's given me a rather scary thought: Final Fantasy VII on Facebook. *shudders* Barring that one little scare, though, he makes a good point. It's only so long before we get "social media" equivalents to a lot of games that were once genre-defining masterpieces. While not "social media" in the Farmville sense, we already have the demo of Doom, ported to Flash. How long until it becomes possible to have a multiplayer FPS on Facebook? It's only on the limits of the technology, and on what Facebook game makers are willing to do. Overthinker also makes the claim that "casual" and "hardcore" are playing styles, with which I kinda agree, now that I think of it, but to a certain degree games can be considered to fall into similar categories based on whether they're meant to be played in a casual or a hardcore fashion: there's only so much you can do trying to play Farmville, only so long you can play Wii Sports before your arms tire. Similarly, there's only so far you're likely to get playing a longer game like an RPG casually before you lose interest. I recently clocked 110 hours in my first run of Disgaea DS, not counting the time I spent on the new game plus before moving onto other yet-unplayed games in my collection, not even having tried Etna Mode. What are the chances that the person whose most-played games are Farmville and Wii Fit would stick with any game that long, especially through the somewhat tedious grind-heavy sections? I wouldn't think that those chances would be high.

Now, we gotta talk the ending. Not gonna complain, he's established this storyline, but at this point it's clear that he's taking cues from Linkara. If you don't know what I'm talking about? Right here. Linkara's show, Atop the 4th Wall, can be described as the Angry Video Game Nerd does comic books, with heavily reduced swearing and a lot more regular schedule. If you don't know the AVGN, he's on ScrewAttack, look him up. AT4W ran through a storyline over the past year or so that had an evil doppelganger of the hero show up from another, somehow reversed dimension, get beaten, and then a space-related villain shows up who plays off the hero vs. doppelganger story. Even the basic style of that guy in the stinger gives off a lot of the same superficial vibes as current AT4W villain Lord Vyce. But you know what? I can't complain. Linkara is awesome beyond belief. I fucking love AT4W. And if Overthinker decides to work the plotline into his episodes as Linkara does (rather than letting plot completely overshadow the rest of the show a la Wario's Woods), I suddenly get the feeling this is gonna work out great. Overthinker clearly thinks he's good enough to copy, meaning as much as I respect Overthinker now, it has helped to increase my already great respect for Linkara.

Episode 48: The Zen Of Grind
Not really much for me to say on this one, actually. I mean, yeah, I understand the feeling of accomplishment when I see a character's stats go up, otherwise I wouldn't be discussing this on Newgrounds where a lot of what hooked me and kept me on in 2007 and 2008 was watching stats go up, and I'm kind of at a grind-heavy moment in my gaming life right now, since the last game I played (Disgaea DS) and the current game (Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey) are both big on the grinding, but I really can't think of anything much to say about it. I like level grinding, both for its reward for repetition and for its increasing the time I get out of my monetary investment in a story-driven game. And I like the comparison to meditation, since, yeah, the grind-heavy games do help me focus my mind. But there's only so many different ways I can say "I agree" before it gets boring and overused, so I have no more to say on this episode.

Volume 49: Retro A-Go-Go

The Overthinker's training is nearing completion as he meditates on the subject of Retro gaming and its effect on the industry. Meanwhile The Antithinker is revealed to be more than what he seems.

Viewers who still aren't much for the storyline will be happy to know that there is just one last episode until the show goes back to what it was months ago. This episode, however, will be the last topic-oriented episode until then. I really hope the conclusion isn't a poorly drawn out fight scene between the over thinker and himself, but rather a metaphorical battle fought with words and concepts that delve onto the subject of everybody's dark side, but that would be a hit or miss as well with most people.

The GameOver thinker is awesome, just don't look up The GameUnder think on screwattack, horrible videos...

Episode 50 debuts tonight (Monday) on screwattack.com

for better or for worse, this little story ends here.

At 4/18/11 01:50 PM, Gustavos wrote: Episode 50 debuts tonight (Monday) on screwattack.com

The YouTube video says we got another week, that it's gonna be April 25. But at least we've got a definite date for when this saga's gonna end. Can't say that I'm gonna miss it much either: you probably realize that as well as I think storyline elements worked for Linkara, I don't have quite as high an opinion on Overthinker doing them. Not that the story didn't have its moments, but I'm somewhat anxious to get back to fairly straight commentary. Of course, whoever this mastermind behind the Antithinker is, I have a feeling we'll see him again later on.

The whole story arc bugged me, but episode 49 was one of his best. Here's hoping episode 50 doesn't suck. But even if it does suck, we'll laugh it off and be able to watch 40 traditional episodes before he starts building up to the big 100.

Volume 50: War of the Thinkers

Well, that was...interesting. The fun is enough thing during the credits was referring to the Rev Rant video Fun isn't enough. In that video, the man believes that if games continue to not be relevant, artistic, or intelligent and recolor the same concepts we've had over the years, the medium won't go anywhere. How the story arc of the Game Overthinker acts as a counter point to that is what's confusing me. I'd really like to see the Overthinker make an episode and title it "Fun is Enough" just so he can explain himself. Of course, he would be talking about video games, and not wacky web shows story arcs like the one he just finished.

That's really the only topic expressed in this video, albeit indirectly. I want to know if the Game Overthinker believes the medium will be okay if it's still dominated by shooters for the next few years. We seem to have gotten over it over time. If a game really is fun, then that's all it needs to be for the player, right? And if you don't find a game entertaining for any reason, then take it back. There's plenty of titles to try out, new and old.

Oh, and the fight scene was laggy and the special effects were lame. I wasn't expecting anything awesome, but I at least wanted it to hold my interest throughout.

Volume 51: Putting the Cart before the Cloud

Yeah, really late on this one. So now Over Thinker has his own 1 minute intro for his new episodes, rather than the 3-10 second logo that's been around since near the beginning. I can't say I'm all for this altercation. Our topic at hand is how the video game cartridge came into being, and why it should make a return before all media systems run on a "cloud system" of free streaming data where communication devices download and store what they need to on the fly. The offer is interesting, and I highly doubt anybody other than Nintendo would consider, even for a moment, reverting back to cartridges. I would say that discs are here to stay, and that most people would inevitably protest the second coming of the cartridge, primarily developers. The only real upside to switching to cartridges would be potentially eliminating piracy (since his model included storing hard data of the game separate to the gamer's data), but again, we'd get a lot of protest about that too.

The worst part of episode 51 is not the intro, which is tolerable, r the topic, whick makes sense. It was how he was too lazy to find some images instead of just making us watch him read off his computer.

Episode 52: Dark Days

Game Overthinker has little comment on E3 despite this being his first episode after the event took place. He is most concerned with a new FPS title supposedly putting the player in the eyes of a member of Blackwater, a private military service both famous and infamous in recent years as a Black/White-moral contractor group during the Iraq War. He argues that playing as a member of Blackwater is different than just playing a marine in a war that actually happenned, and that it can potentially make Blackwater seem like a peac-keeping international army service, when they are indeed seen as guilty of committing war crimes. He doesn't want this game to be made because it can have amoral intentions, but because it would be another game that would give the video game industry a bad image.

This is the first time I've heard of this game. Supposedly it's an Xbox 360 title that will utilize Kinect in its gameplay. Can this game really give the industry a bad image? I mean, I didn't see a segment in the news about the level in Modern Warfare 2 where you gun down hundreds of civilians in the guise of an international terrorist.

War of the Thinkers Commentary

I'm a bit late with this one. Usually, he uploads Game OverThinker stuff on Fridays. Anyway, if you wanted to know why he wanted so bad to have a...story arc within his show, you can learn all that, and some other miscellaneous info about those episodes. It's a pretty good listen for those who didn't totally understand the point of the Antithinker saga.