COLONY SHIP

[wndrbr]

God this is really clueless. People like mandy and sseth have made entire games a success. A lot of people will buy games solely because Sseth gives it a good review, and usually, stuff only ends up on his channel if it is of a certain standard anyways. Similar case for mandy. They are reviewers first, and humorists second (mandy doesn't even make jokes much either). Either way, sseth would never review this boring ass game and mandy would give it a negative rating.

Sseth is definitely a comedia first, most of his videos are barely informative - it's just an overly edited barrage of 4chan memes and edgy humor. I can see Sseth making games successful if they are good at generating funny stories that can be shown in a video, or at least good meme-wise. I don't see how he could sell a serious and a plot-focused game.

I prefer Warlockracy, BTW.

Probably the worst one. I wonder if these two actually know each other given Nesterov's (Warlockracy) political past and his gaming rebirth alongside Vince being a Ukrainian.

it was a forum admin who said he liked Warlockracy, not Vince.

[Nammu Archag]

Splattercat did a video on colon shit and it got a decent number of views(~156k), but the truth is it's just not for his userbase. ITS makes CYOA, need to find someone who is popular with disco communism fans.

mandalores latest video on some expansion for a 10-20 year old game got 5 times that within a week. His RPGs videos often reach 1-2 million. And these are actual reviews, which lead to more actual sales than just 30 minutes of gameplay with splatts obnoxious voice over it. Marketing is largely a numbers game, and being optimistic a splatt video would generate how many sales per 10k views? a handful to a couple dozen maybe.

[rusty_shackleford]

vince and co should have just made a fantasy turn based rpg. i would've been much more interested in that and i bet money most other people as well.

colony ship setting is something that is like, "hey that sounds interesting", but nobody actually wants to play anything like it. Complete snooze-fest in execution and then the whole frog thing, wtf when I saw the frog obsession i knew the game was crap.

The game just isn't interesting, I think ATOM team could have made a game from the same design document and been much more successful.

Contrast marketing materials:



Trudograd has one screenshot similar to dialogue(a CYOA section, which was heavily panned) near the end. Colon shit puts it front and center.
Trudograd shows off its environments & setting, character sheet. Colon shit shows off… more dialogue. Colon shit puts the combat screenshots near the end, and they're almost inscrutable.
Compare & contrast:



Trudograd is easy to make out, and they show the character in power armor. Colon shit UI is a mess, screenshot has terrible lighting. And again, they stuffed this screenshot at the very end.

Both provide screenshots of the character sheet:



Again, Trudograd wins here handily, much more readable. Colon shit using a display font for UI was a terrible decision.

[rusty_shackleford]

Splattercat did a video on colon shit and it got a decent number of views(~156k), but the truth is it's just not for his userbase. ITS makes CYOA, need to find someone who is popular with disco communism fans.

mandalores latest video on some expansion for a 10-20 year old game got 5 times that within a week. His RPGs videos often reach 1-2 million. And these are actual reviews, which lead to more actual sales than just 30 minutes of gameplay with splatts obnoxious voice over it. Marketing it largely a numbers game, and being optimistic a splatt video would generate how many sales per 10k views? a handful to a couple dozen maybe.

Mandalore releases one full video every month or so, the odds of getting him to review colon shit anywhere near release is probably near zero as he likely has an entire backlog of videos he's working on. Very few of his videos are on recent releases, either. He's not the guy you'd approach to attempt to sell your game.

Sseth reviews for whoever pays him to shill games.

[rusty_shackleford]

This wraps back to my frequent harping on the lack of youtube video game reviewers btw. Most left are ~content essayists~, these are not reviewers. They are not reviewing products to sell them, they are producing content.

Mandalore is a video essayist. Splattercatgaming is a reviewer.

[rusty_shackleford]

it was a forum admin who said he liked Warlockracy

gross

[Nammu Archag]

God this is really clueless. People like mandy and sseth have made entire games a success. A lot of people will buy games solely because Sseth gives it a good review, and usually, stuff only ends up on his channel if it is of a certain standard anyways. Similar case for mandy. They are reviewers first, and humorists second (mandy doesn't even make jokes much either). Either way, sseth would never review this boring ass game and mandy would give it a negative rating.

Sseth is definitely a comedia first, most of his videos are barely informative - it's just an overly edited barrage of 4chan memes and edgy humor. I can see Sseth making games successful if they are good at generating funny stories that can be shown in a video, or at least good meme-wise. I don't see how he could sell a serious and a plot-focused game.

Humor or not tons of people, including even with shit like the might and magic games, say that they bought x game because of sseth. My generation especially buy a lot of games because of his reviews. He mostly just tells a bunch of stories of stuff that happened in his game as well as the mechanics, the humor barely even comes off as such to us. Plenty of IRLs ik bought games because of sseth, myself included.

I prefer Warlockracy, BTW.

Probably the worst one. I wonder if these two actually know each other given Nesterov's (Warlockracy) political past and his gaming rebirth alongside Vince being a Ukrainian.

it was a forum admin who said he liked Warlockracy, not Vince.

Ah my bad. Still after checking what he said my point stands. Warlock was one of the only ones to actually come through in any form and to little benefit.

[aweigh]

i don't think anything could have saved colony ship.

at least Age of decadence had the cool roman setting for people to latch onto, and ATOM is instantly recognizable in terms of aesthetic, but the colony ship thing is a complete snooze.

also i bet most 99% of people read colony ship's description and their only thought is "what's a generation ship". Then they go look inside (if they even do) and even though everything is pointing at a sci-fi RPG nothing inside the game page looks like a sci-fi rpg.

And yeah the endless dialog makes the game quite niche. You need a STRONG hook to pull people into wanting to play a visual novel or CYOA, and that's usually the setting. The last thing I want to do is read endless reams of words words words written by Vince or his Diego, though i suppose my case is specific since I am familiar with the writers. But my general feeling on endless words words words applies to any RPG.

like i said, age of decadence at least had a strong hook (roman larp). people will put up with words words words if the hook's good enough. colony ship didn't have this.

[Nammu Archag]

Mandalore is a video essayist. Splattercatgaming is a reviewer.

His average video time is like 20-30 minutes, sometimes even less, and he always gives information about how the game plays and its overall quality. For some of the games sure, but for most this is the norm.

Splattercat is just a streamer. Most of his videos are ripped straight from his weekly livestreams, and he seldom gives insight beyond the first 30 minutes of gameplay in a random fashion.

[rusty_shackleford]

Also doesn't help that it took them almost a decade to finish colon shit, whereas Trudograd was made in ~2½ years.

[Emphyrio]

i don't think anything could have saved colony ship.

at least Age of decadence had the cool roman setting for people to latch onto, and ATOM is instantly recognizable in terms of aesthetic, but the colony ship thing is a complete snooze.

also i bet most 99% of people read colony ship's description and their only thought is "what's a generation ship". Then they go look inside (if they even do) and even though everything is pointing at a sci-fi RPG nothing inside the game page looks like a sci-fi rpg.

And yeah the endless dialog makes the game quite niche. You need a STRONG hook to pull people into wanting to play a visual novel or CYOA, and that's usually the setting. The last thing I want to do is read endless reams of words words words written by Vince or his Diego, though i suppose my case is specific since I am familiar with the writers. But my general feeling on endless words words words applies to any RPG.

like i said, age of decadence at least had a strong hook (roman larp). people will put up with words words words if the hook's good enough. colony ship didn't have this.

how do you make a colony ship boring? robots, mutants, mutineers, space zombies, aliens intelligent and otherwise, escaped animals, overgrown arbory module, evil ai, event horizon, the story hooks are endless.

[rusty_shackleford]

Mandalore is a video essayist. Splattercatgaming is a reviewer.

His average video time is like 20-30 minutes, sometimes even less, and he gives always information about how the game plays and its overall quality. For some of the games sure, but for most this is the norm. Splattercat is just a streamer. Most of his videos are ripped straight from his weekly livestreams, and he seldom gives insight beyond the first 30 minutes of gameplay in a random fashion.

20-30 minutes of pre-written and recorded essay, splattercat talks while playing the game itself.

[rusty_shackleford]

i don't think anything could have saved colony ship.

at least Age of decadence had the cool roman setting for people to latch onto, and ATOM is instantly recognizable in terms of aesthetic, but the colony ship thing is a complete snooze.

also i bet most 99% of people read colony ship's description and their only thought is "what's a generation ship". Then they go look inside (if they even do) and even though everything is pointing at a sci-fi RPG nothing inside the game page looks like a sci-fi rpg.

And yeah the endless dialog makes the game quite niche. You need a STRONG hook to pull people into wanting to play a visual novel or CYOA, and that's usually the setting. The last thing I want to do is read endless reams of words words words written by Vince or his Diego, though i suppose my case is specific since I am familiar with the writers. But my general feeling on endless words words words applies to any RPG.

like i said, age of decadence at least had a strong hook (roman larp). people will put up with words words words if the hook's good enough. colony ship didn't have this.

how do you make a colony ship boring? robots, mutants, mutineers, space zombies, aliens intelligent and otherwise, escaped animals, overgrown arbory module, evil ai, event horizon, the story hooks are endless.

alright, how about
…

wait for it…

GIANT FROGS.

[Nammu Archag]

Mandalore is a video essayist. Splattercatgaming is a reviewer.

His average video time is like 20-30 minutes, sometimes even less, and he gives always information about how the game plays and its overall quality. For some of the games sure, but for most this is the norm. Splattercat is just a streamer. Most of his videos are ripped straight from his weekly livestreams, and he seldom gives insight beyond the first 30 minutes of gameplay in a random fashion.

20-30 minutes of pre-written and recorded essay, splattercat talks while playing the game itself.

What do you think a review is? It's in the name: re - view.

[wndrbr]

I don't know who splattercat is, but i usually don't watch videos of someone playing the game and commenting in real time. Videos like this may sell some simple arcade game or a shooter, but not an RPG.

[rusty_shackleford]

His average video time is like 20-30 minutes, sometimes even less, and he gives always information about how the game plays and its overall quality. For some of the games sure, but for most this is the norm. Splattercat is just a streamer. Most of his videos are ripped straight from his weekly livestreams, and he seldom gives insight beyond the first 30 minutes of gameplay in a random fashion.

20-30 minutes of pre-written and recorded essay, splattercat talks while playing the game itself.

What do you think a review is? It's in the name: re - view.

But he doesn't review the game, he comments on his playthrough and even includes sections that are spoilers because he knows most of his audience isn't buying or playing the game but watching him play it. It's closer to a short-form let's play with a recorded script.

[Tweed]

I used to review games.

[wndrbr]

If you think that recording the first 30 minutes of the game with some surface level comments such as "it runs ok" and "the graphics are good" is a proper review, then you may as well buy games based on steam userscore.

[rusty_shackleford]

I used to review games.

You made video essays.

[rusty_shackleford]

If you think that recording the first 30 minutes of the game with some surface level comments such as "it runs ok" and "the graphics are good" is a proper review, then you may as well buy games based on steam userscore.

Splattercat plays the game for a few hours then records footage of him playing it, that's enough for me(and presumably others) to get an idea of how the game plays before I pirate buy it.

[Nammu Archag]

20-30 minutes of pre-written and recorded essay, splattercat talks while playing the game itself.

What do you think a review is? It's in the name: re - view.

But he doesn't review the game, he comments on his playthrough and even includes sections that are spoilers because he knows most of his audience isn't buying or playing the game but watching him play it. It's closer to a short-form let's play with a recorded script.

Here is the format of his Darkwood review, clocking in at a little over 15 minutes in length.

00:00 - Intro
00:45 - Game Premise
2:14 - Visuals
3:56 - Gameplay Mechanics
8:46 - Music & Sound Design
10:24 - Story
11:36 - Story (SPOILERS)
14:11 - Conclusions

The bulk of this is exactly the information you would want to know when buying a game. He plays the game, then goies back, and re-views it and notes all these aspects down. The fact he has a separate section for with and without arguably just shows that people do intend to buy the game, so not sure how that means anything. Who makes a video essay with both a non-spoiler and spoiler section for the same topic?

Either way, idk how warning about spoilers or having them in makes it not a review vs Splatter who literally just does a let's play and doesn't re - view anything, he just views it live and gives his random mumblings on it or random topics.

[rusty_shackleford]

and without agubalgy

heh you made a typo so I win

[Nammu Archag]

If you think that recording the first 30 minutes of the game with some surface level comments such as "it runs ok" and "the graphics are good" is a proper review, then you may as well buy games based on steam userscore.

Splattercat plays the game for a few hours then records footage of him playing it, that's enough for me(and presumably others) to get an idea of how the game plays before I pirate buy it.

If so you will absolutely love this platform right here
https://www.twitch.tv/

[rusty_shackleford]

If you think that recording the first 30 minutes of the game with some surface level comments such as "it runs ok" and "the graphics are good" is a proper review, then you may as well buy games based on steam userscore.

Splattercat plays the game for a few hours then records footage of him playing it, that's enough for me(and presumably others) to get an idea of how the game plays before I pirate buy it.

If so you will absolutely love this platform right here
https://www.twitch.tv/

nope, I just want to skip through the video and see how it plays real quick. Ain't watching no videos of other people playing for long periods.

[Nammu Archag]

Splattercat plays the game for a few hours then records footage of him playing it, that's enough for me(and presumably others) to get an idea of how the game plays before I pirate buy it.

If so you will absolutely love this platform right here
https://www.twitch.tv/

nope, I just want to skip through the video and see how it plays real quick. Ain't watching no videos of other people playing for long periods.

Nothing is stopping you from doing just that on twitch. Again though it sounds like you just want to skim a lets play, which is fine but that isn't what a review is

[rusty_shackleford]

If so you will absolutely love this platform right here
https://www.twitch.tv/

nope, I just want to skip through the video and see how it plays real quick. Ain't watching no videos of other people playing for long periods.

Nothing is stopping you from doing just that on twitch. Again though it sounds like you just want to skim a lets play, which is fine but that isn't what a review is

I want a review of how the game plays, not a recorded video essay.

[Emphyrio]

when the screenshots on the store page are full of shit like this

► Show Spoiler

it makes me not want to play the game. I don't buy rpgs that try to sell themselves on having numbers. Show something exciting. Sell the adventure.

[rusty_shackleford]

when the screenshots on the store page are full of shit like this

► Show Spoiler

it makes me not want to play the game. I don't buy rpgs that try to sell themselves on having numbers. Show something exciting. Sell the adventure.

It's a game being marketed towards people who get off on the idea of playing a complicated game. Many such cases!

[Tweed]

If you think that recording the first 30 minutes of the game with some surface level comments such as "it runs ok" and "the graphics are good" is a proper review, then you may as well buy games based on steam userscore.

Are you accusing me of that? Because I played everything I ever covered to the end.

[Nammu Archag]

nope, I just want to skip through the video and see how it plays real quick. Ain't watching no videos of other people playing for long periods.

Nothing is stopping you from doing just that on twitch. Again though it sounds like you just want to skim a lets play, which is fine but that isn't what a review is

I want a review of how the game plays, not a recorded video essay.

Which would mean going and looking at stuff like the game's premise and aesthetic, its visuals, its gameplay mechanics and systems, its sound design, etc. Video essay itself is so vague and pejorative now that it doesn't even tell anyone what you mean beyond that you don't like it.