Latest / Critical Error / They Need To Pay More Attention

Transcript

They Need To Pay More Attention · Critical Error

• 0:00
  Dude, the new Splatoon looks so good. I
• 0:02
  don't know. Like, what about it looks
• 0:05
  that interesting? Okay, so normally the
• 0:07
  game's multiplayer, this one
• 0:09
  single-player focused, completely
• 0:10
  different.
• 0:11
  >> Oh, so it's not multiplayer at all?
• 0:12
  Well, no, no, no. You can still play
• 0:13
  online up to four friends. You can group
• 0:16
  up, play play together online. Okay, but
• 0:18
  yeah, like that's basically the the
• 0:20
  the original games. Like, those games
• 0:21
  are also like multiplayer games.
• 0:22
  >> This one it's like in a desert. The
• 0:23
  setup is completely different.
• 0:25
  >> Jake, being in a desert doesn't change
• 0:26
  what the game is. If it if it's just the
• 0:27
  same
• 0:28
  >> Stop it. There are Salmonids that have
• 0:30
  completely
• 0:30
  >> Jake, THERE ARE SALMONIDS IN THE OTHER
• 0:31
  ONES.
• 0:31
  >> NO, IT DOESN'T MATTER.
• 0:33
  A CRITICAL error is an error which the
• 0:35
  OS cannot reasonably ignore. Jake Jake
• 0:37
  Jake Jake Jake Steinberg [music] is a
• 0:39
  streamer, writer, and certified yapper
• 0:42
  complimentary. Peter Hunt Spit Jake Jake
• 0:44
  Jake Jake Jake Jake Jake Jake Jake Jake
• 0:45
  Jake Jake is a YouTuber, journalist, and
• 0:47
  certified yapper derogatory. These are
• 0:50
  the things they cannot [music]
• 0:51
  reasonably ignore. Video game trailers.
• 0:54
  How do we talk about them? How should we
• 0:57
  talk about them? Is there a way to
• 0:59
  incisively talk about these
• 1:01
  advertisements in a way that is divested
• 1:05
  from hype and fan culture? Is it enough
• 1:08
  to see a Nintendo property that we all
• 1:12
  love and that we all know will probably
• 1:15
  result in an ultimately good video game,
• 1:18
  but still criticize the trailer? Can you
• 1:20
  review a new Mario game and say that
• 1:24
  trailer wasn't very good?
• 1:26
  It's completely separate from your
• 1:27
  assessment of the video game or are kind
• 1:31
  of criticisms and assessments of
• 1:33
  trailers simply predictions of the
• 1:36
  quality of the game? Is that all that
• 1:38
  really matters? I think today what I'm
• 1:40
  interested in is trying to kind of hone
• 1:43
  how we talk about video game trailers
• 1:45
  because I think as a as a video game
• 1:46
  culture, especially online, we are so so
• 1:49
  so invested
• 1:50
  >> it. That's the that's that's the big
• 1:52
  deal. Yeah. presentations we love,
• 1:54
  Nintendo Directs we love. Often times I
• 1:57
  think it's not an unfamiliar practice
• 1:59
  for people to like watch a Nintendo
• 2:01
  Direct and then grade it, right?
• 2:03
  >> Yeah, always, right? Yeah, that's what
• 2:04
  Twitter polls were invented for. Yeah,
• 2:07
  sure. So, [laughter] it's this funny
• 2:09
  thing where it's like, is there a way to
• 2:11
  maybe more boldly or more incisively
• 2:14
  talk about video game trailers than we
• 2:16
  do right now? And I think the reason why
• 2:18
  this episode is popping up for me at
• 2:21
  this particular moment is that yesterday
• 2:24
  there was a trailer revealed for
• 2:26
  Splatoon Raiders. And this was a game
• 2:29
  that was kind of revealed in a weird way
• 2:31
  on Nintendo Today.
• 2:32
  >> Nintendo Today, the app. What what? Like
• 2:34
  like a like a year ago and and it was
• 2:36
  like, oh, is this like a spin-off? Is
• 2:38
  this a Like, what exactly is it? There
• 2:39
  were a lot of questions surrounding what
• 2:41
  this game was. It was It felt weird that
• 2:43
  we hadn't heard about it for a long
• 2:44
  time. And then this this big trailer
• 2:46
  gets posted and I was kind of surprised
• 2:50
  at how little I learned from that
• 2:53
  trailer.
• 2:54
  >> You sent it to me and you were like,
• 2:55
  what is the game? Yeah.
• 2:57
  >> And I was like, I similarly have no
• 3:00
  idea. Like, still don't really know. And
• 3:01
  I know there's like press releases and
• 3:02
  stuff out there, but isn't it like kind
• 3:03
  of odd? And I think this is like
• 3:06
  to the point of what you're sort of
• 3:07
  talking about here, like it's odd that
• 3:09
  like you would have a trailer and
• 3:11
  require me to go find additional reading
• 3:12
  materials to discover what you were
• 3:14
  trying to show off in the trailer, you
• 3:15
  know?
• 3:16
  >> Yeah. Yeah. And I think like something
• 3:18
  that I'm attached to right now is like,
• 3:20
  is there any room for me to to say like,
• 3:23
  I think that that trailer is quite bad
• 3:26
  in what it's trying to achieve without
• 3:29
  being like, I think this game is going
• 3:31
  to be bad.
• 3:32
  >> Yeah. So, this is this is interesting
• 3:34
  because
• 3:35
  um
• 3:36
  >> [gasps]
• 3:36
  >> obviously trailers are just like fully
• 3:38
  just marketing, right? Like, that's what
• 3:39
  their existence is to do. It's to try
• 3:41
  and tell you, hey, you want to play this
• 3:43
  game. But sometimes a trailer like just
• 3:45
  fully misrepresents what a game is. And
• 3:47
  then sometimes
• 3:48
  like to what you're saying, like it
• 3:50
  could misrepresent what the game is, but
• 3:51
  then the game can still be good and it's
• 3:53
  just that the trailer did a bad job like
• 3:54
  showing you what it actually is. Um I
• 3:57
  think one of the things that you and I
• 3:58
  have talked about a lot in recent memory
• 4:00
  is like those Metroid Prime 4 trailers I
• 4:02
  think were abysmal. Like, I think they
• 4:03
  did a really bad job like showing off
• 4:05
  what that game actually is. Um I I think
• 4:08
  part of it and you know, this is the
• 4:10
  other sort of like wrinkle in this is I
• 4:12
  think that Metroid Prime 4 is just a bad
• 4:13
  game. Like, I I think that that's a game
• 4:15
  that if you told me, hey, make a trailer
• 4:16
  for this game, I'd be like,
• 4:18
  I don't even know how. Like, how do I
• 4:19
  like I got to make this look
• 4:20
  interesting? Mhm. But the game's not
• 4:22
  interesting, you know?
• 4:24
  Um
• 4:25
  yeah, I'm I'm I'm I'm
• 4:27
  the separation though between saying the
• 4:30
  trailer is bad, but I don't necessarily
• 4:31
  think the game is going to be bad is a
• 4:33
  conversation I think a lot of people
• 4:35
  just aren't interested in having because
• 4:36
  they don't think it requires a fair
• 4:37
  amount of like nuance and understanding
• 4:38
  about like what we're actually talking
• 4:39
  about here when we are discussing like
• 4:41
  criticizing a a trailer or whatever, but
• 4:43
  Sure. And I think it's almost important
• 4:45
  for us to then like
• 4:48
  it's it's one of those like you know it
• 4:49
  when you see it kind of things, but like
• 4:51
  when asked, you know, what is the point
• 4:54
  of a trailer, can we really pin that
• 4:57
  down? And then I think a separate
• 4:58
  question from that is how does the
• 5:01
  trailer kind of
• 5:03
  function as a piece of art onto itself?
• 5:05
  And I think like there is this concept
• 5:09
  of the paratext, which is so separate
• 5:12
  from the text itself, which would be the
• 5:13
  video game. And like literary people
• 5:16
  would tell you that the paratext is
• 5:18
  material that surrounds the text that
• 5:21
  shapes how we approach it before we
• 5:24
  encounter it.
• 5:25
  >> Mhm. So, I think that that kind of fits
• 5:26
  with trailers. So,
• 5:28
  the question now is what expectations
• 5:32
  are that is the trailer constructing and
• 5:34
  how is it doing that? And I think that
• 5:36
  kind of immediately frees you from is
• 5:39
  this game good and I like I don't know,
• 5:41
  did it get me excited? So, now it's
• 5:43
  like, okay, what is being framed as
• 5:45
  important, what is being withheld, and
• 5:47
  what kind of player is this trailer
• 5:49
  imagining? And I think that if you can
• 5:51
  take yourself back with me, there was a
• 5:53
  trailer for one of the Zelda games, I
• 5:55
  think maybe Breath of the Wild, maybe
• 5:57
  Tears of the Kingdom, I'm not sure, but
• 5:58
  it kind of gave the impression that it
• 6:01
  was maybe a more cutscene heavy
• 6:04
  cinematic game than it ended up being.
• 6:06
  >> I think it was for Tears of the Kingdom.
• 6:08
  Okay. I I actually thought it was maybe
• 6:10
  Breath of the Wild, but I I I'm not but
• 6:12
  I I'm sure the people listening know
• 6:13
  what I'm talking about.
• 6:15
  >> And and to this day, I have seen people
• 6:17
  in kind of like Nintendo fan communities
• 6:19
  have this um
• 6:21
  yeah, I still feel like Nintendo kind of
• 6:23
  lied to me about what that game was
• 6:25
  feeling. And I think the reason that
• 6:27
  they feel that is because as a paratext,
• 6:30
  it
• 6:31
  constructed an expectation within them
• 6:34
  that was then not fulfilled by the game,
• 6:36
  right?
• 6:36
  >> Yes, which is also different by the way
• 6:38
  than
• 6:39
  sometimes people will like see something
• 6:41
  in a trailer and that thing will not
• 6:43
  exist in the actual game, Right.
• 6:46
  >> is largely irrelevant if that specific
• 6:49
  thing exists. I'm I'm thinking about
• 6:50
  like the one that like jumps to mind for
• 6:52
  me immediately is like a bunch of people
• 6:54
  claimed false marketing in The Last of
• 6:56
  Us 2 because there's a scene in the
• 6:58
  trailer where they have Joel and Joel's
• 7:00
  not in that scene in the game. And
• 7:02
  people are like, false marketing,
• 7:03
  whatever, but there's a difference I
• 7:05
  think between
• 7:07
  what you were talking about with Zelda
• 7:08
  fans saying, hey, like they presented
• 7:11
  the game in a different way than it
• 7:12
  actually is versus just saying, hey,
• 7:15
  this one element is not does not happen
• 7:17
  exactly as it does in the actual like
• 7:19
  full release game.
• 7:21
  And it's because of what you're talking
• 7:22
  about like the framing, right? Of
• 7:24
  saying,
• 7:25
  this new Zelda game is actually a pretty
• 7:27
  story-driven video game or that that's
• 7:29
  the takeaway you'd have from that
• 7:30
  trailer, which it
• 7:32
  is not, right? Versus versus something
• 7:34
  much smaller about like, is a character
• 7:37
  in this one scene or not, which doesn't
• 7:39
  ultimately matter and is not
• 7:41
  leading you to believe something that is
• 7:42
  just fully untrue about what the actual
• 7:44
  game itself is.
• 7:45
  >> The the feelings are still true. The
• 7:46
  experience is still true. Yeah,
• 7:48
  definitely. And I think like again kind
• 7:50
  of looking at this recently released
• 7:52
  Splatoon trailer, there dude, there's
• 7:55
  something crazy to me about like the on
• 7:57
  the thumbnail, the tagline for this
• 7:59
  trailer is them just constantly being
• 8:01
  like, the
• 8:02
  the difference, the thing that's
• 8:03
  important, the expectation for you the
• 8:05
  player, the thing that we need you to
• 8:06
  understand the most is that this is a
• 8:08
  single-player focused Splatoon game. But
• 8:11
  like,
• 8:12
  Yeah, it's literally on the thumbnail.
• 8:14
  >> focused Splatoon game. It's It's like
• 8:16
  very important to them. There is at one
• 8:18
  point in this trailer like a black
• 8:19
  screen and the words like a
• 8:21
  single-player focused Splatoon game are
• 8:23
  there. Like, there's no They are
• 8:25
  obviously trying to change your
• 8:26
  expectation about what this is, whereas
• 8:29
  I think we could all agree that past
• 8:31
  Splatoon games maybe were more
• 8:32
  multiplayer focused.
• 8:34
  >> Certainly, yeah. Splatoon games also
• 8:36
  have always featured Single-player mode.
• 8:39
  Single-player campaigns.
• 8:41
  So, so it's like this really weird thing
• 8:43
  where it's like,
• 8:45
  I I
• 8:47
  I think you almost have to like buy in
• 8:50
  to what they're selling in a way that
• 8:52
  like betrays your material logic in that
• 8:55
  like
• 8:56
  the the the single-player campaigns in
• 8:59
  Splatoon in the past were truly
• 9:02
  single-player campaigns. You could not
• 9:03
  play them Yeah, it was just you and
• 9:05
  yeah.
• 9:06
  But the single-player focused experience
• 9:08
  that this game is selling can
• 9:10
  be played multiplayer.
• 9:12
  Which is so interesting, too, because
• 9:13
  it's it's like
• 9:16
  you know,
• 9:17
  I've been playing a lot of Marathon.
• 9:19
  Yeah. And like I'll play it single like
• 9:21
  by myself and I could say that is a
• 9:23
  single-player experience,
• 9:25
  but I think that's misleading. Like, I
• 9:28
  like I think it's not accurate because
• 9:30
  even though I am playing on my own and
• 9:31
  like doing raids and runs and stuff on
• 9:32
  my own, like it's still like inherently
• 9:35
  a multiplayer experience.
• 9:37
  And obviously this is a little bit
• 9:39
  different because you're not like
• 9:40
  playing against other players
• 9:40
  necessarily, but like if that um
• 9:44
  multiplayer stuff is built into the core
• 9:45
  of what this game is, which it seems to
• 9:47
  be based on the fact that it is, you
• 9:49
  know, offers a what, up to four-player
• 9:51
  co-op?
• 9:52
  Like, that's me then. It's like, oh, no,
• 9:54
  so you've made a multiplayer game,
• 9:55
  right?
• 9:56
  And it's it's just it's to I really want
• 9:58
  to emphasize this. Like reading directly
• 10:00
  from Nintendo's press release about this
• 10:02
  game.
• 10:03
  The Splatoon Raiders game
• 10:06
  M dash an all new single player focused
• 10:08
  title in the Splatoon series M dash.
• 10:10
  Yeah. Arrives exclusively on Nintendo
• 10:12
  Switch 2 system on the Nintendo Switch 2
• 10:13
  system July 23rd. And then it says now
• 10:16
  I'm not done. Before you set out on your
• 10:17
  adventure check out the brand new
• 10:18
  trailer here colon link to the trailer.
• 10:20
  And then
• 10:21
  Splatoon Raiders
• 10:23
  is a single player focused action
• 10:24
  shooter.
• 10:25
  >> No, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 10:25
  >> Like like there is no avoiding this.
• 10:27
  Like and I and I guess I just think like
• 10:32
  the the the
• 10:34
  the what they're doing with it being a
• 10:36
  single player game and me being like oh
• 10:38
  okay. They're we're we're now we're now
• 10:40
  doing things that you couldn't do before
• 10:42
  in Splatoon because it is a single
• 10:44
  player focused game. I don't really I'm
• 10:46
  not really getting that that impression
• 10:48
  from the trailer. So like what are they
• 10:50
  doing with it? Like what is good about
• 10:51
  this trailer other than it is a new
• 10:53
  Splatoon game and I already know that I
• 10:55
  like Splatoon. There's this interesting
• 10:57
  thing that trailers do a lot where I
• 10:59
  think they kind of I don't want to say
• 11:00
  make things up but they like sometimes
• 11:03
  like really push you to believe
• 11:04
  something that like might not be
• 11:05
  entirely true.
• 11:07
  It's like for example saying like oh
• 11:09
  this is like for the first time a single
• 11:10
  player focused Splatoon game. It's like
• 11:12
  wait but like Splatoon has had single
• 11:15
  player focus in the past, you know? But
• 11:17
  it's this thing where it's just like
• 11:19
  uh
• 11:20
  don't think about it too hard, right?
• 11:22
  Cuz also at the end of the day I think
• 11:23
  what the um
• 11:25
  pushback you could have not pushback but
• 11:26
  like
• 11:27
  yeah I guess pushback on what we're
• 11:28
  talking about is like just say like
• 11:29
  what's a trailer who cares? It's like
• 11:31
  right but like this is how you're sort
• 11:32
  of like figuring out if you want to
• 11:34
  purchase this video game or whatever,
• 11:35
  you Well and and I think the reason we
• 11:37
  care is because it's simply too large of
• 11:39
  a part of like the games media
• 11:41
  landscape. So I think like we we can't
• 11:44
  just be yeah we can't just be frivolous
• 11:46
  about how we talk about these things.
• 11:47
  And I think like to me what I get out of
• 11:49
  the single player focused push is simply
• 11:52
  like um they are trying to curry an
• 11:56
  audience that maybe has already decided
• 11:58
  they don't like Splatoon. So
• 12:00
  >> Mhm sure. It yeah it's like I I am a
• 12:03
  viewer who I'm like I don't want to the
• 12:06
  the PvP of Splatoon I don't like that.
• 12:09
  Um and it's like oh this is the game for
• 12:11
  you. They're trying to talk to you and
• 12:12
  they're and and listen I get that it is
• 12:14
  a bit of marketing. But does that does
• 12:16
  that make the trailer good? Does the
• 12:17
  person who has has always been too
• 12:20
  intimidated by the multiplayer of
• 12:21
  Splatoon do they look at this trailer
• 12:24
  and go
• 12:26
  this is the one for me. Because I look
• 12:27
  at this trailer and I'm like dude
• 12:30
  I don't know if that is if this is that
• 12:31
  different from Salmon Run. I don't know.
• 12:34
  If you show me gameplay from Salmon Run
• 12:35
  I feel like I'm not there like there is
• 12:38
  still mass confusion online over like
• 12:40
  what the genre of this game is. You know
• 12:43
  what it you know what it actually is?
• 12:44
  It's an Arc Raiders spin-off. Splatoon
• 12:46
  Raiders.
• 12:47
  >> think that it is. I actually think that
• 12:49
  it is it I I think that it has elements
• 12:51
  that are kind of like
• 12:53
  um extraction shooter. Yeah I I kind of
• 12:55
  got that vibe based off the trailer a
• 12:57
  little bit but also I But but I saw but
• 12:59
  the thing is I felt really confident in
• 13:00
  that and then I went on Blue Sky and I
• 13:02
  saw a bunch of people being like oh I
• 13:03
  guess I was wrong that this isn't
• 13:04
  extraction shooter. And I was like oh I
• 13:06
  guess I guess we're we're not clear on
• 13:09
  this. Because I saw like there was an
• 13:10
  inventory with limited slots. I saw like
• 13:13
  we're going on to this map to go get
• 13:15
  treasure. But I I brought this up to a
• 13:17
  to a friend in the games media space and
• 13:19
  they were like it looks like a lot of
• 13:21
  these these things are like bespoke
• 13:22
  missions that end with bosses. And I was
• 13:24
  like okay well So I think this I think
• 13:26
  brings it to sort of the next question
• 13:29
  for me about this idea but like okay. So
• 13:32
  if the the goal of this trailer is not
• 13:33
  necessarily to even tell you
• 13:35
  what the game is Mhm. what does it exist
• 13:38
  to do? And I think the answer is really
• 13:39
  simple and it's just to like
• 13:42
  it's it's to generate hype and
• 13:43
  excitement, right? Which makes sense
• 13:44
  it's a part of marketing.
• 13:45
  Um but what I find interesting about a
• 13:47
  lot of game trailers is because um
• 13:50
  the focus of a game is so split up into
• 13:52
  some people are like oh I really want
• 13:54
  the story or some people are like I
• 13:56
  don't really care about story. I just
• 13:57
  care about what that gameplay is like.
• 13:58
  And so you end up having like okay well
• 14:00
  here's the story trailer for
• 14:03
  uh you know Tears of the Kingdom and
• 14:04
  then here's the gameplay trailer for
• 14:06
  Tears of the Kingdom. Here's the launch
• 14:07
  day trailer. And like all of these
• 14:09
  trailers are like going for different
• 14:11
  things but at the end of the day I think
• 14:12
  the overarching message is like we want
• 14:14
  people to be excited about this which
• 14:15
  that's just you know how marketing
• 14:16
  functions but You saying that though has
• 14:19
  kind of invoked in me that like I guess
• 14:21
  I don't even mind that conversation if
• 14:24
  you were able to say
• 14:26
  this is what the trailer did that got me
• 14:28
  hyped. Yeah. Because right now I don't
• 14:32
  know if the trailer is generating more
• 14:34
  hype than like the Nintendo today logo
• 14:38
  announcement or the teaser trailer. I
• 14:39
  don't know if Yeah, yeah. Is the trailer
• 14:41
  doing work? And I think like Is this
• 14:43
  specific trailer doing work? Is that
• 14:45
  what you you sort of mean? Yeah, okay.
• 14:46
  And how is it achieving that work? One
• 14:47
  of my favorite trailers I point to this
• 14:49
  one all the time I've brought it up
• 14:50
  before is the I think second Super Mario
• 14:53
  Odyssey trailer. And it is the one that
• 14:54
  reveals the Cappy mechanic. And I think
• 14:57
  that that is a trailer that is like so
• 14:59
  easy to be like I understand what is
• 15:02
  exciting about this. And my favorite my
• 15:04
  favorite thing about that trailer is not
• 15:05
  that it tells you about a feature that's
• 15:08
  in the game. It's that the way it's
• 15:09
  presented is awesome. Because they go
• 15:12
  from the frog to the Goomba to the Koopa
• 15:14
  to the fish to the Bullet Bill to the
• 15:17
  next thing to the crazier thing to the
• 15:18
  crazier thing to the T-Rex. And it's
• 15:20
  this escalation. And it's like you can
• 15:22
  do that you can do that and they they
• 15:24
  scientifically somehow figured out which
• 15:27
  what the what the tiers of enemies and
• 15:29
  things you could control were to
• 15:31
  generate like a this this
• 15:33
  ramp up in excitement. And it's like
• 15:35
  yeah that's like a well constructed
• 15:38
  trailer. But like what what in this
• 15:41
  Splatoon trailer which starts so slow?
• 15:43
  Dog it's crazy that this Splatoon
• 15:45
  trailer is 3 minutes and like 30 seconds
• 15:47
  of it is like this character creator
• 15:49
  which Splatoon has had. You know
• 15:51
  [laughter] I mean it's like
• 15:51
  >> is crazy. It's crazy. Because what
• 15:53
  they're obviously trying to do is I
• 15:55
  think
• 15:56
  you know the it starts off with this
• 15:58
  messaging where it's like in this game
• 16:00
  which is different you play as a
• 16:02
  mechanic. And then they show you these
• 16:04
  character customizations that have these
• 16:06
  kinds of like like what would you say
• 16:08
  like grease monkeys or whatever.
• 16:10
  Yeah yeah yeah and they're like these
• 16:11
  little metal things and stuff and it's
• 16:13
  like yeah okay I get I get that. But
• 16:16
  is it like
• 16:17
  what is it doing for you? Is it really
• 16:19
  making you feel like you're inhabiting a
• 16:21
  different kind of Inkling because you
• 16:23
  have wires in your hair? I think part of
• 16:26
  it to be entirely honest with you might
• 16:27
  actually be that this trailer is going
• 16:30
  for like like what we were talking about
• 16:32
  before.
• 16:34
  It is trying to appeal to a type of
• 16:36
  gamer who would not be interested in
• 16:37
  Splatoon if it were a like you know the
• 16:39
  main Splatoon games because they were
• 16:41
  like multiplayer sort of like shooter
• 16:43
  competitive whatever.
• 16:45
  And [clears throat] by doing this it's
• 16:46
  trying to say like but check it out this
• 16:48
  ain't your father's Splatoon game.
• 16:51
  Character creator. It's like yeah that's
• 16:53
  in the other games though. But like do
• 16:54
  you know what I mean? I think like a
• 16:55
  character creator is so um
• 16:58
  you know you think about you make
• 16:59
  associations with like RPGs and things
• 17:01
  like that where you are making a
• 17:02
  character and then and that is your
• 17:04
  specific whatever that you are going to
• 17:05
  do in this single player thing. So I
• 17:08
  think it could be trying to appeal to
• 17:09
  that. I just don't think it's doing a
• 17:10
  great job of that because of the fact
• 17:13
  that character creators have been in
• 17:15
  Splatoon this whole time, you know?
• 17:16
  Right, right. And I think that maybe the
• 17:19
  the thing that creates the most friction
• 17:20
  for me in trying to have this
• 17:21
  conversation is that I think in Nintendo
• 17:24
  games specifically there is this like
• 17:27
  constant confirmation bias that I find
• 17:30
  myself running into where you have
• 17:32
  people who I think are
• 17:34
  um self-identified Splatoon fans who and
• 17:38
  and we heard this with like Metroid
• 17:39
  Prime 4 last year as well who were like
• 17:42
  no the trailer was good because it was
• 17:44
  more Metroid Prime.
• 17:46
  And that's what I needed to see. You
• 17:47
  know what I'm saying? I do. I do. The
• 17:49
  existence of the thing is enough for it
• 17:52
  to be good and I feel that you see this
• 17:55
  um in Nintendo Directs as well where the
• 17:58
  quality of the Nintendo Direct is
• 18:01
  assessed by the announcements not the
• 18:03
  trailers. It's the Yeah the the
• 18:06
  existence of what was there not if it
• 18:08
  was
• 18:08
  >> of things. Correct. And I I find that
• 18:10
  interesting because um not that this is
• 18:13
  what this conversation is about
• 18:14
  necessarily but I think that then
• 18:16
  uh
• 18:17
  is then echoed when the game actually
• 18:20
  comes out between
• 18:22
  um reviews uh and also like the way that
• 18:25
  like the fans respond to something. You
• 18:27
  know you look at again Metroid Prime 4.
• 18:29
  So many reviews and a lot of again I'm
• 18:31
  going to say reviews in general but when
• 18:33
  I'm talking about that I'm talking also
• 18:34
  of not just like critical reviews but
• 18:35
  also like the way the fans reacted or
• 18:37
  responded. So much of it discussion
• 18:39
  around that game was like yeah it's more
• 18:40
  Metroid.
• 18:41
  And it's like right but like
• 18:44
  more Metroid is fine but is that new
• 18:46
  more Metroid good? And is it is it doing
• 18:49
  anything that's like new or or bringing
• 18:51
  something new to the table that
• 18:54
  wasn't being done by the previous
• 18:55
  Metroid games? And you know I think we
• 18:58
  find that a lot in
• 19:01
  sort of like die hard fan communities
• 19:02
  cuz I was going to say like Nintendo
• 19:04
  fans but I also think about like
• 19:06
  you know PlayStation games like
• 19:08
  PlayStation first party games have this
• 19:10
  a lot. You look at like God of War
• 19:11
  Ragnarok or
• 19:13
  PlayStation first party games have this
• 19:14
  hard I think because especially in in
• 19:17
  the in the kind of like the recent
• 19:18
  decade the um
• 19:22
  the hardening of I of PlayStation IP
• 19:25
  I think has created this and
• 19:27
  particularly studio repre reputations I
• 19:30
  think. Nintendo I think is significantly
• 19:33
  more likely to do a sequel to a game
• 19:35
  that is completely unlike Yeah. the rest
• 19:37
  of whatever. I mean even with this
• 19:38
  Splatoon thing like I have no clue what
• 19:40
  this game is based on this trailer but
• 19:43
  seems like Nintendo is saying hey it's
• 19:44
  different than other Splatoon stuff.
• 19:47
  Trying to reinvent whatever. Obviously
• 19:48
  it's a spin-off whatever. But
• 19:49
  PlayStation games I think tend to in
• 19:51
  PlayStation studios tend to play it
• 19:52
  really really safe with this sort of
• 19:54
  thing. And we see that in the fan
• 19:56
  reaction.
• 19:57
  It is a huge descending opinion to be
• 20:00
  like, "Yeah, I just don't know if like
• 20:03
  more is what I wanted." Cuz more is
• 20:07
  fine,
• 20:08
  but like I kind of feel like more is for
• 20:10
  DLC and a sequel I think should expand
• 20:13
  and jump off and and dive deeper, you
• 20:17
  know? Well, and I think you even see
• 20:19
  this in again kind of bringing you back
• 20:21
  to how this extends to how press talks
• 20:23
  about things. There there is this
• 20:25
  feeling of like you see the Housemarque
• 20:28
  logo and you go, "Well, it's
• 20:30
  Housemarque, so I know." Right.
• 20:33
  And
• 20:35
  I think maybe we're letting logos too
• 20:38
  much do too much heavy lifting.
• 20:39
  >> we are. Splatoon logo, developer logo,
• 20:43
  like no matter what it is, I think that
• 20:45
  we are so captured by this kind of um
• 20:50
  rhythm or pattern recognition of certain
• 20:53
  things that we just we just see that and
• 20:55
  we know how we're supposed to respond to
• 20:57
  it or maybe just respond in like the
• 21:00
  safest way or what we're like
• 21:01
  demonstrating that we know what these
• 21:03
  things are, right? Yeah. Cuz I mean like
• 21:06
  I I'm I'm trying to think of like a
• 21:07
  specific example like of recent recently
• 21:10
  where like I've played something
• 21:11
  pre-release
• 21:13
  and gotten like the chance to like see
• 21:17
  something that is like an like a hyped
• 21:18
  sequel and sort of realized like, "Oh, I
• 21:21
  don't know if this is actually
• 21:23
  meeting the high bar of the, you know,
• 21:26
  original game because it's just more."
• 21:29
  But then I have this also this feeling
• 21:30
  as well where I'm like,
• 21:32
  "But I think people are going to really
• 21:34
  really like it because oh, I Ghost of
• 21:36
  Tsushima. Like
• 21:37
  >> Hades. I was thinking Hades, too. Oh,
• 21:39
  sure. Yeah. Um I didn't get a chance to
• 21:41
  play that pre-release though. So but so
• 21:42
  like in playing Ghost of Tsushima, I was
• 21:45
  playing it pre-release and I was like
• 21:47
  "I think people are just going to really
• 21:48
  like this because it's more Ghost of
• 21:50
  Tsushima." Yeah. But without identifying
• 21:52
  like what it is that is actually being
• 21:54
  done here. You know what I mean? I think
• 21:56
  it's exactly what you're saying like,
• 21:57
  "Well, it doesn't matter if the game
• 21:59
  itself is good or makes sense or
• 22:00
  whatever because this is from Sucker
• 22:03
  Punch and from PlayStation Studios." And
• 22:06
  I think that that's what happens with
• 22:08
  kind of bringing this back to the
• 22:09
  original idea of the of the paratext.
• 22:12
  And you end up creating a generous
• 22:16
  viewer. You end up creating a generous
• 22:19
  audience member who is kind of willing
• 22:21
  to go along or is not as
• 22:24
  critical. Like I've already decided I'm
• 22:26
  a Splatoon fan. So there's there's not
• 22:29
  like this this this questioning of
• 22:31
  whether or not I should see the game out
• 22:33
  for a certain amount of time. Yes. I'm
• 22:35
  like I'm like already invested. So I so
• 22:38
  I do think that there is this kind of
• 22:40
  lack of critical nature that we attach
• 22:42
  to some of these logos that is maybe
• 22:44
  holding back some of our eventual
• 22:46
  critical work. 100%. I am So in January
• 22:50
  of this year, it's funny you mention
• 22:51
  like Housemarque cuz something this ours
• 22:53
  is coming out what next week or
• 22:54
  whatever. And in January of this year, I
• 22:57
  was doing a fantasy critic draft with my
• 22:59
  friends who we've done this I don't know
• 23:01
  for like five or six years. And
• 23:04
  I said something to the group and and
• 23:06
  these are mostly like
• 23:08
  uh excuse excuse me, entirely all gaming
• 23:10
  fans. So it's not it's no one who's like
• 23:12
  in press or or media or whatever like I
• 23:13
  am. And um
• 23:15
  I said something to the to the effect of
• 23:17
  like, "Is anyone worried about those
• 23:18
  Tsushima trailers?" Because it you seems
• 23:20
  like it's like leaning really heavy into
• 23:22
  like, "We have an actor. We have a guy
• 23:24
  you know from TV." Uh
• 23:26
  and I it was quiet for like a second and
• 23:30
  then this other guy goes like, "I think
• 23:33
  this is a bad take."
• 23:35
  And I was like, "Okay, I will be quiet."
• 23:37
  Because it's what you're talking about,
• 23:38
  right? It's the recognition of like,
• 23:39
  "Okay, at that point we had I think two
• 23:42
  Tsushima trailers." The announcement and
• 23:43
  then there was
• 23:43
  >> Housemarque doesn't miss. Yeah, there
• 23:44
  was one at at Summer not Summer Game
• 23:46
  Fest, the Game Awards. And it was like
• 23:49
  uh
• 23:51
  I I think it's it's
• 23:52
  we're going off of the two trailers and
• 23:54
  the two trailers I thought were not very
• 23:56
  good, you know? And like
• 23:58
  it has Housemarque the Housemarque logo
• 24:00
  on it whom I really liked Returnal,
• 24:01
  right? But it's like judging off the
• 24:03
  trailers, like I don't know if it's
• 24:05
  going to be good or not. Again, it could
• 24:08
  be that the trailers are bad, but it's
• 24:09
  like we're actually not allowed to even
• 24:12
  allowed, but like oftentimes in fan
• 24:14
  spaces
• 24:15
  actually assessing what you're looking
• 24:17
  at comes second to being excited that,
• 24:19
  "Hey, this is from that studio you
• 24:21
  like."
• 24:22
  But I would warn our audience to in
• 24:26
  against listening to you when it comes
• 24:28
  to anything regarding fantasy critic
• 24:30
  because
• 24:30
  >> I'm getting [ __ ] killed. Oh my
• 24:33
  >> [laughter]
• 24:33
  >> god.
• 24:33
  Oh my god. I counter-picked Prag Mata.
• 24:36
  Yeah, you counter-picked Prag Mata.
• 24:38
  >> [laughter]
• 24:38
  >> You're sitting on a minus 17 points
• 24:40
  right now over there. Oh man, dude. It's
• 24:43
  bad. Oh
• 24:45
  man. I hope I hope Beast of
• 24:47
  Reincarnation really comes through for
• 24:49
  you there, buddy. Is that the is that
• 24:51
  the
• 24:52
  uh
• 24:54
  game freak Yoshi and the Mysterious Book
• 24:55
  game freak game. I can't believe you
• 24:56
  picked that up. I saw that it was on
• 24:58
  your team, immediately counter-picked
• 24:59
  that. I was like, "You're crazy, dude.
• 25:01
  What are you doing over there?"
• 25:03
  I'm doing bad. I'm doing bad. Yeah, what
• 25:06
  are you at? Oh, you got 56 points.
• 25:08
  >> Book coming soon which I think is going
• 25:12
  to do banger numbers and I think that
• 25:14
  those Yoshi and the Mysterious Book
• 25:16
  trailers are much stronger than a lot of
• 25:19
  people are giving them credit for.
• 25:21
  Please elaborate. Can I tell you
• 25:23
  something that I observed today is that
• 25:24
  previews came out for Yoshi and the
• 25:26
  Mysterious Book and the overwhelming
• 25:28
  response was, "Wow, this game was
• 25:31
  actually a lot more different than I
• 25:32
  thought." And I'm sitting here going,
• 25:35
  "That's right. Yes, yes, yes." Because
• 25:38
  something that I picked up on with that
• 25:40
  game really early on was that it's not
• 25:43
  trying to be this like normal 2D
• 25:46
  platformer. And now something that was
• 25:49
  discovered in the previews is that there
• 25:51
  aren't really levels as much as there
• 25:53
  are 2D explorable spaces. How
• 25:56
  interesting. So you go into the pages of
• 25:58
  the book or whatever and it's like,
• 26:00
  "This is a sandbox for you to make a
• 26:02
  bunch of different discoveries and
• 26:03
  experiment with things and then bounce
• 26:06
  out of and go in and go back into to do
• 26:08
  more discoveries. It's not get to the
• 26:10
  end on the far right side of the
• 26:11
  screen." So
• 26:13
  um which is actually kind of interesting
• 26:14
  because that's
• 26:15
  a little bit how
• 26:18
  um
• 26:19
  Mario Wonder was kind of. We're
• 26:21
  obviously like that had like the goal
• 26:22
  post to that you were looking for, but
• 26:24
  then like I found the
• 26:26
  Mario Wonder to kind of have this like
• 26:27
  interesting like
• 26:28
  um
• 26:29
  depth to its levels in the fact that
• 26:31
  like yeah, you could just like run past
• 26:32
  you know, run through it all and get to
• 26:33
  the get to the end goal, but like
• 26:36
  um
• 26:36
  there's there's a lot of like different
• 26:38
  directions you can actually go with with
• 26:40
  that game which I thought was kind of
• 26:40
  interesting. Well, and but I think that
• 26:43
  the I think that this is like way far
• 26:45
  removed from that and what held people
• 26:47
  back from seeing that originally was
• 26:49
  that they saw Yoshi, they saw the 2D
• 26:52
  plane and they said, "I know what this
• 26:54
  is." And there was this kind of
• 26:57
  lack of like reading what was in front
• 27:00
  of them with prior trailers in favor of
• 27:04
  I know the logo, I know the IP, I know
• 27:06
  the company, I know the kind of games
• 27:08
  that they make this until they got the
• 27:10
  hands-on and went, "Oh, this actually
• 27:13
  isn't what I thought it was." So I think
• 27:14
  I actually saw it happen live kind of
• 27:16
  going in the other direction. Yeah. This
• 27:18
  is kind of kind of fascinating because
• 27:20
  we are going to also be
• 27:22
  I think talking a lot about preview
• 27:24
  events when we go to Summer Game Fest. I
• 27:25
  think that's that's one of the focuses
• 27:27
  we're going to have on you know,
• 27:28
  whatever episodes surround our our time
• 27:30
  there. And
• 27:32
  this specific example is quite
• 27:34
  interesting because um
• 27:37
  usually I find that like preview events
• 27:39
  or preview like write-ups tend to be
• 27:42
  very in line with what what's in the
• 27:44
  trailer.
• 27:46
  Was it in the preview, you know?
• 27:48
  And so this kind of sounds interesting
• 27:50
  that the fact that like with these Yoshi
• 27:51
  and the Mysterious Book preview book
• 27:52
  previews that they are
• 27:55
  sort of expanding on stuff that hasn't
• 27:57
  really been in the trailers which is
• 28:00
  interesting based on the the way that
• 28:02
  Nintendo usually markets their stuff
• 28:03
  where they kind of like lay out a lot of
• 28:05
  like what the actual game is like on the
• 28:07
  table with those sorts of things. Well,
• 28:09
  and the thing is is that I think it was
• 28:10
  actually more in the trailers than
• 28:12
  people realize.
• 28:14
  That's and that's kind of my point is
• 28:15
  that I think that there was
• 28:17
  this reliance on pattern recognition
• 28:20
  Mhm. and that that stopped people from
• 28:23
  like fully absorbing what those trailers
• 28:25
  were saying.
• 28:26
  >> Yeah. And that makes sense. Cuz it's
• 28:28
  it's you know, you mentioned earlier the
• 28:30
  idea of like when people like talk about
• 28:31
  Nintendo Directs, they're not talking
• 28:32
  about the quality of the trailers,
• 28:34
  they're talking about just like
• 28:35
  literally what was there. And and
• 28:36
  [clears throat] you know, you see Yoshi
• 28:38
  and you're saying I'm actually a
• 28:39
  hardcore gamer. I don't play this as a
• 28:41
  baby [ __ ] And it's like so I'm not
• 28:44
  going to actually watch this trailer too
• 28:46
  hard and and try to like parse the
• 28:47
  information that they're giving, but so
• 28:49
  yeah, I I think that makes total sense.
• 28:50
  I mean yeah, you immediately put Yoshi
• 28:52
  in conversation with well, it's like an
• 28:54
  easier 2D platformer. It's
• 28:56
  And and so you already know what it is.
• 28:58
  So you see the 2D plane, you see how he
• 29:00
  moves and you go, "This is confirmation
• 29:01
  of what I already know." And then when
• 29:03
  you go and play the game, you go, "Oh,
• 29:07
  there's no like
• 29:08
  end of the level gate that I'm passing."
• 29:11
  And then like, you know what I mean?
• 29:12
  There's there's there's this this this
• 29:14
  changing of expectations that I think
• 29:18
  was
• 29:20
  not full that could have been more fully
• 29:22
  built out from the trailers, but was
• 29:24
  not. So yeah, yeah. So I think it's in
• 29:27
  conversation with the thing we're
• 29:28
  talking about. We watch trailers so
• 29:29
  passively. You know what I mean? And
• 29:31
  especially because you you mentioned
• 29:32
  this at the top of the the show like
• 29:35
  uh game trailers are like
• 29:37
  we get really excited when there's like
• 29:39
  game trailer like events, you know, like
• 29:41
  a Nintendo Direct or PlayStation
• 29:42
  Showcase or you know, like a Game Awards
• 29:44
  or Game Fest, whatever. Like we get so
• 29:46
  excited surrounding trailer events, but
• 29:48
  trailer events are happening [ __ ] all
• 29:49
  THE TIME. LIKE LIKE ALL THE TIME THEY'RE
• 29:51
  HAPPENING. And so I think that we tend
• 29:54
  to
• 29:55
  watch them a lot more passively than
• 29:59
  maybe they deserve if we are actually
• 30:01
  that excited about the things that they
• 30:02
  are showing off. Because then to your
• 30:04
  point here, the second that you sit down
• 30:06
  and actually have to engage with the
• 30:07
  game, you learn a lot of stuff that you
• 30:08
  might have actually learned in the
• 30:10
  trailers had we been watching them with
• 30:11
  a little bit more of a keen eye, you
• 30:13
  know? Man, that's interesting. You're
• 30:14
  right. I guess there really is no,
• 30:16
  unless you're like a like a YouTuber
• 30:18
  doing the things you missed, there's
• 30:20
  really not a lot of imperative as
• 30:22
  somebody who covers video games to
• 30:25
  really like examine, you know, a
• 30:28
  trailer. And you kind of are expecting,
• 30:32
  if you're a member of the press, you're
• 30:33
  expecting that that hands-on preview
• 30:34
  time. So you you are kind of just like,
• 30:37
  oh, I don't have to do this because I'm
• 30:38
  going to be able to play the game and
• 30:40
  that's when I'll do this, right?
• 30:41
  >> And to that point as well, and like this
• 30:43
  is just like the way that like press is
• 30:44
  set up. This isn't like necessarily
• 30:46
  about like what individual members of
• 30:48
  the press are doing, but it's like, hey,
• 30:50
  what gets clicks on the website after
• 30:53
  you know, these Nintendo Directs happen?
• 30:55
  It's the thing that's like everything
• 30:56
  announced or like, you know, everything
• 30:57
  that was at the Nintendo Direct or at
• 30:58
  the PlayStation Showcase and whatever.
• 31:00
  And when you read those lists, it is
• 31:01
  pretty much just a list, you know, like
• 31:02
  boom boom boom boom boom. And there's
• 31:03
  like what, like two or three sentences
• 31:04
  written about what those trailers are.
• 31:06
  It's not like an actual analysis of what
• 31:08
  the trailer actually is because
• 31:11
  who needs it? You know what I mean? I
• 31:12
  mean, as we're talking about here, like
• 31:13
  I think it can be important and
• 31:14
  interesting, but like for the most part,
• 31:16
  I think the general gaming public is
• 31:18
  just more interested in being like, wait
• 31:20
  a second, Fire Emblem Fortunes Weave was
• 31:22
  at the Nintendo Direct? Oh my gosh!
• 31:25
  Without actually like watching the
• 31:26
  trailer and saying like, what was it
• 31:27
  what was in it, you know? And you know
• 31:29
  what's tough is I think that obviously a
• 31:30
  lot of the people who write about games
• 31:32
  or whatever are fans of games and big
• 31:35
  fans of games, passionate fans of games
• 31:37
  that love video games. And I think like
• 31:40
  there it's so easy to kind of sub submit
• 31:43
  to hype. Yeah. And one of the things
• 31:46
  that we actually talk about in our bonus
• 31:48
  episode that's on
• 31:49
  patreon.com/criticalerror
• 31:51
  that we did with friend of the show
• 31:54
  Giovanni Colantonio from polygon.com
• 31:57
  is this idea that like, hey, there is
• 32:00
  sometimes this like overarching gaming
• 32:02
  culture, which by the way, you can check
• 32:03
  that out. Yeah,
• 32:04
  patreon.com/criticalerror.
• 32:05
  Become a $5 member. Well, and I got to
• 32:07
  say patreon.com/criticalerror for this
• 32:10
  bonus episode.
• 32:11
  Like you just said, just $5 to give it a
• 32:14
  try, get access to the entire bonus
• 32:16
  podcast library, which I think holds up.
• 32:17
  But I I posted this in the Discord
• 32:19
  already. I think this is the episode to
• 32:21
  sign up for. I would agree. When we were
• 32:23
  done,
• 32:25
  you said to me, you're like, that was
• 32:26
  basically that was kind of a main app,
• 32:27
  wasn't it? And I was like,
• 32:29
  There was there was so much substance in
• 32:30
  that episode. 100% agree. This is the
• 32:33
  one to that you don't want to miss. We
• 32:35
  Gio doesn't get to do a lot of video
• 32:37
  stuff and I think we just got a little
• 32:39
  taste of access to something that was
• 32:42
  really valuable that not a lot of people
• 32:44
  get. So I I would really encourage
• 32:46
  people to check this one out.
• 32:47
  >> 100% agree. Um, but the point of one one
• 32:50
  of the sort of points that we we talked
• 32:51
  about in that episode is this idea that
• 32:54
  like, hey, um, people who write about
• 32:56
  games because they are also fans of
• 32:58
  games, it means that they're not immune
• 32:59
  to the sort of like um,
• 33:02
  pull of gaming culture. And so gaming
• 33:04
  culture at large uh, honestly doesn't
• 33:07
  really care about the actual intricacies
• 33:09
  and and whatever about trailers. We just
• 33:11
  care about that they happened. And so
• 33:12
  because of that, I do think that we see
• 33:14
  that reflected in games media
• 33:16
  without uh, much uh,
• 33:18
  additional sort of investigation because
• 33:21
  that's just what gaming culture is is
• 33:22
  looking to do. I'm I'm having like a
• 33:23
  revelation right now. I'm sorry. I'm my
• 33:26
  my my vapors are I'm I'm getting I'm
• 33:28
  getting the vapors right now. I think
• 33:30
  that something that I did that just
• 33:31
  occurred to me and this is so stupid, so
• 33:33
  I'm sorry if it sounds stupid, but
• 33:35
  >> I think more than any other
• 33:37
  entertainment industry, there is really
• 33:41
  a lot of emphasis and importance on
• 33:45
  trailers to the point that maybe what
• 33:47
  I'm what I'm actually looking for or
• 33:49
  maybe like my suggestion to the larger
• 33:52
  games media landscape is rather than
• 33:54
  fight that, I think we need to embrace
• 33:56
  that. And I wonder if there's sorry.
• 33:59
  Uh, the fact that there is so much
• 34:01
  emphasis on trailers and maybe maybe it
• 34:03
  would be helpful for people or like a
• 34:05
  cool content opportunity to do more with
• 34:08
  trailers. And to like really have people
• 34:11
  that are willing to like, I don't know,
• 34:14
  a cool trailer for some big Nintendo
• 34:15
  game comes out, like really close read
• 34:18
  that [ __ ] Like break that stuff down.
• 34:20
  Get somebody on there who knows about
• 34:22
  the mechanics of filmmaking or the
• 34:24
  mechanics of making a trailer and really
• 34:26
  like sink your teeth into like how
• 34:27
  they're generating You know you know
• 34:29
  what I mean? Like what's what's Like I
• 34:30
  think there's an opportunity there that
• 34:32
  to to go beyond because right now we we
• 34:35
  know what the content opportunity for
• 34:36
  trailers is. It's reaction
• 34:38
  >> missed. Yes. It's actually everything
• 34:39
  you missed. And it's and it's the person
• 34:41
  with the big face on the thumbnail
• 34:43
  going, THEY ARE NOT
• 34:45
  IT'S A NEW CRASH BANDICOOT, YOU KNOW,
• 34:47
  NEW
• 34:48
  BANJO-KAZOOIE'S BACK. WHAT THE you know,
• 34:51
  it's like that's it's like that kind of
• 34:52
  thing.
• 34:53
  >> And and the only substance to that, I
• 34:54
  mean, it's it's hardly substance, right?
• 34:56
  Cuz it's just like
• 34:58
  the it's a black screen and they go,
• 35:00
  wait a second, this isn't Hold on a
• 35:01
  second. There's an opportunity here.
• 35:03
  flashes and you they're like, what?
• 35:04
  How's
• 35:05
  what? I almost think that there should
• 35:07
  be like a digital foundry for breaking
• 35:10
  down trailers.
• 35:12
  100% agree. You know what I mean?
• 35:14
  >> I'm just saying like Here's what it's
• 35:15
  doing. Here's how here's how it's like
• 35:16
  >> achieve, you know, why did they do it
• 35:19
  this way? Trying to kind of sense make
• 35:21
  out of the trailers because I think like
• 35:23
  the more I think about it, the more I'm
• 35:24
  like, the these video game trailers are
• 35:26
  simply too big of a deal. They're
• 35:27
  they're they're so important in the
• 35:29
  space.
• 35:30
  >> And it's so interesting, too.
• 35:31
  >> Because of how online we are, you know?
• 35:32
  >> Yes, because of how much emphasis is
• 35:34
  poured into them and how expensive they
• 35:36
  are Yeah, yeah.
• 35:37
  >> to see. I mean, you know, every year
• 35:38
  there's the article that's like, here's
• 35:40
  how much it costs to get a trailer at
• 35:41
  The Game Awards, Summer Game Fest or
• 35:43
  whatever. And it's like how much money
• 35:45
  goes into these things. They are treated
• 35:47
  so disposably,
• 35:49
  you know?
• 35:50
  And so I I think it would uh,
• 35:53
  I I I think a lot of time and care goes
• 35:55
  into these things because of how
• 35:56
  expensive they can be and
• 35:59
  so many people watch them once and then
• 36:00
  move on, right? And I I really don't
• 36:03
  think that you have to like divest from
• 36:05
  your fandom to perform this activity
• 36:07
  because like honestly, because because
• 36:09
  to be to be completely clear with the
• 36:11
  audience, I think the I think it's clear
• 36:13
  to anybody, especially listeners of our
• 36:15
  bonus podcast, that I was maybe looking
• 36:18
  at those Yoshi trailers more intently
• 36:21
  than a lot of people were because I'm a
• 36:23
  big Yoshi fan.
• 36:24
  >> Yeah. You know, this was this is like
• 36:26
  been one of my, if not my most
• 36:28
  anticipated game this year. So like
• 36:30
  [snorts] There was actually an
• 36:31
  interesting breakdown
• 36:33
  by friend of the pod Abram
• 36:36
  about Metroid Prime 4's trailers and
• 36:38
  talking about like
• 36:40
  I remember him saying like, I watched
• 36:42
  the video. I I don't remember exactly
• 36:44
  what he says about it. But there was
• 36:45
  this idea about like, a lot of people
• 36:46
  think Metroid Prime 4 is going to be
• 36:48
  like this because everyone remembers
• 36:50
  Metroid Prime 1. But like when we look
• 36:52
  at the way the series moves, like
• 36:54
  Metroid Prime 4 seems to be in more in
• 36:56
  conversation with like Metroid Prime 3
• 36:58
  than Metroid Prime 1. And those are
• 36:59
  different experiences in different games
• 37:01
  that like evolve over time and this is a
• 37:03
  further evolution of that, which means
• 37:05
  that, you know, the way people are
• 37:06
  talking about this so far might not be
• 37:08
  entirely in line with what we're
• 37:09
  actually seeing on screen, you know?
• 37:12
  Wow, I'm like it's like really washing
• 37:14
  over me right now. How Because I think
• 37:16
  what you just expressed there was how
• 37:18
  somebody was using their position in the
• 37:20
  fandom and their
• 37:22
  familiarity and their literacy with the
• 37:25
  with the games mechanics and deploying
• 37:27
  that to kind of tell you something about
• 37:28
  what the trailers were communicating.
• 37:30
  Yeah, which I think yeah. Which is
• 37:32
  something, you know, like
• 37:33
  kind of an an offshoot take for us
• 37:36
  because I think so often you and I are
• 37:38
  big proponents of like, hey, leave that
• 37:40
  stuff at the door when you're writing
• 37:41
  about the game. Do you know what I mean?
• 37:42
  Like, you know, that can be fine as
• 37:44
  background and information, but like
• 37:46
  you, you know, doing criticism or
• 37:48
  whatever about a game needs to be like
• 37:50
  text focused. It needs to be about what
• 37:52
  the game you're talking about, right?
• 37:54
  Not the context surrounding it. But
• 37:57
  for this sort of stuff, it's like, no,
• 37:58
  that is that's
• 37:59
  that's like what you is sharpening your
• 38:02
  like analysis here, you know?
• 38:03
  >> Especially for like like
• 38:06
  like a like a Pokémon, I think is a good
• 38:07
  example for this because a lot of the
• 38:09
  times like a Pokémon trailer, the person
• 38:10
  that they're speaking to is like, this
• 38:12
  only means something to you if you are
• 38:15
  at a level of familiarity with like what
• 38:17
  Pokémon does. I'll be honest, I like
• 38:19
  Pokémon trailers don't work on me
• 38:21
  anymore cuz I'm like, I don't
• 38:22
  have enough yeah.
• 38:24
  >> And I think that there's maybe value in
• 38:26
  on one of these shows or whatever to
• 38:28
  have somebody that's like, hey, I am a
• 38:30
  huge fan of this franchise. Let me tell
• 38:32
  you about why them showing us this is
• 38:34
  important, different, exciting, how they
• 38:36
  are achieving that, why this is working
• 38:38
  on me, why this is getting me excited. I
• 38:40
  would listen to that. I think that'd be
• 38:41
  cool. Then you know what? And here's a
• 38:43
  free idea for you, Nintendo. Throw that
• 38:45
  in the treehouse like live. Do you know
• 38:47
  what I mean? Like that can serve as a
• 38:49
  as a way to market the game, right? By
• 38:51
  saying like, hey, we just saw that
• 38:53
  trailer. Now we're going to watch it
• 38:55
  again and we're going to we're sitting
• 38:57
  here with, you know,
• 38:58
  Pokémon fan 8000 and I can't believe
• 39:01
  you're giving this away from for free.
• 39:02
  And she's going to start and stop it and
• 39:04
  she's going to point out all of the
• 39:06
  different, you know what I mean?
• 39:09
  Hey, stick around and stick around for
• 39:10
  the for the
• 39:12
  state of play post show where we break
• 39:14
  down what's going on in the latest
• 39:16
  Saurus trailer.
• 39:19
  I think that these company first media
• 39:22
  things where they like pretend to be
• 39:24
  MEDIA PEOPLE
• 39:25
  >> YEAH, XBOX WIRE'S ALREADY DOING IT. Like
• 39:27
  PlayStation Blog's already doing it.
• 39:28
  Just do it. And and I think that they're
• 39:29
  largely ineffective because they don't
• 39:31
  they don't know how to actually like
• 39:32
  speak to their fans and like talk to
• 39:34
  them in a way that's real. And I and
• 39:36
  this is actually a really good idea
• 39:39
  because it's like [ __ ] This is like,
• 39:41
  yeah.
• 39:43
  uh
• 39:43
  Okay, the PlayStation people who are
• 39:45
  going to who are PlayStation fans are
• 39:46
  going to read the PlayStation blog, but
• 39:48
  I imagine that they like me
• 39:50
  pull up a PlayStation blog post and I go
• 39:52
  boring. You know what I mean? Because
• 39:53
  it's like oh cool. This is just like the
• 39:55
  most like corporate like like It's a PR
• 39:58
  it's just it's a
• 40:00
  press release, right? Um but if you had
• 40:02
  a video where you had someone like
• 40:03
  breaking it down Imagine. Imagine. This
• 40:07
  would like I think it's really easy to
• 40:09
  imagine this with Think about like a
• 40:10
  Naughty Dog game. They reveal the new
• 40:13
  trailer for what was it called?
• 40:14
  Intergalactic I want to say.
• 40:15
  Intergalactic the heretic prophet. How
• 40:18
  dare you?
• 40:19
  How dare you use the government name of
• 40:21
  that game? Okay. [laughter]
• 40:22
  But so yeah, that game. They reveal a
• 40:25
  trailer for that game and then you've
• 40:27
  got That's a That's a Druckmann directed
• 40:29
  game, right?
• 40:29
  >> It is. And then you have people sitting
• 40:31
  down with Neil Druckmann and he cut the
• 40:33
  trailer. And just being like
• 40:36
  Why did Yeah.
• 40:37
  >> trying to show What are we showing here?
• 40:38
  Yeah. What Why did you do that? Why did
• 40:39
  you do this then this? And just like him
• 40:41
  going through that, people would eat
• 40:43
  that [ __ ] up. That is like Sakurai
• 40:46
  YouTube channel level like Yes. People
• 40:49
  would love that stuff in games. Man,
• 40:52
  that's really interesting. That would
• 40:54
  actually be cool as hell. So you know,
• 40:56
  Sony, Nintendo, whoever uh
• 40:59
  Let us know if you're using the idea.
• 41:01
  We'll take the check, you know. Uh Cuz
• 41:03
  cuz here's the thing. You don't need the
• 41:05
  actual authorial hand to tell you why
• 41:08
  those choices were made. You just have
• 41:09
  to read it. You just have to be like a
• 41:11
  critical reader. [laughter] And that's
• 41:12
  the thing too is
• 41:14
  I think I think by having like
• 41:16
  you know, if you're doing this on
• 41:17
  YouTube or whatever, like fans can do
• 41:19
  this, right? But just by by saying like
• 41:21
  hey, this is what the
• 41:23
  Yoshi in the mysterious book. Here's
• 41:24
  what Yoshi's been doing in the past.
• 41:25
  Could you imagine somebody doing this
• 41:27
  for a Nintendo game? Yeah, it'd be I
• 41:29
  mean they'd be sick. Yeah, I need to I
• 41:32
  need the comments to confirm this is I I
• 41:34
  think THIS IS PEOPLE DOING AND AND WE'RE
• 41:35
  NOT TALKING ABOUT Is this as good of an
• 41:37
  idea as I think it is? I think that this
• 41:39
  is like an S-tier idea. Yeah, again it's
• 41:42
  not it's not here's what you missed
• 41:43
  where it's just like like Yoshi ran past
• 41:47
  a baby Piranha Plant. Do you know what I
• 41:49
  mean? That we saw the last time we saw a
• 41:50
  baby Piranha Plant was in whatever.
• 41:52
  That's not what I'm talking about. I
• 41:53
  mean like that could be a part of it, I
• 41:54
  guess, but like we're talking about like
• 41:57
  what is the game, right? And like
• 41:58
  talking about like what are these
• 41:59
  systems seem like they're actually doing
• 42:00
  here.
• 42:02
  And then you can also talk about the
• 42:03
  baby Piranha Plant, but
• 42:04
  >> I think I would give anything. I would
• 42:06
  give anything for in one of these
• 42:08
  Nintendo games to have somebody come out
• 42:10
  and be like, "So in our last trailer we
• 42:12
  made it this way because we were trying
• 42:13
  to Yeah, that'd be so cool.
• 42:15
  Oh my god, it would be so like an actual
• 42:16
  learning opportunity. Like you would
• 42:18
  learn something you didn't already know.
• 42:19
  Did they do that? Am I crazy? I
• 42:22
  I feel like they did something like that
• 42:24
  with Tears of the Kingdom at some point.
• 42:25
  I think every so often you get one of
• 42:27
  these previously Iwata Asks now the kind
• 42:29
  of
• 42:31
  and they they they talk about stuff like
• 42:32
  that every now and then. So it's
• 42:34
  something that like has been flirted
• 42:36
  with, but I don't think has been like
• 42:37
  formalized. Yeah, cuz it was
• 42:40
  With With Tears of the Kingdom it was
• 42:41
  they were showing off the building
• 42:41
  mechanic and they were like in the last
• 42:43
  trailer you saw that there were all
• 42:43
  these vehicles that you were using. And
• 42:45
  it's like and here's how you do that.
• 42:46
  Yeah.
• 42:47
  But yeah, no, it's it's I think like
• 42:49
  this idea of
• 42:50
  hey like these are marketing beats,
• 42:52
  right? Trailers are marketing beats. And
• 42:54
  there's nothing wrong with that.
• 42:55
  Cuz you got to market your game. But
• 42:57
  it's like
• 42:57
  >> But a lot of work and intention goes
• 42:58
  into it.
• 42:59
  >> Yes, and then we but they're so dis-
• 43:01
  they're so disposable like Yes, they
• 43:03
  are. Like okay, yeah, maybe we watch a
• 43:05
  trailer for this game and like maybe we
• 43:06
  need to like actually like milk it and
• 43:08
  like show off like what we were doing
• 43:10
  with this trailer, you know.
• 43:12
  >> Man.
• 43:13
  And it could be there for people who are
• 43:14
  interested and the people who aren't
• 43:15
  just got get to see it and you know, pop
• 43:17
  off for the Naughty Dog logo or the
• 43:19
  Nintendo logo or whatever, you know.
• 43:21
  Because even if like even if like that
• 43:23
  one Zelda trailer people felt it wasn't
• 43:25
  indicative of the game, it was a good
• 43:27
  trailer.
• 43:28
  Sure, yeah. I think and I think like
• 43:30
  maybe
• 43:31
  being incisive and talking about why
• 43:33
  that was and how they were able to
• 43:34
  achieve that, I think it's like an
• 43:36
  interesting conversation. It is. Cuz
• 43:38
  there's like there's like a little art
• 43:39
  making onto itself there. Yeah. And
• 43:41
  yeah, man, cool. Are we going to get
• 43:43
  roasted alive in the comments from
• 43:45
  people being like this is a thing that
• 43:46
  is like super popular? I don't think it
• 43:48
  is because you know, we're Not in the
• 43:50
  way that I'm imagining. Yeah, same. Not
• 43:52
  in the way I'm imagining it, I don't
• 43:53
  think. Yeah. I think people do trailer
• 43:55
  breakdowns like all the time, but
• 43:57
  they're but they're not focused on like
• 43:58
  the craft. They're right. It's It's like
• 44:00
  surface level again. Just like hey, in
• 44:02
  the background you saw the flower guy
• 44:03
  from Mario Wonder. Well, he's sticking
• 44:05
  around. You're like all right. Well,
• 44:06
  I also think that maybe there was like
• 44:08
  an era and maybe this is just totally
• 44:10
  vibes based, so excuse me. I think there
• 44:12
  was an era in gaming where people were
• 44:15
  doing trailer breakdowns a little bit
• 44:17
  more like
• 44:19
  slowly or carefully and now I I feel
• 44:22
  like the
• 44:24
  we we like blow by announcements now and
• 44:27
  just like get straight to the take or
• 44:29
  something. Like I don't know.
• 44:30
  >> Do you think it's because I mean well
• 44:31
  you know, getting straight to the take,
• 44:33
  you know, if you want to hear more about
• 44:34
  that you know,
• 44:36
  go to our Um you listen to that that
• 44:38
  discussion with Geo, but I I think part
• 44:41
  of it has to do with the fact that like
• 44:43
  and again, this is also vibes based. So
• 44:46
  maybe someone can do the math or maybe
• 44:47
  I'll do the math about like how many
• 44:50
  trailers are shown a year
• 44:53
  now? Like I'm I'm I'm talking about like
• 44:54
  major gaming showcases, whether those
• 44:56
  are State of Plays, Nintendo Directs,
• 44:58
  Summer Game Fest showcases, you know,
• 44:59
  whatever else Gamescom, Opening Night
• 45:01
  Live stuff. Like how many like are we
• 45:03
  seeing more video game trailers than
• 45:04
  ever before? And I think the answer is
• 45:05
  yes. Cuz it used to just be E3, right?
• 45:07
  And then now every you know, Ubisoft
• 45:09
  doing it's Ubisoft Direct for Assassin's
• 45:11
  Creed re-sync.
• 45:12
  >> trailers than ever before? What is
• 45:14
  interesting I think
• 45:17
  it it has to be. Once a month, once
• 45:19
  every two months there is a thing that
• 45:20
  people like you got to watch this
• 45:22
  showcase because there's trailers.
• 45:24
  It also feels like there's been a
• 45:25
  democratization of marketing channels.
• 45:28
  So like now you can just kind of throw
• 45:30
  your stuff up on YouTube and you can get
• 45:32
  some motion out of it or whatever. So
• 45:34
  yeah, whereas maybe there was a time
• 45:36
  where it was like you know, this is this
• 45:38
  is now many years ago, but like pre the
• 45:41
  kind of ubiquity of social media and
• 45:43
  YouTube and all of that stuff.
• 45:44
  >> was just on E3, right? It was just like
• 45:46
  well, here's all of the developers and
• 45:47
  so like we have these showcases and you
• 45:49
  can watch all these showcases. And then
• 45:50
  I think it's as Nintendo pulled out and
• 45:52
  was like well, no, we're just doing our
• 45:53
  Directs cuz they obviously you know,
• 45:55
  when the you know, what you're saying
• 45:56
  about YouTube is is like hey, we can
• 45:58
  just make these ourselves and we don't
• 45:59
  need to spend the money to be at this
• 46:01
  you know, trade show whatever. Like
• 46:03
  Before we wrap things up.
• 46:04
  >> Yeah.
• 46:05
  An additional little comment slightly
• 46:07
  related to this conversation. Please.
• 46:09
  Something that frustrates me in those
• 46:10
  We're Now listen, I'm kind of hoping
• 46:12
  that we get a Nintendo Direct like this
• 46:13
  week or next week or something. Okay.
• 46:15
  But um something that frustrates me. So
• 46:18
  if you do if you do one of these shows,
• 46:19
  I know you listen.
• 46:21
  Heed my words.
• 46:22
  Something Something that frustrates me
• 46:24
  about those like
• 46:26
  we're going to review the Nintendo
• 46:27
  Direct shows
• 46:29
  is that I feel too often and I've and
• 46:31
  I've already mentioned this a couple of
• 46:32
  times. It is a review of the list of
• 46:34
  announcements from the show.
• 46:36
  >> Yeah. Yeah.
• 46:37
  Please. Please, for the love of God,
• 46:40
  give give a little nod about the order
• 46:43
  of announcements. Dude, that's the thing
• 46:45
  is like the pacing of the of a thing
• 46:47
  >> the person, the things that they say and
• 46:49
  how they say them. Give me a little
• 46:50
  because you can have a presentation that
• 46:53
  is done well, full of garbage games that
• 46:56
  know that you don't care about. But like
• 46:58
  oh, the the presentation was well
• 46:59
  produced. Those stupid Xbox
• 47:01
  presentations where they have the
• 47:02
  developers in their office walking
• 47:04
  slow-mo to the camera. [laughter]
• 47:06
  Yeah. And it's like and it's like just
• 47:07
  self-importance, you know, to the nth
• 47:11
  degree. It's like this is And then dude,
• 47:13
  and then they then they read these lines
• 47:15
  that are so obviously scripted as if
• 47:17
  it's like we get access to these people.
• 47:19
  We're in their offices. It's so real.
• 47:21
  It's so well produced. And then they go
• 47:24
  I'm reading the back of the box. Yep.
• 47:26
  >> And it's like [ __ ] bro. It's like come
• 47:28
  on, don't tell me that shit's good. So I
• 47:30
  don't know. I would like a little bit
• 47:31
  more attention paid to the to like the
• 47:34
  production of it. Yeah. production, was
• 47:37
  it good? Like outside of the game
• 47:38
  announcements. Just a little just a
• 47:39
  little bit. That's my that's my one bone
• 47:41
  to 100% too cuz it's also like hey, for
• 47:43
  me like my main problem with those like
• 47:46
  Geoff Keighley shows or like among other
• 47:47
  things, whatever, is like
• 47:49
  hey, these are paced poorly because
• 47:51
  they're too long. Right? Like like you
• 47:53
  just like the the pacing of these things
• 47:55
  just does not fit the length of them.
• 47:58
  And
• 48:00
  I think that's why a lot of people don't
• 48:02
  like them among other reasons again, but
• 48:04
  like
• 48:04
  >> Geoff Keighley never does that drives me
• 48:05
  crazy? Uh
• 48:07
  please.
• 48:08
  Okay, you ever like
• 48:10
  This is like an old cable television
• 48:12
  thing, but it's like after the break
• 48:15
  we're going to talk about this story.
• 48:17
  >> Oh, yeah, yeah. Of of like
• 48:18
  >> And then that's the thing that they
• 48:19
  shout out.
• 48:20
  It ends up being like one of the last
• 48:21
  things that they talk about, but just
• 48:23
  like they're being a little like Hey,
• 48:25
  we're talking about The Witcher. Witcher
• 48:26
  4 is going to be here. Like what?
• 48:28
  >> Yeah, or or just like name the developer
• 48:30
  or say something so that in that
• 48:32
  interregnum of time you are actually
• 48:34
  like cash you know, caching in on me
• 48:37
  going
• 48:38
  Wait, what So what do you What do you
• 48:39
  guys think that is? I'm talking to my
• 48:40
  chat. I'm going wait, what do we think
• 48:41
  that is? Wait, what do you think You
• 48:43
  know, there's a couple of announcements
• 48:44
  I don't care about, but now I'm filling
• 48:45
  the time going wait, do you think
• 48:46
  they're going to show the blah blah blah
• 48:47
  blah. Like why don't you like Has nobody
• 48:49
  ever brought this up? Like is this a
• 48:51
  Like I don't know. There's stuff like
• 48:52
  that that I'm like we could we could
• 48:54
  zhuzh this up a little bit, I think.
• 48:55
  Geoff Keighley, give me a call. We had
• 48:57
  we had that episode about like how to
• 48:59
  fix the Game Awards or whatever. And it
• 49:01
  was like And what I like about that is
• 49:02
  it's like not the [ __ ] that everyone is
• 49:04
  like You got to get rid of You got to
• 49:06
  get rid of all the ads.
• 49:08
  No, that's If we we're just accepting
• 49:10
  that this is what this is how can we you
• 49:12
  know, help like you know, like zhuzh
• 49:13
  this up and like Zhuzh it up a little
• 49:15
  bit. Get a little theatrical with it.
• 49:17
  Put on a little show, you know?
• 49:18
  >> Yeah. Here's the thing. Jeff, at this
• 49:21
  point you have to do a dance number. You
• 49:24
  Jeff, you have to be involved with the
• 49:25
  dance number cuz they they did the
• 49:26
  hallway thing and it was great. But like
• 49:28
  Walk out on stage. Do a little spin. Do
• 49:30
  a little spin. Everyone will love it.
• 49:32
  Everyone. Yes. I don't understand how
• 49:35
  how the show has not ever started with
• 49:37
  like
• 49:38
  spotlight he's like hanging off
• 49:40
  something. Do you know what I mean?
• 49:42
  Yes. Yes. He Could [laughter] you
• 49:45
  imagine he comes down a pole like a
• 49:46
  fireman? Yeah, THAT'D BE SO GOOD. COME
• 49:48
  ON. He ziplines in. Come on now.
• 49:51
  Have a little fun.
• 49:52
  Do a little OH MY GOD, IT'D BE SO GOOD.
• 49:54
  Holy [ __ ]
• 49:55
  How do we even get here? Good pod. Good
• 49:58
  pod. You know who I like You know who I
• 50:00
  like hearing from? The same way I like
• 50:02
  hearing from Nintendo for Nintendo
• 50:03
  directs and and whatever else. I love
• 50:04
  hearing from the critical air nation.
• 50:06
  These are people who've already signed
• 50:08
  up on patreon.com/criticalerror.
• 50:11
  These are people who are already going
• 50:12
  to be able to hear our again just really
• 50:14
  really great conversation we had with
• 50:16
  Geo from from Polygon.
• 50:18
  Um
• 50:19
  just for $5 and up you get access to
• 50:22
  that episode and our entire library of
• 50:24
  bonus pods. I really also liked um
• 50:26
  our discussion about the Mario movie. I
• 50:28
  thought that was like a really really
• 50:29
  solid one
• 50:30
  um in recent memory. Um but I would like
• 50:32
  to give a special shout out to the
• 50:34
  members of the Jake and Peter tier. This
• 50:35
  is the highest tier on our Patreon. I
• 50:37
  would like to say thank you to Andrew
• 50:39
  Bullcar, Evan Snee, and Robert Quesada.
• 50:42
  Truly, thank you so much for helping us
• 50:44
  and supporting us. Um we're really
• 50:46
  excited for the stuff that we're going
• 50:47
  to make at like Summer Game Fest and and
• 50:49
  things like that and it just straight up
• 50:50
  wouldn't be possible without
• 50:52
  without your support. So yeah, thank you
• 50:54
  so much. Truly.
• 50:56
  And of course every week for the members
• 50:58
  of the critical air royalty we make a
• 51:00
  special sound shouting them out thanking
• 51:02
  them for their support. Let's play that
• 51:04
  sound. Shin, Alex Sims, Cole, Connor
• 51:09
  Truelove,
• 51:11
  Mayro, Danny Disaster, Jacob Richter,
• 51:15
  Thick Dick Mystic, Jared Kuzina, Andrew
• 51:18
  Bullcar, Nonexistent,
• 51:21
  Mitch Dyer, Pinky Oats, Sam Woods, Ansel
• 51:26
  Trait, Kale Chow, James Pierre Reed,
• 51:30
  Evan Snee, Robert Quesada. You've
• 51:33
  written something for us every week.
• 51:35
  We do a
• 51:36
  pre-written piece and I'm excited to
• 51:38
  hear what you you have this week. Yes.
• 51:40
  Let's jump right in. Please.
• 51:44
  The windowsill is covered in plants that
• 51:47
  are not mine.
• 51:49
  I am supposed to water them.
• 51:51
  I've never known how much water things
• 51:52
  need to survive except for I know the
• 51:55
  amounts for myself.
• 51:57
  Well,
• 51:58
  at least I pretend to. I have a bottle.
• 52:01
  There is a light green pitcher that I
• 52:03
  keep in the kitchen. That is what I fill
• 52:04
  with water. I truck it upstairs into my
• 52:06
  bedroom with the windowsill with too
• 52:09
  many plants
• 52:10
  then back down to the kitchen.
• 52:12
  I wonder if one day I'll look back and
• 52:14
  wish I hadn't made so many trips up the
• 52:16
  stairs or if I'll decide that this was
• 52:19
  the sort of thing that a man is just
• 52:21
  supposed to do without even thinking
• 52:23
  about it.
• 52:25
  The plants are plants that I was holding
• 52:27
  for a friend
• 52:29
  except
• 52:30
  she died. So they are mine now.
• 52:34
  For my own water I need a big hearty
• 52:36
  glass in the morning and at least two
• 52:38
  more glasses throughout the day. I also
• 52:40
  need a filled glass on my nightstand
• 52:42
  before I go to sleep although that's
• 52:44
  more of a precaution than a need or
• 52:46
  maybe it is a need that I just don't
• 52:47
  want to admit.
• 52:49
  I have never sipped from it once.
• 52:51
  Still, what if I were to wake up in the
• 52:53
  night and I was thirsty? What if I
• 52:55
  didn't have a glass to gulp down? I
• 52:57
  would have to get my cold stupid body up
• 52:59
  and march downstairs and fill a glass in
• 53:00
  the kitchen and at that point I'd be
• 53:02
  wide awake from the light and the walk
• 53:03
  and I probably wouldn't get back to
• 53:05
  sleep and who knows what my brain would
• 53:07
  fill up with then? Probably nothing
• 53:09
  good. Probably everything that I'm
• 53:11
  supposed to be keeping out.
• 53:14
  There was a night that Elizabeth and I
• 53:15
  didn't sleep at all.
• 53:17
  It was the night that we camped on my
• 53:18
  parents' back porch.
• 53:20
  Does it count as camping when you sneak
• 53:21
  back inside to grab cookies in the
• 53:23
  night? We we thought so.
• 53:25
  We were just kids then. By which I mean
• 53:26
  we were 15 and convinced that doing
• 53:28
  something halfway counted as doing it
• 53:30
  all the way.
• 53:32
  Things were still so funny that you
• 53:33
  might fall on the floor or gasp for air
• 53:36
  and not care what you looked like.
• 53:38
  Nothing is that funny now
• 53:41
  or if it is I just can't let it be.
• 53:44
  We wanted to have spent a whole night
• 53:46
  outside like it was some sort of life
• 53:48
  trophy more experience for having
• 53:50
  endured something small and calling it
• 53:52
  big.
• 53:56
  Elizabeth lives in Rhode Island now
• 53:58
  with her partner
• 54:00
  and the baby that their friend Sammy
• 54:04
  carried for them.
• 54:05
  We don't talk much except for when one
• 54:07
  of us comments on the other's Instagram
• 54:09
  story and when we text each other happy
• 54:11
  birthday on our birthdays obviously.
• 54:13
  There are whole versions of each other
• 54:15
  that we will never see again and I think
• 54:16
  we both understand that this is how it
• 54:18
  goes or at least this is how it's
• 54:20
  supposed to go.
• 54:22
  You know, sometimes I just think it's
• 54:23
  the pits being a man.
• 54:26
  I don't feel especially manly.
• 54:28
  I feel like something soft that learned
• 54:30
  how to hold a shape
• 54:32
  and that's because to be a man you're
• 54:33
  always threatened with the fact that
• 54:34
  you're supposed to be a certain kind of
• 54:36
  man and to be that kind of man you have
• 54:38
  to shave off a lot of whatever doesn't
• 54:40
  fit. You keep what looks right from the
• 54:42
  outside, you discard the rest.
• 54:45
  I cannot be a too unsure.
• 54:47
  I cannot let something like fear sit
• 54:50
  plainly on my face.
• 54:52
  Think of all the jokes that I never let
• 54:54
  myself finish because they might land
• 54:56
  wrong. Think of all the times I said
• 54:57
  nothing at all. Think of all the steady
• 54:59
  nods, the all rights, the I've got its
• 55:02
  that have come out of my mouth instead.
• 55:05
  I wonder what the plants think of me.
• 55:07
  Are they grateful for the man who
• 55:08
  approaches them with a green pitcher
• 55:09
  every 5 days? Do they have to stain for
• 55:11
  me either for the fact that I don't
• 55:13
  water them as much as they'd like or
• 55:15
  because they've seen me lie on my bed
• 55:17
  staring at the ceiling when I'm supposed
• 55:18
  to be getting dressed or try to balance
• 55:20
  my mug of coffee on my head or pick my
• 55:22
  nose just a few times? Do they also miss
• 55:27
  Alan?
• 55:31
  Or maybe their little plant hearts work
• 55:32
  more mysteriously than human hearts.
• 55:36
  Maybe they don't even exist on this
• 55:37
  plane and don't even recognize my
• 55:39
  presence. Maybe they exist on the plane
• 55:42
  of feeling sunlight warm up their cold
• 55:44
  stems and that is it. Maybe when it's my
• 55:46
  turn to die if I've kept the plants
• 55:48
  alive they'll put in a good word for me
• 55:51
  with whatever keeps the score and I can
• 55:52
  go to that plane too.
• 55:54
  I could be reborn something small and
• 55:57
  taken care of and my caretaker might be
• 55:59
  kind enough to know exactly how much
• 56:01
  water I need
• 56:03
  without asking me to say it out loud.
• 56:06
  Thank you.
• 56:10
  You make me want to punch a hole in the
• 56:12
  drywall.
• 56:13
  >> [laughter]
• 56:14
  >> I mean dude wow wow. I mean that was
• 56:16
  just fantastic.
• 56:19
  I I think like the the first place that
• 56:21
  like really really struck me is just
• 56:23
  this idea of like
• 56:26
  sometimes like you know people pass away
• 56:28
  and and you have their stuff. Yeah. And
• 56:31
  like
• 56:32
  I guess it's mine now, you know.
• 56:36
  You know, if you'll excuse me for being
• 56:37
  a little morbid. I was thinking
• 56:39
  this weekend
• 56:41
  I I helped my sister move to
• 56:42
  Philadelphia right by you.
• 56:45
  And
• 56:47
  I was just like she has two cats and so
• 56:49
  I have never really spent any time with
• 56:51
  these cats
• 56:52
  but I drove the the U-Haul from here to
• 56:55
  to Philly and she took one of her cats
• 56:58
  and I had the other cat in the U-Haul
• 56:59
  and I was just chilling with his name is
• 57:01
  Funky Daniel.
• 57:03
  So I was hanging out with Funky and
• 57:06
  I was like
• 57:08
  damn like
• 57:09
  again it's morbid. So I it's it's like a
• 57:11
  thought you don't want to have but I was
• 57:13
  like
• 57:14
  if you ever died who'd take care of your
• 57:15
  cats?
• 57:16
  You know what I mean? Like and then I
• 57:18
  then it extended to me it was like if I
• 57:20
  ever died
• 57:22
  I have a wife. What happens to her? Do
• 57:23
  you know what I mean? Like like it it
• 57:25
  just like goes in in all these
• 57:26
  directions and and I don't know like
• 57:27
  there's just something so simple about
• 57:28
  the idea of like
• 57:30
  they were not my plants but now I guess
• 57:32
  they're mine
• 57:33
  and I don't know there's something
• 57:35
  really poignant to me about that.
• 57:38
  Yeah, I think I just really wanted to
• 57:42
  at the start of this I just really
• 57:43
  wanted to write a piece about a man
• 57:45
  taking care of plants. Yeah. But it's
• 57:48
  it's so interesting how it goes Sorry,
• 57:49
  go on. No no no yeah I I think that's
• 57:51
  something that
• 57:52
  might not be questioned immediately but
• 57:55
  is like I don't know I've read a lot of
• 57:57
  novels by women and about women that
• 58:00
  have them taking care of plants.
• 58:02
  And I so there's there's like there's
• 58:04
  like a little thing in here about like
• 58:05
  masculinity and like taking care of
• 58:08
  yourself. But it's the whole [ __ ]
• 58:09
  though. Like that's the whole thing cuz
• 58:10
  then you know you go from talking about
• 58:11
  taking care of these plants to taking
• 58:12
  care of yourself in terms of drinking
• 58:14
  water. Right? And like gosh the thing
• 58:16
  about like like I bring the water to bed
• 58:18
  but I never have it but it's just in
• 58:20
  case I never have but just in case.
• 58:22
  Right?
• 58:22
  >> [laughter]
• 58:23
  >> But it's it's the small way that you
• 58:24
  take care of yourself that might be sort
• 58:26
  of obscuring the larger way that you
• 58:28
  might die. Right? Or maybe the the way
• 58:31
  that like the expectations of what it is
• 58:33
  to to sort of be the idea of like a
• 58:36
  masculine man
• 58:38
  is really difficult. And dude
• 58:41
  actually I liked this a lot. This was a
• 58:43
  fantastic piece um just cuz it's
• 58:44
  something I've been like wrestling with
• 58:46
  and thinking about and talking with with
• 58:48
  my wife about a lot lately. This idea of
• 58:51
  you know, we are in an era right now
• 58:53
  where we are very very
• 58:56
  quick to listen to the struggles of what
• 58:58
  it is like to be a woman. I think that's
• 59:00
  very good because of how long we have
• 59:02
  not been interested in having those
• 59:03
  conversations and that's great. Happy to
• 59:05
  have those conversations. Um but I think
• 59:07
  something
• 59:09
  else that's interesting is like
• 59:11
  I think there's the assumption that
• 59:14
  because we're interested in having those
• 59:15
  conversations now for women that we've
• 59:18
  actually been having those conversations
• 59:19
  about the issues of what it's like to be
• 59:21
  a man in the times you know before that.
• 59:25
  But I think we largely haven't. I mean
• 59:27
  maybe we have you know in certain
• 59:29
  circles and certain conversations or
• 59:30
  whatever but like
• 59:32
  I think there's an equally important
• 59:34
  conversation to be had about those same
• 59:36
  pressures of masculinity and patriarchy
• 59:38
  and stuff that get put on men.
• 59:40
  Um
• 59:41
  And this I think was just a fantastic
• 59:44
  like look at what that is in in a way
• 59:46
  that is like, you know, the small ways,
• 59:48
  you know?
• 59:49
  Yeah, and I think for me what's it
• 59:50
  what's important when talking about it
• 59:52
  is that like I was I was really just
• 59:53
  talking about me and I was really just
• 59:55
  talking about like I think I think
• 59:57
  something that maybe might be surprising
• 59:59
  to people is that a detail I let loose
• 1:00:02
  in this piece is like I have held back
• 1:00:05
  jokes before because of
• 1:00:08
  what I kind of this perceived sense of
• 1:00:11
  the jokes maybe harming my masculinity
• 1:00:13
  or the sense that others have it. And
• 1:00:15
  it's like the I think
• 1:00:17
  uh humor being working against
• 1:00:20
  masculinity is like
• 1:00:23
  I don't know if I've ever if I've ever
• 1:00:24
  read anybody write about that. And I and
• 1:00:26
  I think that that was something that
• 1:00:27
  like I was really compelled by that I'm
• 1:00:29
  maybe interested in writing about more
• 1:00:30
  in the future. But just this like um
• 1:00:34
  I don't know, the pose. Sometimes the
• 1:00:36
  the
• 1:00:38
  there's there's something that that like
• 1:00:41
  I I think as far as like men go, there's
• 1:00:43
  like a little bit of a of a feminization
• 1:00:46
  that that I've experienced in terms of
• 1:00:48
  like the the spectrum of manly men. Yes.
• 1:00:52
  And I've seen before how like
• 1:00:56
  this is going to sound crazy to people
• 1:00:57
  that haven't experienced it, but how
• 1:01:00
  um
• 1:01:01
  humor kind of plays into that. And there
• 1:01:03
  is a there is a kind of men that man
• 1:01:06
  that does not participate in like
• 1:01:08
  a certain level of joke making. Because
• 1:01:10
  it's like seen to be like emasculating
• 1:01:12
  or or something. Or or it's like like
• 1:01:14
  okay, well, you have your like manly men
• 1:01:16
  dudes who are like, you know, the
• 1:01:18
  epitome of masculinity. And then if you
• 1:01:21
  aren't that, you have to fall into
• 1:01:23
  another camp, but it's less manly than
• 1:01:25
  that. You know what I mean? And so it's
• 1:01:26
  like if you're if you're kind of a funny
• 1:01:27
  jokes guy, you do not get to fall into
• 1:01:30
  that first camp at all. And so it is it
• 1:01:32
  is like there's a certain level of yeah,
• 1:01:34
  like emasculation that kind of happens.
• 1:01:36
  And and that you sort of do to yourself
• 1:01:38
  by becoming this guy who again doesn't
• 1:01:40
  fit into this like well, I'm very
• 1:01:42
  serious, you know, no no jokes about me,
• 1:01:44
  you know, sort of person. And I think
• 1:01:47
  too is is like something that's
• 1:01:48
  important to me about joke making is
• 1:01:50
  like the sense of self-deprecation. And
• 1:01:52
  I think that I think that that is also
• 1:01:54
  something that is not masculine or like
• 1:01:57
  perceived like manly, you know? Cuz
• 1:01:58
  there's cuz there's vulnerability.
• 1:02:00
  Uh-huh. And so, you know, I don't know.
• 1:02:02
  There's some
• 1:02:03
  Yeah, there's some there's some stuff in
• 1:02:05
  there that I think is
• 1:02:07
  it's like it's like me just kind of like
• 1:02:09
  really scratching at something and just
• 1:02:10
  being like I
• 1:02:12
  I'm not going to get fully into this
• 1:02:13
  yet, but it's something that has
• 1:02:14
  occurred to me that I'm yeah.
• 1:02:16
  >> like like the through line of it though.
• 1:02:18
  Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Or like I
• 1:02:20
  think about
• 1:02:21
  you know, you talk about your friend who
• 1:02:23
  you know, you you you two camped on the
• 1:02:25
  porch or whatever. And then now, you
• 1:02:27
  know, like what a what a like
• 1:02:29
  close like intimate thing to do. You
• 1:02:31
  know what I mean? And you know, not
• 1:02:32
  intimate in like a romantic way or
• 1:02:33
  anything necessarily, but like um just
• 1:02:36
  like person to person like what a what a
• 1:02:37
  very intimate thing to do. And then now
• 1:02:39
  they live somewhere else and you have
• 1:02:41
  kind of a distant relationship where
• 1:02:42
  it's like you're not not friends
• 1:02:43
  anymore, but it's like I don't really
• 1:02:45
  know you that well anymore aside from
• 1:02:47
  just like, you know, hearting on
• 1:02:48
  Instagram stories or whatever. One of
• 1:02:50
  one of my Yeah, I I don't I don't
• 1:02:53
  I I don't reveal this stuff too often,
• 1:02:54
  but I think one of my favorite things
• 1:02:55
  about the piece is that that is not the
• 1:02:57
  friend who is dead.
• 1:02:58
  No, dude, I was waiting for it. I was
• 1:03:00
  waiting for it and it's not it's someone
• 1:03:01
  else. And it it's like
• 1:03:03
  >> Yeah. And and but like that's what I
• 1:03:04
  love though because I think that also
• 1:03:05
  again, like you're saying like well,
• 1:03:06
  it's not like this like grand thing
• 1:03:08
  about masculinity, but it's like I hear
• 1:03:11
  that and I'm like dude, that is what
• 1:03:12
  it's like though. You have these friends
• 1:03:13
  who just move away and you kind of don't
• 1:03:15
  know how to keep in contact because it's
• 1:03:16
  like
• 1:03:17
  the
• 1:03:18
  you know.
• 1:03:19
  >> the trick of the piece is that when I
• 1:03:20
  mention Elizabeth, you have been
• 1:03:23
  fooled and you have a relation she's
• 1:03:25
  dead. Yes. She's dead. She's dead to the
• 1:03:27
  reader. Yeah. And and I think that like
• 1:03:29
  that is the Of course I'm like kind of
• 1:03:31
  talking about the relationship, but then
• 1:03:33
  it's
• 1:03:34
  but she's not literally dead. Yeah, I
• 1:03:36
  don't know. There's something there's
• 1:03:36
  something there that I would that I'm
• 1:03:37
  like that's I think out of everything
• 1:03:39
  I'm like really attached to that. I was
• 1:03:40
  like, oh, that's a fun little I've never
• 1:03:42
  I've never done something like that
• 1:03:43
  before I don't think. So it was a it was
• 1:03:44
  a fun little trick in the text. Yeah.
• 1:03:46
  Yeah. Well, this was delightful, Jake.
• 1:03:48
  Thank you so much for sharing. Really
• 1:03:49
  really like this one. No, thank you.
• 1:03:50
  Great. Um hey, thank you so much for
• 1:03:53
  listening. patreon.com/criticalerror.
• 1:03:56
  If you want to subscribe on YouTube, you
• 1:03:57
  can do that for free. You can like this
• 1:03:59
  episode on YouTube for free. You can
• 1:04:00
  leave a comment, which is also free. If
• 1:04:02
  you are not interested in opening your
• 1:04:04
  wallets to join the critical error
• 1:04:05
  nation, which is totally fine. If you
• 1:04:07
  made it to the end of the episode, I
• 1:04:08
  would also like I would like to hear
• 1:04:10
  from you if there's anything that you're
• 1:04:11
  like, I would like to see Jake and Peter
• 1:04:13
  for Critical Error do this at Summer
• 1:04:16
  Game Fest. I would I would love to see
• 1:04:19
  them do this. I think that would be an
• 1:04:21
  awesome thing to read. I would love to
• 1:04:22
  know what people think. Yeah. And then
• 1:04:24
  we can like you know, we want to make
• 1:04:26
  stuff that people want to see. So
• 1:04:27
  Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. All right. We'll
• 1:04:29
  get to you next week.
• 1:04:30
  Bye.