The Rev 60 style seems more like a send-back to the weird 90s CGI movies shown on TVs at department stores. I think early 90s CGI is rife for retro exploiting, once we’ve moved beyond “8-bit” pixel art.
And the comments over at Vice are sadly predictable…
(Part of a series from the same folks who brought you Homestar Runner.)
Saying it looks like a weird 90s CGI doesn’t really help her argument, the PS1 was a 90s device.
I’m having a difficult time automatically associating “Your game looks like crap” with “MISOGYNY!!!111!!!1”
I’m not saying it can’t be, but no one’s work is above reproach.
I don’t think that was the original commentator’s point. I don’t think they meant to say that the new game COULD actually run on the old hardware. It is that something looks so bad that it looks like one could make something similar on the old hardware. That you had all the extra power, technology, and textures, and that is the best you could come up with.
Of course some times this is done on purpose to emulate 8 or 16 bit games or an older feel.
For the record, I have no opinion on this game, as I haven’t seen more than a single screen capture nor am I defending the commentators comments, which were at best rude.
Context. Have you heard of B. Wu before?
Yeah - it looks late-90s /style/ more than necessarily indicative of the console tech.
Maybe the troll should have said it looks like the pre-rendered CG cut-scenes from a PS1 game?
Yeah, it’s more that he lead off with suggesting she’s either not a game dev, or not a very good one, than the PS1 stuff. It’s just that Brianna decided to actually treat his technical comment like it was in good faith. It was interesting to me, but then I’ve been reading up on some of the tricks developers used on older hardware. And barely understanding it.
Oh yea??? Well I bet you just copied all that engineery stuff from a book! A book by a man! And you throw like a girl!
(My response to guys like this is, “sounds like you don’t like girls very much. Ever hooked up with a guy?”)
It’s maddening. You see a lot of that if you get really deep into how speedrunning works because runners are always abusing the corners that were cut.
I’m much more suited to coding text-based games on current generation computers where you can just blow processor cycles on nothing for the hell of it because the hardware is literally a million times more powerful than you need it to be.
I suppose if you believe all technology that existed in the 1990’s is equivalent, then this argument makes a lot of sense.
The SNES was a 1990’s device too. This game wouldn’t have run on one of those either.
Well, let me ask you this: do you suppose this person had never previously heard of Brianna Wu, and just coincidentally ran across content from the game she’s working on, and felt the need to suggest that she is not a real game developer? (By the way, that’s what he actually said. He didn’t simply say “Your game looks like crap,” he suggested that because he doesn’t like the way it looks, she therefore does not qualify as a game developer.)
Also: when you put the number one in the middle of a bunch of exclamation points, it makes you look like a jackass.
I was rooting for the game after the inspiring trolley-slaying, but I can’t help but be visually underwhelmed…
Of course, there’s still time for this game to change; it may look better in motion; it may include content none of these screenshots even hint at; hell, it may be the next Bubsy Visits The James Turrell Retrospective.
Before attributing behaviour to misogyny, racism or anything else, it’s at least a good idea to apply a “back translation” on the event. If Wu had been a man, and somebody had insulted their work on Twitter, who would have even remarked upon it other than perhaps calling them out as a troll and moving on?
I also note today that Kanye West has been accused of misogyny for insulting Taylor Swift in a song lyric. Admittedly, the insult did involve the words “have sex”, but otherwise it was a traditional rap insult of the kind that (male and female) rappers have traded for decades in their work.
You may say this is bullshit - that women and minorities are de facto disadvantaged, so merely calling this into question is wrong. Discrimination is most damaging when the victim cannot change the basis of that discrimination, or whose life choices are objectively irrelevant to the person who discriminates against them.
It is of course true that the troll may have had in mind the fact that Wu is a woman when he posted his shit. But you can have any random ad hominem hatred in your mind about someone when you insult them. You might not like people who are privately educated, bald, or live in Baltimore too. But whether that is the reason for the insult has to be another matter entirely. This is a fundamental point of morality. Not to recognise it is practically the definition of moral tyranny, thought crime and insidious oppression.
Oppose discrimination when you can show it to have occurred, not when you think it might have occurred. Nobody should get a free pass just because of their gender, race or any other aspect.
Since it is iOS, I am guessing the Apple App store?
Before writing 5 paragraphs in defense of a hypothetical straw argument of your own making, it’s at least a good idea to check out who you are defending.
“weird 90s CGI movies shown on TVs at department stores” is a completely different style than '90s console graphics, though. You might as well compare the graphics of Super Mario Brothers and Tron because they were both computer-generated in the '80s.
It’s an iOS game, not a console game. There’s maybe 5 iOS games with highly developed graphics, and not a ton more with good design compared to the market as a whole. Does it look as good as infinity blade? No. Should it? No.
Even if it was a PC game (it was kickstarted for a conversion) it’s a small studio producing the game and graphics is literally the weakest insult you can make on a game. Gamers are usually shit at evaluating “graphics” anyways, for example this article from BB a while back.
In particular, the original article has this gif showing the average gamer’s ability to judge graphics (reviews saying the “HD” on the right is better):
