Extra Credits
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Extra Credits is an ongoing webseries presented by James Portnow, Daniel Floyd, and Allison Theus. The series of videos discuss issues pertinent to video games, particularly: discussing issues concerning the development of videos games, addressing the legitimacy of video games as an art form, and creating intellectual discourse on important issues in the video game community. The show is currently published on PATV, a wesbseries distribution channel hosted by the creators of Penny Arcade.
Background
The series began in 2008 when Floyd created several video-presentations for his art history and media theory classes at Savannah College of Art and Design. Floyd states that the style of his presentations was "loosely modeled after Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw's Zero Punctuation reviews." [1]. Soon thereafter, the series expanded to publication on Edge, and James Portnow was brought in as a writer. One episode also features journalist Leigh Alexander from Gamasutra in a discussion about video games and their female audience. [2] In July, 2010, an announcement was made that Extra Credits would be a featured series for The Escapist[3], where weekly episodes of the series began, as well as the introduction of their new full-time artist, Theus.
In May, 2011, Extra Credits hosted the first annual Extra Credits Innovations Awards at Login 2011, and award series meant to praise developers who were willing to take risks and push the boundaries of video games as a medium. [4][5] Awards were intentionally nonstandard compared to other awards frequently awarded to other award series, focusing on ingenuity rather than success, including categories such as: Innovation in Game Design, Innovation in Narrative Delivery, Most Unbelievable Awesome Fun, Genre Buster Award, Positive Impact Innovator, LOGIN Special Award for Innovation in Multiplayer.[6]
Format
Extra Credits is written by Portnow, narrated by Floyd, and the art is made by Theus. Videos are presented in the style of a lecture hall, and address the topic of the week with "doodles" and random imagery from various sources on the internet, with a strong focus visual puns[7] and ironic counterpoint. The tone of the videos are generally light-hearted and often humourous, but always didactic, intended to educate the audience and begin to foster dialogue on the presented subject. Generally, the show is presented from the perspective of a game designer rather than the average gamer.
While Extra Credits discusses new topics every week as they apply to games, there are some topics which are more frequently addressed than others, including: poor narrative creation and level design; gamification, tangential learning, and gamifying education; sexuality in video games, and gender discrimination both within games and in the gaming community; and diversity in games (including gender, sexuality, and racial diversity). The show is frequently critical of the video game industry and Triple-A companies.[8] Extra Credits is also a big proponent of independent developers, although have frequently stated that they don't want to see only "art house" games either. "No one on this show wants every game to try to be gaming's Ullysses or even gaming's Blood Meridian. But we really would like to see a few more Mass Effect, Portals, Bioshocks, even Call of Duty 4's."[9]
Dispute with The Escapist
Around the end of July 2011, there was a dispute between The Escapist and Extra Credits. The dispute was over what the remains of a charity that was to pay for Extra Credits artist Allison Theus's surgery, and how it should be used. Portnow planned to create a game publishing label with the money, where the revenue would go directly into funding subsequent projects[10]. The Escapist stated the money should have been used to create more episodes of Extra Credits for The Escapist and to compensate Themis Media for donation incentives, such as premium memberships and T-shirts.[11]. As a result, Extra Credits broke ties with The Escapist,[12][13][14][15][16] and the show has since aired on Penny Arcade[17].
References
External links
