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Episode 52: “$23,743″
I quit the Team Sportscast Network. They fell into oblivion. I walked away from GotGame.com. They were bought up by a rival who only wanted a domain that was spelled correctly. (And apparently Chris Bores.) I had abandoned the AAA Network. They collapsed. Will this trend continue for Anime 3000?
Some clues may be found within the podcast.
Matt and I also respond to some of your feedback with a topic far more interesting than the above: Dinosaurs!
PROMOS: I Just Had a Terrible Thought and Method to Madness
29 comments
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Tim
February 15, 2013 at 1:12 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Haven’t finished the whole podcast, but Kevin pussed out during the ice storm? Bah, that was barely anything.
Also, if we’re going to get Norse ‘end of world’ allusions going, while Ragnafrost is a catchy portmanteua, why not go whole hog and call it Fimblvetr?
Relevant to the show notes: link to irategamersucks.blogspot.com
Sean Ryan
February 15, 2013 at 2:03 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Nah, I’m the puss. I’d be the one out driving in it. Not that I was worried about losing control of my own vehicle, but the I-40 is plagued by assholes who cower at magical water that falls from the sky. Even if there was no risk of anyone hitting me, I’d be stuck for hours behind idiots who did crash and the hundreds of others who rubberneck. Fuck that noise.
I wish I could take credit for the term! I kinda stole that from William.
VichusSmith
February 16, 2013 at 4:59 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I know that the answer to this is likely “No, fuck Cody!” but did you listen to the most recent The Other Side (most recent as in the one that came out around the same time that you left A3K)? Spoilers: you are referenced in the first, I’d say, 5 minutes.
Sean Ryan
February 17, 2013 at 1:15 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Well, the more accurate answer is, “No, not normally interested in his podcast!”
But if you want an official response to the reference to leaving A3K, well… I dunno what Cody really thinks about it or what he’s even been told about it. BUT! Not really worried about it. I’m rollin’ on. Ours isn’t even the first podcast to jump the A3K ship to set sail for our own seas…
VichusSmith
February 18, 2013 at 2:15 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I think it’s pretty clear how he felt about your decision in that podcast.
I don’t know the history of A3k, so I don’t know who’s left, and for what reason. Was the previous departure amicable?
Sean Ryan
February 18, 2013 at 2:30 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
From what I’ve heard, SHAFT did not leave on pleasant terms and The Reverse Thieves left for mostly the same reason that we did; meaning they wanted to branch out on their own.
VichusSmith
February 18, 2013 at 2:45 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh yeah, Reverse Thieves! I listen to them. I’m stupid.
oxytoxin
February 16, 2013 at 7:48 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Are you guys going to talk about the travesty that is Skullgirls, whose entire team was laid off, whose creators hired a porn artist (who drew hentai of a sixteen year old girl ejaculating with her hair) to work for them and is now trying to scam money-150000 dollars-for a DLC character? The same laughing stock of the FGC? And perhaps why it failed as hard as it did? There could be a whole episode dedicated to the game’s awful creators and awful, basement-dweller fan base…
Sean Ryan
February 17, 2013 at 1:08 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
We might bring it up, but I kinda liked Skullgirls. Bummer that it all fell apart, but I appreciate what they were going for. I think Kevin also kinda liked it, but I’ll see if either he or Matt have anything to say about them.
VichusSmith
February 17, 2013 at 6:03 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Cody Baier doesn’t like it. I mean, actively doesn’t, and is now keeping track of their wherabouts.
Tim
February 17, 2013 at 2:45 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
It’s a shame the team all got laid off, because I thought the demo of it looked fairly promising.
Also, how in the name of fuck do they expect to get that much cash for a single DLC character?
Matthew Kraft
February 17, 2013 at 12:44 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
First, creative teams get laid off often after a project has completed, leaving a small skeleton team to work on things like patches and DLC. This is not news, and it is nothing NEW in the industry.
Second, I can give two shits about a “porn” artist doing work for Skullgirls. Reality check, if you are an artist, you take the commissions that are given to you because they pay MONEY. Even herald Final Fantasy artist Yoshitaka Amano has done Hentai and porn games (look up Maten). Don’t get me started on artists like Shiro Masamune, who’s portfolio is both disturbing and rife with inappropriate imagery, but I can guarantee that if game studio/dev would LOVE to have Masamune do character design and artwork for their game.
Third, welcome to the age of the fundrasier/kickstarter. $150,000 is not a lot to ask to pay programmers, artists, software costs, and the cost to publish. This is not the first fan funded project, it won’t be the last. Kickstarters are a great way to raise money for projects that fans want to see. Tim Schafer, pissed off with publishing studios like EA/Activision, decided to take Double Fine studios to Kickstarter and raised $3.3 million for his new project.
Lastly, failed? I would argue that it did not do as well as one of larger tournament games, like Arcade Edition or Marvel 3, but it didn’t quite fail as “hard” as you think it did. Skullgirls will be at Evo 2013 with a total prize purse of $78,000 dedicated to the Skullgirls tournament alone. That’s pretty good for a game that “failed.” Hell, even SEGA won’t pony up that amount of prize money for their flagship fighter.
VichusSmith
February 17, 2013 at 7:48 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Who’s this Oxytoxin dude? Sounds like he’s been copy/pasting from Cody’s twitter feed.
Tim
February 17, 2013 at 9:40 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Looking into it further, while they’ve not actually started the funding drive yet, from what I can see, their goal is to try and get funding for all the characters with the drive. The one character is their ‘make it or break it’ goal, and they want to add in a whole new roster, and plan on giving out at least one character for free for the first three months if they get funding.
ZeonicFreak
February 20, 2013 at 1:07 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’m pretty sure people who have worked in porn have had great careers. Sylvester Stallone is one of them (who I have heard will admit he was in a porno than him admitting he was ever in Death Race 2000. Great movie BTW).
Also, the animation staff/animators who did the Cream Lemon series back in the 80′s have made it in the anime industry. Shirow is a great artist, its just his art in question lately is messed up. I am sure if you give him something to focus on, and a “punch list” of do’s and don’ts to work on, he could make something fantastic.
VichusSmith
February 20, 2013 at 2:50 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
To be fair, Stallone’s “career” in porn was over as soon as it started. If you want to talk a career in porn, let’s talk the little sister from Family Matters. She started off legit, then went to the dark side. She was someone who shouldn’t have been in porn, but I don’t hold her lower than someone who had a “pure” acting career.
Sean Ryan
February 20, 2013 at 3:17 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I don’t remember what your point was supposed to be. Though I don’t think you do either.
VichusSmith
February 20, 2013 at 4:47 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
People in porn. Respect. Something something. Art.
Sean Ryan
February 20, 2013 at 3:16 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Word the fuck UP on Sly Stallone!
There are some artists who are very open about making money doing porn comics (like Josh Lesnick) and it doesn’t make me enjoy their non-porn stuff less. Sometimes you gotta separate the art and the artist.
Matthew Kraft
February 26, 2013 at 10:18 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
So, that $150,000 goal was made in less than 24 hours. Man, that’s pretty fucking good for a failed game.
VichusSmith
February 27, 2013 at 10:34 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Yeah, the Cody Baiers of the world are impotently shaking their fists. Still a month to go…
oxytoxin
February 17, 2013 at 9:20 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
They are also trying to raise enough money for a sequel, or something like that, and get a newgrounds voice actor to play one of the DLC characters. I’m not quite sure how anyone could like a game in which the first cutscene involves a girl getting groped and having her panties show just as she-no wait, her male companion technically-beats up the attacker. Or a game that claims to have empowered women, but whose last cutscene involves a playboy bunny sucking up to her (supposedly father-like) sugar-daddy. At least anyone except the creator. It’s just one’s guys “boob-and-panty fetish plus anime interests plus favorite video game references: the game.” It’s stuff like this that grabs the attention of Anita Sarkeesian, who may as well compare it to Sucker Punch.
Or maybe this game is what Scott Pilgrim was to the movies; it’s not for anyone except some niche or clique.
Matthew Kraft
February 17, 2013 at 12:45 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Stop repeating Cody B fanboy tripe and learn to think for yourself.
oxytoxin
February 17, 2013 at 9:51 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Sorry, I forgot to mention that the actual developers of Skullgirls implied that Melee was not a real fighting game on twitter and that most people that play SG do not do so unless “to win”…that is if it’s not to jerk off to anime girls. One developer, Bartholomew, says that SG is not sexist because a woman animated the breasts and panties, Mike Z was described by a game artist as “an a**hole who thought he was god’s gift to women,” and Alex Ahad (the artist) has drawn a picture of Lara Croft about to get raped, complete with the ball-gag in her mouth. How can somebody like something made by these kind of people? But this is the FGC after all, I guess, though that’s not to say anyone in here is an awful person. Maybe most people do not mind because this stuff is everywhere…
Matthew Kraft
February 17, 2013 at 12:51 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Jesus Titty-Fucking Christ, are you going to comment on our episode of the podcast? Right, no, instead you are pushing your own agenda. I am not a fan of Skullgirls. I have never played Skullgirls. I would not be the right person to comment on Skullgirls. Plus, anything that we would have to say about Skullgirls would not change your thoughts… er… I mean Cody B’s thoughts on the game.
I covered the artist thing in my first post. Go look up any “respected” Japanese artist/character designers and take in ALL the nasty shit that is buried in any one of their portfolios.
Sean Ryan
February 17, 2013 at 1:07 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh, man… The dude who does Blade of the Immortal? That guy has some SICK guro shit out there. But then you can also now find books with collections of Superman’s co-creator’s bondage artwork as well as erotica drawn by Dan DeCarlo, who gave Archie his modern image.
VichusSmith
February 17, 2013 at 7:56 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Even if a guy was doing nothing but hentai before he got his first PG gig, why does it matter that he’s a hentai artist? It’s just good art and bad art, right? I don’t get this guy’s beef, nor Cody’s beef on a hentai artist, like drawing naked people is the greatest sin ever committed in art.
I can get people just not liking a game, but to hate on them for who they hire, and how they’re “begging” for money is ridiculous.
I found the Smash Bros tweet from the Skullgirls people.
link to twitter.com
What, nobody can smack talk, ever? Geez. Sensitive.
VichusSmith
February 17, 2013 at 7:58 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh, and, BTW, the money raised for this EVO thing is going to breast cancer research. What horrible people behind Skull Girls!
Tim
February 17, 2013 at 9:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh, yeah, both of those guys were actually doing the porn work DURING their runs on those comics, too, if memory serves. Porn and artists go together like cereal and milk.