2d4chan - User contributions [en]

/pol/

2020-08-14T19:40:54Z

2600:1700:19C0:2760:248F:A983:A26A:96DD: Attempting a rewrite of sorts - trying to make this a counterpart to the SJW page was ill-advised for multiple reasons IMO e.g. futile hand-wringing and overcompensating for some other editor being Planckbrained. Also, let's keep relevant examples of 'SJW' behavior to their own page and maybe not get hypocritical about mob mentality (also template spam).

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{{delete|Lets just delete this and, as its eventually gonna become spammed by /pol/'s many idiotic supporters. Besides, we could always redirect this page to skub. If we don't delete this, then please permanently protect it.}}

[[File:QnVjrKW.jpg|thumb|right|300px]]

{{topquote|Gas the kikes! [[Racial Holy War|Race war]] now!|/pol/'s battlecry}}
{{topquote|1=Gentlemen, I had a vision of the future. One day because we won [[The_World_Wars#The_First_World_War|this war]], a man called Adolf Hitler will take power and he will make a lot of people angry about the Jewry. And also romani. And also the blacks. And the non-whites. Except for the Japanese, they're honorable Aryans, I guess. Also there will be a website called 4chan.org, and there will be a board called /pol/, and it will just be about what I have described. Its kind of a [[My Little Pony|one-trick-pony, except the pony is retarded]].|2=[https://youtu.be/Tj-nCjnVDKM?t=2133 The Fresh Sorcerer's accurate summary of /pol/]}}

[[Skub]]'s OTHER final form, and the polar opposite of [[SJW]].

'''/pol/''' is 4chan's "Politically Incorrect" board, nowadays mostly <s>populated by</s> used for incarcerating <s>people who identify as</s> neo-nazis, alt-righters, ancaps, edgy contrarians, and other colorful characters who rant on Jews, black people, women, Marxists, Muslims, Christians, Atheists, and every variety of white depending on the time of day. This also entails dumb shit such as long passionate debates on whether Slavic or Southern European people count as white, or complaints about Jews causing everything from financial crises to World Wars to hurting your toe on a table leg (the phrase "[[Meme|Baton Roue]]" might come to mind).

If you ask /pol/, they'll claim to be the best and most enlightened board that can see through the lies of society, while everyone from the other boards will call their userbase arguably the most obnoxious and [[cancer]]ous board on the whole site and nothing more than a far-right [[My Little Pony|containment board to prevent them spreading their cancer elsewhere]].

People who frequent /pol/ usually refer to themselves as /pol/lacks, but much more terms have been used to describe them by people outside of /pol/ such as /pol/io, /pol/luters, /pol/tards, /pol/yps, tad/pol/es, /pol/esmokers, and /pol/tergeists. The recently coined-term "alt-right" has quickly become for the right what the term SJW is for the left. On that note, some SJWs and /pol/acks aren't above having similar ''fundamental'' attitudes towards both their ideology and people who don't agree with it.

==Origins==
...What, the above wasn't enough?

Do you REALLY want to know more about this?

...alright, fuck it. Put on the helmets and bring the bleach, this is going to be real long and real boring.

4chan's userbase is naturally a product of the industrial society, i.e. it bred a lot of NEETs and frustrated people who are largely kept in line with entertainment and porn and economic welfare, and will [[Roman Empire|gladly support any political party as long as their needs are met, inasmuch as they don't bother thinking about anything beyond their immediate well-being]]. Additionally, /b/ in particular had a history of racial supremacy expressed via memetic bigotry (i.e. using "nigger" as an insult, "faggot" as an endearing word, and "jewgolds" or "shekels" as the term for money) since around 2008, prior to the Anonymous v. Scientology clashes that brought them into more of a "spotlight". Most times it was considered little more than a joke by its userbase, just another way of ensuring that people who couldn't demonstrate thick enough skin to handle the typical level of discourse on /b/ would be driven off.

However, as time went on, people who took such things at face value began to show up more and more often - [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1011498 it's been said that] "any community that gets its laughs by pretending to be idiots will eventually be flooded by actual idiots who mistakenly believe that they're in good company." Eventually, some of the aforementioned idiots began espousing positions that couldn't be dismissed as attempts at humor any longer, but were soon seen for the representation of their values that it really was.

...Then along came the economic housing bubble of 2009, and said NEETs found their bread and circuses were not enough in the face of concepts such as "darkening future" and "imminent poverty". And that opened Pandora's box, unleashing the suppressed anger (normally kept in check by porn, cheap entertainment and welfare) of the NEETizens of 4chan. Unsurprisingly, the first mention of the "alternative right" coincides around the bubble, with this "internal" discontent playing a part in their rise alongside the external 'friction' that social justice represented.

Nerds can get defensive about their opinions on shit like [[Star Trek|Kirk vs. Picard]], taste in [[anime]], Warhammer fluff, but in the end that's just talking about fiction. In contrast, politics is about stuff which actually matters to you in the Real World™, and discussions (especially online) are volatile things at the very best of times. Given that 4chan is '''''the''''' place where reasonable discussion goes to die, it was inevitable that even the calmest attempts quickly devolved into extremist arguments. Trolls and fanatics alike, in many points, became impossible to distinguish from one another - they either forgot whatever reasons for trolling they had or else overcommitted to them, when they weren't seeking a cover for something they now legitimately believed in and gained validation from.

While they gleefully embraced the Nazi accusations that both sides of a debate would make at each other - and invariably decided to supercharge the politically incorrect arguments with shitposting just to enrage their opponents further - they did all of it with only a marginal knowledge of what the issues they were arguing about even entailed at any given time, if they remotely cared at all. Thus many political arguments far too numerous to count here, from immigration to crime and race, began to take root in /b/ and quickly spread elsewhere; Moot, being the [[Tzeentch|Eternal Planner]] that he is, created /n/ (what /pol/ started as) to corral the arguments.

As you can see, [[Not as planned|it's gone swimmingly for everyone involved.]] Sort of like a multilayered monkey's paw of pure [[fail]].

===Containment Board===
[[File:Pol leaves containment.png|thumb|right|200px]]
As stated earlier, /pol/ is meant to contain the population of stormweenies (named for Stormfront, a website that can be considered a precursor to /pol/, and whose community still overlaps with them) on 4chan. Pretty much everyone, including both Moot and most of /pol/ itself, has acknowledged this; Global Rule #3 was once 'Keep /pol/ in /pol/'. The rule has since been changed to a more general version saying not to post flames, racism, off-topic replies, uncalled-for catch phrases and other things that are unhelpful to a board, but since that's what /pol/ shitposting essentially IS, the rule is still the same in spirit. Several boards have a sticky at the front page telling people to keep politics in /pol/ as well.

Though /pol/ isn't the only containment board on 4chan, the other containment boards such as /mlp/ and /soc/ are considered to have better userbases - those users have (mostly) less volatile baggage and the sense to leave it ''on'' those boards. When they venture onto another board, they stay on topic and only ''occasionally'' derail threads or start inflammatory ones (complete with /tg/ [[rage|deriving]] [[lulz|entertainment]] from it), but overall aren't ''nearly'' as insufferable in comparison.

Most attempts to curb /pol/, on the other hand, result in them [[Cancer|spreading to other boards]], where they will try to de-rail the threads on those boards to whatever political event that is galvanizing them and spreading around conspiracy theories. Whenever they are told to fuck off and quit derailing threads, they will change the subject, gaslight, and say whatever it takes to counter any arguments to the point of self-contradiction - in short, anything but backing down or even just going on the defense. This hasn't stopped the board from being deleted twice throughout their history, mind, but the inevitable spread forced it to be brought back both times. Even to this day, you'll still get threads here and there that fall victim to politically-based derailing.

==Ideology and Methodology (such as it is)==
While the full history of the SJW phenomenon is way too complicated to describe on their page and is usually less relevant to /tg/ (at least far less so than interactions with other boards on the site), suffice to say that while SJWs are the product of modern civil rights movements [[Ultramarines|who blindly adhere to the LETTER of a given progressive political creed's code of conduct without understanding the spirit of it]], /pol/acks essentially aspire to become the uber-racist, sexist, [[Chaotic Stupid|hyper-reactionary]] [[Marines Malevolent|card-carrying degenerates]] they think the other side believes them to be - since they are "already" damned, many decide they may as well play the part.

For all its numerous faults, /pol/ practically worships the concept of the free exchange of ideas: A common point of contention with SJWs, perceived and otherwise, is freedom of debate and free speech at all costs, especially when it's offensive. Of course, even then this only lasts up until the point where their '''''own''''' views are challenged - then they suddenly decide that maybe censorship isn't so bad after all, which explains quite a lot about the board's fascist sympathies.

The average /pol/ user conducts themselves and their approach to politics with all the nuance and subtlety of any given sportsball fandom, even '''before''' the slow bleeding of the glorified spectacle that is modern mainstream politics into the board itself commenced. The general rudderlessness, the ''typical'' response to anyone who doesn't share their opinion, and the general prevalence of bullshit artists as figureheads are all hallmarks of a group that shares the same ideological real-estate, but only cares to notice these traits when playing against the other "team"; it's not unheard of for certain ranks of /pol/ users to consist of former SJWs, often grifters who will use that cognitive dissonance to their advantage. Of course, it's all the more telling that they usually can't or won't differentiate between anyone to the left of them - even the most far left of folks can separate shitlibs and centrists, for example.

Keep in mind that badly implemented and ham-fisted progressive policies tend to alienate the people not supported by them, just like any other government policy, and it's not uncommon for social justice narratives (or ANY kind, really, but specifically these) to be astroturfed and exploited by politicians and corporations alike, as well as those out for social currency. Thus, some people feel an instinct to rebel against a status quo that supposedly coddles and encourages "white guilt" and "political correctness gone mad", while others seek out the "rightful" social positioning they couldn't get elsewhere - and still others are looking for fresh marks with animosity, insecurity, and loneliness to manipulate into a following. From these groups, the edgiest and the craziest form the core of /pol/.

However, any analysis going beyond the surface for more than five minutes would recognize progressive lip service to be just that - empty words designed to appease 'SJW' demands rather than actually meet them. Scratch that surface and you'll notice the Overton window shifting right in a lot of areas (particularly the USA) even with the ostensibly liberal window dressing. This should put into perspective why /pol/, by and large, seems so eager to put on a similar "victim complex" and join supposed 'SJWs' in the race to the bottom. Despite this, applying the "[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory horseshoe theory" school of thought] is perilous as everyone likes to think their "side" is the most rational, and it only works for the most surface of political analysis unless you actually know your shit.

Granted, it seems slightly more merited considering that when they're not using it as a thoroughly cynical ploy to draw attention and stir shit, /pol/acks will use eerily similar rhetoric to signal their own virtues of traditional values, being "rational" thinkers, and otherwise acting in defense of "freedom" - the right to offend and be irreverent is elevated to a sacred cow, which is about as self-defeating as it sounds. The words "refuge in audacity" should come to mind for the [[TVTropes|tropers]] in the audience, albeit in a far more disingenuous sense.

While 4chan at large is and always has been something of a self-sustaining shitshow even at its best, /pol/ is (ostensibly) despised even by the rest of the userbase because they take ALL of their views to the logical "conclusion" and render themselves little more than bizarre caricatures. Though many right-wingers or anti-SJWs can be found on /pol/, naturally even people in both of those former groups will consider /pol/ too batshit for words. /pol/ in turn didn't write the "playbook" for either group, so much as turn it into their personal Bible.

All of this is further compounded by the fact that in terms of genuine beliefs, most /pol/tergeists have no idea how anything actually works - even the basics of their own most common political beliefs are notoriously flimsy (if not OUTRIGHT blatant) myths and lies, often more so than the SJWs they denigrate. Example of such nonsensical claims include:
*Stalin being a Jew (he was Georgian and a major anti-Semite to boot; the Jewish influence, of course, was mainly from Trotsky, which makes it all the more ironic);
*The first reports of Nazi death camps came from the Soviets (it came from Poland);
*Most welfare recipients are unemployed black people (evidencing a misunderstanding of "majority" and "disproportionate number", as most people on welfare are white and only use it for 3 years or less);
*And finally, the British Empire started declining by 1800 (their Golden Age was from 1816-1915, with Jews very well represented).

The coup de grace theory to rule over them all is "The Khazar Theory", which postulates that the real "good" Jews are actually all white people (Jacob's sons), while all the stereotypical Jews are [[Mongols|Khazar nomads' descendants]]. [[What|Yes, this is your brain's sound when it shifts without the clutch.]]

This is indicative of one of the ''other'' biggest problems with /pol/: its denizens suffer from a board-wide Dunning-Kruger effect, believing themselves expert authorities on a multitude of subjects that individually take years of study at minimum. No amount of shitposting and overuse of bad memes is a substitute for wit and intelligence (no, seriously, stop laughing), especially not when the most casual Googling can debunk most of your narratives. Even Stormfront, which was run by an actual member of the Ku Klux Klan at one point (if it somehow still isn't), had ''slightly'' more principle; gods help you if you enter /pol/ from Israel.

Whenever a meme becomes popular on /pol/, they will begin forcing the meme on every other board, rapidly driving it so far into the ground that it will come out on the other side of the planet before the day is out. The memes they spam tend to be childish insults that will only impress people below 18. It says a lot about their board when getting merged with /mlp/ during an April Fools' joke '''improved''' it.

'''TL;DR:''' Even ignoring their disgusting traits AND putting aside "keep /pol/ in /pol/" talk, /tg/ remembers first and foremost that /pol/ is a containment board for a ''very good'' reason.

==/pol/ using [[Warhammer 40,000]] as propaganda==
{{topquote|Suffer not the [[xenos]] to live!|Battle cry of the [[Deathwatch]]}}

One of the greatest [[RAGE|headaches]] that /tg/ in particular has with /pol/ is the misuse of the [[grimdark]]ness and xenophobic policies of the [[Imperium of Man]] by /pol/'s [[Neckbeard|Trump supporters]], who apparently believe that he is quite possibly a modern day incarnation of [[The Emperor]], and that the Western world should really become an IRL Imperium with zero tolerance against "Xenos" and "[[Tau|Cultural Marxists]]", with lots of conspiracy theories that Trump is fighting an endless battle against the "Ruinous Powers" of Liberalism supposedly led by [[Tzeentch|George Soros]]. It's basically yet another "Jews secretly controlling the world" episode, on top of the usual boogeyman of "The All-Powerful Left" already invoked by many of the "cuckservatives" the alt-right railed against at their inception.

Initially, they "helped" him the only way they knew how: shitposting about [[anime]], Pepe the Frog, and [[Touhou|Momiji Inubashiri]] in a MAGA hat. One of their most widespread propaganda involving 40k was the complete stereotyping of all Muslims as [[Ork|ultraviolent savages who reproduce by the thousands and have no other instinct than to kill, maim and pillage]], Mexicans being cast [[Tyranids|an all-consuming swarm migrating to America to consume all of its resources]], and that every single one of them should be subject to [[Exterminatus]].

AS if that wasn't insulting to all parties real and fictional, eventually they finally "invented" a shitty forced meme where [[Heresy|they put Donald Trump's head on images of the great God-Emperor of Mankind]]. Not many people find them funny, even in the rare case of the Photoshop job being decent, and the Trump buzz started to fade anyway as reality promptly ensued; some people began to realize he was largely more of the same checkers-level propaganda volleys designed to sway voters (if "[[Derp|uber-rich American politician claiming to be the champion of the poor]]" sounds familiar to you, anyway), and the Trump supporters in the userbase eventually started to nigh-indistinguishable from the more stereotypical hardline conservatives.

The new wave of French elections around the same time brought a more horrific wave of shitposting, with [[Extra Heresy|Marine le Pen being photoshopped into Sister of Battle pictures]]. However, Le Pen lost the French election by [[Fail|a 30% margin]], much to the [[Butthurt|chagrin]] of various /pol/tards. This was possibly compounded by the fact that Le Pen's campaign partly ran off the idea of a 'Frexit', only for Le Pen to abandon the entire idea post-election; between this and it proves for the umpteenth time that relying on any kind of political figurehead for overall validation is a universally bad idea.

Given 40k had its start as a ''satire'' of dystopian fiction and a bitter, ironic reflection of right-wing 80s Britain (see also: [[Rogue Trader]]), other right-wingers latching onto 40k-memery as a vehicle for demagoguery, propaganda and appeals to emotion, and further conflating it with modern politics is perhaps a schadenfreudish circle finally come complete. Without the original context, they see nothing more than an unironic heroic fantasy that validates their beliefs, rather than the proper mockery that it constitutes.

'''TL;DR:''' Needless to say, many in /tg/ find this specific inclusion of real-world politics in our 40k to be a sad, idiotic and pathetic phenomenon that should be punished by summary [[Exterminatus|SAGE'ing]], and as such expect non-sympathetic posters to either [[RAGE|react accordingly]].

===What Do?===
Whatever you do, don't get overinvested in any "discussion" involving them on the boards themselves - while it's not ''entirely'' impossible (only mostly) for someone to pull a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daryl_Davis Daryl Davis], we're the last people to trust with that kind of work, so we'll spare you the sermon.

Trying to be amicable and empathetic will usually prove a waste of time, unless you're actively trying to countertroll by being so patronizing that they blow a fuse in utter sanctimony. Even then, it's probably best not to engage at all and wait for the janitors to take out the trash.

===Connections with the Christchurch Mosque Attacks===
<span style='font-size:125%'>{{BLAM|This section concerns the attacks on the Christchurch Mosques in New Zealand, the consequences of which affected the entire board, and by extension /tg/.}}</span>

Brenton Tarrant, the 28-year-old man who attacked two Mosques in Christchurch, NZ, apparently identified as a "/pol/ack" and made a <s>detailed</s> barely literate manifesto mostly in the form of a "Q&A," containing absolutely zero original political thought and nary a trace of coherent ideology besides repetition of the basic White Nationalist complaints of a Western demographic upheaval (the "fourteen words," basically). It is all the more pathetic because he characterizes the poorly-formatted PDF as a ''magnum opus'' of three years' worth of political growth; one critical point of [[Derp|critical fuckstupid]] is his admiration for Communist China, known for its violation of free speech and other basic human rights against the Muslim Uyghurs and even its Han (the dominant Chinese ethnic group) citizens.

Said manifesto referenced several questionably tasteful memes (prominently, "remove kebab"), and the fucking degenerate actually went so far as to shout out those memes in public and play [[/v/|video game soundtracks]] and songs that /pol/ has turned into memes, while actively shooting people and live-streaming it. Sick fuck. Naturally, this means more conversations about the impact of the Internet/social media and technology in general and its role in the lives of disaffected millennials (and doing it full justice is a tall order and a half); the level of disconnect displayed, even by the expected standards of radical politics, that would allow a person to take a life while joyfully shouting silly sayings from the Internet like he was at an anime convention is disgusting and hard to fathom.

His goal, apparently, was to cause more hysteria and retribution: in his manifesto, he specifically spoke of wanting to stir up shit regarding ''inter alia'', laws regarding the rights of free speech and bearing arms which, in his mind, would lead to civil war and an ultimate victory for his ideology, such as it is. He imagined himself becoming a full martyr for the cause, or else incarcerated and (if the latter) perhaps later to be broken out of jail by a movement inspired by his "noble actions"...and yet few people online seem to consider his actions or their results desirable, even among those who would inevitably be even ''remotely'' 'sympathetic' to his cause. The only ones who would wholeheartedly support him were likely deadset on their ideology to begin with.

This, along with his choice to attack extremely soft targets (including women, children, and mainstream, non-radical places of worship), is enough to demonstrate that he was not a political actor in any real sense, but rather amounts to the perpetrator of an incident far more serious and tragic. Rather than a "proper 'domestic [i.e. white] terrorist'" (say, Timothy McVeigh), he comes across more as an aimless man on a demented rampage.

By virtue of being a white man in a European culture instead of, say, a member of a rival sect in an Islamic country, his attack on a mosque actually makes international headlines for more than five minutes; with his point well out the window, his pathetic attempts at justifying his attack only harmed his cause in the imagination of the general public and even amongst his peers. Needless to say, the consequences of his actions were quite serious: political groups of which he was a member or tangentially related to are being attacked by the government, despite their having no part in the violence, and the blood was not yet dry when the PM said that New Zealand's already highly restrictive gun laws "had to change". Most directly relevant to /tg/, their neighbor Australia [[Exterminatus|banned access]] to 4chan, 8chan and ''even fucking LiveLeak'' for distributing video of the massacre, which indirectly fucks over that entire sector of the userbase(s), likely due to the fact that the shooter, Brenton, is an Australian.

As if that wasn’t enough, the level of irony to Tarrant’s actions defies reality. Tarrant was fixated on mass migration in his manifesto, but thanks to his attack, New Zealand (and possibly other western countries) will accept EVEN MORE migrants from the Middle East and Africa in an effort to show that they’re tolerant of said migrants despite Tarrant’s attack. Way to go.

Though /pol/, with its vulgar and juvenile approach to issues of demography and race, is a tempting target to assign blame for his actions, 4chan might not be the genesis of his personal dissatisfaction; if the manifesto is to be trusted (a dicey proposition), he had apparently become interested in racial questions while touring the world and seeing the demographic changes which are afflicting Europe first hand. The problem is that when shitposting manchildren drink their own Kool-Aid and take up their guns to murdering innocent people, the average reasonable person can make a connection between the violence and the [[Star Wars|wretched hives of scum and villany]] said bad actors frequent, and so here we are.

This isn't entirely news to these folks, of course: "screw your optics, I'm going in" was how the last significant /pol/ terrorist put it, before attacking a defenseless synagogue which had no remote relation to any of /pol/'s 'concerns'. The inherent cowardice are only one of the ways in which the attacks are alike, but one of the most telling, not least because it begs the question of why the phrase "the last significant /pol/ terrorist" is even applicable.

Any reasonably well-adjusted person from anywhere on the political spectrum can see that the culture and posters of /pol/ are what give it its unfathomably bad name, which by extension affects already-considered-malignant *chan subculture such that one would be hard-pressed to assert otherwise. Inasmuch as /pol/acks even take their own putative ideas seriously, they don't tend to do themselves any favors - on- OR off-line. In addition, despite 4chan supposedly not being the birthing place for the ideals of Mr. Tarrant, the fact that it can now be tangibly tied to such people AND the resulting Australian lockdown on 4chan/8chan/etc. is certain to impact perception of the board and anyone seen as aligned with them - likely for the worse.

==See Also==
*[[SJW]]s, the (mostly) left-leaning "contrast" to /pol/'s alt-right twattery, subjected to constant, though often inaccurate, comparisons due to hypocrisy and similar but better justified zealotry. Some major distinctions are that SJWs ostensibly have much more influence in the media and their goals are generally noble and idealistic, though they go about accomplishing those goals the completely wrong way, which can make them range from slightly obnoxious to genuinely dangerous.
*[[/k/]]
*[[Board-tans/pol]]
*[[Racial Holy War]], for what the rest of 4chan thinks would happen if a /pol/ack made an RPG.
*[[MYFAROG]], for when a /pol/ack actually made an RPG.
*[[Nazi]], what these guys ''wish'' they were.
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBpijRDDOxQ An appropriate response] to the forced Trump meme.

==Gallery==
<gallery class="center">
File:First_visit_to_pol.gif
File:1477229948688.jpg
File:Never Relax.jpg
File:1491144651231.png
File:1475903382909.jpg
File:Global Rule -3.jpg
File:Shitpost.png
File:1490344868585.jpg
File:1518620305269.jpg
File:1517880145411.png
File:Srgfd.png|All anyone needs to know.
File:1495590391196.png|Same as before but adapted to new memes.
File:5680446+_b10ddaacb84c03cf89b71c1f1327e25b.jpg|Cap doing what Cap does best.
File:Back_to_pol.jpg|The appropriate dismissal of all /pol/tards.
File:1481725926368.jpg|Some guy on Stormfront planning on using /pol/ as ''agitprop''.
File:1488601566861.jpg|/pol/tards delude themselves into thinking that it's only liberals who dislike them.
</gallery>

[[Category: Meme]]
[[Category: 4chan]]
[[Category: RAGE]]
[[Category:Pure Evil]]
[[Category:Sick]]

Zero Punctuation

2020-08-14T07:37:25Z

2600:1700:19C0:2760:248F:A983:A26A:96DD: /* External Links */

{{/vg/}}
'''Zero Punctuation''' is a series of video game reviews by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, accompanied by simple Photoshop stills rebus-animated in Windows Movie Maker playing over the author's "punctuation-less" fast narration. His style is notably critical, cynical and rude, which he often self-referentially acknowledges, and he has a noted preference for games with well-integrated narratives and stories, though not ''exclusively'' so considering he's also into fast and well-paced gameplay. A lot of thinner-skinned people get offended when he tears up their favorite games, but the man usually has a point - [[/b/|to fat, greasy Americans who believe that a fast talking man with a British accent is the pinnacle of wit]], at any rate.

In other words, he's like [[/v/|every other overly opinionated vidya gaem playing cunt on the internet]], though he's arguably wittier than some - at the least, he's certainly among the more quotable.

Some would argue that he is a troll king amongst the rabble, but then if we called him that he would probably revel in the title; even in his earliest days, he described himself pithily as a "foul-mouthed, quick-firing blithering behind a facade of legitimate journalism", and is fully aware of how much [[RAGE]] he can generate and [[Cegorach|takes immense pleasure from it]]. Of course, anyone dumb enough to get so attached to their franchises and games that they take what he says as personal attacks is leaving themselves open and most likely deserves it (cough, implicating cough). On the other hand, you can find quotes of his scattered around 1d4chan, so either we have a /vg/ spy running around defacing our wiki, or we just don't hate him as much as we like to think we do.

Highly critical as he is of modern gaming in general, Yahtzee discourages players from letting reviews decide everything for them, even his own, and encourages them to come up with their own opinions regarding games. Plus he's a fan of [[Doom]]-style old-school shooters and has recommended games such as [[Star Control]]: Origins, so his tastes can't be complete shite, eh?

==Yahtzee and Warhammer==
Warhammer and Warhammer 40k are among the many series he's referenced in his videos, which is at least fitting considering its '80s British cultural origins, though it doesn't seem he has any interest in it himself. At one point in 2011, he wrote an article in his more at-length 'Extra Punctuation' editoral, bashing the setting of 40k based on his impression of the [[Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine|''Space Marine'' game]]; his calling the setting "juvenile" and overly [[grimdark]] has earned him quite a bit of [[butthurt|"well deserved" flak]], with the resulting [[skub|nerd rage]] festering all across the 40k community and seeping even into [[1d4chan|this very wiki]], if the page's history is any indication.

Of note is that he didn't actually review the game after playing it, which only fanned the flames further. Even ignoring that it would've been a waste of time anyway, as indicated by many other episodes - particularly where he "debated" between reviewing ''Space Marine'' and another game called ''Hard Reset'' - this was very likely a conscious decision. ("...given options, I'll go for the one that infuriates tosspots.") It may be that he doesn't particularly care about the series - at the least, he had clearly determined it to not be for him anyway, as he would with ''[[Total War: Warhammer II]]''. So yay for consistency! Also worth noting, many [[The Legend of Zelda|Legend of Zelda]] fans have leveled that same accusation at him for criticizing what he sees as repetitive "standard heroic myth" plots, in spite of him actually enjoying Wind Waker, Majora's Mask and Breath of the Wild (though it's not by accident that all those are considered divergences from the 'usual' formula to varying degrees).

In retrospect, this sort of thing is [[lulz|tacitly hilarious]], considering the amount of fans overall that will and do give 40k shit currently for being [[Grimderp|overwrought]] and [[Edgy|pointlessly dark]], especially in the hands of its less skilled writers; many oft-criticized plot elements and contrivances can also be summarized as reading like [[/co/|so much by-the-book capeshit]], especially given the comics industry's own history with regards to laying on the grimdark too thickly. That's not to say those fans are wrong, but something something pots meet kettles. Plus it's not like /tg/ doesn't actively run with the idea of being nerd rage personified, lulzy as it can be [[Not As Planned|when it becomes genuine]].

Also, as far as "not understanding the setting", one of his more recent references described the setting of a game he panned as "like Warhammer 40K but without the irony" so... y'know, you tell us.

==Creative Works==
Yahtzee has tried his hand at developing a few games of his own, mostly point-and-click horror/adventure hybrids. He has also written a few books; the one of most interest to /tg/ is ''Mogworld'', a hilarious send up of [[World of Warcraft]] which follows the misadventures of an undead minion who just wants to die and stay dead. ([https://v1.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/columns/extra-punctuation/9396-Roleplaying-The-Old-Republic.2 Which may or may not have been the result] of his brief fling with the game. Not so above it all, are ya?) While his other creative works are likely worth looking into, one wouldn't go wrong just sticking with ''Mogworld'' if that's your inclination.

Such creative works include:

*''Jam'' - "It's about an apocalypse! With ''jam'' in it!" Hard to get more straightforward than that. This tale about a tide of man-eating jam is written as a parody of the post-apocalypse genre.
*''Will Save The Galaxy For Food'' - Satirical yarn about an intergalactic pilot who's left SOL when FTL travel takes an enthusiastic sledgehammer to the wonders of space exploration, and taking on unsavory jobs for cash leads him into the midst of a dreadful conspiracy. Redundancy, hopelessness and existential dread: that's sci-fi comedy for ya!
*''Differently Morphous'' - Contemporary paranormal/urban fantasy spiel about the difficulties of adjusting to normal life, except you trade in the usual suspects like "[[vampire]]" or "[[werewolf]]" for "incomprehensible Lovecraftian horror from beyond our human dimensions".

Among Yahtzee's games are:
*''The Consuming Shadow'' - ''More'' Arkham-style Lovecraftian horror but in [[roguelike]] form, exploiting the core "no two playthroughs are the same" characteristic to create intrigue and mystery.

He also used to make some one-hour videos called "Let's Drown Out", in which Yahtzee and his cynical but kinda bro-tier friend Gabe are talking mindlessly about stuff going on in the gaming world, while trying as much as possible to ignore the boring-ass game they're playing (see: drown out). The only relevance this has for /tg/ is that they are extremely good to listen to while painting, simply for how mindbogglingly mindless it is.

==Opinions on [[Video games|Other /tg/-relevant Games]]==
*'''[[Wolfenstein]]''' - Yahtzee considered the 2009 entry to be a generic and subpar sandbox-shooter affair, dull enough to the point he did the review in limerick to keep himself awake (though his opinion on it softened up some time after). ''The New Order'', on the other hand, is one he recommends for being a much fresher, solid and suitably fast-paced take on the WWII action shooter, with surprisingly good storytelling by that standard which provided a nice send-off to the series. Then there was ''The Old Blood'', regarded less favorably for being a more "standard" rehash, while ''The New Colossus'' was criticized for trying to recreate the impact and public reception of ''The New Order'' without the former's solid story and presentation to balance things. ''Youngblood''... [[Fail|just fuck that game]].

*'''[[The Witcher]]''' - First impressions of the first game cast it as being a long drawn-out affair that was excessively complex and unintuitive in terms of combat and presentation, with the writing coming off as the standard fantasy fare attempting to seem [[edgy|"mature"]] with the rampant amounts of sex and foul language - not too terrible, mind, but still - and the second game was largely more of the same. However, the third game - in spite of [[Geralt]] reading as a Mary Sue to him and the mechanics still seeming overly elaborate - earned Yahtzee's recommendation and "Third Best Game of 2015" honors by focusing more on tutorials for the controls, and spreading that attention to detail to the storyline and presentation as well, providing solid and engaging characterization while ''still'' looking and playing crisply.
**As an interesting side note, ''The Witcher'' episode was what spawned the "Glorious PC Master Race" and "Dirty Console Peasants" monikers, both initially done as jokes. The fact that the joke has lived this long probably says something. Just don't ask us what. Yahtz himself has taken a bit of a distaste to this term as of late as well, as PC gaming has begun outpacing consoles to the point that people were unironically using this term and becoming graphics-obsessed twats.

*'''[[Doom]]''' - A real big fan of the original entries, particularly the first one, but thought ''Doom 3'' deviated too far from the standard in his younger days, due to dodgy design choices such as the murky and linear horror-lite presentation, and the focus on audio logs clashing with the more open-ended run-and-gun style of the originals. That said, as indicated by his review of it alongside ''Medal of Honor: Warfighter'', he much prefers DOOM 3 to the average <s>spunkgargleweewee</s> modern FPS game by a country mile, considering it far more straightforward and coherent without sacrificing organic structure on the altar of poorly-paced setpieces. <s>Deum</s> DOOM's 2016 entry was praised as the best game of 2016 for being a highly stellar entry that faithfully updates the core gameplay of the original Doom to modern times, while leaving the bulk of the plot to be discovered at the player's own pace. Yahtzee, being Yahtzee, almost thought it was too good to be true - given [[Fallout|Bethesda's]] reputation, who the hell would blame him - and still had his criticisms, e.g. the game became too easy for him towards the end, but readily concedes they're nitpicks beforehand because the game is still fucking good. Doom's VR entry was similarly recommended for accurately capturing the feel of the games as well.

*'''[[Call of Cthulhu|Call of Cthulhu: The Official Video Game]]''': Done by Cyanide Studio, known to /tg/ as the ''[[Space Hulk: Deathwing]]'' guys and referred to as "basically competent midrange developers". The game is considered forgettable and lacking in proper story structure compared to ''Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth'', which to him was at least better-paced and remembered that even the most rote of Lovecraftian stories run off properly maintaining a fear of the unknown.

*Games in the Tolkeinverse
**'''[[The Hobbit|Middle Earth:]] <s>'''*HRUUH*'''</s> [[Lord of the Rings|Shadow of Mordor]]''': Set between ''[[The Hobbit]]'' and ''[[Lord of the Rings]]'', and created by Monolith (''Condemned'' 1 + 2, ''F.E.A.R.'' 1-2, ''Guardians of Middle-Earth'', the ''Blood'' shooters, among MANY others), ''Shadow of Mordor'' is the opposite of [[Skub|everything you'd expect a video game adaptation of a movie (of a book) to be]]. [[TL;DR|Textdump exposition]] and [[Original character, do not steal|Talion's]] [[edgy|bland and angsty presentation]] aside, Yahtzee gave it his Best Game of 2014 for both solid gameplay, which gets most of the usual 'current-era action-adventure sandbox' features right, and ''the [[orc]]s'' of all things! The novel Nemesis system provides a means to study your greenskin foes' weaknesses, an orcish hierarchy of captains impacted by the player's successes AND failures (yep, that one orc what fucked you up might just become a new captain himself!), as well as the possibility of [[Just as planned|inserting potential sleeper agents into the hierarchy and influencing their advancement]]. All of this serves to create an organic storytelling experience in an adaptation of a massive body of literature (complete with movie franchise) that, by many accounts, manages to be really fucking good.

*'''[[Star Wars]]'''
**'''Star Wars: The Force Unleashed''': Yahtzee specifically reviewed the 2008 Wii game, chosen out of the many releases because it sounded like the logical choice for faithful lightsaber-y action - a decision that made ''some'' sense, but was still [[FAIL|dreadfully fucking wrong.]] To his credit, he doesn't fault the developers so much as he does Nintendo for not supporting MotionPlus, himself for [[Not as planned|not researching properly]], and George Lucas for the shoddy quality of the plot and the attempts to tie the [[Skub|widely-disliked prequel trilogy]] [[Derp|to the original films]]. Also, the game looked like shit and neglected to make the main weapon a more viable alternative to [[Anal circumference|just shoving the Force up every applicable bunghole in the vicinity.]]
***The sequel by LucasArts (played on a proper console this time, don't worry) was panned thoroughly and given the '3rd Worst of 2010' award. Highlights include: being an epitome of Star Wars games' "cash cow" overinvestment in spectacle and production, at the expense of fresh and consistently (or ''actual'') challenging gameplay; having a similarly shit plot to the first, still focused on the ridiculously-OP Starkiller; forced romance between SK and his love interest who both have ''less'' than zero chemistry; and somehow feeling both overly padded AND too short.
**'''Star Wars: Battlefront''': The entirely forgettable twenty-a-side multiplayer-based action shooter released by EA DICE in 2015 that served as a reboot to the series, it was also pretty much 95% "high production values and polish" and 5% "actual game". With the exception of the somewhat alright Hero Hunt mode, the game was dragged down by a lack of single-player that wasn't an offline pastiche of the multiplayer modes, [[Derp|a lack of incentive and ability to communicate and coordinate between players in that same full-price multiplayer mode]], and the absurd amount of grind required to make dealing with [[Munchkin|over-leveled opponents]] LESS tedious. All of this was enough to give it a solid spot starting off Yahtz's "Top 5 Worst Games of 2015". The sequel got a Blandest Game of 2017 nod instead, but didn't escape his critical wrath regardless, because it also ended up being LESS forgettable for [[Skub|the obvious DLC-related reasons]], along with stopping the plot of the single-player mode cold (oh yeah, they added one, btw) in order to forcibly tie the resolution to... the multiplayer. [[FAIL|Fucking EA.]]
**'''[[Star Wars: The Old Republic]]''': Mostly given a "first impressions" video because Yahtzee hates reviewing MMORPGs (as he always eventually loses interest), he notes that the leveling system is actually decently directed, and the Mass Effect-style conversations that preface each mission proved interesting. The moral choice system proved to be a bugaboo, however, and the game ultimately lost him when its story seemed to contrive a reason for his smuggler to continue after having completed his primary objective.

== External Links ==
* [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation The Zero Punctuation video gallery up to 9/19/2018].
* [https://www.escapistmagazine.com/v2/series/zero-punctuation/ The REST of the video gallery on the new Escapist site], starting at 8/15/2018 because merging archives was too hard, though they might be working on that.

[[category:Video Games]][[category:Not related]]

Zero Punctuation

2020-08-14T07:37:07Z

2600:1700:19C0:2760:248F:A983:A26A:96DD: /* Opinions on Other /tg/-relevant Games */

{{/vg/}}
'''Zero Punctuation''' is a series of video game reviews by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, accompanied by simple Photoshop stills rebus-animated in Windows Movie Maker playing over the author's "punctuation-less" fast narration. His style is notably critical, cynical and rude, which he often self-referentially acknowledges, and he has a noted preference for games with well-integrated narratives and stories, though not ''exclusively'' so considering he's also into fast and well-paced gameplay. A lot of thinner-skinned people get offended when he tears up their favorite games, but the man usually has a point - [[/b/|to fat, greasy Americans who believe that a fast talking man with a British accent is the pinnacle of wit]], at any rate.

In other words, he's like [[/v/|every other overly opinionated vidya gaem playing cunt on the internet]], though he's arguably wittier than some - at the least, he's certainly among the more quotable.

Some would argue that he is a troll king amongst the rabble, but then if we called him that he would probably revel in the title; even in his earliest days, he described himself pithily as a "foul-mouthed, quick-firing blithering behind a facade of legitimate journalism", and is fully aware of how much [[RAGE]] he can generate and [[Cegorach|takes immense pleasure from it]]. Of course, anyone dumb enough to get so attached to their franchises and games that they take what he says as personal attacks is leaving themselves open and most likely deserves it (cough, implicating cough). On the other hand, you can find quotes of his scattered around 1d4chan, so either we have a /vg/ spy running around defacing our wiki, or we just don't hate him as much as we like to think we do.

Highly critical as he is of modern gaming in general, Yahtzee discourages players from letting reviews decide everything for them, even his own, and encourages them to come up with their own opinions regarding games. Plus he's a fan of [[Doom]]-style old-school shooters and has recommended games such as [[Star Control]]: Origins, so his tastes can't be complete shite, eh?

==Yahtzee and Warhammer==
Warhammer and Warhammer 40k are among the many series he's referenced in his videos, which is at least fitting considering its '80s British cultural origins, though it doesn't seem he has any interest in it himself. At one point in 2011, he wrote an article in his more at-length 'Extra Punctuation' editoral, bashing the setting of 40k based on his impression of the [[Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine|''Space Marine'' game]]; his calling the setting "juvenile" and overly [[grimdark]] has earned him quite a bit of [[butthurt|"well deserved" flak]], with the resulting [[skub|nerd rage]] festering all across the 40k community and seeping even into [[1d4chan|this very wiki]], if the page's history is any indication.

Of note is that he didn't actually review the game after playing it, which only fanned the flames further. Even ignoring that it would've been a waste of time anyway, as indicated by many other episodes - particularly where he "debated" between reviewing ''Space Marine'' and another game called ''Hard Reset'' - this was very likely a conscious decision. ("...given options, I'll go for the one that infuriates tosspots.") It may be that he doesn't particularly care about the series - at the least, he had clearly determined it to not be for him anyway, as he would with ''[[Total War: Warhammer II]]''. So yay for consistency! Also worth noting, many [[The Legend of Zelda|Legend of Zelda]] fans have leveled that same accusation at him for criticizing what he sees as repetitive "standard heroic myth" plots, in spite of him actually enjoying Wind Waker, Majora's Mask and Breath of the Wild (though it's not by accident that all those are considered divergences from the 'usual' formula to varying degrees).

In retrospect, this sort of thing is [[lulz|tacitly hilarious]], considering the amount of fans overall that will and do give 40k shit currently for being [[Grimderp|overwrought]] and [[Edgy|pointlessly dark]], especially in the hands of its less skilled writers; many oft-criticized plot elements and contrivances can also be summarized as reading like [[/co/|so much by-the-book capeshit]], especially given the comics industry's own history with regards to laying on the grimdark too thickly. That's not to say those fans are wrong, but something something pots meet kettles. Plus it's not like /tg/ doesn't actively run with the idea of being nerd rage personified, lulzy as it can be [[Not As Planned|when it becomes genuine]].

Also, as far as "not understanding the setting", one of his more recent references described the setting of a game he panned as "like Warhammer 40K but without the irony" so... y'know, you tell us.

==Creative Works==
Yahtzee has tried his hand at developing a few games of his own, mostly point-and-click horror/adventure hybrids. He has also written a few books; the one of most interest to /tg/ is ''Mogworld'', a hilarious send up of [[World of Warcraft]] which follows the misadventures of an undead minion who just wants to die and stay dead. ([https://v1.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/columns/extra-punctuation/9396-Roleplaying-The-Old-Republic.2 Which may or may not have been the result] of his brief fling with the game. Not so above it all, are ya?) While his other creative works are likely worth looking into, one wouldn't go wrong just sticking with ''Mogworld'' if that's your inclination.

Such creative works include:

*''Jam'' - "It's about an apocalypse! With ''jam'' in it!" Hard to get more straightforward than that. This tale about a tide of man-eating jam is written as a parody of the post-apocalypse genre.
*''Will Save The Galaxy For Food'' - Satirical yarn about an intergalactic pilot who's left SOL when FTL travel takes an enthusiastic sledgehammer to the wonders of space exploration, and taking on unsavory jobs for cash leads him into the midst of a dreadful conspiracy. Redundancy, hopelessness and existential dread: that's sci-fi comedy for ya!
*''Differently Morphous'' - Contemporary paranormal/urban fantasy spiel about the difficulties of adjusting to normal life, except you trade in the usual suspects like "[[vampire]]" or "[[werewolf]]" for "incomprehensible Lovecraftian horror from beyond our human dimensions".

Among Yahtzee's games are:
*''The Consuming Shadow'' - ''More'' Arkham-style Lovecraftian horror but in [[roguelike]] form, exploiting the core "no two playthroughs are the same" characteristic to create intrigue and mystery.

He also used to make some one-hour videos called "Let's Drown Out", in which Yahtzee and his cynical but kinda bro-tier friend Gabe are talking mindlessly about stuff going on in the gaming world, while trying as much as possible to ignore the boring-ass game they're playing (see: drown out). The only relevance this has for /tg/ is that they are extremely good to listen to while painting, simply for how mindbogglingly mindless it is.

==Opinions on [[Video games|Other /tg/-relevant Games]]==
*'''[[Wolfenstein]]''' - Yahtzee considered the 2009 entry to be a generic and subpar sandbox-shooter affair, dull enough to the point he did the review in limerick to keep himself awake (though his opinion on it softened up some time after). ''The New Order'', on the other hand, is one he recommends for being a much fresher, solid and suitably fast-paced take on the WWII action shooter, with surprisingly good storytelling by that standard which provided a nice send-off to the series. Then there was ''The Old Blood'', regarded less favorably for being a more "standard" rehash, while ''The New Colossus'' was criticized for trying to recreate the impact and public reception of ''The New Order'' without the former's solid story and presentation to balance things. ''Youngblood''... [[Fail|just fuck that game]].

*'''[[The Witcher]]''' - First impressions of the first game cast it as being a long drawn-out affair that was excessively complex and unintuitive in terms of combat and presentation, with the writing coming off as the standard fantasy fare attempting to seem [[edgy|"mature"]] with the rampant amounts of sex and foul language - not too terrible, mind, but still - and the second game was largely more of the same. However, the third game - in spite of [[Geralt]] reading as a Mary Sue to him and the mechanics still seeming overly elaborate - earned Yahtzee's recommendation and "Third Best Game of 2015" honors by focusing more on tutorials for the controls, and spreading that attention to detail to the storyline and presentation as well, providing solid and engaging characterization while ''still'' looking and playing crisply.
**As an interesting side note, ''The Witcher'' episode was what spawned the "Glorious PC Master Race" and "Dirty Console Peasants" monikers, both initially done as jokes. The fact that the joke has lived this long probably says something. Just don't ask us what. Yahtz himself has taken a bit of a distaste to this term as of late as well, as PC gaming has begun outpacing consoles to the point that people were unironically using this term and becoming graphics-obsessed twats.

*'''[[Doom]]''' - A real big fan of the original entries, particularly the first one, but thought ''Doom 3'' deviated too far from the standard in his younger days, due to dodgy design choices such as the murky and linear horror-lite presentation, and the focus on audio logs clashing with the more open-ended run-and-gun style of the originals. That said, as indicated by his review of it alongside ''Medal of Honor: Warfighter'', he much prefers DOOM 3 to the average <s>spunkgargleweewee</s> modern FPS game by a country mile, considering it far more straightforward and coherent without sacrificing organic structure on the altar of poorly-paced setpieces. <s>Deum</s> DOOM's 2016 entry was praised as the best game of 2016 for being a highly stellar entry that faithfully updates the core gameplay of the original Doom to modern times, while leaving the bulk of the plot to be discovered at the player's own pace. Yahtzee, being Yahtzee, almost thought it was too good to be true - given [[Fallout|Bethesda's]] reputation, who the hell would blame him - and still had his criticisms, e.g. the game became too easy for him towards the end, but readily concedes they're nitpicks beforehand because the game is still fucking good. Doom's VR entry was similarly recommended for accurately capturing the feel of the games as well.

*'''[[Call of Cthulhu|Call of Cthulhu: The Official Video Game]]''': Done by Cyanide Studio, known to /tg/ as the ''[[Space Hulk: Deathwing]]'' guys and referred to as "basically competent midrange developers". The game is considered forgettable and lacking in proper story structure compared to ''Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth'', which to him was at least better-paced and remembered that even the most rote of Lovecraftian stories run off properly maintaining a fear of the unknown.

*Games in the Tolkeinverse
**'''[[The Hobbit|Middle Earth:]] <s>'''*HRUUH*'''</s> [[Lord of the Rings|Shadow of Mordor]]''': Set between ''[[The Hobbit]]'' and ''[[Lord of the Rings]]'', and created by Monolith (''Condemned'' 1 + 2, ''F.E.A.R.'' 1-2, ''Guardians of Middle-Earth'', the ''Blood'' shooters, among MANY others), ''Shadow of Mordor'' is the opposite of [[Skub|everything you'd expect a video game adaptation of a movie (of a book) to be]]. [[TL;DR|Textdump exposition]] and [[Original character, do not steal|Talion's]] [[edgy|bland and angsty presentation]] aside, Yahtzee gave it his Best Game of 2014 for both solid gameplay, which gets most of the usual 'current-era action-adventure sandbox' features right, and ''the [[orc]]s'' of all things! The novel Nemesis system provides a means to study your greenskin foes' weaknesses, an orcish hierarchy of captains impacted by the player's successes AND failures (yep, that one orc what fucked you up might just become a new captain himself!), as well as the possibility of [[Just as planned|inserting potential sleeper agents into the hierarchy and influencing their advancement]]. All of this serves to create an organic storytelling experience in an adaptation of a massive body of literature (complete with movie franchise) that, by many accounts, manages to be really fucking good.

*'''[[Star Wars]]'''
**'''Star Wars: The Force Unleashed''': Yahtzee specifically reviewed the 2008 Wii game, chosen out of the many releases because it sounded like the logical choice for faithful lightsaber-y action - a decision that made ''some'' sense, but was still [[FAIL|dreadfully fucking wrong.]] To his credit, he doesn't fault the developers so much as he does Nintendo for not supporting MotionPlus, himself for [[Not as planned|not researching properly]], and George Lucas for the shoddy quality of the plot and the attempts to tie the [[Skub|widely-disliked prequel trilogy]] [[Derp|to the original films]]. Also, the game looked like shit and neglected to make the main weapon a more viable alternative to [[Anal circumference|just shoving the Force up every applicable bunghole in the vicinity.]]
***The sequel by LucasArts (played on a proper console this time, don't worry) was panned thoroughly and given the '3rd Worst of 2010' award. Highlights include: being an epitome of Star Wars games' "cash cow" overinvestment in spectacle and production, at the expense of fresh and consistently (or ''actual'') challenging gameplay; having a similarly shit plot to the first, still focused on the ridiculously-OP Starkiller; forced romance between SK and his love interest who both have ''less'' than zero chemistry; and somehow feeling both overly padded AND too short.
**'''Star Wars: Battlefront''': The entirely forgettable twenty-a-side multiplayer-based action shooter released by EA DICE in 2015 that served as a reboot to the series, it was also pretty much 95% "high production values and polish" and 5% "actual game". With the exception of the somewhat alright Hero Hunt mode, the game was dragged down by a lack of single-player that wasn't an offline pastiche of the multiplayer modes, [[Derp|a lack of incentive and ability to communicate and coordinate between players in that same full-price multiplayer mode]], and the absurd amount of grind required to make dealing with [[Munchkin|over-leveled opponents]] LESS tedious. All of this was enough to give it a solid spot starting off Yahtz's "Top 5 Worst Games of 2015". The sequel got a Blandest Game of 2017 nod instead, but didn't escape his critical wrath regardless, because it also ended up being LESS forgettable for [[Skub|the obvious DLC-related reasons]], along with stopping the plot of the single-player mode cold (oh yeah, they added one, btw) in order to forcibly tie the resolution to... the multiplayer. [[FAIL|Fucking EA.]]
**'''[[Star Wars: The Old Republic]]''': Mostly given a "first impressions" video because Yahtzee hates reviewing MMORPGs (as he always eventually loses interest), he notes that the leveling system is actually decently directed, and the Mass Effect-style conversations that preface each mission proved interesting. The moral choice system proved to be a bugaboo, however, and the game ultimately lost him when its story seemed to contrive a reason for his smuggler to continue after having completed his primary objective.

== External Links ==
* [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation The Zero Punctuation video gallery up to 9/19/2018].
* [https://www.escapistmagazine.com/v2/series/zero-punctuation/ The REST of of the video gallery on the new Escapist site], starting at 8/15/2018 because merging archives was too hard, though they might be working on that.

[[category:Video Games]][[category:Not related]]