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Andrew Allanson (Director of YIIK; Ackk Studios) Believes Games Aren't Art Because Players Can't Understand His Vision; Also a piece of shit

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Deleted member 5621

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
12,192
For people questioning his author/post modernism name drops, I guess (and I'm in no way justifying or defending it) it's because of the 4th wall breaking ending plot twist he tried to pull, like DNAbro explained here: https://www.resetera.com/threads/yi...cado-toast-pronounced-y2k.93427/post-17046296

or even worse, the other ending: https://www.resetera.com/goto/post?id=17069107

It 100% feels like someone trying too hard to be smart about things they don't fully understand.

JDSN said:
This shit looks like Ctrl Alt Del in game form.
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dude
 

Deleted member 52442

User requested account closure
Banned
Jan 24, 2019
10,774
jackal27 said:
Wait. THAT guy!?!? The "All women are lesbians." guy!? He's around? How am I simultaneously surprised and completely not surprised that he has a steady online following and presence??
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Yeah I'm pretty surprised. Also surprised that people ITT are mentioning him and not mentioning the Dr. Phil thing, which means he's been around so long he's built up an identity beyond that appearance. Apparently since 2016 or whatever from what i skimmed
 
jackal27

jackal27

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Oct 25, 2017
940
Joplin, MO
Kegels said:
Yeah I'm pretty surprised. Also surprised that people ITT are mentioning him and not mentioning the Dr. Phil thing, which means he's been around so long he's built up an identity beyond that appearance. Apparently since 2016 or whatever from what i skimmed
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Holy bleeding hell. I've often wondered where that garbage man has been in this modern era of garbage men and now I have the horrible answer.
 
atomsk eater

atomsk eater

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,830
Dude can't take criticism and associates with people most likely to toss out snowflake insults, who would have guessed.

Yasumi said:
This is such a bummer, the original trailers for YIIK pretty much checked all the boxes for me aesthetically and conceptually. Then it actually came out, and oof. Now this Dick Masterson red pill stuff? Fuck off.
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It really is a damn shame, the game looked like at the worst it'd have an acceptable or even loveable level of unique jank prior to release, and while it was disappointing to hear about all the pacing, technical and gameplay issues I was still going to check it out down the line, maybe during a really steep sale. Interest has shriveled up, tho.

wideface said:
The funniest part is how, before any of this happened, people were calling this an SJW game in the YouTube comments.
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Super weird! Pretty much all the "essjaydubyews" I follow on like twitter and such pretty much hated the game and were mocking it by a few days past launch, when clips and screens of some of the stuff like "That's our word!" started going around. Guess those youtube commentors just saw that there were playable girls wearing sensible clothes and jumped to conclusions.
 
demondance

demondance

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,808
wideface said:
The funniest part is how, before any of this happened, people were calling this an SJW game in the YouTube comments.
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It's funny when gamers assume 00's hipster imagery means it must be an SJW/liberal/whatever type of thing, considering the guy most often credited with setting off that non-movement is a reactionary dipshit who leads a hate group of far right street brawlers
 
Mesoian

Mesoian

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Oct 28, 2017
26,501
vestan said:
ah yes the paragon of artistic merit known as "YIIK"

how could anyone not appreciate a game with writing like this that rivals the likes of dostoyevsky and kafka

Ga0Caqe.jpg
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Oh man...the artstyle on this thing CHANGED since the last time I plaeyd it at pax years ago huh?
 
Billfisto

Billfisto

Member
Oct 30, 2017
14,956
Canada
And I did it. It was a pretty big experiment because Alex, the main character in YIIK, is not Sherlock Holmes. He's not super charismatic when he's rude to people, he's just really selfish and hasn't grown up yet.
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I love that this guy complaining about people not understanding video games as art has apparently only ever seen the Robert Downey Junior Sherlock Holmes movies.
 
Hailinel

Hailinel

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Oct 27, 2017
35,527
atomsk eater said:
Super weird! Pretty much all the "essjaydubyews" I follow on like twitter and such pretty much hated the game and were mocking it by a few days past launch, when clips and screens of some of the stuff like "That's our word!" started going around. Guess those youtube commentors just saw that there were playable girls wearing sensible clothes and jumped to conclusions.
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It's a pretty stark turnaround, honestly. There's at least one essjaydubyew friend of mine on Twitter that was really looking forward to YIIK for a while, and who was a fan of this team's previous game. I don't know if he ever bothered with YIIK in the end, though. He hasn't talked about the game since its release.
 
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ILikeFeet

ILikeFeet

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Hailinel

Hailinel

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35,527
ILikeFeet said:
to be fair to LRG, I doubt they knew about any of the beliefs of Allanson or the red pill thing. same with TobyFox (though he had his stuff pulled). best for LRG to put it out as promised then never speak of it again
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Toby Fox had the music he contributed removed? Good on him if that's the case.

But yeah, LRG likely knew nothing about this. Let them fulfill their contract and then drop it.
 
Thores

Thores

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Oct 25, 2017
502
ILikeFeet said:
to be fair to LRG, I doubt they knew about any of the beliefs of Allanson or the red pill thing. same with TobyFox (though he had his stuff pulled). best for LRG to put it out as promised then never speak of it again
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Wait, do you mean that Toby had his music removed from the game? Or do you just mean that he deleted any endorsement he previously made for the game? I was aware that he at least did the latter.
 
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ILikeFeet

ILikeFeet

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Thores said:
Wait, do you mean that Toby had his music removed from the game? Or do you just mean that he deleted any endorsement he previously made for the game? I was aware that he at least did the latter.
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I know about the removal of endorsements, but the removal of content was something I read somewhere while looking up stuff to make this thread, so I might be mistaken
 
robot

robot

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Oct 27, 2017
2,470
"Games aren't art because the primary audience is not equipped to interpret them" is actually kind-of an interesting take I haven't heard much. Too bad this dude did it accidentally and has no plans to back it up or not be a jerk in general.
 
ScribeofGeadhain

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Oct 30, 2017
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Is the MC modelled after him? I mean that literally. Like what does he look like and did he "write himself in"? That's a cardinal writer sin. Also is responding to critical feedback with anything other than dignity and humility.
 

Deleted member 43872

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817
robot said:
"Games aren't art because the primary audience is not equipped to interpret them" is actually kind-of an interesting take I haven't heard much. Too bad this dude did it accidentally and has no plans to back it up or not be a jerk in general.
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It might be possible to come up with a more interesting version of that take, but I'm not sure it's possible to come up with a supportable version. The idea of great artists who go unappreciated in their time is an old cliche, and I'd be surprised to see someone argue that such work was non-art at first and became art over time.
 
Hailinel

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ScribeofGeadhain said:
Is the MC modelled after him? I mean that literally. Like what does he look like and did he "write himself in"? That's a cardinal writer sin. Also is responding to critical feedback with anything other than dignity and humility.
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He doesn't look like him (though there's images floating around Twitter incorrectly claiming he does). His personality would seem to match, though.
 
Linkura

Linkura

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Oct 25, 2017
19,943
After following the OT for the game, this is probably the least surprising development ever.
 
Cian

Cian

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Feb 17, 2018
578
dock said:
What is the red pill ending of YIIK?
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As far as I can tell, no one has found it yet. Allanson during the podcast described it by saying you find Dick Masterson, the host of the podcast he was on, and he will give you a red pill which will unlock the ending. He's invisible in the hub town, and the twitter hinted that you have to have named yourself something specific to continue.

Cian said:
Can't find the ending itself but Mr. Masterson is definitely in the game.

bfazoGm.png

GTpxwZC.png


(Source: GrandmaParty's Let's Play of the game on the Something Awful forums)
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Ithil

Ithil

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Oct 25, 2017
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Billfisto said:
I love that this guy complaining about people not understanding video games as art has apparently only ever seen the Robert Downey Junior Sherlock Holmes movies.
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Like literally Holmes' second most defining trait after being a super genius at deduction is that he's a colossal asshole that everyone except Watson (and Mrs. Hudson) hates. In fact, even in the RDJ blockbuster films he was a jackass people couldn't stand being around. I have no idea where the Holmes he has imagined came from.
 
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ILikeFeet

ILikeFeet

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robot said:
"Games aren't art because the primary audience is not equipped to interpret them" is actually kind-of an interesting take I haven't heard much. Too bad this dude did it accidentally and has no plans to back it up or not be a jerk in general.
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GibdoInferno said:
It might be possible to come up with a more interesting version of that take, but I'm not sure it's possible to come up with a supportable version. The idea of great artists who go unappreciated in their time is an old cliche, and I'd be surprised to see someone argue that such work was non-art at first and became art over time.
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the inherent problem with that is that it implies that the primary (or mass) audience makes no interpretation. they obviously will, but how close the interpretation is to the artist's vision will have to, largely*, rely on the artist's ability to convey that message. if the piece is vague, either the media is of a very narrow focus, audience-wise, or the artist is leaving it up to interpretation. otherwise, getting upset that people didn't get it is dumb because it's the artist's fault.

*I say largely, because the other part is the initial point of the audience not being equipped to interpret the message. there's something there, but again, that requires the artist to understand who he's aiming for.
 

Deleted member 45414

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Jun 26, 2018
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His take is so fucking bad, especially when you consider that in his niche as fuck Earthbound-inspired indie JRPG genre there exists both Undertale and Lisa the Painful which both feature extremely shitty people as protagonists, though with some actually depth, instead of whatever he made, I'm assuming.
 
Capra

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Oct 25, 2017
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MechaBreaker said:
His take is so fucking bad, especially when you consider that in his niche as fuck Earthbound-inspired indie JRPG genre there exists both Undertale and Lisa the Painful which both feature extremely shitty people as protagonists, though with some actually depth, instead of whatever he made, I'm assuming.
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Not indie but there's also TWEWY whose plot is literally "self-absorbed socially-inept hipster kid saves the world through learning to be a better person."
 
low-G

low-G

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Oct 25, 2017
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Deep meaning -- the author was the obnoxious shitty protagonist all along. I was on the hate club for this game when some here still liked it. The issue wasn't just the MC but all the writing, and the art FWIW, and everything else...
 

Deleted member 3093

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
4,956
I was kind of curious about improving the Wikipedia article for YIIK, but there just isn't enough to talk about. It was a controversy, but I guess pretty much no one of note cares about his game or what he has to say. YIIK is only briefly remembered for how stupid and bad the creator and his game is.
 
Comic Obsessed

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Oct 27, 2017
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Despite of how fun is to laugh at this, I'm still kinda disappointed about how things turned out. Looking further into this game I notice a considerable budget compared to other indie games, especially RPGs.

One can only wonder how much already better RPGs like Earthlock and Cosmic Star Heroine would improve with the more refined artstyle, grander soundtrack and voice acting that YIIK wasted.
 
Nanashrew

Nanashrew

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Oct 25, 2017
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robot said:
"Games aren't art because the primary audience is not equipped to interpret them" is actually kind-of an interesting take I haven't heard much. Too bad this dude did it accidentally and has no plans to back it up or not be a jerk in general.
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My main issue is with how the word art is used in the gaming sphere, and that it's frequently ever used in one of two or both ways consistently. A defensive mechanism shielding a game or some of its contents and/or seeking validation. And it's not just gamers, but also the industry that seems to be so concerned that games should be defined as art. I'm not going to get into a debate of if games are or not, I personally am not interested. But with how concerned and validation seeking everyone is, it's also no wonder that it's so common for many to fall into a defense mechanism. All of which can and will become detrimental to the long run to the creation and criticism of art.

Everyone still seems terrified of the ghost of Ebert, though he made those comments almost 10 years ago.
 
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