An actual good ZP-stylee thing
#31
Posted 19 April 2008 - 09:32 PM
Also, I think people are reading into the ZP knock off videos too much. It seems like a lot of them are done as a joke between friends, or this one almost struck me as someone who had an assignment due for a class, and to try and get some laughs he parodied Yahtzee.
I think if someone was attempting to make commercial success over a ZP knock off, then there would be more of an object for discussion.
#32
Posted 20 April 2008 - 07:54 AM
Let me guess, am I supposed to be some member who got bored of his old account and decided to start another one, on this same forum?
No, Altair is the protagonist of Assassin's Creed (takes place in the Holy Land, 12th century) who spoke English in an American accent so that players could understand him.
#33
Posted 20 April 2008 - 11:26 AM
Oh, I see.
Was he from Jerusalem? Oh, wait. The game was set in there.
It would've been nice if they could do some Yiddish or Arabic sounds for the pedestrians or the soldiers in the game.
#34
Posted 20 April 2008 - 04:23 PM
I mean, we all complain about Natalie Portman's awful accent in "V for Vendetta" but Hugh Laurie's American accent (which is pretty bad) is universally celebrated?
I can't hold making this against the kid. He didn't make it for us. He made it as a way of keeping himself awake while doing his homework.
That said, I'm a little unsettled by it. The simple nature of the ZP videos (photoshop, moviemaker, not technically impressive feats) means it's a style that just about anyone has the capacity to imitate. There's no reason why someone else couldn't have made them, except they lacked the imagination.
Now people, looking at what Yahtzee managed to do with a few tools and a lot of cleverness, instead of taking that as inspiration to be more creative with what THEY have, are instead just doing the same exact thing he's done. And it's an outlet yes, but it's also limiting. Someone else has done that already, and yes it's brilliant, but why don't you DO SOMETHING NEW? Who knows, maybe your thing will be better?
About the accent thing - I loved Hugh Laurie in Blackadder, and from what I've seen of "A bit of Fry and Laurie", I like that too, but I've never watched house and I don't think I ever will; probably because Hugh Laurie's playing an American, while Stephen Fry's doing QI.
Yahtzeeness - I'm at university right now, and like a lot of British students at uni, I'm only here because I had no idea what to do with my life last year. Now I'm certain I want to be a game critic/journalist/etc., and I want to drop out of uni to follow that dream. Since the start of the year, I've been maintaining a weekly blog that I use to review games and such as practise. The link's in my signature, could you guys please have a read of my stuff and give me some feedback; what I'm doing wrong, what I can do better, how I can get my name out there?
#35
Posted 20 April 2008 - 05:04 PM
Get a degree
#36
Posted 20 April 2008 - 05:07 PM
#38
Posted 20 April 2008 - 09:14 PM
Stephan Fry's not in "House:" They were going to have him as a guest star, in season 2, but they couldn't work out the scheduling OR nail down the kind of character he should play opposite Laurie. Should he be an even meaner doctor, or an incredibly nice one? In the end they opted for none-of-the-above and Fry guest-starred on BONES instead.
Submachine sandvich: 200 Interwebz pointz!
You are a WINRAR and best pleyur EVAR!
The project that ate my LIFE!
#39
Posted 21 April 2008 - 06:09 AM
This is a contradiction in terms.
#40
Posted 21 April 2008 - 08:38 AM
And if you find that you're not particularly good, then you go to Uni. You don't NEED a degree in creative writing, for example, to write some good books, but it helps if you studied what makes good books good, and to at least learn to replicate some of those things in your writing. Of course, with the book example, unless you find some creativity somewhere, then you're screwed.
Journalism, I imagine, should work in much the same way. I took newspaper in high school, and there are a lot of little tips and tricks, just from a crappy high-school course, that I would not have thought of on my own.
I would do some research, and if your university does not have a good journalism program, then transfer to a different one that does. If nothing else, having a degree from a respectable school will land you a few more interviews. Submit stuff to your University newspaper, or the local paper -- the Florida State University newspaper here is usually begging for editorials/reviews. I would also keep a portfolio of all the things you've been writing.
Not that I'm particularly knowledgeable about journalism in particular, but for many things the process is the same: video game design, 3-d/2-d design, writing journalism.... Keep a portfolio of the things you work on, and kiss as many professors asses as possible to build some contacts, at least the important ones.
At least... from what I've researched on the side. I'm kind of looking into what happens if the medical school thing doesn't work out.
#41
Posted 21 April 2008 - 09:20 AM
And... give me a break. Hugh Laurie is a good actor whether he's playing an American or an Englishman. Stop deciding what you will and won't watch based on what accent the lead character has. If his American accent was good enough to fool the director on audition day, it's good enough for me.
--------------------------------------------
The Queen's own English, base knave, dost thou speak it?
#42
Posted 21 April 2008 - 10:18 AM
Yeah, I thought that when I wrote it... university is really vague. You spend a lot of time sat on your arse, the occasionally get told some pretty useless snippets of information before being told to produce a professional quality assignment without any practise. I study Journalism right now, but it's really about as interesting as stale bread, I know people who study creative writing and they all say that's useless too. When it comes to writing styles, the Journalism dept. is obsessed with politics (which I care literally nothing about), and the creative writing course is obsessed with poems.
I'm going to be sending some writing off to magazines soon, and I just need to find somewhere I can put my work for people to see - newspapers around here don't give a damn about games unless someone blames a murder on them. There's the student newspaper, but seeing as I'm dropping out of uni, I don't think I can write for them either.
As for the portfolio, I have a blog where I keep all my work. I started one as an assignment, so it only dates back to about the deadline for the assignment in question. Tutors have told me I've got a very good writing style and usually can't give me any criticism, and I can write a good balanced argument if the need calls for it. I'd really appreciate it if some of you had a read through some of the stuff on my blog (linked in my signature).
This post has been edited by Reklaimer: 21 April 2008 - 10:20 AM
#43
Posted 21 April 2008 - 11:27 PM
Actually that's not true: he was supposed to have an Ambiguous accent. He's clearly not American, America didn't exist yet, but he's not FROM where everyone else in the game is from either, so they used the accent to set him apart.
Submachine sandvich: 200 Interwebz pointz!
You are a WINRAR and best pleyur EVAR!
The project that ate my LIFE!
#44
Posted 22 April 2008 - 09:36 AM
By the way, American Midwestern accents are prized for network telecasts due to the fact that they are the most "vanilla" sounding American accent. Texans have that weird drawl, New Yorkers stretch out their syllables in weird ways... etc.
This post has been edited by joshofalltrades: 22 April 2008 - 09:37 AM
--------------------------------------------
The Queen's own English, base knave, dost thou speak it?