Jar Time w/ Jeff: Veronica Jars - 04/23/2014

Hooray for Jar Time.

I like that you take questions on Tumblr too, but I'd seriously be okay if you stopped doing that altogether if it meant that Jar Times could happen more frequently.

What was the message in Hotline Miami, Luftrasers, Jazz Punk, or Octodad?

The "video game crash" part was really, really interesting and good!

@jeff Jars > Professionals

Love these! The first one was the video that finally made me subscribe. Who can pass up on some 'one-on-one' with the one and only Jeff Gerstmann?

The NYU thing was interesting to watch, too!

Never played, aside from Hotline so can't answer. Also Hotline is the only one from that pack I played mainly because the others didn't appeal to me at all...like most indies. I know people like the weird and out there stuff and that's fine, but those in particular have no appeal to me.

Yeah, a Jar Time! And an interesting one at that!

One thing that Jeff hinted on but missed that in 1984 parents in mass were sold and bought into the idea, why buy your kid a toy when you can buy them a computer and learn with it. The money spent on electronic entertainment stayed about the same, it just kinda morphed. Jeff did say he went to the computer but thats it.

You know what the problem is with video game critics?

They don't have time. They're constantly trying to play as many different games as possible. They very, very rarely play one or two games for an extended period of time.

Also, they seem to absolutely love games that may not always have the best mechanics or controls, but have a good potential for discussion. And that's the problem with most indie games - there's barely any depth to dig into. But at the same time, you can start out the conversation with "hey, have you played that one game with 80s action heros?" And that seems to be enough for a good deal of people. They're clearly happy with what they're playing, but it's just not enough for me.

So when I constantly hear critics praise a game just because it's different, I'm not excited for it. Too many times I've spent money and time to play these "unique" titles and I just end up disappointed.

Dark Souls is a game that puts mechanics first, but still manages an interesting story underneath all of that.

This is perhaps my favorite Jar Time name so far.

Shoutout to Konami Gaming. My girlfriend works at Konami here in Vegas. He's right, they make ridiculous amounts of money (the slot machine companies, not my g/f).

"I'm gonna go put clothes in a bag and go somewhere."

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

The mythical jar of time returns!

Jar time's always a good time.

I actually wouldn't mind if the industry "shrunk" a bit, if it forced a new way of looking at the medium. Looking back at the previous gen, it seems like there have been a lot of bloat going on. With most triple AAA games trying to cast themselves in a previously successful mold, whether it be CoD, WoW, God of War, they've lost a focus and clarity of vision in order to appeal to some vague, nebulous, mass market.

I miss the days when I could pick up a Squaresoft, Capcom, Bioware, etc. game and have a general idea of the type and quality of the experience I was getting into. Also: music, tv, and society in general was way better when I younger, am I right guys?

/rant

Love this video serie hopefully it happens more often it's felt like there hasn't been one for like 3 months.

Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrs!!!!!!!!!!

I was listening to some inferior podcast on the way home, and as soon as I saw this I jumped right over. Somehow solo Jeff can be more interesting than 4 other dudes.

Glad E3 announcements may be cool this year. Looking forward to it, wondering if I should take my vacation that week again.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYY Jeff!

That Veronica Jars movie was pretty great.

Best birthday present ever.

Had a hankering for jar

@csl316: I'm actually considering taking a vacation around E3 too, and wondering how big of a nerd that makes me :) Have to catch those E3 Bombcasts live!

My mom played Myst.

I actually did it last year, kind of on accident.

And you know what, between sitting by the pool and biking and doing whatever I want, a bunch of next-gen console talk was really, really cool. Maybe all the phase 2 announcements for these systems will make it worth doing again.

@csl316: Yeah, doesn't sound bad at all! For the first time in years I'm not planning to go on some big trip in the summer so I can kinda schedule my vacation how I want. A week in early-ish June sounds like a good start!

When is E3? My exams finish around May 7th, and would love to take a week out to USA.

Really enjoyed this Jar Time, Jeff.

Thanks. Even though I'm not working in the media coverage circle that covers games so much anymore, really stoked to have you guys at Giant Bomb continue to put honest, wholesome opinions on stuff out there. Hope it continues for as long as you're happy doing it.

Keep up the good work, and enjoy the trip.

Can we get audio-only versions of these jar videos as well?

@northsarge: <3 LoVe <3

Jeff needs a fireplace or a TV with a fireplace video playing so these can be renamed "Fireside Chats", I love these intimate videos where Jeff can be Jeff.

"veronica jars" made me snort.

bravo jeff, this is one of my favorite things

@assinass: Looks to be the week on June 9th, since EA announced their press conference was that day.

first Riff Raff now this "Stitch Man" tattoos stitches around his mouth!

The way he spoke about it, I assume this means no Jeff on UPF due to vacation and not work assignment? Dude deserves it after all that hard work advocating for his client, Dr Tracksuit.

Polygon's review system is terrible, and completely incoherent. SimCity got a good score, then because of server issues, it got a bad score, then when those issues were resolved, the score went up a bit, but not to the original score. On what planet does this make any sense? And if you're someone who bought that game two months after release, when the issues were more or less resolved, does that mean the original score applies to you, or the new one? And if a game is simply (and literally) unplayable due to server issues, why does it deserve a 4/10? Wouldn't that be a 0/10? It's like awarding a game without an executable a 4/10. If you can't experience the product, how is that non-experience worth a 4/10?

And once the game is working again, why does it not deserve the original score it got? Do launch server problems or bugs tarnish a game's score forever? Again - what if you didn't buy the game at launch? What made post-issues SimCity a tangibly worse game than their original score?

The whole thing was embarrassing, and struck me as a new games website trying to re-invent the wheel, and failing miserably - and/or a reviewer trying to justify post-hoc, a change to their review score (that was originally too high). And SimCity is only one example of this foolish system at work.

Joystiq's system makes more sense, because it reviews the game, applies a score, but then keeps an ongoing journal of any connection issues. Polygon actually bums me out, because I like Justin McElroy, but his unique charm is wasted there.

Please tell me this is "ironic".

Thanks!

Time is a flat jar

Jars, questions being answered, clothes in a laundry basket, and dogs howling. This video has just about everything.

Thanks for the answer, Jeff!

@scotto: I think the idea behind their review system is so that a guy like me, who hasn't been keeping up with SimCity, can go to Polygon to get a review that applies to the current state of the game. I go to GameSpot or IGN or somewhere and it's static. If it got a 5/5 before launch, it'll stay at 5/5 even if the game is unplayable for six months.

Or a game like Lair that got patched like crazy to fix the problems people had can get an updated score reflecting those changes. I was so bummed that Lair didn't get proper updates to reviews at the time because I legitimately wanted to know if the game had improved.

So in theory, it's a great idea, but yeah, in practice, it's kind of frustrating. Personally, I think it just highlight how antiquated reviews like that are. Like Jeff was saying in the video here, we need to move more into criticism. People just don't need reviews to tell us if a game is good anymore. We can watch video of the game, listen to podcasts, go on forums, download demos, watch livestreams, etc. There are so many better avenues than a review. Ten years ago, Polygon's review system would've been brilliant.

And yeah, Justin is wasted there. His failed Nier review will forever remain one of my all-time favorite gaming videos.

You must be really hating most of the content on this website at the moment then if indie games don't appeal to you at all.

That is vastly different from claiming indie games all have messages.

I gotta say I don't enjoy the bite-sized, quaint, charming indie game. Those games can feel gimmicky or like a toy, something you spend an hour on and then throw away. Then again, most big budget games don't do it for me these days, either.

Teach me Tracksuit-sensei. Also try not to look so disappointed with your audience. Appreciate the work as always duder.

I played myst at school as a kid. I thought it was an educational title like number muncher.

@jeff something occurred to me...did your room used to be a loungeroom or some kind of entertainment/dining room ?

PSX stronger than N64? Blasphemy.

Accurate polys > inaccurate polys. N64 could do the equivalent of 2-3 times as many inaccurate polys as PSX. Also the PSX's texture warping was the proverbial turd in the punch bowl.

I'll have to check out that GDC talk. It's really interesting to me thinking about how some communities may have developed, like, the idea(theory) that places like EVO sprang up because of the 37 second design loop causing some players to emerge with a hyper-competitive spirit after being challenged under punishing circumstances.
Like, even in most fighting games today, the final boss continues to read your inputs, but plenty of those crazy tourney players can still handle them no problem. Well, 3rdStrike's final had a 1hit kill super. Exceptions. Anyway. Fun recording. Thanks.