Waching daily Feb 15 2019

Hey Vsauce, Daniel here

What is Vsauce?

Vsauce is a popular educational YouTube channel helmed by Michael Stevens, or Vsauce Michael,

or that guy who's always doing the eyebrow things.

But the whole time I was there I thought a lot about video

I can do it I can do it

He looks a little like this, and a bit like this, and has a personal YouTube channel named

pooplicker888.

But he doesn't use that anymore.

It turns out that there's a lot of things that Vsauce isn't anymore.

If we assume for a second that Vsauce is what it is, then Vsauce is a show called Mind Field,

a YouTube premium edutainment show exploring pop psychology in a professional broadcast

half hour format.

In any given episode Michael will explore a scientific subject, typically in the realm

of psychology with a particular focus on the science of perception.

We learned that there's a stark difference between what people think they would do and wha they actually do

The videos are neatly structured into seasons and episodes with a clear central thesis and

tight, consistent branding.

It isn't just built like television, it looks, feels, and sounds like television,

right down to the fabrication of conflict in a build up to where the commercial breaks

would go.

This forms an interesting contrast between Vsauce and another similar channel, Vsauce.

Vsauce is a popular educational YouTube channel helmed by Michael Stevens.

In a given video Michael will pop up and for about ten minutes take the viewer on a pinball

exploration of a scientific subject, typically in the realm of psychology with a particular

focus on the science of perception, but also a fascination with math and astronomy.

A critic of Vsauce might describe the format of a Vsauce video as "unfocused" with

each video taking its subject matter less as a thesis and more as an excuse to ramble

for several minutes about vaguely related subjects.

A proponent of Vsauce might describe the format of a Vsauce video as poetic, with each video

taking its subject matter less as a thesis and more as a theme, an opportunity to create

a freeform association between ideas that share a commonality of language

or an overlap of consequences.

The video What is the Speed of Dark is less about the physics of photons and more about

a variety of subjects that all share an intersection in the idea communicated in the word "dark."

This unstructured science poetry forms an interesting contrast between Vsauce and another

similar channel, Vsauce.

Vsauce is a popular variety YouTube channel helmed by Michael Stevens.

In a given video Michael will compile a rapid-fire freeform presentation assembled around a common

seed idea, like funny or interesting images or bizarre consumer products, a format riddled

with innuendo, dick jokes, and cleavage.

The average Vsauce video will skip across a couple dozen examples in only a few minutes,

each beat connected to the next by pun or some other free-association word game with

a particular love for juvenile humour, curious facts, and optical illusions.

this is the last thing you will see before you die

can you find the cat?

But we should move on to girls, in costume, tied up, can you save them?

This collection of curiosities and innuendo forms an interesting contrast between Vsauce

and another similar channel, Vsauce.

Vsauce is a popular gaming YouTube channel helmed by Michael Stevens.

In a given video Mark, Michael, Danielle, Chad, Jeff, and/or Angie will perform stand

up comedy, list video game features, compile easter eggs, make dick jokes,

or all of the above.

Whether it's interesting places in World of Warcraft, rocks in World of Warcraft that

look like dicks, or jokes about characters in World of Warcraft posed in sexually suggestive

positions, you can find it on Vsauce.

But that's not all.

Did I mention the standup comedy?

Yes.

You as Dr. Mario are actually working at a free clinic for the members of Jersey Shore!

Yeah, each level is one of the members of Jersey Shore. The last level? Snookie.

It's covered in viruses

This is, in part, the fascinating semantic language of YouTube.

The word "channel" for YouTube is borrowed from television where a channel is synonymous

with a station, and is largely stationary.

A television station is a fixed point, a portal through which the viewer watches a flow of

content as it moves past.

A YouTube channel, on the other hand, is less like this channel and more like this channel.

The common metaphor here is flow. A channel is a means of transport, a space that things

pass through, but a YouTube channel isn't a fixed point, a bench on which you watch

the boats as they sail past, it's the whole thing.

You can go to a YouTube channel and walk along the metaphorical bank by scrolling

all the way down.

You can travel from here to here.

Ludwig Wittgenstein argued that language was representational, that there is a single factual

reality and it is the job of language to describe these facts.

Language, thus, is like taking a picture, and the better a language the stronger its

underlying logic, the clearer the picture.

This brings up an interesting contrast between the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein and the work

of Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Wittgenstein argued that the picture theory of language was entirely wrong, that words

are not facts, are not fixed points in space, but rather words are how you use them.

In other words use dictates meaning.

We have told the story backwards, and now let us tell it forwards.

Vsauce, launched in 2010, was a gaming channel that featured a broad swath of video game

based dick jokes and boob thumbnails that morphed into a variety channel compiling interesting

videos, images, and curiosities, with a particular focus on dick jokes and boob thumbnails.

As more and more videos were produced the curiosities floated to the top until Vsauce

posted its first self-contained educational video in July 2011 on the nature

of explosions.

Hey, Vsauce, Michael here and today I'm in my apartment

Okay, look, the point is that today we're going to talk about explosives.

The rapid-fire delivery remained, but the innuendo gradually took a back seat to questions

like why the earth has a moon and the existentialism of atomic physics.

In September 2012 the last of the variety shows was posted with Lüt episode 27:

Carrot Sharpener.

It is, most likely, this phase here that most people think of when they say Vsauce.

This is when they attracted most of their 14 million subscribers, this is when Bill

Nye made a guest appearance.

Flash forward to January 2017, Vsauce announced the new, premium show Mind Field available

only to YouTube Red subscribers.

While a few monologue-driven videos have been released since then, the last of them,

Which Way Is Down?, was posted in November 2017.

As we stand now in February 2019, here on the bank of Vsauce channel, it looks like

Mind Field is Vsauce.

But that's not the all of it, because that is simply from now.

There is conceivably a future snapshot of Vsauce where Mind Field is itself just a stratum,

a phase the channel went through, in the same way the Vsauce people conceptualize, the freeform

sci-poetry, is a stratum between Mind Field and the hodgepodge of nonsense and dongs that

preceded it, the same as Lüt and IMG are a stratum between existential psychology and

painfully dated jokes about Snookie having sexually transmitted infections.

The last level? Snookie. It's covered in viruses.

There is no real, essential, elemental Vsauce, because they are all Vsauce.

And as always thanks for watching.

For more infomation >> What Is Vsauce? - Duration: 9:15.

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Why Merida is Not in Kingdom Hearts 3 - Duration: 14:49.

After twelve years of development, Kingdom Hearts 3 has finally arrived, and it is, as

far as everyone is concerned, phenomenal.

It's hard to find any genuine criticism with the game, and its sublime mash-up of

Final Fantasy characters with the many wondrous worlds that are under the control of the House

of Mouse.

Some very difficult, deliberate decisions were made over the course of Kingdom Hearts

3's development.

We're currently working on a full Video Game Story Time episode about why the game

took so long to be finished, but with so much to research, it might take a little while

longer.

One of the big challenges that developer Square Enix had in creating the game was deciding

which Disney properties to include.

For example, Kingdom Hearts legacy director Tetsuya Nomura has said that he was initially

very hesitant to include characters from Frozen, most notably Elsa, because her popularity

is so vast that he worried about living up to people's expectations.

Conversely, the decision was made to include Pirates of the Caribbean characters yet again

because of excitement regarding new engine technology and the gameplay opportunities

that these provided.

And, of course, because the game's twelve year development cycle meant that developers

couldn't forsee Johnny Depp's eventual decline in popularity a decade in advance.

So, ultimately, the choices that were made with this game, and which characters get the

most screentime, have involved a lot of debate over a long period of time.

We've ended up with a version of Kingdom Hearts 3 that heavily focuses on CGI Disney

characters – princesses from Tangled, and Frozen, as well as Pixar heroes from Toy Story

and Monsters, Inc.

But within the venn diagram of Princesses and Pixar, there is one character that is

sorely lacking from Kingdom Hearts 3.

Merida, firstborn of Clan DunBroch, seems like a perfect fit for this game.

If the team at Square Enix are interested in unique gameplay opportunities, Merida would

be perfect.

Her proficiency in horseback archery, and in waterfall rock climbing, would make for

a phenomenal gaming experience that would make a Kingdom Hearts game shine.

And yet, Merida is notably absent from the new game.

Her only inclusion in the Kingdom Hearts series at all is a tangential side reference in the

Wii U spin-off title, Kingdom Hearts: Eclipse.

Now, every Disney fan is going to have their own personal preferences, and their own favourite

characters that they would like to see included in a prominent role in the Kingdom Hearts

series.

We're not going to pretend that we're unbiased – in fact, our fondness for Merida

stems directly from our three-year-old daughter's deep, abiding love of the character.

This morning, our little girl fished her Merida dress-up dress from off her clothes rail and

demanded that we dress her up in it.

This has been a regular occurrence since we took her to Disneyland last year, and she

wore the dress for two days solid.

The happiest moment of her life was when Merida came down from off a parade stage to give

her a hug.

And yet, our daughter has never seen Disney Pixar's Brave all the way through.

She loves the character, but doesn't like the film itself.

So why is Merida left out of Kingdom Hearts 3 when Rapunzel, Elsa, Buzz, Woody, and Mike

Wazowski get top billing?

Simply put, it's because Brave isn't actually a very good film.

Sure, it's got good moments.

It managed to win an Oscar for Best Animated Feature, although that award should really

be renamed "Most Commercially Successful Disney Movie" by this point.

But Brave is fundamentally flawed.

It's not a particularly engrossing watch, the payoff to its narrative arcs feel rushed,

and it fails to deliver a satisfying experience.

Merida is a fantastic character in her own right, but she really deserves a better movie,

and it's no surprise that Tetsuya Nomura and his team passed on an opportunity to give

her a role in Kingdom Hearts 3.

So, case closed, right?

Brave isn't a good movie, and that's all there is to say on the matter?

Well, not really.

Because the success of Monsters Inc and Toy Story are directly connected to the failure

of Brave.

In order to unpack why Merida is not a more beloved princess, we need to look at the environment

in which her film was developed.

Perhaps this feel tangential to the story of video game development, but don't worry

– we're going to tie this all together at the end.

Brenda Chapman is an incredibly talented animated filmmaker.

She co-directed Prince of Egypt, the film which kickstarted DreamWorks.

Were it not for Shrek, that studio would have likely gone in a far more sincere, heartfelt

direction with its early movies.

Brenda also worked on most of your favourite Disney films.

She was a story supervisor on The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast.

We happened to spot her name in the credits as a storyboard artist on The Little Mermaid

when we watched that film yesterday as a family.

Well, we watched parts of The Little Mermaid.

That film is terrifying, even for grown-ups.

The point is, Brenda Chapman is one of the unsung heroes of the Disney Renaissance.

It was only logical, after all this success, that she was eventually given the opportunity

to direct her own Disney Princess movie.

Seriously, we know this isn't about gaming, but we're getting there, trust us.

Following her work on Cars – in which she was brought in to "fix" the movie's

one-dimensional female character, Brenda was given the opportunity to direct her own Pixar

film.

Brenda based her initial concept for Brave on her own relationship with her daughter.

It's no coincidence that Merida has fiery red hair, just like the Chapman women – artists

and animators were looking at their director and her family for inspiration surrounding

what Merida should look like.

This was a personal story of parenthood and family ties.

Logically, then, it ought to fit perfectly with Pixar's primary studio theme.

Toy Story.

Monsters, Inc.

The Incredibles.

Finding Nemo.

The most enduring Pixar films are always built around parenthood, whether this means real

parents, or surrogates.

Pixar films are family movies, in that they are literally about families.

Brave, then, perfectly fit the bill.

But then, Brenda hit an unexpected roadblock.

Simply put, her team of creators weren't getting the support and resources they needed.

With several projects in development at once within Pixar, Brave was often given less attention

from the higher ups within the company.

Brenda began to butt heads with John Lasseter, the head of the studio.

She found herself really pushing to get the attention she needed for Brave, and to make

sure that other women at the studio weren't trampled underfoot.

Former Pixar employee Emma Coats has said that it wasn't unusual for her to be talked

over during meetings.

Then, in her own words, Brenda: "would quiet the room and be like, 'Emma, you started to

say something.'"

Brenda had to openly fight to allow her voice, and the voice of other women within the studio,

to be heard.

Cassandra Smolcic, another artist who worked at Pixar at around this time, explained the

climate thusly in an article for Variety: "A female lead in my department once begged

her male bosses to support her with a team to complete a challenging production project.

Her male superiors repeatedly ignored her requests, until the stress of the job led

her into a state of psychological and physical breakdown.

When she went into sabbatical to recover, her male replacement was given a team of half

a dozen artists to help him complete the same task.

"When I received a perplexing performance review after finishing my fourth production,

it felt I'd never be equally recognized as a valuable asset by the company.

The lengthy negative column listed things like, "designs too many options; seems like

she's trying too hard; asks too many questions."

When I shared the document with my candid male mentor, who openly acknowledged the culture

of sexism at Pixar, he said, 'If you were a man, every one of those negatives would

be in the positive column'.

"Physically and mentally burnt out after years of bumping up against the glass ceiling,

I left Pixar at age 30, hoping to find a workplace where I could genuinely thrive."

Brenda found herself caught up in a battle for equality within Pixar.

When John Lasseter had finally had enough of her pushing back against this treatment,

he fired her.

According to Emma Coats: "To me, [Brenda] could've behaved exactly

the way any of the male directors behaved, but it would have been taken differently.

Which is frustrating.

Realizing that, it made me realize, There's nobody.

Without Brenda to look up to…there's nobody I can look up to.

… Imitating the guys isn't gonna give me the same results as it gives them.

"When she was removed from her project, I felt kind of lost.

I can't see why what happened to her wouldn't happen to me."

Emma wasn't the only artist at Pixar who was struggling after Brenda was removed from

Brave.

The entire team that was working on the film was now forced to adapt and shift gears as

the replacement director, Mark Andrews, attempted to rework the film.

They made some interesting decisions.

For a time, Pixar's heads attempted to strip away the mother-daughter relationship aspect

of the film entirely, and instead turn the piece into a film about fatherhood.

Let me restate that, because it's important: Pixar tried to change a film about a mother

who turns into a bear so that it was about fatherhood.

Needless to say, this change didn't last, and according to Brenda, much of her ideas

that were axed were ultimately added back in, albeit filtered through a different lens.

So if Pixar's Brave seems a little disjointed, there's a good reason for that.

The film is a Frankenstein's Monster; a confused mess that was made by cobbling together

half-developed ideas that didn't entirely mesh.

As a result, while Merida is a fantastic character, and very important to us in this house, Brave

is hardly a popular Disney film.

It's no surprise it didn't get included in Kingdom Hearts 3.

So why have we wasted your time by lecturing you about cartoon development in the middle

of a "Video Game" story time essay?

Alas, the games industry is not entirely unlike Pixar when it comes to the Boys Club mentality.

The majority of game studios still struggle to take female creators seriously.

A frankly depressing example of this is the experience of Delaney King, a seasoned video

game developer who is intersex, and who recently posted on Twitter about her experience transitioning

from presenting as male to female, and how it affected her job prospects.

Said Delaney: "Having over 20+ yrs experience & several

games of the year under my belt, Transitioning from presenting male to female goes like this.

As male: headhunted by studios, flown to interviews overseas.

As female: email response to CV "we don't think you would be happy here"

"Applications: 10, interviews 8, offers 7.

As female: applications 10, interviews 2, offers 2 (1 as junior)

"Salarypresenting male: 100,000+ Australian Dollars.

Highest salary presenting female: 45,000.

On contract.

"I cannot stress this enough.

If you are a woman in games, you are being screwed over.

"Oh, and one of the companies that headhunted me for lead cinematics modeler as a male,

turned me down instantly as a female for a junior art director role- I had 8 years experience

as art director."

Delaney later returned to the Twitter thread with this comment:

"Already getting abusive messages from dudes.

Thanks.

That's really helping prove my point."

The games industry is not a level playing field, and this leads to Brave-style situations.

There's a common complaint within games journalism at the moment that modern titles

are too homogenous.

They're all variations on the same idea, the same gameplay modes, the same story themes

and character tropes.

This is partly because the industry is increasingly targeting a single, predominantly male audience,

but it also comes from the decision makers behind the scenes.

Without a diverse variety of perspectives involved in making the games, the result is

a series of big budget titles that all feel very, very familiar.

But the good news is that things are, slowly, changing.

The indie gaming scene levels the playing field somewhat, and incredible game developers

like Jane Ng, Laura Shigihara, and Rebecca Cordingley are making truly spectacular work

at studios both big and small.

And Disney is changing too.

John Lasseter was forced to depart Disney following sustained allegations of some rather

nasty behaviour towards women.

His replacement, Jennifer Lee, was the director of Frozen: a film that did get a prominent

role in Kingdom Hearts 3.

Who knows?

Maybe our daughter's favourite hero will turn up in a subsequent Kingdom Hearts game.

In the meantime, if anyone needs us, we'll be trying to track down a Merida Disney Infinity

toy on eBay.

The nice thing about Merida's relative unpopularity is that her merchandise is always very cheap!

For more infomation >> Why Merida is Not in Kingdom Hearts 3 - Duration: 14:49.

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#EndicottGivingDay is Coming! - Duration: 1:01.

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