Zero Shame-ctuation

Alright, I'd like to be rather brief with this one, because I don't think it really deserves much attention, yet that's tempered with the fact that I feel the need to gripe.

This week's Zero Punctuation was about Too Human, and I can't begin to explain my excitement in the many ways in which he could tear this game apart. I clicked the link and was excited to see the video was over ten minutes long. I was miffed for a moment when the video started, telling me that it was being sponsored by Warhammer Online, which took up the first 5 seconds. I was upset, because I'm already unhappy about the crap they put at the end of thing, why would they need to add anything to the beginning.

What I'm talking about is the fact that The Espcapist has adopted the 'whore' method of making money. They dedicate their site, and everything on it, to whoever will give them the most money. This isn't bad, really, just annoying. I suppose brand recognition is the hope, but I tend to only notice it long enough to decide whether it's something I'd be interested in in the first place, and then just move on. For the last so many episodes, Zero Punctuation has been followed by some sort of advertising, whether for The Escapist, or whoever it is that's given them money. Usually we're talking about three minutes out of an eight minute video where I just close the browser tab and move on with my life.

Today, however, I found feeling profoundly upset. Yahtzee stops talking at four minute and thirty seconds, which means that, with his intro, it's less than four minutes of substance. Moreover, that means the advertising at the end of the video is over six minutes long!

To me, that's unacceptable. Apart from the fact that there's no chance he'll ever rip on Warhammer Online after all the money he and The Escapist are making from them. Apart from the fact that Too Human certainly merits substantially more tearing. That means that it's a 60/40 split on the advertising to video scale.

Imagine, if you would, that you entered the movie theater, and found that your hour and a half long movie was preceded by over an hour of trailers. Imagine that you're watching American Idol, or whatever pathetic television show is making waves these days, and during the hour that it's on, you watch 40 minutes of commercials and only 20 minutes of singing, or whatever they do.

No.

I'm not happy.

I preferred it better when Yahtzee's bit wasn't a filthy whore.