Some Punctuation: The Art of Theft

By: Derek Yu

On: November 23rd, 2007

UPDATE: I DID NOT MAKE THIS VIDEO, KOTAKU. FUCKING NUMBNUTS. –DEREK

Zing!

(Thanks Dracko! Via The Gamer’s Quarter forums)

Posted in Community, Videos

DrDerekDoctors

Genius! Haha.
Shinji16

XD

That is all. In case you missed it:

XD
haowan

Awesome.
torchedEarth

shit
torchedEarth

REALLY shit. Save yourself the effort.

…and kid? Drink some liquid so I don’t have to listen to the sticky gack that goes on in your mouth while you speak.
Pixel Mort

Am I the only one to notice the Bonanza Bros influence in that game? (rather than Elevator Action)
haowan

I don’t think so, did you watch the entire vid?
Seol

Nope, but you probably are the only one to miss the Bonanza Bros allusion during the “lack of multiplayer” criticism in the video :P.
Meerman

It’s okay, but it should be called Zero Pronunciation. It starts off too fast so I can understand only half of it, unless I rewind it.

Plus this kind of thing probably sounds better in a UK accent.
Pixel Mort

Actually my english is far from perfect so I didn’t get everything as it’s going really fast. Still the original Zero Punctuation is harder to understand with the british accent and all : /
haowan

I found this harder to understand. Maybe because I’m English, but mostly I think because the parody guy is trying too hard to talk fast whereas Ben just can.
http://ptoing.net ptoing

Hahaha, so good. The Metal Slug bit cracked me up.
Gr.Viper

IMHO, Yahtezee speaks MUCH clearer…
Gwyn

No, see, English people invented English. By definition his accent is easier to understand. If you don’t understand it as easily, then your English is poor.

This is shit btw.
haowan

“By definition his accent is easier to understand.”

That’s such utter bullshit.
Patrick

Good analysis, but Tribly is much better than this article pretains.
Ted

That was terrible video, a poor imitation of Yahtzee and I hope he returns to video form and rips this guy a new one.
Gwyn

“Thatâ€™s such utter bullshit.”

It is when quoted out of context, yeah.
MisterX

Oh come on, don’t just compare this to Zero Punctuation like that, it’s just ment to be a fun parody. I think GSM did a very good job with this, as it actually catches Yahtzee’s style pretty closely, for example in that most of the time the negative aspects are talked about, only to conclude with “well, whatever, still cool!”. It’s actually one of the things I don’t like so much with Yahtzee’s Zero Punctuation, but it’s part of it.
Also, yes, he did talk too fast and it was a bit odd how he suddenly spoke so loud. But hey, it’s still only ment to be a neat parody – and it is!
(+ in my opinion, before anybody complains)
haowan

No, it’s just utter bullshit. You’re defining English as an accent, when it’s a language. American English is still English, it’s just English an American accent. Your statement should have read:

“No, see, British people speak in a British English accent. If you don’t understand it, then it’s possible that you don’t come from Britain and aren’t used to the accent.”
rinkuhero

Yeah, he’s worse at speaking clearly, but a lot of the content was funny and a lot of the criticisms of the game were spot-on. That check list near the end about what you need to sell a game was funnily true too. I don’t understand the need to always see only the bad parts of something and equate the whole thing with those bad parts.
Monsieur LeBoeuf

Mister The Beef thinks that it was clever. Who didn’t want to make that video? I’m glad it was made. I chortled! Stop burgling turds. I’m looking at you torchedEarth, meerMan, go Ted. Go return the turds to their rightful owners.

I would have cheered louder had there been a zing in there for sticking a dumb “add the numbers” mini-game in front of a level you’re sure to fail at least a dozen times. Or for all those times I couldn’t hide because I was tasing, or vice versa. For which I refuse to take personal responsibility for.

And we zing because we love. I love Trilby-thief game.

… man hugs?
Lurk

I think the reviewer did not get too far in the game, because he said ‘there is no way to move while wall hugging’, when there’s an option to buy such an ability. Also, I feel that the review is hammering at faults that are very minor (and very common in 2d games), and kind of really asking for a different game altogether- some people actually enjoy trying to determine the right moment to move in a room with cameras+deskman+moving guards.
Mr. Trianglehead

I don’t think this was a stab at Yahtzee at all.

Cool yo jets people.

I enjoyed it, and could understand it just fine. I liked it for parody’s sake, but not for what he had to say really.
http://www.kimpix.net McKack

>…I feel that the review is hammering at faults that are very minor…

Well this is exactly what Yahtzee – The British Captain Obvious also does.
Dracko

Why hello, you bunch of racist scumfucks.

It isn’t funny unless sit has an accent, huh? When do we get to see video game reviews by people with black face on and who tap dance?

You people make me want to punt kittens.
Pixel Mort

I was just trying to say that “american english” is easier to understand for me(I’m a french speaking Belgian) because I was raised with american bands, movies, etc…the result of what you could call er…massive cultural exportation from the US? Sorry if I was misunderstood.
haowan

“I donâ€™t think this was a stab at Yahtzee at all.”

Yeah, I think this is all that needs to be said really.
dan

Sorry, this is very very rubbish.

:(
Yahtzee

snore.
http://gnomeslair.blogspot.com/ gnome

Not *very* rubbish, but definitely sub-standard. Oh, and here’s a tip: trying to be funny with/againt someone that’s actually funny is simply pointless…
dan

“trying to be funny with/againt someone thatâ€™s actually funny is simply pointlessâ€¦”

Precisely.
Andrew

I disagree, that was as good if not better then Yahtzee’s videos. Very well done.
fish

according to kotaku, that was derek talking in the video.

and yet its not.
;’

Not very funny, but Yahtzee is douchebag anyway.
DualZen

Well, as a parody, it’s not half bad. To be fair, it’s not half good either, as the quality of voice recording made it a bit difficult to understand.

Though, what I did understand was pretty funny.
Tertle

But at the end of the day… You don’t rip a neat idea/style off because nobody will like you afterwards.
Gutter

Wow people, get a grip. It is actually nice that someone took to time to tip his hat to Yatzee’s game, seeing as there is no way that he will review his own game. That GSM did it in the style of Yatzee’s reviews is even cooler, they aren’t that easy to imitate.

That some posters here want Yatzee to rip him a new one or whatever is really sad coming from a community that is usually more supportive than that. You might want to look into /b/ or Fark.com if you have any latent trolling to do.

That said, The Art Of Thief wasn’t all that good IMHO. It was a good idea, but weirdly executed, probably because of the media he used less than because of his skills.

(and about the English VS US accents… If you think that either dialects are anything like they were 200-300 years ago, you’d be wrong. The English didn’t “invent” english as we know it from either side of the pond, and both countries as it’s own accent, even mutliple one in each countries.

That doesn’t make the English accent easier to understand, by “definition” or not!)
namuol

a good laugh

where’s the sense of humor in you guys?
Alec

Its funny that a bunch of websites think that Derek made this. Derek’s voice is like 69 times more sexy.
Skyleak

I found it quite clever and humorous. Another thing is saying somebody has a English accent is quite vague as in England there’s a different accent every 15 miles from where you just were. There is however English slang that can be somewhat hard to interpret but after thinking about the saying for longer than 5 seconds you can usually associate it with what it actually means. Unfortunately 5 seconds later is about 30 words later.

Enough rambling though as I said previously I found it quite clever and I would have a good laugh at this. Kind of odd to see so many sour comments here though. I believe imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, too bad most of you think imitation is an art of theft.
Mike

This was actually made by GSM at the Penny-Arcade forums, if anyone was wondering. Although, given the responses, it seems more fun to drag other people through the mud, at least according to Kotaku.
http://www.kimpix.net McKack

Do not confuse accent with dialect.
wormguy

In this thread we see how some people completely miss the point of parody.

He wasn’t actually ripping on Yahtzee. It was more like a tribute.

It made me chuckle, that’s good enough for me. Stop taking everything so seriously.
Phasma Felis

Geez, you guys. They have this thing called a “sense of humor” now, you should check it out. I think you can pick one up at Wal-Mart maybe.

All in all, a pretty good homage/parody. (Homody? Parage?) Not as funny as Yahtzee himself, of course, but who is? A solid effort, and I’m sure Yahtzee is amused.
Vydas

It was well done, and at least in terms of structure, nailed Yahtzee’s formula precisely.

I found it rather overly nice though to the game, he could have ripped it to shreds much more so than he did, but this was a loving parody and not a vicious attack, which the highly derivative Art of Theft is open to.
Randomguy

OK, flaming time.

YOU GUYS THAT DON’T UNDERSTAND THIS NEED TO SHUT THE FUCK UP!

There.
Sciere

Pixel Mort, as a fellow Belgian, I was raised on shit too until I finally discovered the internet. Not too late to change your ways. Lovely parody this, by the way.
Pyrrhon

Zero Punctuation is the shit.

Some Punctuation is just shit.
BenH

Have you heard the voice in Aquaria? That’s Derek :D