Meta Microvideos 

spoilers there is no consistent upload schedule

It's very meta I must say

It contains spoilers for Cookie Clicker

And it really does.

@@CssHDmonster it's worse than berserk

Bumping this cause I feel more people should see this!

was there any update since then?

I really don't want this to be his last video but it seems that way.

@@Crowbar he's making games now, and he's graciously let non patrons see all his blog posts and q / a recordings

@@yamagataryuto8823 ah, I stopped my pledged which is why I missed all of that, I check the stuff out now

Also, the big finale vid starts with comic sans. This man's deadpan is world class.

@@N1CKSO humor dryer than the Sahara desert

Don't worry, he posted a new video

I think he's playing you

I strongly recommend it, even though it takes me like several playthroughs of some bits to finally understand it. I'm not a clever gamer, but I do like Matthewmatosis.

@@MAYOFORCE like a goddamn fiddle!

golden comment

Nice videos B(ruh)-Mask, keep up the good work

​@@zombieman998 That's very kind, thank you! You can thank Matt for getting the ball rolling though. Still the best in his field.

Hey, ur stuff is gr8! Different appeal! But I respek the respek tho, makes ur character even more endearing lol Greatly enjoy ur work! Keep it up!

I can see Matthew's influence in your own work, and it's been a joy to follow you both.

@@BMask you reignited my love for sly cooper games 😁

Imagine being such a casul at Sekiro Kart that you think it's a terrible racing game!

@@Eskinor It just couldn't hold up to bloodborne kart

Dark Souls is just straight up not a good platformer. I don't even know why there's jumping in that game.

Finally someone on YT said that there is nothing "RPG" about J"RPG"s and they are very restrictive games.

that doesnt even need to be said

Not this one

@Mr. Ocean No I meant my comment

You are meta

how many times have you watched it by now?

Looool sameee

Ur mum

It's about liking, commenting, and subscribing

Many small spoken essays about the craft of analyzing videogames and this channel and this series. That's what it is

He didn't even mention Knack! WTF Donkey?!

BLACK GUY! WOMAN! GET IN HERE! GET IN COSTUME!

Aww, relationship goals 😭

@@wenbluepirate3954 Fucking what? What?!

Future Divorcee

@@Gadget-Walkmen I think this is a oneyplays reference, refering to Doug Walker and his crew. meta stuff, really^^

"Sekiro is a terrible racing game" - Mathewmatosis 2021

He did manage to sneak in a few genuine jabs at it as well- "some titles drop the pretense of being anything but a boss rush"

@taterboi Also, I finally got the The Witness review I was hoping for. @@Slyguy846 So are you saying that he is saying that Sekiro would be better if it did not have all the filler in between boss fights? :P

@@domustrag0z599 well not necessarily , he probably implied that everything except the bosses are unremarkable. Cool jab tho

@@domustrag0z599 to be fair, sekiro itself has dropped the pretense with the new boss rush mode lmao

Same. I am always so impressed by how concise but still fully explored his arguments are. It's like he thinks for hours on a sentence for the script. You just know he thinks about these things in his spare time, being curious and insatiable for getting at the real purpose of things, for all our benefit! It is truly amazing to see his work and I feel blessed that I was/am part of this journey.

but enough talk! Have at you!

He talked about the spread of information, the consequences of actions, creativity, and critical thought. If it really is a magnum opus, then it rightly ought to be chock full of pennies. So I'd say it's fairly globally important.

Matthew is most definitely top of the food chain, but he does have company and perhaps I can be so bold as to make a recommendation to a fellow gentleman of good taste. There's a guy named Tim Rogers who does some phenomenal analysis videos for the Kotaku channel, but a few months ago he started up his own channel called Action Button that I would most highly suggest checking out when you have 3 to 5 hours to spare. Also, and I probably should have led with this, I completely agree with your comment. The effort he puts in shows and has remained consistent for YEARS! The man has integrity that is reflected in his entire body of work on RU-vid. Really, it's hard to resist showering him in praise, but it feels good to do so because he absolutely deserves it.

This comment perfectly illustrates what Matthew said right at the beginning - meta is easy.

@UC-JyjPt2nSVisFHECuh_y_w Performance art....well said, I hadn't thought of him in that way but it definitely fits. I would only compare them as far as the effort and quality of their content. They have a clear and deep understanding of the medium that is the strong foundation which their works are built upon. In my experience on RU-vid this stands out. But, back to Mr. Matosis, did you happen to catch his Bioshock: Infinite analysis back when he posted it? I was lucky enough to come across it and I remember it making some waves. That game was universally praised to such an extent that to say otherwise meant immediate backlash, but I believe it was Matthew's review that sobered people up from all the hype to some degree. It utterly and completely blew me away because I hadn't seen such a measured and intelligent take on a video game until then. I've delved into highlighting what I feel to be one of his greatest hits like an 80's rock back or some shit, sorry about that haha. This current video of his has sparked some healthy dialogue and has me reminiscing. Sorry to just assume you'd hear with me on that lol.

"Leaps and bounds above anything anyone else is doing"? Try reading a book sometime.

I'm more of a "If you're anything like me" kind of guy myself.

It really was. It's such a small part of the video but I'm confident it'll stick with me for years.

I missed it. Oops

I liked when he said, "abreast". heh heh

I'd say it's more like mountains eroding and subsiding like they do in reality. Waters rising kind of implies the base level of quality continuously increases.

@@TheDominitri That's better than implying that old games get worse by just sitting there, like yours.

I'm glad Matt's in game criticism and not propaganda, 'cause he's sure playing me like a fiddle with every segment of this video. He's said he's looking to going into game dev in time, and I've sometimes thought making these videos isn't a great way to build up your gamemaking skillset - but at least he's really mastered how to make me feel the way he wants to when watching his videos. I think that's a skill that could really be weaponized in a game.

The music definitely made me think he was about to announce his retirement, perhaps due to some terminal illness. Really I think it was mostly to set up the tonal whiplash at the end.

@@deleteTF I don't hear it.

When Clair de Lune started playing, I thought I was watching the final video.

He's said on patreon this could be his last video

@@AscorbicNomad Really??? I hope not :(

Same. I thought maybe he had some terminal illness. This is probably because of some real-life framing on my end. I just discovered a loved one has a debilitating autoimmune disorder, which isn't terminal, but it's still made me suspicious of anything even remotely somber.

unless this is why he made a meta video specifically to pass some knowledge for inspired critics and analysts.

id be happy if it were to pursue something he wanted more :') but I hope I can see it

yeah me too

I came down here just to confirm this! Thank god it isn't true

Why do smoothbrains always bring up EoE when encountering anything remotely introspective?

@@gestaltengine6369 Try saying "Finally video games analysis has its End of Evangelion" and then reevaluate how sincere you think I was being.

they weren't commenting on its "introspection" they were commenting on its meta quality, something which is also present in eoe (specifically a scene towards the end where a theater space is shown which is mirrored at 21:00 in this video). and you didn't have to call them a smoothbrain, kinda rude!!!

@@gestaltengine6369 Don't take it too seriously my dude. Also, The End of Evangelion is a postmodern masterpiece

Its more like the final episode of Evangelion before it was remade into the movie. A neat piece in its own right

If I ever make "good" video game reviews/analysis (I say if cause I've been wanting to do so for a while but never got around to it...tho that might change VERY soon) I'll see if I can remember this comment and see what you cooked up! (idk why, perhaps I just like the idea of someone POTENTIALLY staring analysing stuff not only at the same time as me but from a similar source of inspiration...makes the journey seem that less lonely I guess lol)

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-iUzfRC6IQCM.html

Its only cursed cause your not used to it...if he was like that all the time you'd find his analytical "persona" to be much more cursed! ;)

This is a shot in the dark, but I'm mostly commenting to appease the algorithm gods anyway: An FGC youtuber/streamer/commentator, Sajam, will try out fighting games with rollback netcode on stream. He made a video talking about the type of backlash he gets from the people who already play the game. One of the things some communities get mad about is the way he boots up the game, plays the tutorials and the character combo trials, and jumps straight into online matches, usually vs people much better than him. People want him to go watch someone's videos explaining concepts the game doesn't teach itself, and fully understand every mechanic before actually playing anyone, when that's just not how he approaches new fighting games. I only bring this up since you mentioned training options, but would that approach annoy you too? The only way anyone can get to the point where they appreciate the deeper emergent meaning of a fighting game is to somehow learn to play the game. I play melee, so I have no place telling other games they don't have good enough in-game tutorials, but it does seem like the most important part of a fighting game; without a smooth onramp for people new to the genre, they'll just go play SFV, if any fighting game at all. So it's weird to see you criticize criticism of training options in a review like this.

This is was the original purpose of martial arts. Everyone can throw the same punch. It’ll look/feel/BE different for every person. Endless possibilities

I read this comment exactly at 6:08 …meta, dude

Sort by Most Popular: Dark Souls 2 Critique, Dark Souls Commentary, Demon's Souls Commentary, Bioshock Infinite Critique, Breath of the Wild Review, Mario 64 Review, Devil May Cry Commentary. Rethink your analysis, good sir. His recent videos are less viewed because the games are niche and/or obscure. People watch videos about things they know and like, but of course Matthew knows that. His foray into obscure titles, genres and formats was the natural course of this channel. It began with fair analysis of popular titles whose reputations have become (somewhat) removed from reality, and that fairness was extended to Matthew's criteria with which he chooses games to talk about as well as the format with which he does so. Not picking on you though, totally agree with the rest of your comment.

damn, you're right. just gotta find your path.

We all know that we should like, but somewhere along the line most of us forget that we should also subscribe

@@Viraus2 I will apply a little theology and extrapolate from what he actually said, and say that we should all definitely hit that bell, too. (Just kidding, I was already going to do that since I was so mad I was a day late to see this)

@@TomO-lh9bx Hello ladies and gentlemen, this is the fifth in a series of 30 reviews I'm doing on cute girls doing cute things in dangerous settings.

hasn't he!? he's like transcended everyone and everything....dare i say he's become, not god tier....but MATTHEWTIER. He's basically created a new tier really.

You know someone's good at their job when you not only feel smarter by the end, but strive to be smarter as well. In a word, I'd call him inspiring.

Was about to comment something similar, but you've got it

Great explanation. It also reminds me a lot of Inception, and how they couldn't just directly implant their ideas into the dreamer's brain, as such an approach would be too transparent and overt. There had to be multiple (literal) levels of nuance and subtlety before they could convince the dreamer to understand a particular idea.

I don't disagree with anything you've said, specially in regards to a narrative's power to make you empathize with situations you may never come to experience yourself, but I do generally have a problem with how "show, don't tell" is utilized in internet discourse. It's too often idealized as this absolute standard that must always be met, rather than viewed as what it truly is: a useful tool in a creator's toolset. It is, much like many other so touted "rules of writing", a useful guideline to keep in mind but one you shouldn't be afraid to discard if the situation calls for it. So this is less a response to your post, and more just my general thoughts on this subject. You could absolutely always "organically" show how everything in your work operates, but that kind of approach comes with its own downsides too. Just because it's put on a pedestal in certain critique circles, it doesn't mean it's always going to work equally as well for everyone else. For as much as people with experience in a medium like to proclaim how they want works to "respect their intelligence", truth of the matter is a large portion of the public isn't media literate enough to pick up on lots of details you might consider obvious yourself. Sometimes you gotta weight whether what you're trying to say is more important than the risk of having that message lost on a portion of the audience (or misinterpreted outright), or if some of the nuance simply can't be explained without putting it directly into words. Like, if you watch a chess match without commentary (and let's assume for the sake of this example that you're familiar with chess and can play it relatively well, but nowhere near a professional level) you may get a general understanding of what's going on and admire how good the two players are. But then you get a step-by-step explanation of the players' mental states, the thought process behind each and every one of their moves, the logical steps they're following, how far ahead they're thinking and for how many possibilities they might be accounting for, how and why they're accounting for it, and in that explanation you may gain a perspective you never even considered before because, well, a lot of knowledge can't just be intuitively obtained without being exposed to it beforehand, and so a "tell" approach can feel just as much if not more rewarding than simply "showing". Now if that information would've been lost on our imaginary intermediate chess watcher, then imagine how much more a beginner would've missed out on. I've read stories that sometimes outright state certain things they wanted to say and I appreciated them for doing it, because the generalities of what they were saying might have been things I already knew, but the nuance/depth behind their unique perspectives weren't things I had considered or thought too much in detail about. Sometimes there is also power in putting into words something you've felt but never quite expressed out loud. A well made statement can be cathartic all on its own. I felt like I got something valuable without the author needing to "hide" it from me. Sometimes you also gotta take things like pacing into account. If it's faster and more effective to just exposit for a bit and move on rather than trying to contort the narrative around showing all the time, then power to you. Sometimes it's also just fun to minutially over-analyse and dissect stuff. This is all to say that subtlety is generally good when applied well, but also a little overrated in internet discourse. Too often we try to paint with broad strokes to arrive at absolute answers to art, and while those conclusions are genuinely useful for artists, they can also stilt creativity if taken as gospel. This is what Matthew was getting at. An approach may be bad for a large number of stories/videogames/whatever, but end up being perfect for another work. Sometimes telling is fine, good even. Sometimes an author pulls off purple prose just right. Sometimes a story eschews all conventional manner of structure and pulls it off perfectly. Art isn't science after all. The same applies to videogames, which is still a young medium with much room for growth. Which is why it specially upsets me when people try to limit what games can be by saying "videogams should always do things like this(e.g. only convey story diagetically), because this other way (e.g. cutscenes, dialogue, etc) is bad". If feels incredibly narrow minded and limits the variety of experiences we can create.

I think he was talking about *symbolism* in particular. Like, “the curtains are blue so Jane Eyre is depressed.” The perfume in Watchmen has a brand name of “Nostalgia.” That kind of thing. It’s something I’ve never understood either. I agree with your take on general implicitness.

​@@brunomendonca1899 Sure. I'm an editor by trade, so I know exactly what you mean. Pacing requires that sometimes you make the reader stop and think and mull over what they've read, and sometimes it necessitates you to hurry them through a few sentences. Action scenes, for example, are often places where you see abridged and functional descriptions It's a similar thing when talking about adjectives and adverbs. You should use them seldom, since they mean to communicate general ideas instead of painting a picture or being specific, but sometimes that's what's best for your sentence/paragraph/scene. Some things can only be told, not shown. Some details are better expressed than left for the audience to figure out for themselves--often the resolution of character arcs must be clearly shown to the audience because we need to understand how the character has changed, and how that change has given him the chance to succeed where he'd otherwise failed--how it's going to make his life better. Themes, not so much, and definitely not all of them. Ultimately, you do have to pick what you say and what you leave unsaid. Sometimes telling is good. Often telling is good. But I do prefer that showing is seen as the default, and telling is done only when there's a solid reason for the author to do so. It tends to work out better that way. It's much like adverbs/adjectives in that way. Some people will tell writers to cut them out where possible, but we all understand that you need some in there. All writing rules can and should be broken when they need to be, but I don't think the concept of having rules is bad just 'cuz there are exceptions. I speak English, after all.

"There's yet to exist a game with truly infinite replayability except that one game where you fire an electrode into the pleasure center of your brain until you starve to death. But sadly that hasn't yet been ported from laboratory rats, the lucky bastards." - Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw

Super Paper Mario made this commentary all the way back in 2008.

Honestly it's this kind of hot take that makes you go "you know what...that's kind of right, actually" that I think sets Matt apart from similar channels.

What do you mean go? :( Did he quit?

@@SuperJelbo Matthew hasn’t outright quit, per se, just on an indefinite hiatus from video production. He’s currently trying his hand at game development. He has said that he’s open to return to making videos if game dev doesn’t work out for him but nothing is certain as of now.

And these circumstances will never change. Passion and effort is never the norm in anything and fighting for it to be that way is silly so it's not done. It's not reasonable to expect excellence from a majority group because that goes against the definition of excellence. We need to live with the reality that quality is called quality because it is rare and because there is present an ocean of mediocrity with which to compare it to.

That's not new. Never has been, not even for game criticism. Art and art criticism has always been subject to exactly the same constraints as every other industry. Those "circumstances" are universal. The upshot of that is that there's no need to feel down yearning for something that never existed, or disappointed when calling for change that basically can't happen.

the other problem is that a review and a critique are not the same thing, but also not everything labeled a critique is actually a critique. Also, there was never actually this time that game critique lor reviews were better - you were just younger and more ignornerant about certain things.

"It's not good criticism when it doesn't agree with my opinions" is what I've seen most be their reasoning for there not being good criticism.

I hope you’re aware he’s making a game now

@@joebailey8294 You're shitting me. Do you happen to know any details about the game by chance, or if he's talked about those sort of details at all? I respect him for taking a crack at developing his own game, it's not something you see too many people do after making videos that critique the works of other developers. Hopefully it works out for him, maybe he'll make the next Strand-type Nobi game.

@@johnnybensonitis7853 He’s been writing blog posts about it on his Patreon for over a year. It’s all free to read. He’s also been talking about it on streams. If I were you I’d read through the posts chronologically. Some are video quality writing

You’re fucking everywhere dude, even dating back to Bonfire Lit days

@@treedland5763 I miss Bonfire Lit :(

HELLO

1. Being new to a creator's work does not make your experience any less valuable than anyone else...just different. 2. It is definietly easier to follow someone making new content as opposed to binge their backlog. The trick is to do it a little at a time and PAY ATTENTION if you don't want to "miss" anything...if what your watching is well written/in depth, you won't be bored...boredom is a state of mind after all. Its true you don't have the same impression, but you can get close...like how mathew was inspired to make this series from futurama of all things...just pay attention here and do that else where and your creative mind will make things click (at least...I'd hope that's why your watching this...lol) In any case hopefully that helps! I know how you feel but its best not to worry about such things too much! (or at all really) ;)

Damn thanks a lot for the recommendation!

@@gusonian8637 glad I could drive some traffic his way. Dude is criminally undersubbed.

I've seen it be reccomened quite a bunch, especially among the younger gaming circles I've delved into...AKA its getting its fair share of attention (I haven't played it yet so maybe it deserves more, but given that I only feel that one about one game (and its my favorite game so big bias there) I do doubt to some degree lol)

I'd like to grasp what that means

He's named it "quantumbrow" now; you can hear it during the Nobi-Nobi section (in the Death Stranding section (in the Seven Years Later section)) of the video

Midwits, when will they learn?

@@danceswithmetroids162 In his Death Stranding review, Matt said Kojima's works trekked this uncanny path of both low brow and high brow. While streaming Ghosts N Goblins later Matt divulged his phrasing of such insight was initially a little less flattering. When he first mulled over the concept, Matt burst into the room his partner was in, bellowing, "Kojima... he's big brain... but also little brain!"

@@nothing4mepls973 nice word did your mum buy you it?

Everyone knows the key to a great game is exploiting both your employees during development and some underserved minority demographic in your marketing.

Although the Cyberpunk launch was horrible, the actual devs are arguably more infuriated by corporate pushing the game so fast. I personally think there are too many basic features missing from the main game (customizing your own character throughout the game; there's a character editor in the game already, why wouldn't augmenting yourself ingame cause the same changes) for this to just not have been developed. My assumption is that the next 2 major patches are actually buckets of features that were removed at the last second because they were even buggier than the ones currently included in the game. Due to CDPR's handling of the witcher series I feel obligated to hold out on playing the game until it is corrected but if issues continue persist then my opinion of CDPR as a whole will drop considerably.

Knowing that Hades employees were literally forced to go on vaction and that Fromsoft employess also went on vacation at the beggining of covid despite Japan's stupid and soul breaking work ethic makes me happy. It's possible to make good games without making people miserable...

@@Yama-qg3il Not only possible, but more often than not beneficial to making anything and everything better.

Except the problem with Cyberpunk 2077 development wasn't the work put into it, it was how terribly managed the work was.

yeah that part hit me quite a bit

Honest to god, that section made me cry.

This is an inspiration for anyone who wants to make ANY art period! lol

Never expected that many to have read the manga

I'm still hoping for season 2 but i'll eventually give up and read the whole thing.

@@night1952 reading from where the anime left off to the end will probably only take an hour

@@HidinginPublic Nah, i'll read the whole thing, i'm in no hurry with that manga.

Holy shit thank you for confirming my suspicion.

He's got another channel he posts to called Matthewmatosis Extra. He's still active, probably just doesn't have anything to talk about right now.

On his Patreon page he talked about wanting to take a break and being uninspired when making reviews. He’s spending his time on making a game now