Greg Owen

I STRONGLY recommend this game.
I stumbled on a demo during the Steam Next Fest and absolutely loved it, so I bought it on release last week. It's a love letter to Spyro, Kingdom Hearts, Crash Bandicoot, and every other ps2 era action platformer you loved.
It plays smoothly, has a great art style, and is overall just extremely fun to play.

Bonus: that little bird you see in the picture does follow you around, but does NOT say "hey!" over and over.

2 days ago | [YT] | 27

Greg Owen

Interesting video here. Are the channels you watch getting longer? Do you like it, or is it getting to be too much?

I clicked this one, because I was already thinking about it, and this guy is pointing straight at me.
My own videos have gotten a bit longer, but why?
For me, I think it’s a matter of wanting to make 110% of a point. That means examples, historical background, some personal anecdotes, etc. A ten minute video is a good primer, but I always feel like there was more detail that could have, and likely should have, been added to make the point better. Why pique the viewers interest and then just gloss over the topic?
After I make a video, my number one regret is being misunderstood. Being disagreed with is cool, as long as it’s me being disagreed with and not a different point I wasn’t really trying to make.

The trouble is finding the line between adequate and too much. For example, in last week’s video, I brought up the Ford v Dodge case, because Shareholder Primacy was important to the overall argument. In an effort to keep that segment short and focused on the results of the ruling, I left out the bits about the Dodge brothers using dividends to fund their competing company. Now, looking back, that would have taken about 60 seconds or less to explain and probably wouldn’t have dragged the pace down. But would it have improved the video? Is the video worse off for having excluded it? I’m still not sure. And it’s one of a dozen things I cut from that script, which was originally closer to 50+ minutes long. Each thing is a little add, but collectively they make an hour long video.

It’s a fun challenge, but a challenge nonetheless, to parse out what are important details that will inform the viewer and hold their interest, but not so much that other viewers will get bored.

One solution is to talk about a subject or theme in multiple videos, giving it multiple passes from different angles. However, this relies on the viewer watching all of them to get the full picture, which you can’t always expect.

Second example. I actually cut some of last week’s video after publishing. Toward the beginning, there was a listing of various ways things have become enshittified. It was about 80 seconds long. The thing is, if you clicked on this video, you almost certainly have your own examples and agree that things are getting shittier, so that segment didn’t add to the argument. BUT, most viewers likely agreed with all of it, so the argument could be made that leaving it in is fine, because the viewer is engaged via agreement.
It’s a never ending puzzle. Fortunately, I love puzzles

3 days ago (edited) | [YT] | 60

Greg Owen

Tuesday night, let's watch some movie trailers together!
Sure, Doomsday and Dune are coming, but what other trailers should we watch?
The stream will be here:
youtube.com/live/LRTkQQuzy-Y?feature=share

2 weeks ago (edited) | [YT] | 136

Greg Owen

Don't waste your time with Minions & Monsters. Even your kids will be bored.

I generally like Illumination movies, and so do my kids. Sure, they aim at a younger crowd, but they're almost always fun. I've liked the Gru and Minions movies, so I was expecting fun. I wasn't expecting greatness, just some laughs and bright colors and a couple lines to quote back and forth with the kids for a week or so. That bar was so low, they could have cleared it by accidentally tripping over it, but the assholes who made this dreck showed up with shovels.

This thing was trash from start to finish. There is no plot to speak of, I mean even less plot than you were thinking. The "homage to old hollywood" is on the same level as the various easter eggs in Wish. The first 20 minutes is a retelling of how minions look for evil masters to serve. It takes a full 60 minutes of this 90 minute movie to get to the premise of the trailer, which is the minions trying to make a movie and summoning monsters.

The mini cthulhu that is in all the promo material shows up AFTER that point. The monsters, literally half of the title of the movie, pop in during the final 20 minutes and are dealt with almost immediately via deus ex machina from a random subplot character. They have zero personality and the most forgettable designs.

Saying it makes no sense is usually brushed off when it comes to kids movies, because none of them really make sense. I need you to understand that even by kids movie standards, this is atrocious. Even at 90 minutes, it feels oppressively long. There are very few jokes, and even such as there were, the kids didn't laugh much. The biggest laugh from them was in a scene DURING THE CREDITS where the minions are using a spell book to make animals with Gru's face, and he comes up behind them and they magic his clothes off, so he has to run away. That was funnier than anything else in the movie.

I rarely regret going to the movies with my family, because at least we're hanging out and theater popcorn is great, but I do regret seeing this one. It was a waste of time and money and we got nothing in return. No laughs, no moments to talk about, no cool action scenes, no emotion, nothing. I would have even settled for cheap laughs, but we got nothing.
No standard is low enough to justify this shlock. Save your time and money, take your kids to watch grass grow instead. The chances of finding something interesting there is higher than in a theater showing Minions & Monsters.

1 month ago | [YT] | 492

Greg Owen

Tomorrow, there will be grillin', but first we will be chillin'.
Share Owener members, come hang out, tell me of your recent adventures, and I'll tell you about mine.
July 4th at 10am 'Merican Central time. See you then!

1 month ago | [YT] | 3

Greg Owen

Join us and talk about movies and game! We're live now at 6pm central!

2 months ago | [YT] | 10

Greg Owen

Work is done, time to get our member hang on!
This Saturday, May 9 at 11am central, 2nd tier members will be chilling and chatting. Come join the fun!

3 months ago | [YT] | 70

Greg Owen

Greg and Despot Show is on tonight!

Tonight we are talking about Michael (music biopic #2365794), Malcolm in the Middle, Why Netflix season 2 is always trash, Street Fighter movie, and He-Man potentially being about ToXiC mAsCuLiNiTy.
We'll also be expanding the "What are you playing" section where we show off the video games we've been enjoying.
Joining us tonight is DarkHour!

6pm central time tonight!

3 months ago | [YT] | 7

Greg Owen

Join Despot and I to look back on the good, the bad, and the downright hilar-ible from 2025

6 months ago | [YT] | 34

Greg Owen

Come hang out with me today!

7 months ago | [YT] | 14