Phobus Posted July 12, 2017 No idea how well known she is, but whilst I was bored earlier and scanning YouTube for interesting Doom videos I came across this: I'll concede my major interest was vanity, but looking through her playlist, she's done quite a variety of maps and, whilst not setting any new records for player skill or developer insight, I found the commentary whilst playing to be a lot more compelling than just watching somebody play a map. So, given that she's played my shit, even without any sort of mention of the author, I figured I'd share hers. She's done a multi-parter on 50 Shades of Graytall, that might interest the authors at least, plus a lot of stuff I've not heard of. If I had to guess, she's just plucking random files off /idgames, as it's the only reason I'd imagine anybody playing Urban Escape! 7 Share this post Link to post
Reisal Posted July 12, 2017 I've heard she ends up cheating if she can't legit do it on her own, correct me if I'm wrong on this. The only time I cheat is because of a map bug or something like that. 0 Share this post Link to post
42PercentHealth Posted July 12, 2017 2 minutes ago, Glaice said: I've heard she ends up cheating if she can't legit do it on her own, correct me if I'm wrong on this. The only time I cheat is because of a map bug or something like that. Yeah, I used to be a subscriber, but she cheats a lot. She'll use the resurrect cheat after an ordinary death, just 'cuz she can't be bothered to play legit. Not my cup of tea. She does showcase some obscure stuff though, which is nice. I wish more YouTubers did that... 0 Share this post Link to post
Cruduxy Pegg Posted July 12, 2017 (edited) She is playing on 2nd difficulty. She mentions the wad might not have difficulty settings in mind, This is a valid complaint if it feels like playing UV. (Don't forget it is mostly a difference in things placement in doom) Edit : I posted this without reading 42's post :P, Yea agree shouldn't cheat unless an area is completely overtuned. 0 Share this post Link to post
Reisal Posted July 12, 2017 (edited) Resurrect after death? I leave my deaths in if it's not more than 2. That and I go full blown UV on everything I play. Using console to resurrect after death is weak, this is what quicksaving is for (with prompt turned off). Also, why use the rank "Major"? Besides, an officer rank type wouldn't cheat in levels lol Sorry Arlene, until you change your ways I'm not gonna bother with your channel. Signed, A senior YouTube Doom channel owner (AKA Doom Video Vault) Edited July 12, 2017 by Glaice 0 Share this post Link to post
MarsHappyNation Posted July 12, 2017 Whoa, blast from the past. Found her channel a couple years back but I forgot about her until now. She's really entertaining and I've never been bothered about channels that frequently cheat their way through maps. I mainly watch these kinds of videos for the commentary and to hear their take on whatever it is their playing. Really couldn't care less if they've beaten it legit or not. 1 Share this post Link to post
SaladBadger Posted July 12, 2017 17 minutes ago, Glaice said: Also, why use the rank "Major"? Besides, an officer rank type wouldn't cheat in levels lol I am fairly certain that if people could cheat in real life, majors and even just plain old officers would exploit it as much as possible, heh but yeah I can't say I'm too huge into a wad reviewer who regularly cheats in their reviews. I don't mind the idea of a less experienced player giving their opinion, but this seems a bit weird. 0 Share this post Link to post
dew Posted July 12, 2017 Whoa, that's a huge list of reviews! And mostly for obscure stuff excavated from the farthest depths of the archive! Who cares if she's a cheating casual, this is impressive dedication. 18 Share this post Link to post
Memfis Posted July 12, 2017 Cheating can be good for the viewer. It means you don't have to watch her replaying the same parts. It's an impressive collection indeed. I found 2 of my wads in the list but I'm not proud of them, so not sure if I dare to watch the videos. :D 11 Share this post Link to post
VGA Posted July 12, 2017 Hah, pretty fun. I like how she sees a Cacodemon and says the mapper is "going in dry" :D She should play some slaughterwads, many laughs will be had! Good-natured laughs, I mean. 2 Share this post Link to post
MrGlide Posted July 13, 2017 (edited) That's really interesting, is that the BFG edition Iwad sources I see? 0 Share this post Link to post
Remilia Scarlet Posted July 13, 2017 She reviewed my Extreme Terror map a while back. It was a decent review as far as commentary goes, but the fact that she didn't read or follow the requirements (GZDoom, brightmaps.pk3, lights.pk3, etc.) really irked me since it made my map look like crap. 4 Share this post Link to post
Megalyth Posted July 13, 2017 She got really pissed at my 50Shades map because I didn't do difficulty settings, which is understandable. She doesn't like "dick wizards" (arch-viles) or fighting two cyberdemons at the same time, apparently. :D 4 Share this post Link to post
42PercentHealth Posted July 13, 2017 1 minute ago, Megalyth said: She got really pissed at my 50Shades map because I didn't do difficulty settings, which is understandable. She doesn't like "dick wizards" (arch-viles) or fighting two cyberdemons at the same time, apparently. :D That means she wouldn't like -- uh, pretty much everything that ever won a cacoward. :-P 2 Share this post Link to post
Bauul Posted July 13, 2017 On 7/12/2017 at 1:37 PM, Memfis said: Cheating can be good for the viewer. It means you don't have to watch her replaying the same parts. This exactly. If she's showcasing maps then I'd far rather she uses resurrect like and champ and we actually get to see the map than watching her die on repeat a hundred times. I've watched people play my maps who don't save enough, inevitably die, and then quit because they can't be bothered to replay. I'd far rather they just hit resurrect and carried on than quit altogether. 6 Share this post Link to post
everennui Posted July 17, 2017 (edited) I love Major Arlene. She's one of the first people in the community that I, "met". I agree that she does cheat a lot, but at the same time she isn't claiming to be a Doom aficionado. She does a nice little showcase of a wad, gives her first impressions, places the level on her own personal scale and provides a download link. I'm very grateful for her because I have something to look back on. It's pretty neat. She has started to roll back the difficulty a bit, so that's good. Sometimes she's really good and other times she's in a hurry. When she's in a hurry, she'll not even try to evade the tougher monsters, but she's a small channel appealing to a very small niche of people, plus she works full time and goes to school. Her channel is a fan channel and she is a unique fan with her own quirks and ideas. She does it for free because she wants to have fun. Overall, I think she's great and she's also very nice. I hope to see her doing this for a long time. She's almost on her 500th "official" review. That's pretty badass!! It's easy to say what you'd do differently, but there's likely some unspoken pressures of recording gameplays. Everyone should go show her some love and hit that subscribe button, because she has showcased a lot of people's hardwork. Also, I assume YOU (Major Arlene) are going to read this, so... Thanks for being the Queen of the nerds and playing our babies. XOXOXOX, Lee P.S. Please use lights and brightmaps!! P.P.S. Major Arlene is from the Doom novels. At the end she is promoted to major from Pvt. First Class 2 Share this post Link to post
everennui Posted July 17, 2017 On 7/12/2017 at 3:45 PM, VGA said: Hah, pretty fun. I like how she sees a Cacodemon and says the mapper is "going in dry" :D I caught that, too. It gave me a good chuckle. I don't know how to do quotes in edits so sorry for double post. 0 Share this post Link to post
Woolie Wool Posted July 18, 2017 On 7/12/2017 at 3:04 PM, Glaice said: Using console to resurrect after death is weak, this is what quicksaving is for (with prompt turned off). Also, why use the rank "Major"? Besides, an officer rank type wouldn't cheat in levels lol Of course they would. The old joke among sergeants is "Don't call me 'sir', I work for a living!" 1 Share this post Link to post
Reisal Posted July 18, 2017 (edited) On 7/13/2017 at 4:10 PM, Megalyth said: She got really pissed at my 50Shades map because I didn't do difficulty settings, which is understandable. She doesn't like "dick wizards" (arch-viles) or fighting two cyberdemons at the same time, apparently. :D Then she should won't improve her skills by having a fit like that. My criticism from earlier still stands, even the post I made on her channel's discussion page. 0 Share this post Link to post
nicolas monti Posted July 18, 2017 I'm subscribed to her channel, the thing I admire is her wad choices, mostly underrated lost maps in time.. 1 Share this post Link to post
Nems Posted July 18, 2017 (edited) Maybe she just plays for fun and doesn't care about her "skillz". :I 3 Share this post Link to post
SaladBadger Posted July 18, 2017 (edited) huh, so she did Moonsong. I'm frankly amazed how badly they're getting their ass kicked in the later bits, it once again reminds how wide the differences in player skill can be. Moonsong was far too easy in my eyes, but they're just getting trounced by some of the later encounters. I should remember to add real skill settings to Moonfall to assist with this. 1 Share this post Link to post
Xaser Posted July 18, 2017 Hmm, while normally I'd be just fine with the cheating bit (a la "play it your way"), I checked out the Graytall playthrough for the usual egoreasons and there's a bit where she misses a jump and (rather than load a save) decides to noclip onto the platform, skipping an essential trigger in the process. This results in her getting hopelessly stuck in the map, which develops into actual anger once she ceases having fun but continues to plow forward anyway. :/ Lemniscate has more than its fair share of issues, and the pain points in the vid (navigational issues and too- tricky jumps) are big lessons in hindsight, but it's disheartening to watch the whole thing shatter when a non-cheaty alternative (savegames) is readily available. It's like someone playing your map with [gameplay mod 'x'], getting stuck on a fight that's overly-difficult due to the mod, and concluding your map sucks. Positive footnote: I do hope this is a fluke. 400+ reviews shows some serious commitment, and the enthusiasm is commendable. 2 Share this post Link to post
Major Arlene Posted July 18, 2017 Hi there guys, Major Arlene here. I figured I'd pop by to sort of explain why I do some of the things that I do and give a little background about myself, because I've talked about it in bits and pieces in my reviews over the years but never really fully explained myself. 1. Cheating. Cheating, cheating, cheating. Yea, I cheat. I know, it's a horrible thing to do. Here's a couple reasons why I do it, and how I've finessed the way I use cheats: Time constraints: I get a very limited amount of time to record reviews. As everenuui explained above, I work 30+ hours a week and go to college full time. I also live with my parents, and the walls in my house are paper thin. So I do not record when they are home. This leaves maybe 3 hours, 5 days a week, if that time is not taken up with studying. I just simply do not have time to keep replaying the same parts of the map. Viewing experience: It is one thing to be on a live stream, because you have committed several hours to gameplay, and the next time I do a livestream (if I ever have time to) I will make sure I do not use cheats at all. The main goal of my videos is to give a general overview of the map and encourage others to give them a play, which is why I always leave a link to the WADs that I review. If I keep playing the same parts of the map over and over and over, it will get tedious for both me and the viewer. So I keep it moving, keep it upbeat. Inexperience. I am very much a filthy casual, and will be the first person to admit it. I did not grow up playing action video games like many of you have. My parents were extremely strict, and any game I played on the computer was some Reader Rabbit type crap. I didn't even know what DooM was until my senior year of high school. So from my senior year of high school to my senior year of college, about 4 years now, is all the experience I have with action and shooter games. I'm slowly getting better, though. If you watched some of my earliest reviews, I would use the godmode cheat liberally. That moved to resurrecting about two or three years ago, and buddha mode (stops damage at 1 health) when I felt the need for it. Noclip I use extremely rarely nowadays. I almost never use buddha now- just resurrect. 2. Slaughtermaps- nah. They are a ginormous waste of time to review, not to mention boring. 3. Yep, BFG edition iwads. I rarely play DooM 3 though. 4. YukiRaven- I apologize for not following directions, that was 100% my fault. If it suits you I can revisit it and showcase it in all of its glory. 5. 50 Shades of Graytall playthrough was two years ago, and I was less experienced then. This was before I'd been getting a lot of complaints and realized I needed to change the way I did things. This is another one I may revisit if I have time. I rarely do megawad playthroughs so this was a huge project for me. I was definitely unfair to it- it was a great mapset, I was just an idiot and/or tired and/or frustrated. 50 Shades was cohesive, had a great theme, and I didn't appreciate it enough. 6. Everenuui- I wholly appreciate all of your thoughts, thank you for sticking by me for so long. 7. Major Arlene did come out of the DooM novels. It also rolls off the tongue easy. It's by no means indicative of my skill level- I just wanted a name to call myself by, and it's been my gamertag for everything since the beginning of my channel. 8. Yep, I generally hit the random button on the idgames archive to get the WADs I review. I'll get the occasional request but that's mostly how I do it. I will close by saying that I sincerely appreciate everyone's feedback (even if I sometimes don't show it). It helps me improve what I'm doing, and reminds me to stay humble, because I have a long way to go. I never intended for this channel to be a super serious thing, just a place where I can share maps from now or years and years in the past. But it is good to know that there are people out there who talk honestly, both to me and about me. I do generally just lurk around if I'm feeling vain, but since this one is fairly recent, I figured it would be a good time to actually address the comments here. THANK YOU GUYS. I hope a year (or 5) from now I will still be doing this, and I can look back on this forum and smile at my younger, less experienced self. Keep the feedback coming. 34 Share this post Link to post
ReX Posted July 18, 2017 As an alternative to playing and replaying a map to determine the optimal progression before you record it, you could do one or two of the following: 1. Use cheats to discover the progression before you record your playthrough & commentary. This will allow you to move through the map faster while actually recording it. The downside is that you won't have genuine surprise when you encounter something special during your recording. 2. Use -nomonsters to determine the progression when testing the map before recording. The downside is that some maps use monster deaths to trigger events, and you'd miss this aspect of gameplay. 3. Open the map in an editor and identify the key objectives before recording. The downside is that this can sometimes be tedious, as some objectives don't lend themselves to being evident in a map editor. None of these alternatives is ideal, but they may allow you to save some time in testing each map before recording it. But staying on topic, I find your recordings and reviews to be entertaining and honest. Keep 'em coming. 1 Share this post Link to post
obake Posted July 18, 2017 I am grateful for your playthroughs, Major. I agree that you are growing as a player, and like you said, in a few years you'll look back at your inexperienced self and see how much you've improved. :) 0 Share this post Link to post
Xaser Posted July 18, 2017 @Major Arlene Welcome to the fray! I hope my words above weren't too discouraging. Looks like you've clearly got your head in the right place, so I think my concerns are pretty much moot now. Keep on Doomin'! 1 Share this post Link to post
Major Arlene Posted July 18, 2017 @ReX These would be great if I did not choose to play them blind. I play them blind because it tends to be the most honest way I can represent a map, and there have been occasions where that had really paid off. There's one in most recent memory for me that really surprised me and taught me something about the way that ZDoom (GZDoom) builder works, what its capabilities are, etc (moment around 26:50). The only time I open a map before recording is if there is no literature to tell me what source port to use, which iwad, etc. But either way, I appreciate your suggestions. @Xaser Thank you! Nope, you were 100% correct on your assessment. And I've definitely heard harsher, and I'm still going. You have to be a real asshole to offend me- I work retail :P 5 Share this post Link to post
42PercentHealth Posted July 18, 2017 1 minute ago, Major Arlene said: These would be great if I did not choose to play them blind. I play them blind because it tends to be the most honest way I can represent a map, and there have been occasions where that had really paid off. I, for one, really appreciate blind-plays of Doom content. I should probably give your channel another visit.... 0 Share this post Link to post
Major Arlene Posted July 18, 2017 @42PercentHealth I'd love to have you back! Feel free to visit anytime. For the most part they are 100% blind. I will indicate in the beginning if they are not. 1 Share this post Link to post