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Phobus

Major Arlene's Doom WAD Reviews

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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!

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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.

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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...

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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. 

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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 by Glaice

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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. 

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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!"

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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.

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Maybe she just plays for fun and doesn't care about her "skillz". :I

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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. :)

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@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'!

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@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

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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....

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