Analysis: Video Game Commentary

Comments · 1.2K

• BR

  @Brian_F · 6 years ago

  Me: <b>jab jab jab jab</b><br><br>Sf4 announcer: &quot;I&apos;VE NEVER SEEN A COMBO LIKE THIS BEFORE!&quot;

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• BR

  @brococheda9303 · 6 years ago

  Core-A’s always an instant click

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• JO

  @joshuaworden274 · 6 years ago (edited)

  TL;DR: That weird announcer line made sense in Japanese.<br><br>For those interested, that weird &quot;the weak lose and the strong win&quot; line from SFIV is (iirc) a translation of 弱肉強食, which is what&apos;s called a &quot;four-character idiom.&quot; Japanese has a lot of these four-character idioms, and they are usually little bits of wisdom, which is why it got called an &quot;axiom&quot; by the announcer. As an example, one that got absorbed into english is 一石二鳥, literally &quot;one stone, two birds.&quot; This one from SFIV gets translated in a lot of weird ways because, if you do it literally, you get &quot;weak meat, strong eat,&quot; which while hilarious, lacks the soul of the original. The translation that I think sounds the best in english is &quot;The weak become food for the strong.&quot; Anyway, point is, it didn&apos;t sound so weird and awkward in the original language.<br><br>Belated edit circa April 2021:<br>A few have rightly pointed out that the origin of &quot;one stone, two birds&quot; (and the many similar idioms across a variety of languages) is contentious, possibly spreading from Greece, possibly, as I was taught, from China (the birthplace of the four-character idiom), or possibly independently in many places.

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• YG

  @ygypt · 6 years ago

  &quot;passes it to the man, shoots it, and boom goes the dynamite&quot;<br><br>this dude landed the wrong job and he just rolls with it

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• PU

  @punhodragao · 6 years ago (edited)

  Core-A: uploads<br><br>Me: there is still hope for 2020

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• BU

  @BurnoutFighter · 6 years ago

  In the FGC, if a certain tech or combo was discovered, it would become &apos;(insert player&apos;s name) special&apos;<br>Justin Wong&apos;s &apos;Wong Factor&apos; was a thing as well as the &apos;Daigo Parry&apos;

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• 1C

  @1Caja · 6 years ago

  &quot;Not everyone agrees&quot; <br>Shows pictures of pineapple pizza. <br><br>The perfect metaphor doesn&apos;t exi-...

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• NE

  @nelozk1860 · 6 years ago

  &quot;LOOK AT THE TIME! LOOOK AT THE TIIIIME!&quot;

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• TH

  @THEFRISKIESTDINGO · 5 years ago

  That line about rewarding the listener for paying attention is spot-on. When a commentator says &quot;there it is again!&quot; you <i>feel</i> like you both watched it together the last time and this time. You&apos;re watching this together, <i>almost like you&apos;re friends,</i> and why would you leave a friend hanging by tuning out?

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• SK

  @SkyTowerKurogane · 6 years ago

  Commentary is a really underated part of a lot of different types of media. I remember a few years ago, watching this cliff diving competition, a sport that I think it&apos;s kind of neat, but nothing out of the ordinary. But then, the commentary, was so good, they explained the intricacies of the sport, the background of the competitors, tidbits about interviews with the competitors. I stopped what I was doing just to watch. It really makes a big difference.

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• SG

  @sgm5573 · 6 years ago

  me at the start of the video: hell yeah tastosis is in this<br>me at the end of the video: <b>crying about incontrol again</b>

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• VD

  @vDeadbolt · 6 years ago (edited)

  I know Professional Wrestling is fake, and the reason why commentary exists is that they need to make the match as believable as possible. But I would like to use this time to show some appreciation for commentators. <br><br> &nbsp;Jim Ross is a beloved play by play commentator because of his expressions and how much he is able to &quot;sell&quot; the match to the audience watching at home. His commentator is so good, he makes his partner, Jerry &quot;The King: Lawler sound good. Lawler isn&apos;t a good color commentator because most of the time, he makes a ton of misogynistic quotes, and he just randomly yells stuff. He is pretty much a hype man. When he worked with Michael Cole or Joey Styles (Another beloved play by play guy), you can clearly tell that Jim Ross carried him. People claim that after Jim Ross left, matches started to become boring.<br><br> &nbsp; But going on from that, Michael Cole and Tazz are my favorite commentary duo, especially when they both worked on Smackdown. Cole gets a ton of hate for his commentary work today, because of many reasons. It&apos;s either that his catchphrases were horrible, he is constantly forced what to say by the higher-ups or his stint where he became a heel (Aka The Bad Guy). Heel commentators work only if it&apos;s the color commentator hyping the bad guy up. It creates a yin and yang feel. But when the play by play guy does it, it makes the product even worse. But going back to the duo, Michael Cole and Tazz don&apos;t get a lot of appreciation at all when it comes to commentary. But when you look at the older stuff from 2002-2005, you can clearly see how well the two synergized with each other. Cole was able to call his matches, while Tazz actually knew what went on because he recently retired around that time. They made guys like Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guererro, Chris Benoit, Edge, And Kurt Angle much more credible, especially how those guys were not considered to be the top guys until the two commentated their godlike matches. Without those two, Smackdown wouldn&apos;t have been a popular show if two less credible guys did the commentary. It made Smackdown much more believable, while Raw was over the top.

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