Extra Credits: Difference between revisions

* [[Art Shift]]: In "Innovation" and "Gamification", the latter illustrated by Erin Siegel to give Allison a break

** ''Extra Credits'' brought in other guest artists after Allison's surgery to let her arm heal, including Erin.

{{quote| ''"Big [[E 3]] Developments. New Sony handheld. New HD Nintendo console. And apparently, sports stars don't count as celebrities. I didn't know that."''}}

* [[Berserk Button]]: Poorly-made propaganda games. Well-made propaganda games don't always set their world on fire either, but ''poorly''-made propaganda games inspire [http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/call-of-juarez-the-cartel epic rants like these].

* [[Mood Dissonance]]: In the "Open Letter to EA Marketing" video, Daniel reads out-loud the original mission statement for Electronic Arts, a highly idealistic vision for the evolution of video games as an art form. While he's reading this, he shows clips of EA's various cynical ad campaigns that embrace the worst of gaming stereotypes and do little to advance the medium as an art.

* [[Our Monsters Are Weird]]: Allison is ''really'' good at that. Often borders on [[Nightmare Fuel]].

{{quote| ''It's the suggestion that we shouldn't explore games further. That all of this inquiry and study and tampering is going to [[Ruined FOREVER|just ruin]] our favorite hobby. And that is a claim that needs answering. It makes no [[Sound Effect Bleep|f**king]] sense!"}}

** Used again in "Call of Juarez: The Cartel." toward the end

*** Interestingly, the PATV episode was remade from scratch with a reworked script and animation.

* [[Running Gag]]: Allison's shoulder injury is rendered as a [[Deus Ex Human Revolution (Video Game)|Deus Ex style]] [[Rule of Cool|cyborg arm]].

{{quote| '''Daniel''': Smartass.}}

* [[Serious Business]]: A large part of the series's message is that video game developers should take their medium as seriously as other media.

** The breakdown of ''[[Call of Juarez]]: The Cartel'' is absolutely ''brutal'' in its treatment of the game, condemning it for multiple sins; it starts with how its lazy design indirectly encourages the killing of black people and gets more serious from there.

* [[Shout Out]]: In the "Sharing Our Medium" episode, the "PLAY ALL THE THINGS" pictures are a shout out to [[Hyperbole and A Half]].

* [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]]: The tone of the series is extremely idealistic: it views the recognition of video games as art as inevitable, treats virtually all developments in the industry as furthering this cause, and views most obstacles in the way as easily overcome.

* [[Something Completely Different]]: Game Addiction (Part 2) where James Portnow sits down in front of the camera and discusses his own past in this area. Daniel even comments on how they tried to do it in their normal, academic style of commentary, but James simply couldn't write a good enough script while remaining objective.