Can we tone the Notch-Bashing down please?

[Mrchaim]

As per the thread title chaps - I keep seeing people taking repeated swipes at notch on this forum, and frankly? It's getting a little creepy when it seems like every 5 seconds someone decides to take yet another swipe, especially at the drop of the hat - And i'd really rather it not become the norm and see the forum degenerate into blindly insulting any and all changes Notch, or anyone else at Mojang makes to the game .

Yes, there are legitimate issues to be had with minecraft and how it's been updated. I've certainly got my qualms at the half-baked systems in the games, and the additions of exp in 1.8 - Although in EXP's case, i want to wait and see first before i leap to conclusions.

However, there is, however still a brilliant game in all of this - and things like the new dungeons and strongholds i feel will only help to add more reasons to keep playing. It's also one of the most amazing platforms I've ever seen in terms of the creativity it's allowed people to unleash, be it with redstone, buildings, or modding. We've also got a decent community here in this forum, even if there's some definite rough edges and stupid questions - But I'd rather see the side of the community that likes to discuss things in depth or examine them promoted, not the side that dogpiles (pardon the pun) issues, or blindly screams for things without considering it testing it for themselves first.

I do hope I'm not treading on anyone's toes here, but i thought this was worth bringing up. Thanks for reading.

[Damion Rayne]

Notch never planned for this to go as far as it has, but now that it has he has no clue what the hell he's doing and it's obvious. If you can't see that my friend, that's not a problem for the people that can. When he constantly talks about doing everything but development on a game people pay him money for it casts an air over him. But on the other side of the coin, he has taken on someone to help him as MC has gone far beyond anything he ever thought.

But Notch himself says he never used to finish his projects, and how many cool mod ideas and updates to minecraft have been utterly ignored or restructured when implemented? Take pistons, nothing like the mod now.

In short, a few of us have grown mistrustful and disenfranchised with Notch and we have the right to, and the ability to voice our concerns and will do so. If you've got personal issues with people that do overly bash him, you're not by any means forced to engage in conversation with them.

[Mrchaim]

In short, a few of us have grown mistrustful and disenfranchised with Notch and we have the right to, and the ability to voice our concerns and will do so. If you've got personal issues with people that do overly bash him, you're not by any means forced to engage in conversation with them.

I think you miss the thrust of where i was aiming at. I agree there are problems, and I'm fine with people calling notch on that, even if we may not personally agree on what they are. That's okay, that's what discussion is for, and half the reason i want to be on a forum - to see other people's point of view, especially when it comes to what they enjoy in games.

What I'm disliking is that turning into cheap shots, rather into more reasoned discussion on why the feature's worrying and what could be done about it. It's the difference between "Wolves suck1!11evletnone!" and FlowerChild's original "Wolves are a bad idea" post that I'm concerned about.

Flowerchild's post provides plenty of opportunities to have some really interesting discussion on game design and examining why people like a feature even when it's got some serious issues as a gameplay feature - there's some really interesting stuff there to be examined.

"Wolvessuck!" on the other hand is just noise - but it's poisonous noise, and it really doesn't take a lot of that before it starts actively affecting areas of the forum - Look at how bad the suggestion area gets, as an example - It'd be a heck of a lot more useful and interesting if there was a culture of posting thought-out ideas or concepts & then discussing them, rather than the current drop a half-thought out idea and run off, with similarly terse replies because the ideas are that stupid.

Hopefully that makes sense on where I'm coming from, yes? And you're quiet right, there's nothing "forcing" me to stay here and interact with people - Except that i rather imagine that like you, i enjoy discussing minecraft in an atmosphere where people do hopefully stop and think about things.

[FlowerChild]

Yup, I agree with you man. As caustic as I tend to be, I find myself motivated to defend Notch in some of the threads that are popping up these days.

I've also completely given up on the suggestion sub-forum because of what you just said about it. It's such a toxic-dump of crappy ideas right now that reading it generally just saps me of all motivation to work on the mod. I tried guiding it in some fashion, but found myself just getting increasingly frustrated and realized I was fighting a losing battle.

As the saying goes "opinions are like assholes...", and I think that's doubly true in game design. Since there are no formal qualifications for being a game-designer, everybody tends to think they are one, while there are actually VERY few people that have any concept of it at all.

I've stopped reading the suggestion forum entirely the past few days, and my productivity has actually been really high over the same period. It may be coincidental, but I suspect not.

[Mrchaim]

Exactly - and it's hardly unique to Game Design - look at say, Graphic Desgin as well, which is my current area of study. Lots of people have opinions on it, and by and large? Your client's opinions are going to suck balls - because while you can definitely have a knack for composition or color matching or the ilk, there's more than just that that goes into a good piece of graphic design - stuff like how useable it is, how it looks on the shelf, how it looks at home, a whole host of things have to be looked at to really make something that's fantastic and makes people want to buy the product.

Same with game design - what can sound fun on paper may in practice be _really bloody boring_ or have other hideous issues. I mean, I like the concept of Wolves in minecraft (Dies in a hail of accusations of being a wolfaboo) from a cinematic/illustrative point of view - Man vs Wild with his semi-feral friends, working together against the undead remnants of some long for gotten race and it's ambulatory shrub weaponry! It's just completely in character for the overall isolated style Steve? and Minecraft have, and really lends it self to some nice purely visual story telling.

From an actual game-play point of view.... Well, we're all playing a mod where the best use of your wolves is to lock them into tiny pens in the dark. We know how many issues wolves have just from actually playing with them - they're simply not functional, in their current state. There's a huge gulf between the idea (Cinematic and fun sounding) and the reality (Stationary Poop Excreters)

It's having these sorts of discussions that keeps me coming back to this forum - Because just like i could probably teach most people on this forum something about graphic design through showing them why i make a line there and a piece of color here or why i went with a simply box design rather than a sphere for a project... There's similarly a lot for me to learn about game design, something i really enjoy, from seeing why Flowerchild does things, and how people respond to it. I'd hate to loose that because of the signal to noise ratio getting way out of control. (Also, as an aside: Thank you for being active within this community Flowerchild. It really is nice to be able to interact with ya)

[FlowerChild]

Thanks man, I appreciate that.

There's a huge difference between what is cool sounding thematically and what actually makes for good gameplay.

One of my favorite quotes in the industry was from John Carmack:

"story in games is like story in porn...it's expected, but entirely unnecessary."

Now, I wouldn't go QUITE that far, but there is a lot of truth to that statement. People that don't fully understand a medium tend to focus primarily on the aspects that they are familiar with, and relate it to mediums they understand better.

So, in the case of games, this will often come down to graphics, sound, and story. This isn't even limited to amateurs. There are way too many professionals in the industry that fall into this trap.

A prime example of this IMO is the game Space Marine. I'm a huge 40K fan, so I've been keeping an eye on that one.

A little while ago I saw a dev-diary video in which a bunch of the designers were going on about "the cinematic experience" and how they were taking cues from movies in designing the game.

Immediately, I thought "oh no...I've seen this before".

Low and behold, the other night I downloaded the demo, and despite all the fan-boys going on about it I saw on their forums, guess what?

It sucks balls.

All the visual trappings are there. All the 40K thematic elements. But there's no game play beyond basic button mashing. They were so focused on the cinematic experience that they forgot they were making a game.

Anyways, I'm sure there's a point in the above ramble somewhere. For now, I need to get some sleep :)

[Brethern]

Thanks man, I appreciate that.

There's a huge difference between what is cool sounding thematically and what actually makes for good gameplay.

One of my favorite quotes in the industry was from John Carmack:

"story in games is like story in porn...it's expected, but entirely unnecessary."

Now, I wouldn't go QUITE that far, but there is a lot of truth to that statement. People that don't fully understand a medium tend to focus primarily on the aspects that they are familiar with, and relate it to mediums they understand better.

So, in the case of games, this will often come down to graphics, sound, and story. This isn't even limited to amateurs. There are way too many professionals in the industry that fall into this trap.

A prime example of this IMO is the game Space Marine. I'm a huge 40K fan, so I've been keeping an eye on that one.

A little while ago I saw a dev-diary video in which a bunch of the designers were going on about "the cinematic experience" and how they were taking cues from movies in designing the game.

Immediately, I thought "oh no...I've seen this before".

Low and behold, the other night I downloaded the demo, and despite all the fan-boys going on about it I saw on their forums, guess what?

It sucks balls.

All the visual trappings are there. All the 40K thematic elements. But there's no game play beyond basic button mashing. They were so focused on the cinematic experience that they forgot they were making a game.

Anyways, I'm sure there's a point in the above ramble somewhere. For now, I need to get some sleep :)

My notch bashing comes mostly from the fact that notch seems to care more about pleasing his 12 year old fans than actually making a game. I want a patch that 99% bug fixing I don't want new content I want a stable game. vM is due out in Nov yet it still has performance problems that shouldn't be there.

Also In terms of space marine, and the fact I have nearly two hours logged on the demo it's exactly what I want. The weapons are powerful and when you move you feel like you're a 1300 LB tank. If you want good controls and stuff play devil may cry.

[FlowerChild]

Also In terms of space marine, and the fact I have nearly two hours logged on the demo it's exactly what I want. The weapons are powerful and when you move you feel like you're a 1300 LB tank. If you want good controls and stuff play devil may cry.

Pfft. There's no gameplay man. I don't mind slow and ponderous (I love mech games actually). Seriously, it just stinks. There's no *depth* to the mechanics whatsoever. The combat largely consists of triggering canned animations with very little in the way of any tactical decision-making involved.

I don't care if it's slow or fast, I care if the gameplay is interesting: which it is not. It's a stripped down hybrid between Gears of War and Dynasty Warriors (both of which I love) which possesses the strengths of neither and the weaknesses of both. It has neither the cover system of Gears (which was largely what gave it it's depth), nor the overwhelming number of enemies, role-playing elements, counter-system, or the strategic decision-making involved that DW has.

The gameplay consists of basic hack and slash button mashing with a dab of FPS thrown in that feels more like it belongs in a 90's arcade game. They even managed to turn something as potentially interesting as the assault pack into something ridiculously mundane and overpowered.

The levels have an entirely linear scripted feel to them and the "gameplay" portions only seem to serve the purpose of bridging the gap between cut-scenes. I would consider it more of an animated movie with mildly interactive portions than a game with cut-scenes.

Nice(ish) cut-scenes though.

I can understand your denial given that I was very much looking forward to this game and have been a 40K fan since the very first edition (I started playing when I was just a kid and it had first come out and have fielded a number of different armies over the years). I am also a big fan of Relic and the Dawn of War franchise (although I thought the second game was an overly-simplified attempt to make it mass market that alienated the core audience), and have had a number of friends that have worked there over the years. But as a game-designer, I can see this thing has epic-fail written all over it, and frankly, I suspect that this debacle of a game will likely be the death-knell of Relic as a studio.

I have about two hours on it as well, and while I found them *mildly* entertaining, I could immediately tell that I wouldn't want to play it anymore, nor would the majority of gamers, and that reviewers will tear it apart for its failings upon release.

[Brethern]

Also In terms of space marine, and the fact I have nearly two hours logged on the demo it's exactly what I want. The weapons are powerful and when you move you feel like you're a 1300 LB tank. If you want good controls and stuff play devil may cry.

Pfft. There's no gameplay man. I don't mind slow and ponderous (I love mech games actually). Seriously, it just stinks. There's no *depth* to the mechanics whatsoever. The combat largely consists of triggering canned animations with very little in the way of any tactical decision-making involved.

I don't care if it's slow or fast, I care if the gameplay is interesting: which it is not. It's a stripped down hybrid between Gears of War and Dynasty Warriors (both of which I love) which possesses the strengths of neither and the weaknesses of both. It has neither the cover system of Gears (which was largely what gave it it's depth), nor the overwhelming number of enemies, role-playing elements, counter-system, or the strategic decision-making involved that DW has.

The gameplay consists of basic hack and slash button mashing with a dab of FPS thrown in that feels more like it belongs in a 90's arcade game. They even managed to turn something as potentially interesting as the assault pack into something ridiculously mundane and overpowered.

The levels have an entirely linear scripted feel to them and the "gameplay" portions only seem to serve the purpose of bridging the gap between cut-scenes. I would consider it more of an animated movie with mildly interactive portions than a game with cut-scenes.

Nice(ish) cut-scenes though.

I can understand your denial given that I was very much looking forward to this game and have been a 40K fan since the very first edition (I started playing when I was just a kid and it had first come out and have fielded a number of different armies over the years). I am also a big fan of Relic and the Dawn of War franchise (although I thought the second game was an overly-simplified attempt to make it mass market that alienated the core audience), and have had a number of friends that have worked there over the years. But as a game-designer, I can see this thing has epic-fail written all over it, and frankly, I suspect that this debacle of a game will likely be the death-knell of Relic as a studio.

Relic has been making 40K games for what? 6 years? Each game is supported and has a ton of DLC that fans buy.

Gears is a 3rd person horror action game it requires players to plan ahead and use tactics. The weapons are also boring. Dynasty warriors single player from my experience is boring. Space marine on the other hand has rapid fire rocket launchers that feel like a uber weapon. It has melee that feels powerful.

I play allot of fighting games where I have to combo four or five hits to kill an enemy. I don't want that in 40K I want to slaughter things en mass. I want to shoot into a crowd of enemies and watch blood splatter. I want to fall from the sky and watch my enemies scatter.

I don't want a game that rapes the weapons.

I want war incarnate.

Also for any other game you're right but seriously if the 40K balance from table top was put into a game teenyboppers would be screaming IMBA yet table top gamers are sad because their weapons are nerfed to become pea shooters.

[Urian]

Why does it always have to be Space Marines... I want a game where you play a Harlequin!

[FlowerChild]

Also for any other game you're right but seriously if the 40K balance from table top was put into a game teenyboppers would be screaming IMBA yet table top gamers are sad because their weapons are nerfed to become pea shooters.

That's fine man. You're of course entitled to your opinion, but I would be willing to bet large sums of cash that Space Marine is going to fail epicly and likely drag Relic down with it. I've analyzed gameplay for a living for a very long time and developed a good sense of what is fun and what is not, both in terms of mass-market and hardcore gamers.

Space Marine simply does not satisfy any of those criteria. Much like Dawn of War 2, it's an attempt by a studio habituated with making (good) hardcore games to appeal to the mass-market and obviously not having a clue as to how to do that. Also, what you're saying about DLC is not entirely accurate. As far as I know Relic is already running into trouble as a business as a result of the sales of DOW2.

I can also tell by your initial defensive "go play Devil May Cry" response that you are largely making an emotional argument here, not a rational one, so there's really no point in me debating this with you. I've seen the exact same thing happening on the game's forums (which I checked out briefly after playing the demo), where well-reasoned criticisms of the demo's deficiencies were being responded to in an extremely defensive fashion by the die-hard fans.

Only time will tell of course. We'll all see what happens when the game hits the shelves. As I said, I know where I'd place my money.

[Brethern]

Also for any other game you're right but seriously if the 40K balance from table top was put into a game teenyboppers would be screaming IMBA yet table top gamers are sad because their weapons are nerfed to become pea shooters.

That's fine man. You're of course entitled to your opinion, but I would be willing to bet large sums of cash that Space Marine is going to fail epicly and likely drag Relic down with it. I've analyzed gameplay for a living for a very long time and developed a good sense of what is fun and what is not, both in terms of mass-market and hardcore gamers.

Space Marine simply does not satisfy any of those criteria. Much like Dawn of War 2, it's an attempt by a studio habituated with making (good) hardcore games to appeal to the mass-market and obviously not having a clue as to how to do that.

I can also tell by your initial defensive "go play Devil May Cry" response that you are largely making an emotional argument here, not a rational one, so there's really no point in me debating this with you. I've seen the exact same thing happening on the game's forums (which I checked out briefly after playing the demo), where well-reasoned criticisms of the demo's deficiencies were being responded to in an extremely defensive fashion by the die-hard fans.

Only time will tell of course. We'll all see what happens when the game hits the shelves. As I said, I know where I'd place my money.

I know you're right. I'm a huge fan of Supreme commander Forged alliance. When supreme commander 2 was announced I was ecstatic like most of the community.

Then when I found out that most of the stuff that I liked about FA was dumbed down I was annoyed I still bought it hoping that I could have some fun with it but I was wrong. I play it a bit but it sucks.

I know there's all the chance in the world that space marine isn't going to do well. But TBH dow 2 had two expansions plus all that other war gear you could buy. If half of that is avaliable for space marine it's going to do fine.

We'll just have to wait until the 6th to find out.

[FlowerChild]

I know you're right. I'm a huge fan of Supreme commander Forged alliance. When supreme commander 2 was announced I was ecstatic like most of the community.

Then when I found out that most of the stuff that I liked about FA was dumbed down I was annoyed I still bought it hoping that I could have some fun with it but I was wrong. I play it a bit but it sucks.

I know there's all the chance in the world that space marine isn't going to do well. But TBH dow 2 had two expansions plus all that other war gear you could buy. If half of that is avaliable for space marine it's going to do fine.

We'll just have to wait until the 6th to find out.

Yup, I'm a big fan of the Total Annihilation/Supreme Commander franchise as well (actually, Dawn of War 1 and Total Annihilation are probably tied for my all-time favorite RTS games), and I felt exactly the same way about SC2 (although I recognized the problems early enough to never buy it).

Again though, as far as I know, the DLC for DoW2 is not saving it financially. I think them pumping out that content was more a matter of THQ/Relic trying to mitigate a loss rather than make extra money off a successful game.

Anyways man, this will likely be the first 40K-based game I never buy. I've bought every single one that I know of, going all the way back to EA's old Space Hulk, to Chaos Gate, to Rites of War, to even Firewarrior (as crappy as that one was), to both DoW games. I even worked on a 40K-based Half-Life 1 mod back in the day. I'm so addicted to that franchise that never before have I decided to take a pass, but after playing that demo, I'm giving up my "must buy" policy on anything 40K related.

Actually, I think I already gave that up with the DoW2 DLC. I bought every single DoW 1 expansion, but gave up on DoW 2 after I purchased and never even completed the first chaos-based expansion (I think I got 3-4 missions into it before getting bored). I guess I was hoping they might turn the game around with that first expansion pack, but when I just found more of the same, I lost interest.

[FurkeyRefills]

I may be alone in this, but when I'm playing a console game, I really couldn't give a shit about cut-scenes.
If i'm playing the game first time I'll watch them just to find out whats going on in the story, but if I'm rushing through to get collectibles I always skip them.

That's one of the reasons I liked Batman: Arkham Asylum so much, they told more of the story through the game-play and all the cut-scenes were only 30 seconds long.

In my mind this is the formula for a good game:
Brilliant Combat mechanics+Interesting story+Short cutscenes= Happy Bunny !!!

But I do think there something wrong with me when it comes to games, Its my birthday at the end of the year and the 5 games I'm getting are all 3rd person :0
Batman: Arkham City
Assassins Creed Revelations
[Prototype]2
Gears Of War 3
Saints Row 3

EDIT: well, prototype 2 is next year :)

Do people on these forums play console games as well as minecraft ?

[FlowerChild]

I may be alone in this, but when I'm playing a console game, I really couldn't give a shit about cut-scenes.

No, you're not alone. I have no respect for cut-scenes and often skip them (even on the first play through).

Games are not movies. Games that try to be movies often fuck up the gameplay, and wind up with crappy movies anyways.

There are some notable exceptions of course, like the Final Fantasy games, and related to this discussion, the opening cut-scene to the first Dawn of War game (which is definitely up there in my book as one of the finest cut-scenes ever made).

Amongst other things, I think Minecraft is a wake-up call to the big-studios in this regard. No cut-scenes, no story, and a massive success.

I KNOW I've not been hired at a couple of studios in the past when I was asked about the importance of story in games during an interview and didn't have the good sense to lie when I knew what they wanted to hear. In those cases my response was along the lines of "it's totally irrelevant" with looks of shock and horror in response from the designers interviewing me :)

[ilovekintoki]

Do people on these forums play console games as well as minecraft ?

Mostly computer these days, I have a Playstation 2 I used to play on a lot, though. Recently, I've been replaying games like Jak & Daxter and Dark Chronicle and I must say, they're still as awesome as they were 2 years ago.

[FlowerChild]

BTW, just in case there are 40K fans out there that never saw the Dawn of War intro I'm talking about above, here it is:



That thing still gives me shivers, even though it's getting a bit dated now.

THAT's the kind of experience I would hope a game like Space Marine would give me: the sense that I am fighting in a larger chaotic battle.

[Elensaar]

I must say I agree with FC here. At least to a very large degree. I do think that a good story might be good for a game, but it takes a back seat to actual gameplay. I loved Batman: Arkham Asylum's story, but loved it even more for the way it was told through actually playing. Cut scenes are mostly story-filler for when the designers couldn't come up with a good way of telling the story ingame, in my opinion.

Of course there are honorable exceptions, like the FF series. (Man I loved those games, up to and including FF6. The newer ones feel a bit too focused on fancy graphics for me...)

As to the OP, I fully agree. Or at least with the clarification. Criticizing Notch and Mojang for decisions you disagree with is one thing. Bashing is another. And I also feel that the bashing drags the feel of these forums down, which is sad. I really enjoy the community here, and seeing some of the bile is downright depressing.

Yes, they've made some poor decisions. Yes, they should probably have at least one release focusing on fixing bugs. And I do know, from being a professional developer myself, that tingling feeling of working on a new feature. So I understand why most of the releases have been mixed between content and fixes. After all, as many people are saying, Notch and Mojang have already made huge money on MC. If they stop having fun developing it, why should they continue?

[Brethern]

I may be alone in this, but when I'm playing a console game, I really couldn't give a shit about cut-scenes.
If i'm playing the game first time I'll watch them just to find out whats going on in the story, but if I'm rushing through to get collectibles I always skip them.

That's one of the reasons I liked Batman: Arkham Asylum so much, they told more of the story through the game-play and all the cut-scenes were only 30 seconds long.

In my mind this is the formula for a good game:
Brilliant Combat mechanics+Interesting story+Short cutscenes= Happy Bunny !!!

But I do think there something wrong with me when it comes to games, Its my birthday at the end of the year and the 5 games I'm getting are all 3rd person :0
Batman: Arkham City
Assassins Creed Revelations
[Prototype]2
Gears Of War 3
Saints Row 3

EDIT: well, prototype 2 is next year :)

Do people on these forums play console games as well as minecraft ?

The only games on that list I'm getting is Gears 3 till I get bored and sell it back and prototype 2 for a rental.

In terms of games I'm bi polar when it comes to it. Some I'll love while others hate them and I'll love other while everyone else hates them.

I couldn't stand minecraft when I first tried it. That was when it was played in a browser with random terrain and infinite blocks. Everyone else liked it.
Now I finally like it. I can't stand COD because every game is the same yet I play them for the story. (I'm renting MW3 I'm not that dumb to buy it.) I like assassins creed but I hate the fact it's a tedious game, seriously do I have to do the same thing for every guy?

I liked the force unleashed because it felt like you had some power instead of other lightsaber games where it took two hits to kill a battle droid.

I guess my problem is I want loads of dakka but I don't care about the sparkly.

[FlowerChild]

Oh, just while I'm on the topic of my favorite cut-scenes. The other one that really stands out for me was the pre-release promo cinematic they put out for Gears of War:



and of course no discussion about game cinematics would be complete without mentioning the Dead Island promo trailer:



But yeah, these are just exceptions to the rule of me having no respect for cut-scenes :)

[morvelaira]

The only cut scenes I can really think of that are indelibly etched on my mind from games do come from Final Fantasy games. So I think I agree with Flower here.

Trailers, on the other hand.... AC:Revelations still gives me a squee-gasm >_>

[Deepsniper]

Well these aren't cutscenes but more like trailers for the game seeing as there isnt any actual films in the gameplay but here take a look at these.

They all give me shivers when i watch them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSxSyv4L ... A6461E61E1

[Urian]

I really liked how Bastion tells it's story, it's another example of a very good indie game that does things a bit differently and with great success (at least looking at reviews).

Talking about trailers and such, I've always liked the trailers for Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2:

DA:O


DA2


Besides kick ass trailers, Dragon Age: Origins is one of my favorite RPGs. Too bad that DA2 didn't live up to the quality of its predecessor.

[FlowerChild]

Besides kick ass trailers, Dragon Age: Origins is one of my favorite RPGs. Too bad that DA2 didn't live up to the quality of its predecessor.

Yeah, I really like Dragon Age as well. I never tried the sequel though.

I think Oblivion or Fallout 3 would definitely be my favorite RPG's though. I don't think DA can hold a candle to either of those.

[BinoAl]

I really liked how Bastion tells it's story, it's another example of a very good indie game that does things a bit differently and with great success (at least looking at reviews).

Bastion was such a good game. The gameplay was a little bit generic, but the weapons and upgrades you could have varied it enough that it was fun. The art is all really well done, and the way the narrator tells the story is great too :)