Extra Credits
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About
Extra Credits is a YouTube channel which covers the video game industry, design, and classification as an art. As of August 2017, the channel had 1.1 million subscribers.
History
On February 17, 2008, Daniel Floyd and James Portnow create the first "Videos games and…" episode as a graduate assignment. The series aired intermittently until April 10, 2010. The series continued to air on The Escapist from July 28, 2010, to August 10, 2011. The series was moved to PATV, hosted by Penny Arcade, until PA's downsizing of partner services convinced the pair to move to YouTube, where Extra Credits officially began.
Fundraising and Escapist Suit
In late June of 2011, a fundraising campaign raised money for surgery for Allison Theus, an artist creating content for Extra Credits. After the fundraiser was over, Alexander Macris aka Archon, representing The Escapist, the site that hosted Extra Credits at the time, supposedly requested three fourths of the total fundraised money be given to The Escapist, despite James Portnow stating that he and the site had a verbal agreement that the latter would be lowest in priority to be paid. After a series of exchanges, the extra money from the campaign was used to start a publisher for independent games.[1]
Move to Youtube
In December 2013 the Extra Credits team transferred all their existing videos to their Youtube channel.
Harassment Claims
On June 9th of 2018, Soraya Hajji, a former employee of Extra Credits, accused James Portnow of the workplace and personal harassment after breaking up with him, continuing even after she resigned by slandering her behind her back to her former co-workers.[2] Later that same day, Russ Pitts, a former editor for The Escapist, publicly stated he believed Soraya's claims because "this is exactly how he treated me."[3] In response, Extra Credits released a statement saying they hired an independent HR firm to investigate these issues and that they found no evidence of improprieties having occurred.[4]
On June 14th Will Overgard, another former contributor to Extra Credits who was fired rather than resigned, released a twitlonger[5] detailing his own accusations and transgressions, including that James Portnow frequently complained at him at things that he had no control over, like internet connection, and being told he underperformed during an earlier time wherein Overgard's mother died to cancer. Will corroborated that an HR investigation took place, but it didn't involve him or Soraya. Two days after Will's testimony, Extra Credits released another statement, clarifying their reasons for firing as; not doing the work he was supposed to be doing, using a discord statement from an alleged indie dev about a time Will supposedly was offensive at a GDC event, and that they were the ones who provided his flight from New Zealand and relieved him from his old boss that was "out to get him."[6]
"Stop Normalizing Nazis" Video Controversy
On July 3rd, 2019, Extra Credits uploaded a video titled "Stop Normalizing Nazis – Socially Conscious Game Design" in which they argued that being forced to play as Nazi soldiers and terrorists in multiplayer video games equaled to normalizing said groups.[7] The video received over 323,000 views in three days (shown below).
No one should put on a costume of an ideology they find abhorrent without actually opting into it in your game. By making people do it, we make them stop thinking about it, to stop thinking about the meaning behind those things. We normalize them.
The video sparked controversy online, with multiple users on YouTube, Twitter and Reddit criticizing the channel for the lack of proper research,[8] misrepresentation and/or trivialization of the issue[9] and the channel moving away from the mission it stated in the past (examples shown below).[10][11] The video gained over 10,000 likes and 73,000 dislikes in three days.
On the same day, Extra Credits community manager tweeted a comment on the negative reaction to the latest video, accusing those unsubscribing from the channel of being bigots (shown below, left).[12]
On July 4th, 2019, Twitter user @TheAtlasOne posted a parody of the video in which the player was forced to play as a plumber in a Super Mario game (shown below).[13] The tweet gained over 760 retweets and 3,100 likes.
That Extra Credits video in a nutshell. pic.twitter.com/w9SYADOWvK
— AtlasOne (@TheAtlasOne) July 4, 2019
Search Interest
External References
[1] elder-geek “Extra Credits” Team Leaves Escapist Over Alleged Back Payment | Elder-Geek.com
[2] Medium – Extra Credits: Sexual Misconduct Accusations – Joseph Parrish – Medium (page unavailable)
[3] Ross Pitt This is exactly how he treated me
[4] Extra Credits Statement Regarding Harassment Allegations -- Extra Credits
[5] twitlonger I'm Will and thanks to Extra Credits I had to tell the internet I'm not a Nazi
[6] Extra Credits Clarification on Will Overgard's Termination
[7] YouTube – Stop Normalizing Nazis – Socially Conscious Game Design – Extra Credits
[8] Twitter – @Brad_Glasgow's Tweet
[9] Twitter – @LilithLovett's Tweet
[10] Reddit – Open Letter to the Extra Credits Team
[11] Twitter – @UleTheVee's Tweet
[12] Twitter – @theberlz' Tweet
[13] Twitter – @TheAtlasOne's Tweet
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__Lamborghini__Knowledge__And_Books_With_Tai_Lopez_0-0_screenshot.png "Here in My Garage"){kind=icon}
![Normalizing Idiocy - With Extra Credits [Artist Rants]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ljwbZ3XlIeg/hqdefault.jpg "Normalizing Idiocy - With Extra Credits [Artist Rants]")
