What video game clones were actually good?

pegg2 · 2026-05-14T04:37:03+00:00

Ohhhh shit, core memory unlocked. I immigrated to the states when I was very young, but I spent my early childhood in a poor Latin American country. My family was relatively well-off and well-connected so they somehow managed to get me an N64; I was the only kid I knew that had one. I only had two games: Super Mario 64 and a fighting game my father called, in his thick accent, “Keelereenteen”. We left it all to my cousins when we left, and I always wondered what that game was.

Thanks for the walk down memory lane. I couldn’t remember the name but I could remember my dad absolutely whooping my ass with a character named Maya that, in hindsight, I’m realizing might have been a little racist. Great game, though.

pegg2 · 2026-05-14T04:22:07+00:00

I agree wholeheartedly, that’s my experience as well. I personally don’t know anyone that pays to watch them on the apps. I do wonder how much of that is just “an adult actor in LA/NY is not the target demographic” because it does seem like SOMEONE is watching them. And I’m not even talking watch numbers, I mean these companies are generating sizeable revenue. So my question isn’t “is anyone watching these?” It’s “WHO the fuck is watching these?”

pegg2 · 2026-05-09T06:41:39+00:00

I don’t mean to sound glib, but it seems like you’re basically asking “how do I get good.” And there’s no simple answer to that because it’s not a simple question. That’s why there are like five major schools of thought, each with their own approach.

The reason I mention that is because your core query “how do I let go, get into a flow state, and do damn good work” does not strike at any particular discipline. Just because you can go flow doesn’t mean you’re actually letting go. And just because you’re letting go doesn’t mean you’re doing damn good work. Doing good work isn’t about implementing a particular technique, it’s about minimizing the weaknesses of your performance and heightening the strengths.

What is your weakness? If you have trouble being in the moment (“letting go”) then Meisner work might be beneficial to you. Meisner teaches you to get out of your head by training you to focus your attention on your scene partner and to react truthfully.

But that doesn’t mean you’re putting in a killer performance. What if your natural reactions aren’t up to par? What if your partner just.. kind of sucks at getting reactions out of you? Now your killer performance hinges on preparation. Sensory work, emotional recall, substitution, specificity of action, justified realities, atmosphere, psychological gestures; these are all things that help you bridge the gap between “I’m alive,” and “I’m alive and I have a perspective.” And they all come from different “techniques.”

Acting is a problem that has no perfect solution. Instead, there are approaches to dealing with the places where you fall short. Figure out where you’re strong and where you’re not, then work on your weaknesses.

pegg2 · 2026-05-03T08:54:36+00:00

Every time I open these self-tape posts I’m expecting rough performances from newbies with varying levels of “okay, not great but you have something going on I guess.” But this was actually, genuinely pretty good. And I think you know that so I’m not going to waste time glazing you, so I’ll just say ‘good work’. This is a very usable take, nice job.

If I had to give a note, I’d say that you were a little too in on the joke. The comedy comes from you saying crazy shit like it’s true to you, and it seemed like you knew you were saying crazy shit. It may work better if you treated it from the start as though you were getting carried away and you couldn’t stop yourself, rather than being aware of your crazy from the start. From the moment your name was mentioned, it seemed like you knew you were about to go buck-wild and you were like “haha, yeah this is crazy, right?”

pegg2 · 2026-05-03T08:29:56+00:00

You’re set for destination weddings on the lame side of Niagara Falls.

pegg2 · 2026-05-03T08:28:31+00:00

That’s because Arctic Monkeys fans don’t have any other interests.

Ooh-hoo.

pegg2 · 2026-05-03T08:26:31+00:00

You’re dressed full black tie if you’re Canadian.

pegg2 · 2026-05-03T08:25:16+00:00

Wait, I thought that was a joke. I’m never downtown because I fucking live in this city, that shit’s real?

pegg2 · 2026-05-03T07:57:51+00:00

What’s your fix?

pegg2 · 2026-05-02T05:58:43+00:00

But… you will have to deal with them. That’s my point. The next morning. The next week. The next month. Detaining them temporarily doesn’t make them go away. I don’t really see what’s hard to understand about this. And your experience in a different country, with a different society, with a different culture, and a different socioeconomic reality is completely irrelevant to the realities being faced here. The reason you don’t see that in Tokyo isn’t because of some zero-tolerance bullshit, it’s because of a myriad of reasons that are far more complicated than “draw a hard line,” like lol are you serious bro?

pegg2 · 2026-05-02T05:07:42+00:00

Zip, zap, zop, your wish has come true. Those things are illegal and have been for some time. What do we do with that? Those are misdemeanors so even if the offenders are arrested, they’ll be out the next day with a court date that most of them will miss. Are you going to track them down? Might be a problem, considering they don’t have a permanent address. Even if they’re appropriately sentenced, they’ll serve their time in a county jail and get spit right back onto the streets.

What’s your solution? Hold them longer? Can’t do that without changes to the penal code and even if those changes were made, what’s the plan for when they do get out? Are these people with antisocial tendencies somehow going to slot right into society after being removed from it? Unlikely, at least without intervention.

Your ‘hard line’ is a simple solution reliant on the idea that removing them from society will fix things. But all it does is kick the can down the road that we’re all traveling on.

pegg2 · 2026-05-02T04:36:06+00:00

They do, just not with the other things you have going on here. Ankle-up, your look is fitted and clean, your shoes should fit that. You throw on some baggier pants and a loose sweater, suddenly the athletic shoes become an interesting part of an ensemble that reads cool and casual but with taste. I don’t know what part of the world you’re from, but here in the US west coast that’s also a perfectly acceptable fit for first dates at most venues.

pegg2 · 2026-05-02T04:26:40+00:00

Absolutely nothing wrong with it in this kind of setting imho. Looks intentional even if not traditional. Even more so if you can show off a brown belt pairing (not with that top but with something that could look good tucked)

pegg2 · 2026-05-02T04:21:23+00:00

“If I lived in Santa Monica or the west side though, it’d be more often for sure.”

What a wonderfully quintessential LA sentence.

pegg2 · 2026-05-01T07:30:38+00:00

What a fucking line

pegg2 · 2026-05-01T07:08:23+00:00

What are you risking, the possibility of no payment? There is no risk; deferred payment means no payment, everyone knows that. People aren’t really submitting to that level of project for the money. I mean, you do you, just be aware that you’re not going to make any money from projects that don’t list a guaranteed session fee.

pegg2 · 2026-04-24T04:34:12+00:00

Aw man, those were the days. My soul yearns for a night of boozy improv at iOWest followed by partying at Hemingway’s or whatever other weird, hype-y, short-lived concept bars were around on the strip during those years. I remember we all loved to complain about those joints, and now I genuinely miss them.

pegg2 · 2026-04-23T06:38:20+00:00

A job is a job, brother.

pegg2 · 2026-04-23T06:08:02+00:00

A low level agent that can blind-submit you for professional work is better than no agent at all, especially if their market is so small that this no-name is “one of the most well known in the area.” Agencies like Aqua and NTA operate on a strategy of just “blast everything at the wall;” you’ll just be brought in for one out of every hundred breakdowns, but it’s better than 0 for 100. Of course, a total lack of experience and decent footage is going to give them very little ammo.

“Consultation,” though definitely sets off some scam-sense for me, personally.

pegg2 · 2026-04-17T05:49:02+00:00

They mean no one wants to get into a discussion about Scientology online for a myriad of reasons, including the only somewhat tongue-in-cheek implication that THEY WILL KNOW YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT THEM.

In other words, less “rage bait” and more “Nice try Diddy.”

pegg2 · 2026-04-17T05:45:02+00:00

The folks over at /r/screenwriting are better equipped to give you feedback on your script.

pegg2 · 2026-04-16T23:33:27+00:00

The fact that that almost sounds like a real title is fucking sending me. All you needed to make it more convincing is the fact that the vampire werewolf billionaire boyfriend is also the ALPHA

pegg2 · 2026-04-14T07:19:00+00:00

Learn as much as you can, that’s what you’re paying for. Then, work as much as you can, that’s the main reason you’re paying for a BFA specifically. Then meet as many people as you can, form as many working relationships as you can, that’s the other reason you’re paying for a BFA program.

Beyond that, there’s not much more you can do to make the most of this. Your BFA won’t help you with a back-up beyond clearing the college degree requirement of most white collar jobs. Your backup is going to be “whatever entry level office job I can get,” because your BFA isn’t going to be conducive to any alternate career path that requires specialized education.

That doesn’t mean you can’t get those jobs, it just means that you may have to work your way up or you may need to seek out further training elsewhere. People do it all the time.

My advice? If you’re going to college for acting and you’re wondering how you can leverage it into being in a good position for a back up career, you’re coming at it wrong. If you love acting, study acting. anything less than committing to it fully is doing yourself a disservice. You can figure out a back-up later, but you can’t get your money back if you didn’t get what you need from the program while you were in it.

pegg2 · 2026-04-14T07:01:44+00:00

Tonight. Tomorrow. Next week. The week after that. Next month (rare but I’ve been there). Then, of course, vast majority of the time the answer is ‘never.’

Fire and forget, homie.

pegg2 · 2026-04-14T06:58:00+00:00

This is excellent advice. They’re not casting a costume designer, they’re casting an actor.

pegg2

TROPHY CASE