Bad Metaphors (Patreon)

The Console War cartoons are all about analogy and metaphor.  When we were writing the first one. We asked ourselves, what drives a console's success? How do we declare one console a winner over another? Why is the PS4 more of a success than the Xbox One? It's obvious isn't it? Sales. From that starting point you think, how can we represent sales in a cartoon? Well if you're fucking geniuses like us, it's obviously with the hilarious wordplay of SAILS. And boom, you have a setting that fits the analogy, warships.

That was at the start of the console war though. At this point in the generation, sales are winding down anyway and no one cares anymore. So we need a new metaphor that works. Something we can make a cartoon out of.What about WW1? WW1 makes a ton of sense right? Everyone's dug in, it's all a bit of a slog and any sense of optimism about this current generation of consoles evaporated a long time ago. Cherry on top? WW1 had a fucking great aesthetic.

The problem though is that whatever metaphor you use, comes baggage. For warships, you're limited by the fact they're in water, you're limited to drawing parallels with that time-period. It's the same for WW1. It turned out the baggage that came with WW1 caused as many issues with the grander metaphor narrative as it solved.

So we're ditching WW1 and have started anew, a different direction. This time the script is working and it'll be a worthy entry to the franchise but we lost three days to a bad metaphor.

So there's your lesson kiddos, don't let the rad-as-fuck looking gas masks and trenches of WW1 seduce you and cloud your judgement.

Please also enjoy the attached image of an Xbox One X with a Kinect duct-taped to its forehead.

Thanks for your support,Tom & Don