TotalBiscuit's very strange behavior in this Vlog video....

[TotalBiscuit]

Hmm? What username?

I'd appreciate that too, if you'd be willing. Username idshanks. I try to follow your videos, but it's hard without being subscribed. I think I got blocked back on Azeroth daily, arguing with someone over WoW. >_>

Dealt with both of ya. If anyone else needs an amnesty let me know.

 

[Weesiwel]

Never really understood Total Biscuit's appeal, or how he got so big in the first place. I mean, having seen his videos, he doesn't seem to offer any more or greater insight into gaming than your average Escapist user, his reviews don't tend to stand out all that much or seem to offer particular noteworthy critique... if he's complaining about not having hundreds of thousands of views, I'd respond by asking how did he get hundreds of thousands of views in the first place?

I watched him for a while to see gameplay from new and upcoming games which is often a good way to judge whether or not I would like it. Though at some point he became tiresome and I ceased watching him although that's fairly standard behaviour for me.

Some things about him sadden me, such as when I went to the Revelations 2012 forum on Steam and saw all the TB fanboys who'd never played the game basically trolling the forums. Which is not to say that it's his fault, but it's a symptom of his following and regardless of how allegedly shitty a game is it's not particularly fair to the developers.

Ahhh, more evidence of someone blaming the wrong person for the behaviour of others. You say that some things about HIM sadden you, and then go on to list the actions of a bunch of over-zealous fans of his that aren't him. You don't see the problem with what you just typed there?

It's all very well to not agree with his opinions, but to slam him for stuff he didn't personally do is more than a little stupid.

Has he ever condemned such behaviour? With power comes responsibility, and if your views are prompting people to behave in an irresponsible manner you should educate your viewers as to how this is not acceptable. So yes I'm sorry but he is in part to blame, not for the initial backlash against the developer, but for failing to hold people to account for it.

He condemns that kind of behavior all of the time. He hates people who follow his opinion blindly. He acknowledges he exaggerates a lot and often has a go at people that take everything he says as gospel. The point of his channel is to learn his likes and dislikes and then judge based on what he thinks and the problems with options menus etc if you would be willing to pay for the game and have fun with it.

He actually told his viewers to wait a couple of days after release to see how things are before buying things. I'd say that's quite responsible and as a viewer of any content he is right. Noway should you buy things day 1 unless you are gonna buy them regardless of anything.

 

[Woodsey]

TB complains about his subscriber's over zealous fanboy-ism yet whines when his videos don't get enough views. I really cannot stand him anymore, I used to be a fan, I really did, until his crusade on FOV. I tried getting back into his videos with his The War Z video, but of course 5 minutes in he complains about the FOV. In all honesty, this is how he always acts.

The FOV crusade is a crusade worth crusading. It seemed as if his crusade-y-ness on the subject was what kicked 2K into gear to patch a slider into The Darkness 2. I wouldn't have been able to play it, otherwise.

 

[Erian]

Hey TB, seems you did not bring down Escapist... As a long time subscriber I have no interest in most of your convention footage. IMO WTFs, Content Patches and co-play stuff with folks like YOGsCast/Jesse are where it's at. As for reasons why.. I think it mostly has to do with the disinterest I have in hearing dev folks gush about their games.

I watch your channel to hear you talk about gaming stuff/the game you are playing. Thanks!

 

[Tohuvabohu]

Hmm? What username?

I'd appreciate that too, if you'd be willing. Username idshanks. I try to follow your videos, but it's hard without being subscribed. I think I got blocked back on Azeroth daily, arguing with someone over WoW. >_>

Dealt with both of ya. If anyone else needs an amnesty let me know.

Aaaand resubscribed! Thanks for the taking the time to do that, I really appreciate it.

 

[Edl01]

I enjoy TotalBiscuit, he is clearly a smart guy and while he is a bit of an elitist at time I do believe his videos are quite well informed. However I do see the problem people have with him, but really there is no reason to hate on TB for this video, he spent a lot of money to go to PAX and is not making a profit from it, it would be strange if he didn't make a video asking if people didn't like his convention stuff.

As for his rants in the comments; they aren't really something I care about. I watch the video because it entertains me, not for the person doing it. Unless he did something really bad like murder someone then I don't really care who the person behind the camera is. Heck at least he even responds to comments unlike other Youtubers like Egoraptor who claim that the comments on their channel are too stupid to take the time to read.

 

[Continuity]

His tone was disappointed, and I can see how some might take it the wrong way, if you listen to what he say's though he's perfectly reasonable.

Where do you people find the time to watch all these stupidly long videos on YT talking about videogames? Is this like a new thing, taking criticism that could be summed up in 6-8 minutes drawn out to half an hour, or with the WTF is Bishock Infinite, a shocking hour and twenty minutes.

I'd rather spend that time playing games than listening to someone drone about games.

I spend 30+ hours a week playing games (and thats when i'm not on holiday), other than that I like to watch youtube channels like TB's. Other people watch TV, personally I find Youtube caters better to my interests.

 

[Sparky184]

His tone was disappointed, and I can see how some might take it the wrong way, if you listen to what he say's though he's perfectly reasonable.

I'd probably say I spend more time watching people play games than actually playing games.

 

[TotalBiscuit]

Where do you people find the time to watch all these stupidly long videos on YT talking about videogames? Is this like a new thing, taking criticism that could be summed up in 6-8 minutes drawn out to half an hour, or with the WTF is Bishock Infinite, a shocking hour and twenty minutes.

I'd rather spend that time playing games than listening to someone drone about games.

No, criticism cannot be summed up in 6-8 minutes, which is exactly why the reviews of Bioshock were poor and skipped over all sorts of extremely important and valid criticism. It is much quicker to praise a game than criticize it and explain why.

It is also the reason that traditional shorter reviews are falling behind in terms of viewers and being replaced by longer-form content such as Angry Joes reviews and my WTF is? series.

 

[Tohuvabohu]

Where do you people find the time to watch all these stupidly long videos on YT talking about videogames? Is this like a new thing, taking criticism that could be summed up in 6-8 minutes drawn out to half an hour, or with the WTF is Bishock Infinite, a shocking hour and twenty minutes.

I'd rather spend that time playing games than listening to someone drone about games.

I watch these videos at work, mostly. Since sadly, we cannot play videogames on the job :/

Their long length and talky nature make it good background noise, and helps in passing the time. On rarer instances, I'll also listen to them whilst driving longer distances too.

 

[WoW Killer]

I'd rather spend that time playing games than listening to someone drone about games.

Sure, if it's a game I own. What if it's a game I'm planning on owning, and I want some idea of what it's like before I put my money down? Few games have playable demos these days, so a first impressions video from an independent source is the best you can get. Waaaaaaay better than a written review anyway. There's only so much you can describe in text compared to saying "here's something I noticed" and then showing you in real time.

As for duration, maybe 1 hour plus is a bit lengthy (I think I've usually picked up on all that I'm going to after 30 minutes), but whatever: if the video's too long you can always turn it off part way through. Can't really complain about a free service like that.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Where do you people find the time to watch all these stupidly long videos on YT talking about videogames? Is this like a new thing, taking criticism that could be summed up in 6-8 minutes drawn out to half an hour, or with the WTF is Bishock Infinite, a shocking hour and twenty minutes.

I'd rather spend that time playing games than listening to someone drone about games.

Personally, I tend to either stick on a video whenever there's something not hugely important happening in a game I'm playing. To give an example, I'm playing Ni No Kuni at the moment (an excellent game, I highly recommend it) so I'll stick on a video to listen to while I'm going from place to place, and doing sidequests and such.

 

[TotalBiscuit]

Where do you people find the time to watch all these stupidly long videos on YT talking about videogames? Is this like a new thing, taking criticism that could be summed up in 6-8 minutes drawn out to half an hour, or with the WTF is Bishock Infinite, a shocking hour and twenty minutes.

I'd rather spend that time playing games than listening to someone drone about games.

I watch these videos at work, mostly. Since sadly, we cannot play videogames on the job :/

Their long length and talky nature make it good background noise, and helps in passing the time. On rarer instances, I'll also listen to them whilst driving longer distances too.

The podcasty nature of our stuff is something we considered very carefully a couple of years ago when creating our formats. Stuff like Mailbox and WTF is, due to a lack of reliance on having to look at the background footage and a deliberately verbose style of commentary, coupled with our primary demographic being 25-34 year old males (ie. people in work), means that the videos are ideal for people to listen to while doing other things. They don't necessarily have to watch the whole thing, you can get the information by listening.

 

[Archer666]

TB has put out plenty of stuff that makes him look stupid/whiny/childish, but this one isn't it. He's just curious why he's making a little bit less money in the PAX period. Nothing wrong with that if it's your livelyhood(Which I assume it is).

 

[Woiminkle]

I personally like TB, I enjoy his WTF series and I used to like the Mailbox because you got some worthwhile insider knowledge from time to time.
I see where he's coming from with the vlog and at certain points in the vid it is clear that he is a little resentful of spending the effort to cover PAX to end up with disappointing viewing figures, however I don't feel like he was neccessarily blaming the viewers but did a bad job disguising his own disappointment.
That said convention footage is not interesting to me. The games on show tend to be limited in terms of what they do because they are early builds without a full feature set and could be dramatically different by the time they come out. Besides that the devs are usually walking him through the thing, talking it up like it's going to be amazing when it's finished and because of that he is not as critical as usual and you can see he's holding back on his real opinions.

 

[Tohuvabohu]

The podcasty nature of our stuff is something we considered very carefully a couple of years ago when creating our formats. Stuff like Mailbox and WTF is, due to a lack of reliance on having to look at the background footage and a deliberately verbose style of commentary, coupled with our primary demographic being 25-34 year old males (ie. people in work), means that the videos are ideal for people to listen to while doing other things. They don't necessarily have to watch the whole thing, you can get the information by listening.

Well that makes sense. It takes me about an hour or two to get through a single 30-40 minute video in the workplace, which is very very helpful on those especially slow days indeed.

Huh, I should've guessed that demographics had something to do with the format to your videos. Pretty much all your content plus LP's are the perfect background-noise for my workplace.

 

[doomspore98]

I really like TB and after watching the video in its entirety, I dont really see the problem in it. The first half seemed to be him asking whether or not his fans actually want to see these vids and the second half seems to be some defiance stuff. Asking what he can do better doesn't seem like a problem when it is his job after all.

 

[Ringo_Plumen]

I didn't feel at all like he was disappointed in his viewers, he seemed more confused or even worried (which is a valid concern given it's his work) that people may not be interested in the kind of content he thought they were, and asked for some feedback on the matter.

I am fairly new to subscribe (only done so a few months), since I just really didn't do that with anything on youtube until recently, but I now usually watch most of the "WTF is" and "Content Patch" videos as I enjoy TB's style of commenting and I find that content relevant for me as a PC gamer primarily.

I do feel he kind of forgot to consider easter and holidays as a possible reason for the low and/or slow views on a lot of the Pax videos, it's been a factor for me at least. Updates were slow due to Pax, which I knew he was attending, before my own holidays started, so I didn't watch any videos or checked for updates during this time. When I return so much stuff has gone up + the normal content schedule has returned as well, and knowing these videos aren't gonna quick ones, I've had to take my time.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I didn't feel at all like he was disappointed in his viewers, he seemed more confused or even worried (which is a valid concern given it's his work) that people may not be interested in the kind of content he thought they were, and asked for some feedback on the matter.

It seemed like a mix of confusion and irritation to me, which is perfectly rational. If I spent a bunch of money to provide something for people I was sure they were going to like, and their response was "meh", I would most definitely be irritated regardless of whether or not the responsibility for miscalculating was mine. Perhaps this is why I am not an internet content provider.

Well, that and I have no talent.

Snip

Guy, I've waited for the better part of two months for you to kill Skittles, and what was my reward? I'll never forgive you for this.

 

[Snix]

TB, since you asked for feedback on convention coverage and this is as good a place as ever to respond I'll give you my thoughts here. Interviews are great but it's not the reason I come to your channel. I come to see you give an honest opinion about indie/less known games. I watch 'WTF is...' for that reason, not to see you play nice with devs. That one 'WTF is...' a few conventions back where you were playing that fart orc game with the devs and I could just tell you wanted to rip the game apart but couldn't. Every once in awhile I'll watch convention content from you because the game sounds interesting or I've already heard of it a bit but every time it's you and a dev playing the PR game. Just my thoughts.