Thought I'd sign up and stick my oar in here. I've got a major axe to grind with Yahtzee generally. So hang onto your ears, this isn't going to be pretty. A lot of us have this pent up frustration about this interminably annoying man, and it's just reached a head with me where I feel the need to whinge about him in a long and whingey post on this thread. You may say I'm trolling but this is just my opinion, and also the opinion that most people I know either have always had, or have begun to realise the longer Yahtzee has been around.
The major problem I have with Yahtzee is the misplaced and out of whack ego he has. I'm not sure whether this developed since doing ZP, which wouldn't surprise me with all the fawning that goes on by his fans.
Truth is though (of course truth is subjective but I believe there is plenty of evidence that this is the case) he's pretty much an average Joe Shmoe jack of all trades when it comes to his writing. I'll concede that it's probably 'marginally above average' in the sense that he has a better grasp of writing than a lot of people, but some internet wit of the 21st century he is not.
This is fine. I'm not an internet wit of the 21st century either. I too have delved into a multitude of creative pursuits, writing comedy, tried to write a novel, making games (well I actually do this for a job, but I'll list it anyway) making music blah blah. I may not be that great at any of them but they're a nice creative outlet and I'm proud of what I do. But I do have some perspective on it.
With Yahtzee, he obviously has this persona of being an arrogant misanthrope who hates everything. Whether this is based on his real personality or is just some character he is portraying I don't know. But it really frustrates me and countless other people I know that, really, if Zero Punctuation was actually a review of books, or films, or any other medium for that matter, he would likely have almost no internet fame come from it.
When you boil it down, he's come up with this one (admittedly rather clever, initially) gimmick that was really viral and pretty funny first time round. record yourself slagging off a game, and paste it all together in Premiere so it has no space in-between the samples. A few simple flash-animation based jokes and bam, internet celebrity.
But really, if you boil it down to what it is, actually consider the writing, basically a collection of contrived simile humour and general grumpiness. It's clear where Yahtzee's influences come from, just as it's clear this book is his attempt to 'do a Pratchett' but they are at best completely average, as are his games, his written pieces, everything I've seen of his. (In fact his AGS games were bloody awful in my opinion, CLOMP, CLOMP. How can someone who put those footstep sounds in a game criticize ANY game is beyond me)
Now that's fine, I'm not having a go. Well I am, but I'm not having a go because he's average. I'm sure all my creative endeavours are equally average, perhaps even worse. But what you have here is some massive ego (who actually indirectly implies in one of the ZP's that when his journie days are over he'll be able to get a writing job at Bioware, and has had a competition where entrants put HIM in a game. Urgh) who very harshly and unfairly criticises practically every game he plays, publicly, to a large audience.
But the thing that's so annoying is that, in the same breath, he'll be using crap random simile humour masquerading as 'surrealist' and frustratingly awkward writing, anger inducingly smug photos and personality void and cringe worthy presenting (Game Damage) AND JEEZ THAT HAT. He's just a guy who does a lot of average (or just plain bad, in some cases) stuff that lucked upon a gimmick which has seen him get a lot of internet exposure and recognition.
Long and short of it: If you're going to criticize other people's work, then either make sure whatever you do is bloody spectacular and doesn't commit the same sins (or worse) as the stuff you're criticizing, or at best at least be a bit self-deprecating and humble from time to time, or even betray a bit of your child-like enthusiasm at the occasional thing that does deserve it.
Basically, the awesome awesomeness that is Charlie Brooker is everything Yahtzee so clearly wants to be. This is a genuinely brilliant guy that any subjective person should be able to appreciate is massively talented. He has the same grumpy hate filled ranting style, use of crude or potentially offensive similes and can be mind-blowingly harsh in his critiques, he's massively into games and 'coincidently' I also hear a great deal of similar speech patterns and jokes in Yahtzee's stuff.
The difference however, is that get Charlie Brooker talking about The Wire or Doctor Who, and he'll just explode with joyful enthusiasm and praise. He's a proper critic / reviewer, directing his scorn where it is deserved, not as some blanket tool for LOLs in a rather cynically targeted 'what new game shall I hate in a harsh way this week with no punctuation'.
He also excels at writing, presenting and all other things that in my opinion Yahtzee gets FAR too much credit for.
Brooker: "No wonder most of the contestants fall apart quicker than a leper in a wind tunnel"
Yahtzee (apparently): "Spreading the Branston Pickle too thinly on the bread"
I just pulled this example from someone's quote earlier in the thread and attributed to him (since it infuriated me by being massively lame example, simply substituting 'butter' from a well known phrase with a brand name of some sandwich condiment. This is the subject of all this adoration? Jeez.
So to sum up. This book is cringe-worthily bad. You may enjoy it, and you're completely entitled to obviously. You may defend it. Of course you will, you're a fan. But know that all the people in this thread who have said, in no uncertain terms 'this writing is bad' are not just pulling this critisism out of their a*se. Without the rose tinted spectacles of being a fan, reading the prose in that sample chapter is truly cringeworthy, not only for it's woefully failed attempt to replicate Pratchett's writing style, it's stiff and redundant dialogue, or needlessly flowery descriptions. But because there it is, with a front cover image and that smug photo of Yahtzee. He's getting so big for his boots, and he's using your praise like some kind of vampire and is becoming more and more powerful and NOOOOOO.
If it were a friend of mine that wrote those words in the sample chapter, or someone who posts on a forum I frequent, who said 'oh I know I'm not a professional writer, but I gave this a go and am quite proud of it' I would probably read it and think (and say) hey, this is pretty good! I would be erring on the side of being supportive and looking for the positives in it than dwelling on the negatives, but I wouldn't for one minute think it should have 'Barnes and Noble' slapped on the cover.
However, this was not made by some unsure aspiring writer on a forum, or my sister, or my friend. It's this 'internet phenomena' who makes a living, and has a legion of unwavering fans for his gimmicky, arrogant and extremely unfair whining about games on weekly videos on Escapist. Making critical points about games which commit far more forgiveable sins than what can be read in practically every line of that sample chapter.
So for all you who get defensive as soon as someone says something he's done is bad. Christ, settle down. This guy makes a living out of saying other people's stuff is bad. So you like it? Some people like stuff that, critically, isn't really that special, just captures people's imagination and when they buy into it, that will elevate the perceived quality and cleverness of whatever it is. This seems to be continuously propagating, culminating in people pre-ordering this book on amazon and stating in this thread that what they have read is funny and well written.
Where will it end? I can't wait for the reviews, as without the gaming culture LOL factor and ZC's undeserved prestige, it's going to get a horrible horrible panning in practically every review if the sample chapter is anything to go by.
So you've bought into it. You love it! To us that haven't bought into it, though. We see it naked, without the cloak of fandom and it is found lacking. Mix this with the ego, the punchable photos, the journalisticaly wobbly criticisms made purely for the sake of maintaining his gimmick, and yet all these people who somehow, inexplicably, haven't yet worked out that it's all really packaging and no filling, makes him perhaps the most infuriating person on the entire internet.
Of course this undoubtedly leads me to by harsher in my critical eye of his work, but this is only natural. I just hope this book is perhaps the catalyst I hoped Game Damage would be, where he is finally exposed as just another internet guy who had a good idea once, and not some messiah of game culture comedy.
This all sounds horribly harsh, I know. You're just going to cry 'troll', I can see it coming already. But by golly this is years of pent up rage for this guy. Okay, comedy is subjective to a point, but not as much as people say. The ability to write well is much less subjective, however. There are many amazingly awesome game journalists, authors, critics, game writers and comedians. Yahtzee isn't one of them, and never will be, especially not if he's getting positive reinforcement no matter how lame his material gets.
Stop feeding his ego so much with this blind worship that everything he does is 'hil-ar-ious'.
If you do, he might have to try harder and make better stuff, instead of you disabling his internal 'sh*t filter' and convincing him everything he does is spectacularly awesome, when it's not. You're just hurting him in the long run and giving him further to fall when more people start to figure it out.
