Topic: Has Ben "Yahtzee" Crowshaw jumped the shark?
Blayne Bradley
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posted
A little context, Yahtzee makes a series of video game internet cartoons for the Escapist Magazine every Wednesday at roughly noon-ish and reviews video games in a fast paced manner and accentuates the negative for reviews.
But anyways on TvTropes under the heading of Jumped the Shark I wrote that I jokingly say he did this when his voice changed, but now serious face has he really?
I've begun to think that something I'm not sure what has changed in his style and now its less funny, oh its still interesting to watch and there's moments of true brilliance and charm here and there and I eagerly refresh the page every Wednesday thousands of times to make the internet moles run faster anyways where was I? Yahtzee, right.
I think he needs an editor or some sort of creative assistance at this point I think hes exhausted his own abilities to keep the same level of "Laughs per minute" as high as it was during say his review of Crysis or the Witcher. He has things to SAY but I don't think hes at the point where the things he chooses to record are necessarily the funniest he COULD have said. I am not an expert at whatever subjective study of humorology that would be relevant to this review and can be discounted at your leisure but I do have an opinion that's been kicked around my head a few times and will try to put it into words.
Anyways, his humor in the beginning seemed to be more along the lines of him liking to play games but upset with the BS developers shove down his throat and meanders around between trying to make a point and talking about the game deconstructing both, either, or something. This works this was funny especially some of his more hilarious tangents but it seems he went from someone who didn't take what himself says only half seriously to thinking or at least implying to me that everything he says is WORD OF GOD and anything less isn't worth his or my the viewers time and I think this shift occurred somewhere around his Webcomics review which was a whole show dedicated as a thinly veiled Take That at Ctrl+Alt+Del, yes everyone can have their opinions but hes already given arguable constructive criticism to outright bashing on his own website FullyRamlyonic did he HAVE to dedicate an entire episode on something 90% of the Internet already agrees with him on?
Basically it seems like there has been a gradual tonal shift from something "fun" to something "serious" and heavily prone to constant "anyone with an internet connection should already know" Take That's.
In short he went from Working the Gameplay and Story Gnomes to Death to working the Graphics and Gameplay Gnomes to death.
That a change has taken place I think is self evident, the question is... is this for the best or should we sigh and wonder at might have beens'? I still watch Zero Punctuation as its still funny, interesting and entertaining but I'm less then impressed with some of his tangential TT's in contrast with his more colorful and humorous random tangential musings.
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Any time you go from doing something for fun to doing something on a tight schedule to get paid for it, the quality of your work will decline unless you add another pair of editorial eyes.
I think wondering what "might have been" is a bit silly, though, considering that nothing he's ever written has been meant to endure. I mean, it's light entertainment; people won't be quoting his sage-like words months from now, much less years.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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Blayne Bradley
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Have you've ever read Tv Tropes website?
But in any case maybe musing about might have beens may have been the wrong wording but I do feel that he should probably look into hiring a writer or an editor to bounce ideas around with after the two of them finish playing through the games.
Now he was getting paid for it in the beginning and I would say until the Webcomics video beign roughly 48 videos all we're to me pretty hysterical give or take adjustment as I spent alot of time watching and rewatching them I got used to his style and the innovation wore off like a kind of inflation of funny but I accountf or that.
After that point it seemed to have become more hit or miss.
But anyways Tv Tropes, the whole wiki is pretty much proof that once your a meme you stay a meme, I think 30% of pages have a quite from yahtzee as a page quote.
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quote:Originally posted by Blayne Bradley: but we're in the age of the internets, whats popular is of lasting renown or value.
Really? What was popular in 2003 that's still around? I refer here to entertainment, not infrastructure stuff like Google.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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The thing with the internet is that it means that no matter how narrow your niche is, you'll be able to find at least a few thousand people from somewhere in the world who love it, producing the illusion that it has immense and/or lasting popularity. I'm sure there's some stuff from 2003 that's still in the public consciousness, but I don't remember exactly which memes are from which year so I can't really prove it.
Regardless, Yahtzee's form of entertainment is particularly ephemeral - it ridicules games that have just come out within a few months tops and even if those games remain popular for years people aren't going to be remembering Yahtzee's videos about them.
I enjoy Yahtzee (even his newer stuff) but the only specific joke I can remember was from Spore, where he says "Short answer? No. Long answer? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO."
The rest blur together into a pile of nearly identical quickly spoken snarkiness.
EDIT: And for the record, I have no idea what Top Gear is. I assume it's a video game.
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
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Blayne Bradley
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Zero Punctuation is also shown on G4 Tech TV.
Top Gear is an absurdly famous British Car show with Jeremy Clarkson! I live in the MIDDLE OF A SWAMP with A BOX OF SCRAPS and I'm an avid fan!
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Blayne: The internet memes don't make you sound cooler here. Just sayin', this ain't the best place to use them the way you do.
Anyway, I haven't heard of Top Gear either. Just because you know of it, doesn't make it well known here in the States. You do know that, right?
Posts: 1577 | Registered: Sep 2005
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Blayne Bradley
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its actually hugely popular in the States its the most popular BBC show after Torchwood.
And I'll use Memes as I think they sound funny as is my want.
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Actually, I think his "review" of Duke Nukem Forever may have been about the pinnacle of his work.
Though the one joke that most sticks with me is the one (which I must not repeat in this forum) regarding Guitar Hero and razor wire.
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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