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

[BloatedGuppy]

Well of course, once his revenue takes a hit then he starts singing a different tune. That's the fun of this situation: He didn't care until it hit him right in the money. When he found that there were no more replacements to be had. As seen in the OP video where he's asking for feedback because he knows that if this drop of viewers continues its going to hurt. Suddenly, he cares! He wants to know! Funny how that works.

Here's the quote for you, btw. Guy likes his content, he's just unsobbing because TB is a bit of a git, to borrow a term. If he didn't want to be seen as a git, he should have just ignored the comment.

You speculating that his viewer numbers took a hit because of his personality is you indulging in confirmation bias. He did videos for a lot of middling indie games and with trade show quality footage, of course the views took a hit. His total subscriber numbers continue to rise and the views on recent videos are robust.

Hate him for his blunt personality if you must, but don't indulge in chicken little fantasies about fan backlashes, because there really haven't been any.

 

[Costia]

Maybe he should've just ignored it but what is wrong with saying he doesn't take requests?
If he gets a dozen requests on every video to do a WTF IS.. Minecraft should he do it because that's feedback? No, he'll create the content he wants to create because that is what the overwhelming number of people enjoy watching from him.

The difference here is that it doesn't cost him $10k to produce WTF is for a week, whereas it does with PAX. He asked people if there was a specific problem with that content so he could fix it, or if it was even worth fixing. I don't get what the problem is here.

There is nothing wrong with saying you don't take requests. His other 2 replies though are a different story.
Telling his fan he doesn't matter is very offensive. He could have and should have handled it way better. And there is no need for lying, he could have said the exact same thing in a much nicer manner, and that would have been fine.
Actually , its part of his job to know how to deal with these situations without lying or offending anyone.

 

[Tar Palantir]

You say TB treats his viewers only as potential revenue but then say he doesn't care about feedback as to why his viewers (and revenue) fell during PAX. Bit of a contradiction no? By that logic he should definitely care about the feedback because his revenue fell and he needs to know why so he can fix it and more.

And you can take an out of context quote, overlay it onto a terrible picture and make him seem like a douche compared to Freddie Mercury all you like, it doesn't really change anything.

If I remember correctly that quote was about people who threaten him by saying "I'll unsub if you don't..." or "You can't do this, I'll unsub" and his response is an entirely legitimate one. He's not going to change what he is doing because ONE person is threatening to unsub, when if he continues what he's doing, producing the same style of content he'll gain 1000 new subs by the end of the day.

Well of course, once his revenue takes a hit then he starts singing a different tune. That's the fun of this situation: He didn't care until it hit him right in the money. When he found that there were no more replacements to be had. As seen in the OP video where he's asking for feedback because he knows that if this drop of viewers continues its going to hurt. Suddenly, he cares! He wants to know! Funny how that works.

Here's the quote for you, btw. Guy likes his content, he's just unsobbing because TB is a bit of a git, to borrow a term. If he didn't want to be seen as a git, he should have just ignored the comment.

Big fallacy here, you assume accepting video requests equals accepting feedback.

Well that's not the same thing. He didn't ask "tell me which games I should make videos about" in the VLOG, he asked "tell me if you are interested in gaming conventions or not, because covering them is really expensive".
He's not about to take video requests just because PAX wasn't interesting.
And we can all guess, even without our own youtube channel, how taking every request in every comment section would be absurd.

He could have ignored the comment alltogether, but I guess he gets really offended when someone assumes he can tell him how to do his job.

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

Maybe he should've just ignored it but what is wrong with saying he doesn't take requests?
If he gets a dozen requests on every video to do a WTF IS.. Minecraft should he do it because that's feedback? No, he'll create the content he wants to create because that is what the overwhelming number of people enjoy watching from him.

The difference here is that it doesn't cost him $10k to produce WTF is for a week, whereas it does with PAX. He asked people if there was a specific problem with that content so he could fix it, or if it was even worth fixing. I don't get what the problem is here.

There is nothing wrong with saying you don't take requests. His other 2 replies though are a different story.
Telling his fan he doesn't matter is very offensive. He could have and should have handled it way better. And there is no need for lying, he could have said the exact same thing in a much nicer manner, and that would have been fine.
Actually , its part of his job to know how to deal with these situations without lying or offending anyone.

Who is offended? Because I'm not, and if you look, the guy who made the original comment isn't the one who replied saying he was going to unsub, it was some other person taking offence on his behalf. Not to say being offended on someone elses behalf isn't valid offence but really, what is there to be offended about?

He was telling the truth. Do you think a HBO are personally thankful and appreciative of every single viewer of Game of Thrones? Of course not, there is no relationship there other than that of a content provider and audience. It's the exact same for TB, it's not his job to be your friend and to care about you as an individual viewer, it's his job to make content he thinks people want to watch.

 

[Pink Gregory]

I don't like the guy, but I don't really understand why his viewers get their panties in a knot whenever he takes what is admittedly a quite typically professional approach to his job.

 

[Legion]

Maybe he should've just ignored it but what is wrong with saying he doesn't take requests?
If he gets a dozen requests on every video to do a WTF IS.. Minecraft should he do it because that's feedback? No, he'll create the content he wants to create because that is what the overwhelming number of people enjoy watching from him.

The difference here is that it doesn't cost him $10k to produce WTF is for a week, whereas it does with PAX. He asked people if there was a specific problem with that content so he could fix it, or if it was even worth fixing. I don't get what the problem is here.

There is nothing wrong with saying you don't take requests. His other 2 replies though are a different story.
Telling his fan he doesn't matter is very offensive. He could have and should have handled it way better. And there is no need for lying, he could have said the exact same thing in a much nicer manner, and that would have been fine.
Actually , its part of his job to know how to deal with these situations without lying or offending anyone.

Who is offended? Because I'm not, and if you look, the guy who made the original comment isn't the one who replied saying he was going to unsub, it was some other person taking offence on his behalf. Not to say being offended on someone elses behalf isn't valid offence but really, what is there to be offended about?

He was telling the truth. Do you think a HBO are personally thankful and appreciative of every single viewer of Game of Thrones? Of course not, there is no relationship there other than that of a content provider and audience. It's the exact same for TB, it's not his job to be your friend and to care about you as an individual viewer, it's his job to make content he thinks people want to watch.

There is a difference in how you approach it though. A certain degree of respect.

Saying "Sorry, but I am not going to change the way I run my show for any individual. I have a lot of people who watch my stuff, and I can't please them all. I am not going to try catering to everybody because that's just not possible".

Voilà, same point without coming across as a prick. It's not that difficult to show politeness, it really isn't.

 

[Costia]

Who is offended? Because I'm not, and if you look, the guy who made the original comment isn't the one who replied saying he was going to unsub, it was some other person taking offence on his behalf. Not to say being offended on someone elses behalf isn't valid offence but really, what is there to be offended about?

He was telling the truth. Do you think a HBO are personally thankful and appreciative of every single viewer of Game of Thrones? Of course not, there is no relationship there other than that of a content provider and audience. It's the exact same for TB, it's not his job to be your friend and to care about you as an individual viewer, it's his job to make content he thinks people want to watch.

I didn't notice it wasn't the same guy.
Saying to someone that he doesnt matter is offensive. Sure, it doesn't really matter that TB doesn't care about him, but it still feels/sounds bad.
Look at it this way: If i submitted a support ticket to steam, and they replied with "we don't care. we have thousands of clients. quit if you like" there would have been a sh*t storm. The youtube channel is TBs work, it's his business, and I would expect him to act accordingly.
The second paragraph is irrelevant.
Its not what he said, its how he said it. He could have just said "I can't please everyone" or "Sorry, but i don't have enough time" . There was no need to go on the "you are not my friend and you don't know anything about me and my business" "rampage".

 

[Atmos Duality]

Having just watched the video...
I am unsure what merits 6 pages of back-and-forth bile.

It's honest and pragmatic; which is unusual for the internet admittedly, but I don't have any issue with the approach.

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

Maybe he should've just ignored it but what is wrong with saying he doesn't take requests?
If he gets a dozen requests on every video to do a WTF IS.. Minecraft should he do it because that's feedback? No, he'll create the content he wants to create because that is what the overwhelming number of people enjoy watching from him.

The difference here is that it doesn't cost him $10k to produce WTF is for a week, whereas it does with PAX. He asked people if there was a specific problem with that content so he could fix it, or if it was even worth fixing. I don't get what the problem is here.

There is nothing wrong with saying you don't take requests. His other 2 replies though are a different story.
Telling his fan he doesn't matter is very offensive. He could have and should have handled it way better. And there is no need for lying, he could have said the exact same thing in a much nicer manner, and that would have been fine.
Actually , its part of his job to know how to deal with these situations without lying or offending anyone.

Who is offended? Because I'm not, and if you look, the guy who made the original comment isn't the one who replied saying he was going to unsub, it was some other person taking offence on his behalf. Not to say being offended on someone elses behalf isn't valid offence but really, what is there to be offended about?

He was telling the truth. Do you think a HBO are personally thankful and appreciative of every single viewer of Game of Thrones? Of course not, there is no relationship there other than that of a content provider and audience. It's the exact same for TB, it's not his job to be your friend and to care about you as an individual viewer, it's his job to make content he thinks people want to watch.

There is a difference in how you approach it though. A certain degree of respect.

Saying "Sorry, but I am not going to change the way I run my show for any individual. I have a lot of people who watch my stuff, and I can't please them all. I am not going to try catering to everybody because that's just not possible".

Voilà, same point without coming across as a prick. It's not that difficult to show politeness, it really isn't.

True but I still don't really see how it matters. He could've been nicer about it sure, I'm not defending that because I agree with you and I'd probably prefer that, what I am questioning is why people actually give a damn. He said something that wasn't unreasonable and was pretty blunt about it, if it offended you, well just move on, it was an ultimately harmless comment on a video.

Who is offended? Because I'm not, and if you look, the guy who made the original comment isn't the one who replied saying he was going to unsub, it was some other person taking offence on his behalf. Not to say being offended on someone elses behalf isn't valid offence but really, what is there to be offended about?

He was telling the truth. Do you think a HBO are personally thankful and appreciative of every single viewer of Game of Thrones? Of course not, there is no relationship there other than that of a content provider and audience. It's the exact same for TB, it's not his job to be your friend and to care about you as an individual viewer, it's his job to make content he thinks people want to watch.

I didn't notice it wasn't the same guy.
Saying to someone that he doesnt matter is offensive. Sure, it doesn't really matter that TB doesn't care about him, but it still feels/sounds bad.
Look at it this way: If i submitted a support ticket to steam, and they replied with "we don't care. we have thousands of clients. quit if you like" there would have been a sh*t storm. The youtube channel is TBs work, it's his business, and I would expect him to act accordingly.
The second paragraph is irrelevant.
Its not what he said, its how he said it. He could have just said "I can't please everyone" or "Sorry, but i don't have enough time" . There was no need to go on the "you are not my friend and you don't know anything about me and my business" "rampage".

How is it offensive? It's a fact. One person does not matter to any business. Telling everyone they're a special little snowflake would be a lie, it's quite literally impossible for someone to care about hundreds of thousands of individuals who's only connection to you is watching a thing you put on the internet.

And comparing it to a support ticket is wildly false. It is literally the job of whoever is on the end of that ticket to care about your problem and to resolve whatever issue you're having. They probably don't care about you personally however it's their responsibility to help fix your issue, so that is why people would be upset. However it is not TBs responsibility to take requests.

I agree with you he could've said it in a nicer manner but it should literally make no difference that it might sound bad, what he said what was true, only he said it more bluntly than most people can apparently handle.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

Having just watched the video...
I am unsure what merits 6 pages of back-and-forth bile.

It's honest and pragmatic; which is unusual for the internet admittedly, but I don't have any issue with the approach.

In a shiny happy pretend world of make-believe, the honest man isn't king. And if he isn't openly funny or blatantly bad, he won't get the jester's cap or job, either.

So - he's the pariah, the outcast, the rebel, the freak. And he still has got to pay his bills and keep his enterprise running, one way or another. There's always at least one proper way to do things, and at least one very wrong way to do (or not do) things.

TotalBiscuit is a touchy, easily offended man. But his integrity is something I respect. Do I agree on everything he does? No, I don't. I don't have to, either. I didn't marry him and I don't intend to do so.

I just know that if I need to get some proper info on something he covers, I'd take TotalBiscuit's take on it over pretty much anyone else's no questions asked. I put on the Youtube thing, I let him talk and I listen to it while commuting, relaxing, working out or doing the damn dishes. He's got the voice, the brains and the means to do what he does, and he does it well. One can take his social awkardness as a symptom of something underlying and worse, but that's just none of my damn business. I find his bluntness to be just one more thing that makes him endearing and special to me. No other big player will ever dare to do what he does the way he does it. I like that. It may smell of fart to other people, it's a fresh breeze to me.

A man that does his job well as it says on the tin deserves respect. Same goes for Pachter, Susan Queen of Snide, Snicker and Sneer Arendt, Stephen Totilo or anyone else running the show, no matter how exposed they choose to get or how unprofessional they let themselves go over Twitter and other information super-cobbled roads of antisocial media.

Still more so when that man is a woman, as a woman still - more often than not - has to grin like she's got Kuru or Creutzfeld Jakob disease to promote whatever it is she's wiggling her titties for, and be it just her own booty, her own show or somebody else's panties and Tupperware. That shit pisses me off way more than TotalBiscuit being blunt while whacking commenters like it's a game of whack-a-mole.

 

[Costia]

How is it offensive? It's a fact. One person does not matter to any business. Telling everyone they're a special little snowflake would be a lie, it's quite literally impossible for someone to care about hundreds of thousands of individuals who's only connection to you is watching a thing you put on the internet.

And comparing it to a support ticket is wildly false. It is literally the job of whoever is on the end of that ticket to care about your problem and to resolve whatever issue you're having. They probably don't care about you personally however it's their responsibility to help fix your issue, so that is why people would be upset. However it is not TBs responsibility to take requests.

I agree with you he could've said it in a nicer manner but it should literally make no difference that it might sound bad, what he said what was true, only he said it more bluntly than most people can apparently handle.

First paragraph: The fact is not offensive by itself. Telling to a customer you don't care is. I didn't say he should have agreed to the request. Just that he should answer in a more professional manner.
Second paragraph: It's not his responsibility to take requests, the same way it's not steams responsibility to do whatever I asked them in the ticket. I can open a ticket demanding steam to release half life 3 or make me a coffee. It is his responsibility to reply politely the same way it's steams.

 

[WoW Killer]

he could've said it in a nicer manner

I'd have to go out of my way to phrase that in a way that offended people.

"It's not that I don't listen to individual feedback, it's that I need to take into account the wishes of all my subscribers. If the stats are telling me a video won't bring in enough traffic, then I can't justify the cost based on what a handful of subs are asking for, as much as I'd love to."

Just rolls off the tongue. It pacifies rather than escalates any animosity, and you come off looking like the better man. If you wanted to keep that blunt/grumpy mystique (which I guess appeals to certain demographics on the internets) then just leave off the "as much as I'd love to". Simples.

Maybe I've spent a bit too much time in customer service, dunno.

Why is Captcha offering me free bets?

 

[Gxas]

First paragraph: The fact is not offensive by itself. Telling to a customer you don't care is. I didn't say he should have agreed to the request. Just that he should answer in a more professional manner.

I didn't want to get into this, but what exactly are you looking for? "I do not take requests." Is a perfectly professional answer. It is exactly what you'll get from any other average company. Sure, you may get a "Sorry." in front of that. Is that what you're looking for? Would a, "Sorry, I don't take requests." be professional and polite for you?

I just don't get the people who don't understand Totalbiscuit's personality. It shows in the first five minutes of one of his videos.

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

How is it offensive? It's a fact. One person does not matter to any business. Telling everyone they're a special little snowflake would be a lie, it's quite literally impossible for someone to care about hundreds of thousands of individuals who's only connection to you is watching a thing you put on the internet.

And comparing it to a support ticket is wildly false. It is literally the job of whoever is on the end of that ticket to care about your problem and to resolve whatever issue you're having. They probably don't care about you personally however it's their responsibility to help fix your issue, so that is why people would be upset. However it is not TBs responsibility to take requests.

I agree with you he could've said it in a nicer manner but it should literally make no difference that it might sound bad, what he said what was true, only he said it more bluntly than most people can apparently handle.

First paragraph: The fact is not offensive by itself. Telling to a customer you don't care is. I didn't say he should have agreed to the request. Just that he should answer in a more professional manner.
Second paragraph: It's not his responsibility to take requests, the same way it's not steams responsibility to do whatever I asked them in the ticket. I can open a ticket demanding steam to release half life 3 or make me a coffee. It is his responsibility to reply politely the same way it's steams.

I guess you're much more easily offended than I am. Also, there is a difference between a video creator not caring about someones opinions on what content he should create (and being vocal about it) and Steam treating a paying customer poorly.

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

he could've said it in a nicer manner

I'd have to go out of my way to phrase that in a way that offended people.

"It's not that I don't listen to individual feedback, it's that I need to take into account the wishes of all my subscribers. If the stats are telling me a video won't bring in enough traffic, then I can't justify the cost based on what a handful of subs are asking for, as much as I'd love to."

Just rolls off the tongue. It pacifies rather than escalates any animosity, and you come off looking like the better man. If you wanted to keep that blunt/grumpy mystique (which I guess appeals to certain demographics on the internets) then just leave off the "as much as I'd love to". Simples.

Maybe I've spent a bit too much time in customer service, dunno.

Why is Captcha offering me free bets?

I completely agree with you. Like I said I'd prefer it if he was more polite in the comments.. If anything it would move the conversation from overreactions to some comments to people actually talking about the content of his videos.

 

[Costia]

I didn't want to get into this, but what exactly are you looking for? "I do not take requests." Is a perfectly professional answer. It is exactly what you'll get from any other average company. Sure, you may get a "Sorry." in front of that. Is that what you're looking for? Would a, "Sorry, I don't take requests." be professional and polite for you?

I just don't get the people who don't understand Totalbiscuit's personality. It shows in the first five minutes of one of his videos.

"I do not take requests." is fine. Its his later replies/comments that annoy me.

I guess you're much more easily offended than I am. Also, there is a difference between a video creator not caring about someones opinions on what content he should create (and being vocal about it) and Steam treating a paying customer poorly.

If he said he doesn't care about his fans opinions it would make sense. But the whole VLOG is him saying how much he cares about his fans, but when it comes to dealing with an individual fan all that care is gone. I don't think he doesn't care like some people here said, it's probably just his way to deal with people, and if i asked him he probably wouldn't know what was "wrong" with his replies.

 

[SweetShark]

This is a funny thread because TB linked it on twitter (and also posted) and now it's all funny.

I wouldn't judge a person whose internet videos I like by the way he happens to treat random people he never met. After all, what I'm doing is watching his videos for my entertainment. What I'm NOT doing is reaching out for his everlasting love and respect. It's odd how some people will turn hostile to a certain celebrity because they are denied some sort of special treatment in return for giving him one of the million viewcounts he needs to stay in business.

A yes, I indeed I found it I think:

TB: "After the rather misleading OP I expected this thread to suck, but turns out Escapist posters are pretty cool"

Indeed, I don't have something to say. I admit I overreacted already and I know he had reasons to feel insecure about his views. It is his job after all.

What I can say? I just wanted to care more about his fans and not only the view counts a video have......

That all for me.

 

[Augustine]

The more popular TB got, the more, I felt, that went into his head, and the less pleasant his stuff became to my eyes. Haven't been watching his stuff for a long while now, but the sentiment is very familiar.

 

[SpaceGhost]

Erm...bit of a whiny git, isn't he?

How so? By asking for honest feedback when he sees views drop drastically? I don't think that's whiny, it's pretty smart actually considering the money he laid out to go to PAX.

Asking for feedback is one thing - obsessively listing how many views all the other videos got is another. It's perfectly reasonable to say "Hey, doesn't look like you guys enjoyed that, so what *would* you like?" but that's not his approach at all.

Wow.

"Obsessively listing."

Susan, I feel like I understand that your personality is highly infused with hyperbole, but it also seems to me that you mean this literally...so I am both disappointed and slightly saddened at this time.

I would posit that (in your example) TotalBiscuit was listing his views to include hard numbers to validate the basis for his video's purpose. Speaking for myself, I strongly desire such information in any kind of debate/discussion/argument, and go out of my way to include such information myself. I like to "cite my sources," as it were, whether it's a scholarly resource, or simply Wikipedia.

I would also posit, from a much weaker position, that you did not read all of the comments in "your" own forum, before your first post with the "whiny git" insult, having simply read the OP and watched some (if not all) of the linked video. A lot of your readers had posted opinions contrary to the OP, and by association yours. Not that there is anything wrong with having a different opinion as a reasonable individual. Again, as I have no factual basis for this argument, I must emphasize that it is only an vague impression I formed at first blush.

I was going to make a snide comment along the lines of "So, is this the official position of escapistmagazine.com?" but I decided against it...

Instead, I will just say:

It's perfectly reasonable to say "Hey, I wouldn't have expressed myself in quite the same way as he did in this one specific video," but that wasn't your approach at all.

Depressed now.

I don't understand why you think it's relevant in any way that I expressed an opinion that differed from others. Should I only speak up when I'm agreeing with the majority of the people in the forum? Sorry, that's a rather ridiculous thing to say.

I made an observation, which I qualified in at least two different ways as being weak (including the argument you just made, just semantically different). I was trying for diplomacy, and not a little bit of subtlety. Apparently, one or both of those things are ridiculous. Lesson learned.