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

[dennett316]

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.

 

[dennett316]

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.

 

[Bato]

Sounds fine to me.
"That was very expensive and if you guys aren't all that interested in that kind of content I'm not going to make that kind of investment again."

What makes it sound whiny to me is something he's brought up in the video. He tries to make fairly long videos, 15-20 minutes, and he sounds like he's struggling to fit the above statement into 20 minutes.

 

[GAunderrated]

snip

Look buddy, I've produced video content online too, and a similar situation has happened to me. You know what I didn't do? Complain to my viewers for 20 minutes with a passive aggressive tone that attempts to make them feel guilty. I sat down, figured out what I did wrong, and tried something different next time. He goes on and on saying, "This is one of the few times I'll actually ask for feedback from you guys." How ridiculously arrogant is that, and how would the common viewer know what went wrong better than him and his team? They wouldn't. If you want to call me a dummy for that than be my guest, but my statement stands. After that, I won't be watching this guy, and I think it rather sad of you to defend him after that display.

Well friend, I think you are missing a bit of context in his situation compared to your own. Are you online content your main source of income? I highly doubt it. Again as I have said before in a post if my paycheck got cut in half one week you would bet I would ask why.

You think he is arrogant and I think you are just being oversensitive. Opinions are everywhere so you might as well get used to it and not let every little thing bother you. I find it funny that you think I am "defending" TB as a person when really I am just defending someone's right to ask for feedback when his livelihood is at stake.

I've also said this before which you seemed to miss the point, I agree the video was in poor taste. However, I don't fault him for asking his fans for feedback on what went wrong or take his video as a personal insult. The man is trying to make a living and for you to take it personal is the truly sad state of affairs.

 

[Susan Arendt]

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.

 

[Weaver]

Didn't get an 'aggressive' vibe from the video at all.
He just wants to know if the audience actually wants the PAX videos or not.

I don't care for most of them, though I did watch the shield stuff.

 

[itsthesheppy]

Anyone else remember when he DJed for Planetside Radio?

 

[FaceFaceFace]

Off topic but... "Vlog" means "video blog." So your title basically says "In this video blog video..."

 

[SweetShark]

Off topic but... "Vlog" means "video blog." So your title basically says "In this video blog video..."

Yeeeaaahhhhh....you are right, but lazy now to fix it. Maybe tommorow.

 

[PhreakyDee]

As said many times before me, he just wants input whether or not to invest in these kinds of videos. So I won't go into my thoughts on that in detail.

But, to be completely honest, I did feel something was off with the video, like a little nagging feeling that something wasn't quite right. That's the reason I clicked this thread, but I think it to be more a point of his... Voice, tone, underlying language that just felt really, really off. Like when you're talking to a person you know really well and you picked up on something "Off" and later you find out they've recently tried to blow their brains out. It's just that slight variance in a person's behavior.

Maybe the money was initially supposed to go to something else, maybe something unforeseen came up that the money could have helped with.

*Extreme scenario-mode on* Maybe he told a dear family member that he couldn't come to their birthday because of PAX and when he and crew came back said family member had died. *throws hands into the air*

 

[wulf3n]

It's fascinating to see some of the negative reactions emanating from this thread. It would be like someone going of the rails, because you asked them to pass the salt.

That separate people can see the same video but see drastically different things is remarkable.

 

[spartandude]

Im not sure if i watched the same video as every one else but all i got from this was him asking "how can i improve my convention videos or should i stop doing them?" rather then "you are idiot for not watching them"

heck we get mad at people for assuming they know what we want without asking and now someone is doing it we are getting mad.... logic?

 

[WoW Killer]

Nothing wrong with asking for feedback. It's just a bit rich when you've not long ago had a big rant telling people not to give feedback.

 

[ParanoidEngineer]

The way I saw it was that he was miffed (love that word) because the point of WTF is (or one of them) according to him is to bring to light exicting or innovative new indie games that he thinks should be bought because they're fucking sweet. Now he's gone to PAX and brought lots of coverage of the new cool and innovative indie stuff and they got piss-all views (considering he has a million subscribers he should really be getting at least a 1/10th of those in views even on his less popular videos), and when he did some AAA games recently as a WTF is? he got a load more than the indie games, which would naturally be jarring since that's not what he started the series to do. Also he's got a perfect right to be pissed if no-one watches his videos, he's paid for the videos he makes, if they get low views, he gets less money, and he's been down the "broke as shit" road before and definately doesn't want to go there again.

 

[PhreakyDee]

Nothing wrong with asking for feedback. It's just a bit rich when you've not long ago had a big rant telling people not to give feedback.

Not just your comment but what seems so be a fairly used argument in this thread. I, personally think you're mixing pears and apples. Yes, they are both delicious fruits from a tree, but if you want an apple you don't buy a pear.

What I'm getting at here is that; he has always asked for feedback. What he don't want is regulating. "Please like if you liked or dislike if you didn't but remember to post why not." This is not a case of him going "I don't like your views unless I need to." It's more a case of "I'd like some constructive criticism, so I can take into account what you are saying. But don't try to regulate my content."

I love being told some tricks and tips when it comes to my drawings, like better shadowing techniques or interesting ideas. But if I'm turning a profit on character-creation I don't want some random guy on the Internet telling me I should do backgrounds and try to make a profit from that, simply because he/she likes scenery better for one reason or another.

 

[PH3NOmenon]

Is it a surprise there's less views? The games he got footage of are all pretty meh.

I followed his WTF is.. series for the longest time specifically for the indie footage but the indies at PAX... well.Boot hill heroes looks atrocious, Mark of the ninja was a presentation of what's essentially an expansion, Divekick is a two button fighting game (and that single sentence sums up everything you ever want to know about it) and he had a three parter on the project shield thing, which is interesting, but not "three parter" interesting.

I'm not watching TB's channel because it's TB. I'm watching in spite of it being TB. His personality is aggressive and abrasive, if honest. Still, he was (is) the best one out there for exploring new games, so he got my views.

Still, it's jarring to see him that scared because a week's worth of video's failed to bring in the views. Sure, you could ask for feedback on the why of it, but to put out such a haphazardly slapped together video in which 60% of the time he's talking about the issues with Defiance which has nothing to do with the "Are you still there?" topic seems pretty desperate. If he really is living that hand to mouth, he needs to rethink his life a bit.

 

[Naeras]

The issue here was that he spent a lot of money on getting out videos that didn't get a lot of views, which in terms cost the channel money. Even though he seems to love his job of making videos on games, he's still completely aware of the fact that it's his source of income. Thus, he wants that income, and even as a person who blatantly says "I don't take requests", he's still open to suggestions from his followers in regards to what kinds of content people want to watch.
It's not really more complicated than that. The channel made a lot less money than expected, and he wants some feedback as to why, and whether or not this is something that's worth investing in again.