Why I Think Yahtzee is Funny

[willgreg123]

I've had to endure some mindless dolts on this very forum questioning Yahtzee's professionalism as a critic and professional gamer, and not that he is one that even needs to be defended, I have just come up with an analogy that he's used that may describe why he is so revered in his field and could put what he dose into perspective for some of you...

Now, Yahtzee will often praise a gaming experiences in coordination to how unique they are, examples like Killer 7, Braid and No More Heroes, games so unique even his high standards where put aside to admire the games as an artistic experience. This is because so many games have become what my family would call "Cookie Sheets" I'm not sure if that's the proper phrase, it may be cookie cutter, but my point is that many games are exactly alike and anything that's bold enough to stand out from the crowd deserves the praise it earns.

Why I bring this up is because Yahtzee is in himself an experience like this. Have you even come across many if any game critiques who will be completely honest and uninfluenced by where their money is coming from? Yahtzee is the only example of a true game critique I've seen since, well, ever. So what I'm trying to say is to those of you who are too busy getting caught up in technicalities to enjoy Zero Punctuation as the intellectual spectacle that it is, then maybe you need to be beaten to death with your own shoes as you've missed the entire point and should further more be spanked. In fact, if you can't even grasp the concept I'm trying to put before you maybe you shouldn't be playing games at all, as obviously they've rotted your already mushy brains to the core, but maybe that's just me.

Anyhow, I do hope you've enjoyed my little rant/observation/social experiment.

 

[Avatar Roku]

Bioshock review: "So, my Psychonauts review has taught me that people don't like it when I'm being nice to a game, so let's get the good things out of the way first."

Seems like he's just pandering to us to me.

 

[JMeganSnow]

Personally, I think Yahtzee is funny because he is cleverly rude--a lot of humor personalities have parleyed an ability to make bizarre yet apt metaphorical comparisons and saying things that most people would not say outright into a career. Look at Howard Stern. Look at Scott Adams. Look at Dave Barry.

Yahtzee isn't a unique phenomenon, he uses a classic humor formula.

 

[peachy_keen]

He's lolarious, but god help the live action show he has going with his friends.

 

[NXMT]

So what I'm trying to say is to those of you who are too busy getting caught up in technicalities to enjoy Zero Punctuation as the intellectual spectacle that it is, then maybe you need to be beaten to death with your own shoes as you've missed the entire point and should further more be spanked.

People don't seem to get that there is a difference between a critic and a reviewer.

 

[ExplosionProofTaco]

He's lolarious.

Lolarious? What is that? Deutsch?

 

[peachy_keen]

He's lolarious.

Lolarious? What is that? Deutsch?

It's the baby of lol and hilarious

 

[Fearzone]

In one review Yahtzee said that if you have to stop and explain *why* something was funny then it simply wasn't funny. But Yahtzee is funny. He just is.

Most of his reviews hit the nail on the head.

A lot of game designers are just full of themselves and they badly need the Yahtzee treatment for the good of all. Criticism of what might have been a good idea but came out as a poorly implemented product serves to make things better next time, or in patches, and sometimes saves me 50-60 bucks. The computer game industry needs more of it, and it needs to be harsh. It's how we improve. Nobody grows by being babied around.

 

[Ultrajoe]

It's the baby of lol and hilarious

I prefer the word 'spawn'.

Yahtzee entertains, information is not his trade. It stands that he is funny because he is Yahtzee, and because Yahtzee provides comedy. There's really not much to it more than that.

 

[Bullfrog1983]

This is because so many games have become what my family would call "Cookie Sheets" I'm not sure if that's the proper phrase, it may be cookie cutter, but my point is that many games are exactly alike and anything that's bold enough to stand out from the crowd deserves the praise it earns.

I'm pretty sure Yahtzee has said this exactly in one of his reviews and I whole-heartedly agree. That is why I like Yahtzee, he calls it as he sees it and doesn't give a damn about anything anyone else says while also entertaining us (even putting some of the funnier comments in the vids.) If I were as creative comically as he is I would probably take a stab at doing reviews myself but my ability to make jokes is about as effective as a guinea pig trying to eat a hippo.

 

[peachy_keen]

It's the baby of lol and hilarious

I prefer the word 'spawn'.

Yahtzee entertains, information is not his trade. It stands that he is funny because he is Yahtzee, and because Yahtzee provides comedy. There's really not much to it more than that.

You're going to make the baby cry :/

I think that his reviews are ten times more enjoyable if you already played the game, which in turn makes it more of a critique. Nothing wrong with that.

 

[Jinx_Dragon]

A lot of the people critical of Yahtzee have either one or both of two problems:
They don't like his insulting nature.
He has given a bad, in their eyes, review to a game.

The first is ridiculous for the most part but you can't convince these people who have felt personally insulted by him of this fact. It is as if they have taken everything he has said to have been directed at them! As if Yahtzee and them are standing in a room, all alone, instead of the fact there is a billion other internet goers he could be talking about. Low self-estimate I have, but I don't even consider his insults directed at me! These is also the problem of why they feel they need praise from some faceless voice over the internet I can't work out. Why do they feel the need for Yahtzee's praise and hate him cause he refuses to give it? I don't give two damns what Yahtzee thinks and can't understand why people take what he says so... personally.

The second is ridiculous too as he has given GOOD reviews, for him anyway, of the very games they use as examples. It is as if you say one bad thing, justified in many of these cases, and suddenly it is a 'bad' review. They are not looking for a critical game review, no they are looking for unconditional praise of the games they like to play. Even to go as far as to skin alive anyone who says something bad about 'their game.' I kid you not, I lost a friendship cause I pointed out how boring and repetitive MMOs are and refused to consider WOW any different. That is pretty messed up right there but those who hate him for his reviews are following the same mentality. 'My game is best and to hell with anyone who says otherwise!'

The only time I use Yahtzee reviews to judge a game is if he has nothing but praise for it. He is a critic, a true one at that, so he is going to be critical of games. Critic, critical... wonder if those words are related *duhhhh!* So for a game to be good in his eyes it has to be more then just polish on a turd and that makes me curious enough to go out, find it, and play it.

I might agree or disagree with him but you know what: He is a critic, not a damn god! even if he was a god, I would still refuse to bow down and worship his reviews as the 'be all, end all' of gaming. I watch his reviews cause they are presented in a humorous content that I enjoy!

Hell, I only found out of his reviews cause I came across someone using the same format to rip Gamestop a new one... hours on hours on bloody hours of ranting. I recommend people find and watch all the parts of that cause it was just as entertaining as a Yahtzee review. Unless you want to be a critic and pick apart the fact he isn't Yahtzee, so isn't as good, which I thought was a given and so could be over looked but to a lot of people seems not....

 

[Calax]

I don't take Yahtzee's reviews as reviews, they are entertainment that has kernels of truth in them. The main reason I don't see them as reviews is because his schtick is that everything is bad, he doesn't point out the good without giving it a bad slant (which I guess started because we weren't nice to him after Psychonauts). His entire review system is based around how not terrible a game is rather than how good it is or how it does X Y or Z better than another game. He does compliment games (don't get me wrong) but usually he will give that game a compliment and promptly do his best for the rest of the review to slaughter everything that compliment has built up.

So overall the guy is an entertainer, not a reviewer. He's also like the Simon Cowell of video game reviews, which sometimes I think the industry needs, but he's not an objective reviewer.

After watching his PoP review I noticed that one of his favorite games of all time was Spiderman 2. REALLY Spiderman 2!?

 

[mangus]

"Yahtzee" is more fun as an exclamation of glee than "bingo". Totally agree with Croshaw being the Simon Cowell of VG reviews, though.

 

[willgreg123]

Huh, I really didn't expect this to get any responces at all. I don't even think I can read most of thses XD You guys really love that Australian, aye?

 

[Phoenix Arrow]

I've taken it upon myself to state my indifference on any topic about Yahtzee, so don't take it personally.

I don't care. And he's British.

 

[Mahogany Slide]

Yahtzee brings light to a dark age of stupidity in internet videos. I feel that he can be called a critic, it may not be so serious because all he does is bash games, and yes he does joke about it. Yet he did give Portal a perfect score, and some of his insults about games are true. I agree with Phoenix, its not personal. Although I do have to say that I lost some respect when I actually saw him for the first time, definitely lost some of his mystique. So for all you naysayers, your "pants-on-head retarded."

 

[karpiel]

I really like Yahtzee because I think I share a lot of his gaming sensibilities, being also a PC-gamer/child of the 90s and believer that they stopped making good games around 2001. I always get a bit of satisfaction when he is able to correctly assert that a current game is worse than one made 15 years ago. A lot of what he writes reminds me of the old PC gamer critics of the 1990s, when computer games were just less plebian than they are now.