Totalbiscuit

[zespri]

http://www.reddit.com/r/Cynicalbrit/comments/1xrx27/in_light_of_tb_abandonning_his_own_subreddit/cfe3rgc. Wow. Just wow.

[Wingflier]

Like I don't get it. You don't get as popular as TB does without making a few enemies.

Just ignore the trolls.

[zespri]

Well yes. When I heard about that Flappy Bird shenanigan I was thinking to myself that a lot of unwanted attention can be unbearable. In a game author it's kind of understandable, but TB is a public figure, so he MUST have been exposed to a lot of crap. And it all breaks out loose only now? How does this add up?

I mean I fear that may be it IS true, when you sign up for this you think along the same lines - well people say things let the dogs bark - how hard can it be. But then as you go and as you become more and more prominent the amount of crap grows and grows and finally you  realize you can't take it any longer. Is it a realistic scenario? May be.

We just cant CANT imagine the crapstorms these people have to endure, that's why it's difficult for us to understand.

Take Chris as an example. He and the company maintains very positive and approachable stance toward public and clientèle and  still there are times when he feels deeply hurt. Those of us who are here long enough has seen that. I think what TB gets is thousand fold and it's permanent comparing to point-in-time incidents we witnessed here.

I'd actually be interested to hear from Chris - is it hard to maintaine sanity?

[zespri]

And also: note how TB is talking about the wall between himself and the audience, the wall that he must maintain to survive. I've seen frustrated game developers posts that advocated that you should never engage with your customer base, because it will only lead to bad things - will make you stressed out, unproductive and on top of that has a potential of giving you a bad image.

And in a sense I can understand that. And that's the reason I've always admired how Arcen has pulled off the impossible, the level of engagement with community that they have - nobody else does. I mean literally nobody big or small game developers.

I'm guessing somewhere out there there is this magical Arcen-like game commentator. It's just not TB.

[Wingflier]

I've honestly never liked TB that much. I don't think he offers any insightful commentary past the point of what you could figure out on your own. It's basically like going to IGN to read a review, you can basically already tell what the review is going to be long before you click the link.

It seemed like if the game had any sort of production value and/or popularity, TB would give it a glowing review, only really criticizing games that everybody knows were bad to begin with. I think most people watched him for the entertainment factor, not as any serious reviewer of the games they may like. That's my opinion at least, other people probably feel differently.

If there ever were a magical "Arcen-like" commentator, I hope he would actually have some standards and offer some reviews that cause controversy and uproar, but also inform the public and make the gaming community a better place. It doesn't matter how much money they spent on COD 5 or WoW expansion over 9,000, somebody needs to just come out and say that these games really aren't innovating that much over their predecessors and that people should stop buying them.

That's just one example, there are many things like this.

[Riabi]

It seemed like if the game had any sort of production value and/or popularity, TB would give it a glowing review, only really criticizing games that everybody knows were bad to begin with. I think most people watched him for the entertainment factor, not as any serious reviewer of the games they may like. That's my opinion at least, other people probably feel differently.

I don't agree. For example, he was one of the first guys to come out and say "Hey, you know, this game really isn't all that great" about Bioshock Infinite.

Like the guy or not, you can count on him to give his honest opinion.

As for the reddit post... I'll be honest, it's easy to say things like "just ignore the trolls", but until you actually put yourself in a situation where you put your heart and soul into a thing and then put it out on the internet, it's hard to understand just how hard it is to ignore the trolls. And to do that on a daily basis like TB does... I couldn't do it.

[Misery]

Hmmm, I dunno.

The thing he seems to be overlooking is the part that IS positive.  It doesnt have to be glowing comments.  It's the fact that such an enormous amount of people continue to subscribe to him, continue to watch all of his videos, and stuff like that.   That IS the "positive comments".  And in his case it's not just positive, it's absurdly positive.  But as in many cases, because it's not in the form of lots of words, it doesnt get thought about.

Not to mention the negative bits.... there's a line I've always liked, which is "The negative ones are always the most vocal".  When people are angry or see the need to vent, they become louder, they put WAY more effort into getting themselves heard.  As someone with a fuse so short that it might not exist, I understand that part very well.  Wheras the positive ones?  They see the negativity and think "Ugh.  This comments section is made of jerks.  I'm just gonna ignore it, I dont need to post anything to enjoy the video".  Alot of times, people dont seem to think about that one either.

Hell, even I do that one.   I tend to hang around forums related to things I like, but there's one major exception, which is the Minecraft forums.  I love that game, and enjoy discussing it, but those forums.... there's 10 gazillion people that really love that game, but those forums would have you believe the exact opposite.  They're a hideous, festering pit of sorrow and tragedy.  So I avoid them like the plague.  The negative players are so ridiculously loud that the positive ones just dont want to bother anymore.  They just go and enjoy the game, while the negative ones continue to whine.


I know stuff like this is difficult to deal with, but.... one way or another, his current feelings about it are in a large way due to his own perceptions of it and his responses based on those perceptions.  If he wants to keep it up, he's going to have to make a change to that one way or another.   And really, the guy really DOES have TONS of positive pointing his way.... if only he could see it.

[Riabi]

All agreed. He can't keep up going like this, he just can't.

That said... I will point out that for most people, the negative comments are the ones that are easiest to hear/accept. There are some rare exceptions, but, not that many.

[madcow]

Wow.  It's always sad to see something like that.  Not really have much I can contribute to how he feels.

I will say I thought his videos were at their best when he does stuff to showcase good indies/games I've never heard of.  His AAA coverage has always been less helpful - and more and more I skip it. But I've found favorite titles I never would have heard of thanks to his passion videos on more obscure/indie titles. Dungeons of dredmor, nation red, and I'm pretty sure even Arcen I looked into because of one of his vids!

I wish he would go back and do videos of some of his favorite older games rather than feeling the need to do new releases only, but with income tied to views I can see why he wouldn't.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Speaking as a content creator, though minor, I have a somewhat good idea of what Totalbiscuit is going through. I've gotten a few negative comments over the years I've been doing this as a hobby. Those sting deeper than any positivity that's been thrown my way. It does not matter how much support I get, the negative comments stand out more than 100 positive comments I could get in a month. I'm not nearly the wreck that TB is currently in, but I could see myself becoming that if I gained his popularity and the amount of "trolls" thrown against him. Being a public figure who puts his opinions out there, you are emotionally invested in your product because it's a part of you. It is you expressing yourself. How could you not get hurt when your baby is slandered, ridiculed and torn apart by people on the Interwebs who have no appreciation for the damage they are doing to you. That isn't to say that anyone should be above criticism but some of the stuff I see said is absolutely disgusting, if not outright untrue. And it hurts no matter how much "trolling" they are doing. I cannot possibly think of a single person who can take that criticism and ignore it. They don't exist.

This isn't like working for another company. You cannot disassociate yourself from the product. When I worked at Taco Time a long while back and people criticized the food/service/whatever, I could ignore that because I'm just a worker. There isn't anything I can do about it. To me, it was just a dreary job with some of the worst inner-politics I've ever dealt with at a job. I could ignore all criticisms except those made against me personally. Those were the ones that hurt the most. But fortunately, those are few and far between for a fast food worker. You'll get maybe 1 negative comment a week/month. People like Totalbiscuit deal with 100s of negative comments every week. It's surprising that people like him don't crack under that sooner.

I'm sure if you asked artists and musicians who made it big, they probably have a big filter between them and their "fans". People like TotalBiscuit, Angry Joe or whoever else do not have such a filter. They cannot "ignore the trolls". Why do you think that actors/musicians/groups have Public Relations people? Why do you think those same people have other people managing their Twitter/Facebook/Google+ feeds? Those people are paid to deal with the crap that is thrown towards the creators. And it is far easier for the PR people to deal with it than the creators because that kind of hatred isn't directed towards them.

Certain personalities can deal with the death-by-a-thousand cuts easier than some, but eventually they'll be worn down. Honestly, I expect we'll be seeing more and more of these emotional responses from YouTubers the more time passes. It's inevitable until our culture cracks down on the "trolling" that goes on.

It is not easy to deal with negativity.

Like I don't get it. You don't get as popular as TB does without making a few enemies.

Just ignore the trolls.

Let me repeat:

It is not easy to deal with negativity.

And the next person who asserts that...well, I dunno what to tell you. It is simply not true. Even I'm not sure how I could deal with that sort of onslaught if it ever happened to me. It makes me worried that I wouldn't be able to deal with it. I dunno. Maybe I'll never find out. I don't envy people like TotalBiscuit or Jesse Cox or Angry Joe or DexBonus. Sure, a long time ago those seemed like dream jobs. Now...the ugly truth is that even dream jobs have their own cons.

[Wingflier]

Speaking as a content creator, though minor, I have a somewhat good idea of what Totalbiscuit is going through. I've gotten a few negative comments over the years I've been doing this as a hobby. Those sting deeper than any positivity that's been thrown my way. It does not matter how much support I get, the negative comments stand out more than 100 positive comments I could get in a month.

That's your choice though. You're letting those negative comments get to you, instead of ignoring them and focusing on the good.

At some point when it comes to our own self-value, we have to stop putting the responsibility on others to determine how we feel about ourselves. Criticism can be helpful, but so can be praise. If you're letting the criticism affect you 100x more than the praise, then that's a personal problem, it has nothing to do with what anyone else is doing.

[doctorfrog]

I don't really follow the guy, but I know who he is. What's his current crisis?

[Coppermantis]

I don't really follow the guy, but I know who he is. What's his current crisis?

He gave a very negative review of a low-quality game by a company called FUN Creators. They issued (illegal) copyright strikes against his channel, forcing the video to be removed. What ensued was...pretty pathetic. He and his team notfied the community of the strike, which led to an immensely childish shouting match between the two.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Cynicalbrit/comments/1y1xg5/please_post_all_fun_creatorsguise_of_the_wolf/

[Aklyon]

Also, his gave the twitter to his 'staff' (I believe its just his wife and Zooc, might be wrong) a while ago for the most part, and he quit reddit again.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Speaking as a content creator, though minor, I have a somewhat good idea of what Totalbiscuit is going through. I've gotten a few negative comments over the years I've been doing this as a hobby. Those sting deeper than any positivity that's been thrown my way. It does not matter how much support I get, the negative comments stand out more than 100 positive comments I could get in a month.

That's your choice though. You're letting those negative comments get to you, instead of ignoring them and focusing on the good.

At some point when it comes to our own self-value, we have to stop putting the responsibility on others to determine how we feel about ourselves. Criticism can be helpful, but so can be praise. If you're letting the criticism affect you 100x more than the praise, then that's a personal problem, it has nothing to do with what anyone else is doing.

Again, all of that Wingflier is so much easier said than done. We should be able to take negativity in stride and not let it drown out positivity. But that's just not the case for whatever reason. Human nature or what not. Some select few people can only hear positivity and completely ignore negativity. But then they run the risk of getting high on themselves and being completely immune to criticism, leading to its own issues.

It's easy to say "just ignore the trolls" but have you ever tried to when creating your own product, whatever it is? It's a lot harder than you might imagine. Again, going back to why successful people have really thick filters to their fans. Frankly, I'm surprised Chris has kept it together like he has but I have seen glimpses over the years that he's let the negatitivity get to him. It's like a poison. It works slowly and over time and for the most part, we don't see it coming until it's too late. It's not like TB suddenly exploded, he's been keeping it down and behind the scenes for a long time I'd have to guess. But eventually, everyone has their limits. The stresses of being independent are really high because the buck stops with you. That's a lot of stress to deal with and having to deal with negativity on top of that? Yeah, it's not all sunshine and roses.