Why does that matter? They’re engaged for hours per week versus 22 minutes for a sitcom.
Because his reach is 6m people vs 19m that BBT draws.
You’re talking about unique impressions versus engaged ones. And that is a debate advertisers have had for years. If you’re comparing unique visitors to a website article who stick around for 10 minutes versus persistent visitors to a forum, the unique ones are worth much more. But I don’t think that transfers here, because Pewdiepie’s fans will watch him for hours, and love him, and donate money to him directly.
Gosh, it’d be terrible if the keepers of the marketplace had to take some kind of TAXATION IS THEFT action to STATISM try and curb the HURFDURF obvious abuses that plague it.
Sorry, everyone, your freedom is too important for anyone to solve this problem.
Really, this is kind of ironic.
The firewatch dev went after PewDiePie for speech he did not like.
Steam customers are now doing the same thing back to the firewatch dev for doing something they did not like.
It is no surprise that people are unhappy with the firewatch Dev though. A lot of gamers watch pewdiepie’s show (i will never understand it) and a lot of gamers watch youtube/twitch in general. Our firewatch dev is attacking both groups with his actions.
With that said, this instance is likely review bombing, but i am extremely hesitant to use the term. People used the same term to describe poor reviews of both no man sky and mass effect andromeda. The term is used all too often to describe a lot of people not liking something that the poster does like. In fact i would say 9 times out of 10, when someone claims a game is review bombed, it is just a game that everyone hates except them. Again though, this does appear to be that 10th case.
Maybe it is selfish, but i’d rather have one Firewatch than allow a bunch of other big name games that end up being bad to abuse the system and artificially increase their rating on steam.
Let’s not try to downplay this as “speech the dev didn’t like.” The Firewatch dev went after PDP for using racist invective in a YouTube video, and now Gamers™ are mad that said hate speech is being punished. The idea that Steam reviews are a valid medium to react to that, and that Valve should just sit back and let this sort of thing happen whenever a game developer does anything that could possibly make Gamers™ mad, is beyond childish.
Also, I phrased my Wikipedia-style solution very carefully to avoid that abuse: “if something controversial happens surrounding the game but ultimately not related to the game itself.” A developer getting into a spat with a GamerGate figurehead and a late PC port of a game launching in terrible shape are radically different scenarios, and Valve can easily restrict reviews (and note that this proposal would be for all reviews, both positive and negative) on one while allowing them on the other.
Yes, i think steam reviews are a valid medium to react to developers doing things we don’t like. For example, i down voted State of decay, when they did the whole year one survival edition bullshit.
And frankly the answer is that if you’re a public figure selling a product, don’t get in to a brawl with a bunch of people online, or if you do, accept the benefits and consequences. I simply do not trust most claims that something was review bombed.
People act like this is something special with Gamers™ or that it is impossible to disagree with the firewatch dev did without being a racist and/or pewdiepie supporter.
Consumer activism is one of the few forms of activism left that has a tangible effect on the business world, so I definitely agree it is a valid mechanism. Turns out some consumers are idiots and take action against people undeserving of it. If anyone cares about that they can always try to organise a positive review bomb.
The one and only time a “positive review bomb” happened, it was people coming out in support of Hatred and its neo-Nazi developers. Maybe not the best suggestion.
If that’s what’s happening, than that description is exactly what’s happening. What was good yesterday is not good today, because of the views expressed by the developer. There is no better example of review bombing.
Yeah, that’s kind of exactly what it is.
I don’t know. I think YouTube culture has a lot to do with PDP spouting off that word.
I’m no fan of his. A while back, out of curiosity, I watched several of his videos at random, just to see what all the fuss was about.
His videos I thought were generally very lame, but again, I was watching them randomly, so I could have been missing some context; maybe a personality arc I was supposed to be following? But I doubt it.
What I found much more appalling than his videos however, were the comment sections below them. Riddled with the most vile insults between commenters that I’ve possibly ever seen on YouTube. I can’t remember if the N-word was thrown around more frequently than others (this was a few years ago), but it wouldn’t surprise me. There were some “normal” comments in there as well, but if two commenters got into it, man, the gloves were instantly off, and all manner of horrible insults were being thrown left and right. Someone up-thread mentioned 12-year-olds, and what I was reading seemed to fit that demographic.
So is it possible that he picked up this casual use of the language from reading the comments? I have just never equated racism with Sweden, although I am admittedly not at all familiar with Sweden’s history in regard to that subject.
Then again, I’d be more likely to consider this theory if it weren’t for all of his other despicable antics I’ve read about. I haven’t actually seen those videos, but have no reason to doubt their existence based on the articles I’ve read about them. And those antics I don’t think could have come from simple exposure to comments.
But the use of this one word? Maybe?
From the half-dozen or so (maybe a dozen at most) videos I did watch, I must say that I do not understand the appeal this guy has to so many viewers. In the slightest. He’s simply not funny. At all. If someone could link to one of his “best” videos, where I might be able to appreciate his appeal, that’d be great, as I have no intention to go wading through his mountain of content.
Put simply, are any of you people here fans of his? Or were any of you fans at one time before all of this happened? And if so, what was his appeal?
I watch a lot of YouTube. But my interests lie in many other areas than just gaming, so I lead a somewhat sheltered YouTube life. I watch stuff like The History of the 45 rpm record for instance, where the comment section is comprised of mostly normal, intelligent folk, and I enjoy joining in the conversations. And there are plenty of other channels, including gaming, and even music, that have similar, intelligent comment sections.
But Pewdiepie’s channel and many others seem to draw fans (mostly) from a cesspool of inept clowns. And if those are the people he’s pandering to, it’s no wonder he’s gone off the deep end. And if that’s why he’s been so successful, then my opinion and future outlook of humanity in general has now taken a depressing dive.
I don’t think there’s anything ironic about it. PPD’s only “product” is his commentary. Commenting on his commentary is reviewing the “product”.
Giving the game a negative review because of this isn’t commenting on the product.
I checked some of his videos, lets plays, too … and they are really boring. I am totally shocked, but I do not understand it, he has not talent.
I think you can find a certain percentage of racism in any country in the world…
Given how fucked Youtube is… maybe it wont matter in a year, though I’m betting PDP can easily live off a fraction of what he’s making. Others… not so much.
Nearly every streamer I watch is losing money. One was selling things to help make ends meet, dude has 800k+ subs. The other is now also streaming on Twitch because he can’t pay his mortgage anymore (200k+ Subs and part of one of the biggest groups on YT). In both cases it’s because of demonetization for being “not ad friendly” or whatever. In both cases they’re extremely positive guys who cover fairly niche subjects and who are basically living completely off of Youtube. God, help the actual small channels.
Hell, just the other day Creative Assembly put up a post trying to help people who stream their games avoid getting dicked over : basically post your videos private, wait for the inevitable flag, appeal flag, once appeal goes through, make video public. Since most hits are in the first 3 days of a video this, in theory, could avoid the new video hit. Of course I’m pretty sure it also puts those videos on the day you uploaded them, which means no one will see them since they’ll be 3-7 days behind on people’s Sub pages.
The “adpocylpse” is a real thing for most of these guys. Knowing that one of the dickheads that helped bring it about will only be able to buy one Ferrari this year doesn’t make one feel much better about it.
Speaking of which since this is (or was before PDP went full stupid) the default Youtube thread:
Someone should stream his videos while commenting on them and on him playing the games. Fair use right?
Already happens.
My understanding I see PDP/Kjellberg’s audience is mostly kids. Kids are constantly looking to each other for cues on how to dress, how to act, what to like - it’s a developmental stage. They’re interested in this stuff because they don’t have fully formed senses of themselves. It’s the same reason they immediately resort to ad hominem attacks in the most personal way because that sense of self is their most vulnerable point. None of this will be interesting to an adult.
The only disconnect here, in my opinion, is that YouTube allows us to fully participate in 12-15-year-old culture, which is something we couldn’t do 30 years ago. And it’s fundamentally uninteresting. To us.
It’s interesting how when something like this happens in videogames there’s so much discussion (on the role of fair use, using copyright to avoid association with a brand, etc…) While when stuff like this happens in other media it goes sort of unnoticed: